Grunge Map and Adjusted Camo

Latest Render of the new tank model. I've added a grunge to the side skirts and one massive one covering the whole tank.

Revisiting my Senior Design Project.

I was never happy with how the texture work on my senior design project turned out. I didn't give myself enough time on the project to do a really great texture job. So with both models I created I am going back and adding the appropriate level of texture detail needed so I can show these models off without people being turned off by the texture work.

The first vehicle to be re-textured is the T-62M Main Battle Tank.
# of Objects: 128
# of Tris: 20395
# of Vertices: 11389
Wireframe.


Ambient Occlusion Pass


Base Color


Base Color + Ambient Occlusion


WIP Camouflage Scheme


Camouflage and Modeling based off of this image


And Finally the Detail Work. This is where I've been putting a ton of my time and effort into. This is where all of the extra detail that wasn't modeled gets put into the final product.

Future plans

I feel as though I am at a crossroads with how I should be spending my free time. I want to complete a team fortress 2 level, however I feel my current attempt in my payload race map hasn't quite worked out as planned. Furthermore I've had a common mappers advice repeating constantly in the back of my head to "never release your first map." While I admit this technically isn't my first foray into level design. I have 1 level under my belt for Unreal Tournament 2004, 1 for Unreal Tournament 3, and a few combat multiplayer scenarios for Lockon: Modern Air Combat. This is however my first quality attempt in the source engine, which powers TF2. With regard to powerplay, I don't feel like I should totally abandon it however. I've put a ton of time into creating the behind the scenes logic, designing, and redesigning the construction of the level. My current line of thinking is to put it on hold for a while. Giving my mind a nice rest from thinking constantly about it and to slowly get back in the groove of finishing it. Perhaps a break will give me a fresh perspective and allow me to look at it or approach it differently.

So what will I do? On one hand I still want to design and finish a level, on the other I could just focus my attention toward other things. Perhaps practice my modeling skills, maybe import some objects into tf2, or shift to something completely unrelated to tf2. While deciding on what to map I drew up several different possible ideas. With the inclusion of King of the Hill mode to TF2 I could create a simple and small map to fit that gamemode relativity quickly. After-all a KOTH map is just a single stage with a single control point.

I'll probably make my final decision in a few weeks time, as I am currently creating an official portfolio web site and polishing my demo reel. My computer already spent 5 hours last night and today re-rendering my senior project for inclusion into the demo reel.

Stage 3 and the Future

The Friday evening playtest went without a hitch. I havn't posted anything about it because... I got a temporary job that has thrown me off my daily rhythm. At any rate I'll be showcasing the 3rd and final stage of my level in this post. I'll save any comments, plans, and other thoughts for the next post.


The design of the 3rd stage of payload races tend to be an equal affair. Both carts run on parallel tracks, generally up 1 or two major hills, and it is usually a battle to get the high ground first. I wanted to keep the same principles alive but I also wanted to change the formula slightly.




This is the basic layout of the map. As you can see both of the bases are rather close to one another. This makes the entire map a pretty hardcore "meatgrinder" as all the players meet in the center of the map. The carts start at the bottom and the team is to work their way up the map. Also for the majority of the map your teams cart is closer to the enemy.



This is the first major floor which sees alot of combat at the start of the round. The hill also provides for the first milestone for a team to accomplish in trying as it is a rollback hill.




This is where I divert from the common formula. Usually where the tracks turn away from each other is where the final control point is. I wanted the tracks to double back at least slightly. It brings an interesting perspective to the game. In other PLR maps the further away from spawn/closer it gets to the control point the harder it is to defend. So the ideal solution is to either keep the enemy closer to your base, or to control the far end. By doubling back there is a bellcurve of sorts in terms of the difficulty of defending. It starts off really easy, becomes difficult, and then gets slightly easier. I say slightly because there is no simply and quick path to get from your spawn to the flag. They all take approximately 14 seconds.



This is the final cap room. It was a difficult design decision to make, but I chose to make it at least slightly defendable by an engineer. That being said, its not the best place to build a gun at. You are basically limited to the upper catwalk next to the control point, and the lower catwalk. Depending on the location of a sentry a team can easily use the cart as a shield and push it on the cap. The area also has limited ammo, so it takes much longer for an engineer to build. Furthermore the windows allow for players to identify any threats. A back door, access is very near the bottom of the screen, gives players another entry opporunity.

Thats it for now. Tune in next time when I discuss...... the future!

Map Face lift: Stage 2

Stage 2's facelift has been completed. The majority of work was spent on the middle area dividing the two main bases and changing the layout the track takes in the actual bases.

Before

After


The middle area is a crucial part of gameplay as it is where the majority of in game combat is to take place. In my redesign I decided to tighten the area up and make it not seem so flat. I also adjusted the length of the first section of the track before the center control point.

Before

After


From the opposite corner you can see how the addition of the building. This building servers multiple purposes. It gives spies and other classes good visual cover from the rest of the area as they try to sneak in from the back door. It also has a dominant physical presence which helps in the appearance of the area being smaller than it actually is.
Before

After


In creating this room I basically knocked out the wall and extended it out to the right of the top screenshot. Also in an effort to make this area major chockpoint I have designated the long ramp as a rollback hill. Meaning that anytime a player stops touching their teams cart while it is on the ramp it will roll back to the bottom. By expanding the room and making it a rollback hill I am hoping this building will play as an effective chockpoint.

Before

After


The biggest problem with the base was how the cart path went directly by the spawn, the path itself was too long, and the defenders had a clear advantage throughout the area. The changes made should fix most of these problems. The track path is now more direct and overall further away from the enemy spawn. I moved the spawn location to the back corner of the space, by doing so players are nearly equidistant from most of the track.

Before

After


Stage 3 is next up for the screenshot updates. Until then, cheers.

Map Face lift: Stage 1

I don't know why but I always like to think of making structural changes to something in 3d as a "face lift" or re constructional surgery. I think it started when I had to remodel a character's face, and I literally cut off the nose, made a new one in its place, and welded the vertices back in. Anyways back on topic. My goal is to release alpha 5 by friday. The first 3 days of the week will be spent rebuilding each stage back to the needed quality for playtesting. With the rest of the time spent checking the map for any glitches, lighting issues, or whatever I can find that isn't major. If all goes to plan I will post a short series of screenshots of what is different or new from the previous version. Today, my focus is on stage 1.

The Problems

Player navigation was confusing and the space between the upper and lower area's didn't flow well from one to the other. Also players we unsure of where their cart was at the start of the round.

Before


After


This image best illustrates the change made. The entire area is now in the open. In the first screenshot the tunnel at the lower left hand part of the screen was the only path (other than via spawn) to get from the bottom to the top. Also players who jumped down from the upper area to the lower area took fall damage upon landing. The middle building breaking up the openness of the area effectively contains an elevator for the cart. This allows me to place track in the lower area, hopefully giving players an extra visual cue that their cart is in that area. An elevator also provides a logical method to get the cart from the lower level to the upper level.

Before


After


The entire geometry of the area is now different. I removed the entire building in the area and replaced it with open space. Needless to say the "skyline" of the area is completely different and new now.

Before


After


From a distance you can see the track for your teams cart and that there is more to that area than the original design.

Before

After


This is in the shared middle area. The old design was more or less a place holder that hid the gate as it opened at the start of the round. The new one is mostly the same size, it now looks a little less awkward.

Thats it for today. Stage 2 progress should be up tomorrow. :D

Oh boy. Here we go.

Last night my level was played on a popular server at peak playing time. Myself and 16 other players had a chance to play the map for the first time. Overall I was fairly happy playing it. The major error that had plagued the last version had been fixed and I got some really good feedback, testing data, and a (mostly) problem free play through. That being said, I realized some of the glaring flaws that existed in the level.

Changes

So here I am, with my original goal of some "minor" tweaks to stage 1 and 2 and the complete addition of stage 3. Something more than minor tweaks was needed for the first two stages. In-fact, what I need to do probably constitutes reconstructive surgery, at least in terms of 3d design. I will get into the specifics of the changes and why I made them in a future post, but for now I will leave you with this.

The problems

Stage 1 actually played really well and was alot of fun. That being said it isn't without flaws. The entire base design was found to be confusing and difficult to navigate. I will need to transform the base area to make alot more sense and to flow the combat a little better.

Stage 2. This was the problem stage. The entire map was way to large. It took way to long to get from your spawn, to the middle of the map, and into the enemy base. The cart path was also considered to be to long. This stage has seen the majority of my time revamping and reconstructing the area. It is my hope that this change will be a step in the right direction, otherwise I might have to come up with an entirely new idea for this stage.

Iteration Alpha 5

Alpha 4 was released and has already seen some playing time in a public server. The server, which just test custom levels, provided a recorded demo file of the game for me to watch and get an idea of how other players play the level. It is a wonderful tool to analyze what exactly is happening with the level.

Playtest Results

Have you ever watched a sporting event and found yourself yelling "WHY!?!?" over some mistake they made? Well I have. First and foremost I noticed that people tend to "follow the leader" and the start of a game round. Of the two paths to take from the spawnroom, literally the entire team chose only one. The Blu team chose correctly and were patiently waiting for the gates to open and the round to start. The red team on the other hand chose incorrectly. Instead they all ran out toward the control point and spent the entire time wondering around like a lost child. Eventually they found it.

The other major problem was the lack of obvious changes made by capturing the middle CP. People just didn't understand what happens when they capture it or when time runs out. I think I'm going to have to add an extra layer of minor tweaks, hopefully to the extent so that it clicks with people. I do have the suspicion that it will likely never click with a player on the first play through. It might take 1 or 2 extra play sessions for players to figure it out.

Changes made for the Alpha 5 Release

The idea of level design and alpha releases is to improve the gameplay from release to release and to also add basic improvements to the map. Whether it be a whole new stage added in, tweaks of health and ammo locations, added or improved art assets, or redesigning of sections, the changes made from release to release are a crucial part of the design process.

My goal is to at least add the final stage (stage 3) to the A5 release of the map. This stage has honestly been troublesome during the initial design phases. I struggled with its overall design concept. It was a case of wanting to do something different than Valve, but keeping it similar enough that it kept with the 3rd stage design norms of Payload race. Valve's "plr_pipeline" 3rd stage is a very simple and straight forward map. Both carts run along parallel tracks, two massive hills sit between the starting position and the final goal at the very top and far end of the map. The matches go quite quickly and generally the first to make it up the first hill has a massive advantage and usually wins. Possibly the biggest characteristic of the map is that it is wide open and nearly the entire cart path can be seen from the vast majority of locations in the map.

Download Available. and screens

This week saw stage two evolve into a working level. It is amazing how the level comes to life with a little lighting and proper construction.

First off an overhead look at stage two.



The design prinicle of this map was to have a larger common and shared middle area. In contrast the middle of stage 1 is divided into several smaller and distinct areas.



The carts start at the top of the small cliff face along the edges of the walls. They are pushed downhill until they meet in the center. This area needs alot of work. I added the trees in fairly late simply because I needed something in the middle to break up the openness of the space.



Each team base is built as a simple courtyard with accessory buildings lining the area. The buildings on the northern end are built into the rock walls. The extruded part of the building in the center of the screenshot provides for an excellent spot to place a sentry gun to defend the final control point of the stage in the foreground.



The building in the background is one of the major chokepoints that exists in the level.

If you have Team Fortress 2 and would like to play the level. You can get the download link here

Goals

Tonight I completed everything that is required for stage 1 to be fully playable. However I am not publicly releasing it until stage 2 is also playable, which is a pretty straight forward task. All I need to add on stage two are:

-Setup Gates
-Adjust cart paths (so the cart appears to roll along the track)
-Add Ammo and Health
-Add lighting for interiors
-Create team specific spawn doors
-Create "no-build" area to prevent engineers from building in the spawn
-Finish the skybox
-Unique Stage logic

Stage Logic
Like the first stage the 2nd stage is going to give a team a slight advantage over a set time. On the first stage I kept things pretty simple, the only change made is that off the rollback speed of the cart when it is on a rollback hill and isn't being touched by friendly players. On the 2nd stage I could easily apply the same variables to the cart as the first stage, but that wouldn't be any fun now would it? While testing the first stage I discovered that a 15% or 25% speed difference really isn't all that noticeable. At first I made the advantage be a 25% reduced rollback speed. For a team without the advantage their cart would rollback at 100% speed, the team with it, rolled back at 75% max speed.

My current thinking of the stage 2 advantage is to change the cart speed on all surfaces. Overall it will have a 15% speed increase on flat terrain and perhaps utilize the same sort of logic as the previous stage. The latest iteration of stage 2 features 1 large uphill and 3 small ones. I am conflicted on whether I want to allow the this hill to be a rollback or not, or to have the cart roll up it at a slower speed than normal. I cannot ignore the fact that this hill is such a natural chokepoint. It is painfully obvious even before playtesting. It is one of those areas where the first one to the top will likely push on to victory. Perhaps a playtester might have quality input.

End of the week screens

This week saw great strides toward my goal of having a multiplayer capable level. The first stage is 95% ready for multiplayer action while the second stage is probably around 60% there. At the start of the week I was making changes to the second stage, at which point I realized I probably shouldn't be changing it up until I get actual playtest data telling me that I need to change it. Thankfully through saving a new file pretty much every day I can go back and build off those changes made.

Screenshots

This week I revitalized and rethought out the middle section of the first stage. Honestly it was boring, unimaginative, and didn't make much sense.



As you can see the main area here is pretty simple. It literally is a "boxed canyon"



I liked the shaping and the design of the natural ramps that provide a secondary route to the top.



This area was the source of many problems. I just hadn't thought it out much and it is directly part of the middle control point area that I wasn't all that happy with either. In this iteration of the level I wanted it to be a naturally enclosed area (a tunnel), then I changed my mind for it be a open courtyard with both teams buildings and the canyon walls defining the space. Eventually I decided to go back to my original idea, which was to make it an interior. But I decided on making it a neutral building that shares the architecture of neither side.



The new building has a dominating presence about it over the middle section.



Part of the renovation was completely removing the rock wall that divided the area before. Now the building and a fence divides the the two spaces. A added benefit of using a fence is that a portion of the middle area and more importantly the control point is now visible from each teams upper spawn exit. Also the pathway to the top is now man made as the natural walkway no longer looked.... for lack of a better word, natural.



Overall you can see how much this area is now changed. The area in the far right of the screenshot was also enlarged and opened up more due to the size of the building vs the original plan.





The interior of the building with temporary lighting. I wanted the building to feel open and large enough to hold a fight. I added several windows in an attempt to light the building with just the skylight however more interior lights will be needed to properly light the building.

That is the screenshot update for this week. Tune in next week where I might actually show screenshots of the second stage.

The Monday Update: This time on Tuesday.

The goal of this week is to tie up loose ends on the level and to start getting playtests going. It seems much of my time has been spent experimenting with ideas and making changes to the design and layout of the level without any actual playtesting occurring. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have 2 fully functional stages capable of hosting up to 32 players.

I'll be a little more talkative regarding progress in next weeks post.

Friday Screens. Now with lighting!

This is quite literally the 4th or so compile of the level with lighting. After some tweaking I am starting to get the hang of real time lighting.

Click images for full quality.



Blu Base. Note some of the changes made.

Red Base. The back wall area has gone under the knife quite alot.

The Monday Update: Always Evolving

While working towards my goal of a multiplayer capable level, I finally hit that point where you can no longer look at something without having to fix it. Chief among the fixes required was an overhaul of the Stage 1 bases and the much needed consideration of how my level is to be themed. The geometry making up parts of the Stage 1 bases was hastily assembled and build more as a visual "This is what I want it to look like" reference to the level design. Part of this reconstruction was a full design change made to key areas of the level. The area where the "back" entrance to each base, the raised path in the 2nd screen shot of my previous post, received the brunt of the changes. Initially a staircase on the interior of a 2 level building was the access point to that upper section. The problem with it was the size of the building limited the width of the stairwell. Thus this has been changed so the stairs are a single stairway on the exterior of the building. Other changes to the perimeter walls were made to expand the size of the platforms.

Other changes were made to help apply the very crucial theme element of the level. I realized I had forgotten to give a reason to "where the cart came from." Most payload levels simply don't have a stopping point for the carts tracks, they continue or start from a location extended "through" the level. While you never see the cart on these track pieces you can assume that's where the cart would go from there. I've also decided to focus on creating the feel that the first stage is in a rocky canyon with man-made construction being build on and inside of the canyon walls.

On Sunday I finally got the inspiration to construct one of my 3rd (and final) stage ideas out. Throughout this process I've been conflicted on the design of this stage. Do I do it like Valve did it by focusing the fighting over two massive hills? Do I tie the design in with my other two stages? Do I try something completely different?

My current design solution is kinda a mix of all 3 depending on how you look at it. It features
-Two smaller hills that equal the same size of the last larger hill.
-First small hill is skip if a team wins the first 2 stages.
-Tracks run parallel and are mirrored in the entire stage.
-For the vast majority of the time your teams cart will be on the opposite side of center from your base.
-Out and Back Design. The carts start at one end and work their way toward the other and then turn around and head back toward the center of the map.
-To simplify the amount of track in the area a small section of track will be shared when traveling "out" and "back".
-At the far end is a turnaround section for the cart to head back towards center.
-At the center of the map is the final hill.
-A raised platform connects the top of the hill and the two bases. The carts will be pushed toward each teams respective enemies base (Red toward Blu, Blu toward Red) where the final CP of the game will be located at.
-Upon victory the cart will roll into the enemy base and explode.

This design affords me a great deal of flexibly and accomplishes an overall goal from the start of design. By having the cart explode in the enemy base I bring a degree of reasoning that is missing in Valve's official Payload Race level where the cart simply explodes at the same spot regardless of the victor. The flexibility is achieved through the track design. If it is discovered that the match pace is too slow or its too difficult to win changes can easily be made to fix this problem. Furthermore I can easily add a middle control point that governs a gameplay variable thus keeping a design feature of the first two stages intact in the 3rd.

This concludes a rather lengthy post. I'm hoping to get into a regular schedule of posting on this blog with screenshots posted around midweek and a post (I'll try to keep it not as lengthy) at the start of the week.

Cheers.

Stage 1 Powerplay Screenshots

Finally I've uploaded some screenshots of the level at its current state of WIP. These are of the first stage.
Blu base backdoor over look area. Allows players to quick access to the control point from the middle area of the map. Although they will take fall damage when jumping down and are immediately exposed.

Middle Control Point Area. Both teams carts come down the white ramp in a race to reach the middle Control Point first. By reaching the CP first their teams cart will automatically roll down their respective steep hill and will have a 25% slower rollback speed.

Overall layout of Stage 1. Both teams cart starts at the top and work their way toward the middle control point. From there the cart paths cross and head toward their respective enemies base.

Progress Update

My goal of this next week is to have a fully functional stage from my level capable of basic multiplayer playtesting. At this point I have plenty on my "to-do" list to accomplish this goal.

This last week saw vast changes and improvements made to the level. Frankly I got a little sick of working on the first stage and I felt the need to design the 2nd and 3rd stages of the level. Most of this last week was spent building the 2nd stage and troubleshooting some unforeseen technical limitations of the source engine. The biggest problem I was encountering was that my level was "crashing on load" meaning every single time I attempted to open it, the level crashed TF2. Apparently you are limited to 8 physical control points. The way my map is designed and in order to achieve ideal results I need 10 control points to govern the gameplay. After some creative testing and the help of other TF2 mappers I figured out how to use a single control point more than once allowing me to remain within the 8 control point limit.

The other major accomplishment of this week of work has been the succesful creation of game logic to allow for "powerplay situations". It has been my intent throughout development to give an advantage to whichever team reaches the middle control point first. The current system works like this...

The first team to push the payload over the middle control point will give them a powerplay advantage of x time. (3-8 minutes) This advantage will be directly applied to the cart. On large hills it will roll down automatically, become easier to push, or effected less when being pushed up a hill. Once time runs out and a team hasn't won a round the advantage will be given to other team and leveling the playing field.

Screenshots and a download link on tf2maps.net should be up sometime in this next week.

The Level Design Document and Overview

Game type: Payload Race

Title: Power Play

Summary: Power play is a race against the clock and the enemy team.

Key features:

• Three Rounds
• Rounds 1 and 2 each have a middle control point and a final control point
• Matches are timed. Approx 8-12 max minutes per round
• Final round is a traditional head to head race

The key concept behind “power play” is the push to take and keep an advantage. A power play in hockey is a pivotal moment in the game as one team has a decisive advantage over the other who is down a player. In Team Fortress terms I will create advantages to be awarded to a team who works together to achieve their goals.

The first two rounds each have a two control points each. The first control point is shared between Red and Blu sides. This point is in the middle of the map. It is a race to see who captures it first. The first team to capture the control point will be given a slight advantage immediately. This advantage will last until the end of the third round and when the game resets. The second control point will award a more substantial advantage for the remainder of the game.
Advantages

Minor advantages

• Easier access to enemy base
• Cart becomes easier to push

Major Advantages

• Faster spawn times
• Relocation of spawn area

The goal of the advantages is to make winning a round meaningful by better rewarding the winning team with something more than a starting position. It also gives a losing team extra drive to try and improve their situation in the second round. These advantages are intended to help tip the balance toward a side but not to an extreme where > 65% a team with any of the advantages always wins.

Scoring and Timing

What makes Power Play different from any other payload race out there is that it’s a race against the clock and the other team. The goal is to reach the 2nd control point on each round within the time limit. If you fail to achieve this both teams miss out on the score and game play advantage that control point would have granted. The middle control point will always give a team a point as they cross it. This can assist in keeping the game scores close, however the outcome of the final round will always define a winning team. A point is merely being awarded to the scoreboard to provide audio feedback that the team “got something”

Thoughts on Balance

Changing spawn times, locations, access points, or the cart speed can each have an immense effect on gameplay. Added together their influence is even greater. A few methods of balancing in an effort to make the level fairer to a losing side are being considered.

1. Temporary advantages. Arguably if both sides get the same advantage they would effectively cancel each other out. The trick is to define when each advantage gets activated. Since the control point governing minor advantages can be crossed by both teams in the same round, the advantage could be given to the side which got their first for a finite time limit. This time limit could be similar to the level’s namesake. A “power play” in hockey is a personnel advantage given to a team for a period of time. Thus the first team to get a minor advantage has 5 minutes of exclusive access to it before it gets applied to the other team. On the other hand the advantage could be granted to the loser when the next round starts.

2. Additive Advantages. The advantages would be sorted by strength (weaker to stronger) and would be gained in that order. By this logic the only possible way to get the strongest advantage is to take every single point first. However a team that has won every round leading up to the final would have such a dominant position on the enemy it would be difficult for them to lose.

3. Round timer. The round timer would prevent long matches from occurring, but most importantly it has the potential to deny either side from getting a major advantage by causing the round to end if it has stalemated.
Each of these ideas has their own strength and weaknesses. On paper, I feel that each could easily work. Play testing would be the only method of determining which is best.

Summer 3D Project

After doing some research into the matter, I have decided to make a entry into the http://tf2maps.net/ 3rd Annual Contest. I will be making a customized level of the "Payload Race" gametype featured in Team Fortress 2. Payload race consists of two teams each with bomb and the objective is to get the bomb to the control point before the other team does. The only official offering of this map features three rounds. The winner of each round recieves a minor advantage of the starting location of the cart. In my variation of this gametype I will attempt to improve on a already fun concept. My map is tentativly called "Powerplay."