ProTip - Incremental Saves

So on save file 51 I tried to compile the map and I got some stupid error. I went back a couple saves and found out that 40 was the last one that was compiling. Then I tried to figure out what I did between 40 and 41 that made the map mess up. I finnaly figured out my problem, one of my faces that I had edited had too many vertices. It was a four sided figure with 5 vertices and hammer's brain exploded.

So I then deleted that box in save file 51 and tried to compile...
It didn't work. So I had another problem between save 41-51. I finally figured out, after going back and deleting the box in my other save files that at 46 I made a decal under a health box and for some reason this decal (which I copied on both sides of the symmetrical map by the way) was messing up the map somehow. I still don't know how, but the way i had to find it was by deleting half the map, trying to compile, if it worked i knew the problem was in the half i deleted so i then deleted half of that half until i did this like for 40 minutes and finaly found both of the problems.

Now it compiles, but dang Hammer can be annoying sometimes.

Health Packs D=

Right now I am working on putting in health and ammo packs. I am choosing places based on distances and where the action will be. You don't want too many healthpacks near the first point or one team can easily spawn camp the other. You also don't want too many big health packs in places that people usually run as they should be placed in either a hard to reach location, or a location that can be defended so a scuffle can occur while people are waiting for a respawn.

Ammo packs can be put throughout the map where you think Snipers and Engineers will be. It is important to put full ammo packs where you want to encourage engineers to build and in places you don't think they should build you can leave it barren of ammo, making it tough for an engineer to keep a sentry up for long.

Also it is important to place patches underneath the pick ups to show where people should wait to pick them up and to help new players find the locations.

Player Clipping and Displacement Mapping

Started some cool stuff, learning some new tricks in Hammer. I have turned many of my floors into displacements now, making sure to leave a noDraw surface under them so there aren't any leaks. Youtube is great for tutorials. The Displacements are coming out nicely and are breathing some life into the project, having actual ground textures with gradation is nice on the eyes as well, the development textures just don't ever really give you that sense of depth you need.

The player clipping is also coming along well, just above building and stuff so players can't get up there, and also on some of my displacements so players don't get stuck on a wall or exploit an area.

Here is a screen cap in hammer. Click for full resolution:

9- Putting it all Together

Well, I have most of my architecture done for the map, but there is still a lot of tweaking to do, and I need to still make a couple of buildings.

I want to shoot a video in fraps of a quick run through of the level, I might post that next time when I have a more finished version. For now, I am really liking the level and I should be done with the architecture on schedule and have first playable by the end of the week. Once I can get play testing I can tweak the map and I can start adding details, like props and banners: arrows, and labels for control points, and figure out where I need to place health and ammo.

I have some bugs that I have run into but I am saving incrementally so usually i can go back to a last saved version If I can't figure out what I did wrong, and If I can figure it out the next time the bug occurs I'm able to quickly fix it.

It is a work in progress but every moment I work in Hammer I get faster and more efficient and I cannot wait to see this project as a reality.

Post 8- Art Pass

So I checked the Tf2 blog today, like I normally do, and I found that Valve has a really cool competition going on right now.

The Art Pass Contest

This couldn't have come at a better time. This is really one reason I enjoy Valve: they are there with the community. Valve has actually uploaded an unfinished level. It is completely designed out how they like it and has some artistic flow to it, but they want an artists to complete the map and send it back. they are interested in seeing what someone can do with their spare time and also I'm sure this is a great way for anyone to get their foot one step closer to a job at Valve. If not, it is still practical experience in art creation for a level.

I am going to participate in the competition, but really what this gives me is a goal. I downloaded the map file that is incomplete the play around in it and see what Valve Level Designers do to block out a level in the engine. This give me a stable idea of where I should be in the next week or so, I need to have a product very similar to the product they have up for download. Once I have something up to par with the art pass contest design I can move onto my own art pass.

It is really nice to get that checkpoint shown to me. I like to see each step in the process that the actual developers take and all of the explanation videos, commentary, design notes, and open source nature of Valve's products are its strongest pulls. TF2 has been out for over 2 years and it still has a huge and growing community for a game that is not pay monthly. Multiplayer experiences invite people back and make a game worth buying over renting. Valve has found that by staying abreast of the community and by promoting their games well after they have already shipped, they can continue to sell titles by keeping word of mouth spreading through free updates and contests.

Cool stuff.

post 7 - Thunder Storms

Well, it has been a thunderstorm filled weekend and thunderstorms bring with them power outages. When you are working on a project you try to frequently save, but many times you get working for a while and you get into the zone. Then lightning strikes, you lose 40 minutes of work and you can hear a collective groan through the entirety of Dyson Lab.

After the first power outage people try to remember to save as often as possible, and you hear about every 10 minutes a good Samaritan from somewhere in the building yelling "SAVE!" Everyone collectively curses and hits "Ctrl+S" in order to save their progress, but still they wait in fear that they could lose precious time.

After the 3rd power outage people just pack up and leave, it is frustrating to even lose 10 minutes of work. You have to remember what you changed and how. When the power goes out you get out of your groove and have to restart the computer, sign back in, get your music playlist back up (without checking your facebook) and get your program back up and running.

So this blog post isn't really on topic, but it kind of is. It is safe to say I have started blocking out my level but in class I just watched the other students play boardgames while I tried to fight against the computer. I should have just played boardgames.

post 6 - Hammer is apparently Outdated

Well I presented my final project pitch and I was unhappy with the critique I received from my professor. I guess I just didn't quite understand exactly what he wanted me to explain in the pitch, and I went into too much detail in certain aspects and by the end I was asked questions that I knew the answer to, but failed to show in my pitch that I knew what I was talking about.

In my class not many people know what Tf2 is or how it is played, and some haven't even touched first person shooters at all. When I did my presentation I was supposed to show my research, and truthfully I showed most my research, a lot of it had to do with the technical aspects of Hammer. There are many things I didn't even realize I would need to do in order to finalize a level such as making player clipping, hinting, area portals, and other efficiency increasing tricks that are required to make a professional level. It turns out the professor didn't think that was important to share to the class and instead thought I should explain more of what Tf2 actually is than all the technical details that I would need to overcome.

I guess looking back on it, I presented the pitch as if everyone knew what I was talking about already, I mean I did a cursory "This is TF2" it has 9 classes and is team based, it has 9 different play styles that are all goal focused and not killing focused. He wanted more, he wanted me to detail each class and I guess to me, since I am fully immersed in TF2, I didn't even think of going into that much surface detail in order to explain the product.

I guess I learned a lesson in explanation. I am going to have to explain concepts to people for the rest of my life for my job, and I really need to understand who I am talking to and what they already know, what they need to know, and what they want to know.

Oh, and apparently the Hammer editor has a horrible pipeline and is extremely outdated. My professor is pushing me to use UDK, but I'm set on using Hammer. SCAD does not offer a class that uses the Source engine and I know I will have plenty of time to learn UDK while at SCAD but right now is my time to familiarize myself with a different level design kit and make the best of it. I have been playing Source games for years and I am ten times more interested in Hammer, and with this interest I feel I can really put my 100% into the product: I have a real passion for this project.

Post 5 - Bubble Diagrams

In my research I have studied many 5 point capture maps both developed by Valve and made by the TF2 mapping community, both good, and bad.

It astounded me that there was actually a formula to making the maps, and with variations on this formula you can mix and match aspects to make virtually any 5 point cap map. Not to say that maps cannot have a unique feel or have a unique quirk to them, but just that there are some consistencies and I would say that each map is in essence very similar. here are some of my findings:

Most maps have 2 main paths. These two main paths share roughly the same travel distance and are the quickest and most used paths from point to point. The easiest examples of this come from the maps cp_Granary and cp_Fastlane. In competitive games these are called lanes, and in some strategies teams will split up in either the left or right lanes in order to cover choke points. In the map cp_badlands this 2 main path example sticks for the most part, but in certain areas, the two paths will cross and become one choke point, and then expand back out again. Having these main paths is important for two reasons:

1. If someone is traveling from point to point and does not expect to meet enemies becuase the front is ahead of him, he can take these quick and efficient paths to get back into the main fray more quickly. Basically, having a main path shortens travel distance when you are catching back up to the front.

2. Main paths are quick and efficient, but they are also open and often traveled. This makes traveling on the main path dangerous because this is where conflicts will occur. If you travel the main path you leave yourself open to Sniper fire, Demoman sticky traps, Pyro ambushes and other nasty encounters.

On these two main paths we meet the next repeated aspect of most maps: Chokepoints.

Choke points usually occur on the main path and somewhere in between two points. Choke points are areas where the main path narrows down to a very small path for a short distance. This usually happens at a building or in between two buildings. Choke points are important because they help control the flow of a map. These are areas to hold while you wait for the rest of your team to respawn. These are areas to fall back to, in order to regroup. At choke points you can really keep the action where you want it and can try to make sure no enemies sneak around and flank you. But, there is always another path.

Always. I like to call this extra path the "long" path. This is usually a path that takes much longer to traverse, but it is quite, secluded and has cover. It is off the beaten path and is a trademark route for scouts, that can traverse them more quickly than other classes, and spys and pyros that are trying to ambush the enemy. Usually long paths are either above ground or below ground, but they use vertical spaces in order to throw off the enemy and to come in with a surprise attack. It is important to have long paths for 2 reasons.

1. There should always be another way. If there is only one entrance to a room, it can be easily held and the map will stalemate. In the map ctf_2Fort there is a room that everyone must traverse in order to get to the flag. It only has one entrance. It is really easy to cover that room and make it virtually impossible for another team to access the opponents base. If there isn't another way it becomes a "turtle fest" where both teams are just playing defense and hiding in their easy to defend shells and no action is really occurring. It creates a negative feedback loop and the map stalls to a halt.

2. To flank your enemy. Sometimes it is worth it to travel twice the time, get behind enemy lines unseen, and put a knife in a Sniper's back. You need to be able to access an area away from prying eyes. You take the extra time, but end up getting a reward in your efforts. It can change games. While most of the team is holding a choke point you have one or two players go the long route and flank the enemies from behind, scattering the defense.

Another thing I looked into was the number of entrances and exits to any given point. I found that as you move closer to the last point the number of entrances increase, and as you move closer to you own first point, the number of exits decrease. This creates a positive feedback loop, giving the winning team an advantage. They are rewarded by easier access to any given point while the enemy is reduced to fewer options. This is important because offense is harder than defense for the main reason of travel. As explained earlier, you want to give players a reason to play offensively because if both teams play defense, a game will slow to a halt.

The last thing I will share is just differences in point sizes. It is interesting to note that most maps have a variety of open and closed spaces, making each point a unique challenge. Some maps, like cp_granary start with an extremely open first point, move to a confined 2nd point, and then move to a medium sized middle. Other maps like cp_badlands start with a closed and tight final point and an extremely open 2nd and 3rd point. Having a variety of point sizes can help make a level flow and can offer a change in experience. If a map is all open everywhere, only certain classes can truly excel and the experience can get stale. Likewise if a map is all closed spaces, all the action is confined and only certain classes will excel. It is best to have a variety of point sizes in order to have the level experience be fresh from point to point, instead of just repetitions. Each point should have its own unique approach and should require a certain type of skill sets and to some extent certain classes to overcome.

Here are some bubble diagrams I have drawn of two created maps and then 2 bubble diagrams I created in order to block out two different maps I might be interested in creating for this class. I like to work on paper, and have more drawings that are much more rough, but here is some digital work:

Post 4 - No longer a group

So, Kevin and I talked today and after much deliberation we decided that a group project just is not feasible due to the limitations of the source engine, and the difficulty of moving simple models and textures from Maya to Hammer.

To even import a model into the model viewer, Kevin had to download all of this third party software to convert his current models into about 5 different files that the source engine needs to compile it. He got a virus from all of the third party software and stayed up all night one night trying to delete it and find the source.

Even after this fiasco it was just seen as too difficult to be worth trying to import models from maya over to the source engine, so instead he will be building an evironment in UDK, which has a mcuh easier way to import models and textures, while I will be making a level in Hammer but will be set dressing it with pre-existing entities in Source files. We are still doign the same thing in the end, just not workign together anymore.