[WIP] DM-Dynamic - Feedback needed

[UnrealWarrior]

This is a new map, I've tried to take it easy on brushes and details and focus more on gameplay. small enough map with some fun in it. Turns out not bad! But it has some issues, especially lighting, I struggle with it alot...

I'd love to hear your feedback on this one! Unlike the ones I've posted before, this one has everything it needs, from botpathing, to lighting. While it sucks, but I'm trying to get better by doing/learning

Here's some screenshots:







Thank you!

[UnrealWarrior]

shameless bump

[UnrealGGecko]

Gimme (hopefully) friday

[old_man_1971]

A great map, i tested yesterday with much pleasure.

Good job

[sektor2111]

Meh ... It's NICE.
Feed-Back at request.
Some of those lights have coronas a bit out of place - perhaps they need to be a bit smaller, centered and more closer to their lamps.

Bot Pathing.
Logic links are everywhere so in theory it looks 100% normal. However... if this game uses Translocator, perhaps Bot won't do it well through floors... certain LiftExit-JumpSpot path is crossing through the ground which means a failure. The rest is just absolutely normal and this is what a DM map needs, no lost reachSpecs, no missing links .

[browndl]

Took a look at the map. Nice little deathmatch map. Flows well. Bots played well, even jumped between levels a few times with the jump boots. I played with translocators active and saw no issues. Maybe a little vanilla in the lighting and texturing, but no real complaints. The only complaint I could offer would be you need to add 'block alls' at the decoration pipes and at the places where you can get outside the map. Otherwise, nice map, very sound. Thanks for mapping and releasing it.

[darkbarrage99]

The map looks great, but it's huge. At first i thought the extra jump boots could be a bit much until i realized how vast the map is.

I think the weapons should have Inventory>bRotatingPickup set to True since it's a bit harder to see the weapons hidden in the corners of the large spaces, setting pickups to rotate can make them more visible.

Other than this, I encountered some lighting problems, and most of the pickups are not flush with the floor.

Bots seem to be working well.

ran mapchecker and this came up:

Code: Select all

MapChecker: ZoneInfo with AmbientBrightness == 0:
MapChecker: LevelInfo0
MapChecker: LavaZone0
MapChecker: LavaZone1
MapChecker: ZoneInfo0
MapChecker: Teleporter with bHidden = True and bAlwaysRelevant = False:
MapChecker: Teleporter0
MapChecker: Teleporter1
MapChecker: LevelInfo.Screenshot size not 256x256: 512x512
MapChecker: NavigationPoint in air on slope
MapChecker: InventorySpot128 Need Move = -25.437241
MapChecker: InventorySpot129 Need Move = -24.721214
MapChecker: If log too big see all info in Editor.log file ------- Found 9 problems -------------------------------------------

misplaced coronas

floating items

more floating items

more floating items

lava chamber needs work

lighting amp

lighting in sniper/shock room

more of lighting problem in same room

more of lighting problem in same room

Display>bUnlit should be turned off for these deco's

[darkbarrage99]

also, your map needs zone portals. this will probably fix some lighting issues. also, placing zone info's and setting ambient brightness levels to a reasonable level might fix some things.

(sorry for doublepost, ran out of uploads)

Edit: some textures could use some alignment

convert this to a bmp or whatever you prefer and load it into mylevel if you need an alignment tool

aligner.png (7.31 KiB) Viewed 1276 times

Edit 2: I ended up using the map scaling tool from the 469 patch and shrunk the map down to 75% size to see what would happen, and it feels a lot tighter imo.
I'd share it on here but not without your permission cuz I'ma pretty groovy guy.

[EvilGrins]

Map is large with many rooms and primarily two levels.


Played it with 16 bots for approximately 10 minutes...

...near as I can tell bots went everywhere, so pathing seems more than decent.

While there are primarily two levels...

...there are some areas on the 2nd level which allow access to slightly higher points. JumpBoots or Transloc should be able to access those.

Didn't find any glaring flaws, but did find one thing which seems a bit strange.

There's a lava pool on the 2nd level...

...it has 2 "doors" in it.

That particular door appears to be on the opposite side of...

...that.

But if the lava is blocked off by a door, then how can lava be seen through the glass?

[sektor2111]

Ahem... if you guys want some technical aspects we can tackle them a bit.
Screenshot - it really doesn't matter size even in old bugged D3D render if this one is being correctly executed - just like that.
ZoneInfo with brightness 0 - a bunch of stock maps have these and... they are played a lot - what's the problem ?
Teleporter wihout bAlwaysrelevant - Cough ? Teleporters with bStatic bNodelete are ALWAYS held in client = ZERO PROBLEMS. The only real garbage from UT is "VisibleTeleporter" that spams messages out of destination and... is RE-CREATED in clients ruining their navigation chain - this is not always a critical thing because DevPath is subject of the Server. My question is about garbage collector that collects objects(/Actors) defined in map's ReachSpecs array which... client has already deleted... or maybe it won't affect first 3 played maps but sooner or later these corruptions will have something to say...

Floating Items ? What's the problem with them ? All pathing tests were successful. Their Location is matching the size of "Pawn" which wants to gain them, and it does the "Touch" without any failure.

What I see as a sort of issue, map has deleted lights but their lightning seems referenced somewhere = corruptions - not rebuild after deletions.
Something like this...

Code: Select all

Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light95
Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light96
Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light97
Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light98
Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light99
Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light100
Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light101
Warning: trying to archive deleted object: Light270

Clearly it needs a rebuild after EACH MODIFICATION not just abandoning it. The only Lights that can be deleted without any issue/reference anywhere are those 2 Lights placed in void - they won't light anything.
The thing with ramps and InventorySpot - if you boys will learn chapter pathing 80%, you will understand that Bot roaming for those items will switch direction instantly at item when it moves to said "myMarker" InventorySpot. If target inventory is in a good place I'll bet that it won't be any problem. And then ?
AND THEN - Bugged InventorySpot128 and InventorySpot129 don't exist in original wip map posted in first post - these bugs are only yours.
How about some image for a complete demolition of said "Problems" ? Sure, Why Not ?

This is what wip map was using and not the results of a "button-push" habit.
Let's see an investigation operated by a builder which uses BOT as main factor, and then it checks for more options... and... we do have even more than options for Bot...

Truly entertaining feed-back. Bugged maps posted around are "AWESOME" but... this, mainly normal map has "problems"... and nobody speaks about potential real issues about lightning coming from a "deleted" source.

[Smick_Dibbly]

I don't any technical feedback or critique, I just want to say that I like the way this room looks.

[UnrealGGecko]

Tried it, really nice map, all the nitpicks I had were already mentioned, and more LOL

[sektor2111]

Yes, a very nice map with good pathing and also good for some UT469d patch checks...
I went to Editor 469d - good additions over there... I applied a scale of 0.7, building all geometry related assets, then adjusting paths as some of them (through those windows) could not be used at this new size of the place.
Results...
PERFECT !
Even some small prior rendering glitches have GONE... And... my old rig machine is rendering it fine, I don't think it needs portals, those can be time consuming and... I'm not sure how much they help.

[darksonny]

i tested the mpa, I do like the aesthetics, but most the map is too open or wide in spacing terms.

[UnrealWarrior]

A great map, i tested yesterday with much pleasure.

Good job

@old_man_1971 : Thanks man I apperciate it

@sektor2111 : I'll try and fix the coronas, I think they need to be a little bit bigger since the lights are large... I have This problem with jumpSpots and LiftExits: Sometimes I have to move them around to make them work, especially with elevators, I had to remove them all and put new ones to work. not sure why. bots gets stuck standing in front of it for no reason...

@browndl : Thank you! I'm really struggling with lighting, if you look at the map in the editor, you can clearly see that I was putting them all over the place, which I'm sure this is not the best way to do it. Will add blockAlls to the decorations,

@darkbarrage99 : My maps are always big lol, they look small in the editor, but as you said, vast in-game. I use 512 max units for the height and 1024 max for others. Even with that they look huge. As for the weapons, I think maybe putting some lights to make them stand out even more. The lava room needs to be huge because it's very difficult to align the texture.

The lighting is a huge problem, that's why I posted the map in the first place. I did my best but wasn't enough, especially since it's a huge map.
As for the errors, I was not sure how to fix them. for example,

Code: Select all

MapChecker: Teleporter with bHidden = True and bAlwaysRelevant = False:

Not sure what to do for this, I didn't mess with it and still counted as an error.

also, your map needs zone portals. this will probably fix some lighting issues. also, placing zone info's and setting ambient brightness levels to a reasonable level might fix some things.

You mean setting zones between rooms, right? Never did it before. Will this prevent other lights to cast between the rooms?

Edit 2: I ended up using the map scaling tool from the 469 patch and shrunk the map down to 75% size to see what would happen, and it feels a lot tighter imo.

You can do whatever you want with it but the question is how did you shrink the level without messing everything around it? lol

Can we talk about Sam's mom being annoyed by him she closed the door? lmao

Thank you for the feedback.

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Auto merged new post submitted 13 minutes later

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@EvilGrins

The fourth photo, I didn't know how to make shadows with the lighting. Couldn't figure it out. As the for the lava section, Yes they used to be doors there and a PressureZone, It didn't work well, everytime you enter that room, the screen flashes weirdly for a second. Happened only with that zone, others worked fine.

The last one, I'm not sure what you mean, but it's just two stupid windows showing lava going up since it's everywhere in the level :p

@Smick_Dibbly Glad you liked it!

@UnrealGGecko Thanks, with a little bit of work, I can make a good working map (like fully lol)

@darksonny Thanks! will works on scaling on my next map

Thank you guys for the feedback, I apperciate it! I'll try and fix the issues soon, I made this map in like two weeks, I was working on something else and if this map is big, the other one will be huge lmao. I'll post the other one after I do some bot pathing for it, as for the lighting, I'm gonna some tutorials first before doing it.