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More Fact! (Mar 5, 2006)

Did quite a bit of work on pa_fact this weekend, including making the inside a lot warmer, making the outside a lot colder, and completely removing a couple of bits so I can redo them properly. I'm trying to get a real cold winter and foggy feeling into it now. I've also frigged the ladders to the building loft with a non-ideal solution but the best so far...

Unfortunately the fog isn't that obvious in these shots, except for the skybox. Ideally the fog would be more controllable and less linear. I did try changing the fog start value to some reasonably large negative number, which did make it look a lot thicker, but the problem is that washes out any black in the picture with the colour of the fog instead. Bringing the fog end value in closer made the interior look too foggy and the exteriors look too enclosed.

The tweaked skybox is quite obvious in this one due to the silhouette of one of the buildings in the distance. That shouldn't happen - the skybox shouldn't have the highlight and instead it should be matching the fog perfectly. Easy to fix though! (for the curious, 'nofog' was changed to 0 on the skybox VMTs to get that effect)

There's quite a harsh shadow on the building in the centre of the picture. Clearly, on a foggy night, this wouldn't happen (light is very diffused) so I'll probably be taking the sunlight value right down near 0... we'll see how that goes.

No idea when I'm going to finish it because I'm (selfishly) enjoying working on it too much. I'm really mean.

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user comments

Addicted to Morphine at 15:45 on Mar 5, 2006

I like the glow you have under the lights...and I think changing the inside from blue to orange was good. Maybe the cold/warm contrast will subconsciously make people want to assault the warehouse, despite the dangers involved, just to get in out of the cold. :)

Andy at 17:05 on Mar 5, 2006

I always wondered how you could get sky fog, now I know. Thanks for the tip!

Campaignjunkie at 21:13 on Mar 5, 2006

Wouldn't you want to increase the environmental ambient light value, instead of bumping down the environmental sunlight value?

I really like how the map is turning out. I'd be more careful with the point_spotlight effects though, they can get repetitive very easily.

Dave at 21:20 on Mar 5, 2006

Campaignjunkie: you're right, the ambient needs to go up to compensate, didn't think of that.

The thing about the spotlights is that they help give the impression of a foggy, moist atmosphere, hence why I'm purposely using them on nearly everything. I'm going to cut down on some of the lights though so it should be less of a spotlight frenzy, they cause enough of a slowdown anyway!

Atrocity at 04:03 on Mar 6, 2006

Nice work Dave, Can;t wait to see the final. Sorry I have not got to reply back I think you need a mailing list I can join so I know exactly when you update :D it's a good idea.

Your post about the gaming industry is spot on, I have talked to Jake Nicholson a senior animator at valve and he said the same thing. :D

Chris Brooker at 10:44 on Mar 6, 2006

Nice touch with the cool/warm technique. Apart from the obvious, it does help visually seperate the interior from the outsite, good stuff.

In fact, a little too good. I don't think you have realised what you have carelessly done Dave...
...you've reinstalled my love for CS maps right when I'm supposed to be concentrating on my Final year project at University! So much so that I wish I wasn't modelling bloody cars and creating something worthwhile for my CV - like a CS map.

At least that way I would have a decent excuse to play CS, rather than feeling bad about it. Still, too late now - only have a month before it's to be handed in. Time to load Maya up again...

reaper47 at 17:45 on Mar 7, 2006

I love your thoughts on lighting. It clearly taught me a thing or two about balancing warm and cold areas. Probably the most important lesson when it comes to getting contrast into a map.

furrisch at 09:38 on Mar 11, 2006

i really like where you've gone with the inside since the last time you showed pics. Looks great!

i hope you kept this area:
http://blog.johnsto.co.uk/posted/images/0118_fact1sm.jpg
i really love it :p

furrisch at 08:46 on Mar 12, 2006

attack of ze posting-bots O.o

Extreme_One at 15:26 on Mar 12, 2006

hmmm

Way to SPAM Poker!