p.s. these images are premature- but i wanted ideas early, this shoudl be enough to show the direction i feel. 

thanks all

TKBS wrote:

---

Still not sure where i am & am not allowed to post stuff- again, sorry if this is in the totally wrong place.

You found the Help thread, so your on the right track.

- I re-installed ut3; got fibre, booted up a server and thought i would get side tracked from my other maps and make this....

- probably my 4th mirror's edge map, - i think most people probably know i don't like this bsp/holp style mapping, but i thought it would be a good choice for the simplicity and style i need to achieve the re-imagining of the scraper deck level.
- also i thought [since you guys are 90% holp enthusiasts] that maybe some of you will have good input. [hopefully most of you?]

Most of us love HOLP, but all the veteran mappers can always provide you good feedback about pretty much everything. I'm sure HOLP and BSP mapping won't be excluded in regards to that.

- its just a standard 6 hour attempt thing atm- think of it as a blank canvas, i just playing colours and i have the map layout done [as it is in ME -]
- Hope yall have fun coming up with ideas for colours, styles etc

I suggest you start up a new thread when you have a Beta going in the UT3 Beta's section.
The WIP's that I wanna show off, tend to go posted in the Work in Progress section.
Etc. etc. You can't really make any mistakes on posting. If a moderator or Administrator (Bl1tz) might think you did post a thread in a wrong section, there will kindly advise the appropriate section and ask for a move of that thread to that.

---

I have chose my primary lighting scheme for the map- or at least what i woould like,  it just needs to be fully applied, and tweaked, now i am looking at potential shadows..

Question...


- Does this seem an acceptable starting point for the "Colouring & shading" of the shadows and stuff...

-

- im wondering if the orange shadows actually match the generic lighting on the white floor tiling, or whether i should focus more on this coloring with the material expressions of the specular node.

- any thoughts on this?

* consider this... if i changed the wall texture material to have a lower specular and less relfection on the orange tints in the top part of the wall, to better contrast the same effect present in the white tiling floor -- that of which is clearly not as "shiny".

- again none of this is final- its just each stage in testing.

- this map will be flipped and duplicated for vctf- but lookign at some of the geometry - its a potential DM map also so tyhoiughts on that welcome too

Many Thanks

-- Edited by TKBS on Sunday 10th of March 2013 03:16:29 AM

That looks like a join between two pieces of BSP. One BSP block is getting blue light cast on it from the 'vent' and the other isn't, hence the blue only appearing on one of them.
At a guess, raise the quality of the shadow maps for the bsp surfaces on the floor and see if it calculates the blue light better. Otherwise use the vertex tool and adjust the width of those BSP chunks and move that edge away from the vent.

Using the 'lighting only' view may also show you what's happening with the lighting in that spot.

I appreciate that Bl!tz, now i think it should be called "things that confuse the pants off me"-lol :)

- First of all, thsi happens to me alot; i spend a month making a cool map and then i get issues i have never seen before
- 3 New never been seen problems.

1. Engine Limit [32 bit limits]
^^ Due to the engine's 32bit nature - i often exceed teh allowance for maps in ut3 - However i have found a fix for this to allow a "64bit style editor, with increased VRAM capabilites and higher vert counts/ lightmaps allowed" - its an obvious fix i know but it works; - run 2 editors [or like me play another game or use udk + ut3] :)

2. This is weird

- i Open my map [no splits in my BSP although i have used extrude 1 time which im not a fan of anymore] - i get this new error



^^ any ideas - could this be my Extruded brush?
^^ - by extruded brush i mean- i had to extrube a brush to get the collision on my custom blocking volume correct- 

- has this brush effected my collision?- dunno=- does this make my map crash--? i think so - but again- i have no idea

3. My ut3 My documents is now read only- i have no idea why- it did this by magic on its own.

- when i move a map from my unpublished folder it remains in the same folder- and duplicates itself to my e.g. desktop
- the desktop file says it does not exist- and the unpublished file also says it does nto exist- the file then appears on my desktop after i close teh unpublished folder

- Special error number 4.
- my map does not Rebuild all anymore it simply says "file doe snto exist - for the ut3 binaries - Please help; sorry to pester



p.s. bl!tz, i really appreciate the thread chaneg and the friendly attitude from the forums from everyone, i do not take offence- but i always feel weird when people call me "bro"- im not black and i do not know eveyrone here well enough to be a bro - + i have given very little back to the UOF team so feel a bit uncomfortable
- just call me "friend// or Skee"
* when i have given back all i can to the forums- then you can call me what u like :)
Thank you everyone- how i can get this map done its been a really hard month getting a mirror's edge map perfectly adapted for both imitation + gameplay incorporation but im very close

-- Edited by TKBS on Saturday 30th of March 2013 08:08:31 PM

Purpose:

* I would like to make clear step by step tutorial for making great 'Sky'  [i will post this in the tuto's section when completed]. 

- This is something usually i end up spending hours on a texture and using LERP + all kinds of material expressions to make a material fit onto the  Pathetic sky domes made by epic.

Problem:

- Sky is truly a nightmare in UT3 [p.s. check all my maps you should see my sky materials are pretty damn good even if i say myself, but they take too long and i have been using an unstructured process- lets make it structured !!]

- The problem is because epic have sky domes with Baked textures & ingrained UV's,  it can be a nightmare to achieve the results wanted.

- Would someone like to help/ contribute/ comment + help please ?

- Here's what Normally i do:

1. Create the Sky texture [Here is 2 random/ + unfinished examples]

- For a sphere dome/Mesh - 

Spoiler

^^ as basic blue night sky with maybe an organe nebula [choice based on map design/ & my intentions for lighting]

- for a panaramic Dome/Mesh -

Spoiler

2. Apply to an appropriate sky dome in Editor and patch up the bad areas with LERP and other textures/ Clouds etc

 The options are:

Panaramic mesh

1. UN_Sky.SM.Mesh.S_UN_Sky_SM_Sphere_Night

^^ using a panaramic texture - as shown above ^^

a) Cover sweams and stretching using material expressions + addiditonal textures

b) Use a panoramic sky dome + panaramic texture

Dark Sphere Mesh

2.

c) Use the Dark Sphere sky dome and apply a Spiralled Textured [i use polar coordinates coz i don't know how else epic could achieve the swirl.] 

example...

Spoiler

3. Custom Mesh

d) make a whole new sky dome model and UVW Map my texture onto it.

** what goes wrong:

- Materials become messy from using clone + heal in Photoshop [produces poor results]

^^ OR you have to spend 3 weeks on every pixel to get it right-  [Time constraints don't allow for this]

- Seems and nasty spots appear on the material

- Seriously wtf; there must be 1 perfect way to get what i want everytime.

- The point is i know everything combined works eventually - but is there a way to take my perfect panaramic sky texture and get it onto the corrcet sky dome?

- i start with this sky texture:

Spoiler

^^ but i have to change it becuase otherwise...on a model looks like this:

Spoiler

- and SO ... then i have to destroy my work just to achieve this using polar coordinates - WTF!!

Spoiler

- Can anyone help?

You won't get a clear panoramic texture onto a sphere mesh, there will be always distortion in the UV map so the texture needs to be somewhat stretched too, otherwise there is stretching once applied to a material/mesh. The only way around would be lots of UV seams which makes it even harder to work with, because the result is not a solid UV island shape like a circle or rectangle.


That workflow described looks fine. Though I'd just use polar coordinates for the whole panoramic texture, clear the mid part and resize.

I would like to put a few Texture packs together.
- over the years many textures have been made by many people. i usually start fresh every time but this seems silly after so many years.

Does anybody want to help?

- Provide advice, ideas, content, links etc

The Texture packages may be set as follow:

• Texture Tutorials [Before you start]

               - Contains some tips about how to make/ & find textures.

• Texture Tutorials [Photoshop]

e.g. Making metal, wood, tiles, seamless patterns etc

• Texture Tutorials [UT3 Gettting them ready]

              - Thinking about size, channels etc before starting

• Texture Tutorials [UT3 Imports]

              - Thinking about size, channels etc before importing

Texture packs:

• [Unreal common Original examples]
• [Industrial]
• [World]
• [Space]
• [Foliage]
• [SKY]
• [Authors. e.g Hourences etc]

Example:

One Question i have is; 

Does anybody have a good Method or Macro to balance the brightness/colour etc of images?, i am aware a few messy, methods but they are not great and definitely not tutorials yet.

With a few nice texture packages it might be cool to check old maps and update them with nicer content...