DataRun - Map Design

5 Week Project Custom Map Design
Although have limit time to build a custom map will take some time. I just need some input into making a the map. I am not good at texturing it. I am good on modeling it. Well I am still learning.

Map theme will Skyscraper.

It has be simple and easy to copy and use building quickly. I am thinking some basic building and extra parts.

Oh yeah it has be all static mesh.

Do list:
Things might be added in the map:
-Crane Tower -single mesh that can be rotated using matinee [Done]
--cranes are very useful, as we can use them to let the player access other buildings without needing jump pads etc.
-such as glowing interactive objects
-billboards showing short looping video
-create a landscape somewhere between the two

Ideas:
-make crane hit player using the simple box
-make crane controllable to kill a player by pushing off the edge.
-Workable crane in the map that has been update in the svn.

-Roof Top Parts
-Satelite dish [Done]
-Radio Antennas [Done]
-Billboards [Done]

BUILDINGS
-Business building [Done]
-Construction site building under way [Done]
-Hotel Building [Done]
-Resident Building [Done]

Some of the ideas are from ambershee.

Map => DM-Skyscraper

The map and the package is has been added in the svn under 5weekproject/content/




New Images:


Information: Well I am still working on the map and the mesh object build. You will notice some objects goes missing and reappear when moving around quickly. Those are the building block later it will be merge together to reduce error for missing objects. The map may change that I am working and testing out the map. Some static mesh are not working that deal with the collision for quick collision build. I building off from blender program.

Some of the files are getting bigger either I need to reduce them that will take a while. I am working on some models.

Edited by Darknet, 19 May 2008 - 04:53 PM.

Notably, before anyone starts panicking, this isn't so much the 5 Week Project, as what the 5 Week Project will become for the MSUC deadline, after we've completed Ron1n's designs and are ready to expand the project. I've pinned a few differences in the design down - and for the deadline I need to have one, solid level that features everything, including the differences. So I figured I'd get someone working on assets for it right away, so that we don't go into rushing anything later on. That's what I spoke to Darknet quickly last night and got a few ideas down.

I'm thinking visually, a hybrid bastard child of Mirror's Edge and Tron, and a fairly free roaming environment with a lot of activity and interactivity.

I was going to knock together a simple 'sample style' map, but I'm going to get a concept artist in to do some drawing instead.

This isn't something for Ron1n or the programming team to worry about yet

Although have limit time to build a custom map will take some time. I just need some input into making a the map. I am not good at texturing it. I am good on modeling it. Well I am still learning.

If you can do basic UVs and diffuse textures, I can help you with the rest.

-such as glowing interactive objects

More specifically, I'm thinking 'data'. Physical, visual data flying around the environment that the player can walk on, be pushed and thrown by, and all manner of other weirdness. There should also be a number of other inexplicable entities flying around or just present, that the player can interact with - these can be discussed at another time, when we've realised Ron1n's designs, and have a clearer view of what the project is at that point.

billboards showing short looping video

This is a cheap way to get a lot of visual activity and to push some thematics. It also suits the very 'digital' and 'cyberpunk' theme very well.

It has be simple and easy to copy and use building quickly. I am thinking some basic building and extra parts.

This is probably the way to do it - I'm thinking we'll have a lot of structures visible, but generally only the top sections of them should be accessible. This means we can build structures, and an array of objects that we can re-texture and re-use to diversify them.

Well I am able to make the 4 buildings but the map is still lagging. I am trying to reduce mesh that is repeating. I just need to reduce some part of the area. I just need to work on the map layout that I am having some problem coming up stuff.

The structure that has the most issues is the under-construction building. Where the others are solid, the under-construction building you can see all of the floors, and all of the individual supports and pillars at all times. The result is that the game engine cannot occlusion cull anything, because it's all visible. Making the under-construction building have only two or three open floors, and having the rest properly paneled, will improve performance.

Take a look at CTF-SkyHop for UT2004. This isn't very far off what we should be aiming for, except with a a more dense environment (more structures, much closer together), and our skyscrapers want to be shorter, and fatter (more playing area, less vertical pointlessness).



Except any platforms we have in the middle should be moving around - probably themed around 'skycars' or even large sheets of data.

Note how the structure in the center of the shot is constructed, and if you can, take a look at how it works in the editor. It will give you a good idea of how to create interesting looking structures with maximum performance and ease. Note that it probably uses some brushes. We can use cuboid shaped meshes where it uses brushes. This will perform better.

http://unrealtournam...CTFSkyHop;39240

I also found a Morphius remake for UT3. It will be very useful to look at how the meshes are organised and used here.

http://utforums.epic...hlight=morpheus

Edited by ambershee, 25 April 2008 - 01:03 PM.

Thx for the help at least it give me some idea to improve the design of the map and work on it.

I've uploaded DM-SkyScraper-ALT to subversion, note that I have changed the sky and the lighting a little, to reflect the visual style we'll be using, but these are just quick hacks, not final content.

It contains two (rather hastily - less than 10 minutes total) constructed towers using the existing meshes found in HU_Walls. There are a few other meshes in here that are decent building wall sections, so get a good look at them!



Notably, I constructed both towers using only two different meshes. I used less than a thousand meshes - in fact both towers are considerably larger, and have less polygons and less meshes than any of the original buildings, and they perform a lot better. You can see that there are only two selected in this shot:



Ideally, I would have built the cross shaped building walls out of three different meshes - the inward curving sections are actually the wrong way around, and the detail is on the wrong side, but it surprisingly isn't that noticeable unless you're looking for it.



If we had panels that fit together like that, with an outside corner and an inside corner, then towers become very easy. We can then make a single mesh to go on the roof, if we know what shape our building is going to be. This will help (but likely not remove) any 'popping into view' visual issues we have with the structures at present. If we have say, two different types of corner, we can vary even more!

All the curved panel is, by the looks of the mesh, is the normal mesh bent through 90 degrees. We can do that with our panels, bend them 90 degrees and -90 degrees, and we have instant curves.

If we have two materials on each mesh, one for the structural parts, and one for the window parts (two sets of UVs), we can create loads of material instances to make them look even more varied without making too much of a hit on performance.



We can test our skyscrapers and built them from meshes, brushes and even lights, special effects, kismet and matinee sequences. If we select all of these, we can make a prefab out of them. Fully load LP_DataRun and take a look - I have a prefab in there with both structures. We can make each structure, or part of a structure a prefab - or we can make a kismet crane prefab, stuff like that. Very useful, and we can use it over and over again, and all it takes is two clicks to get it into the map, or use it again!

And absolutely finally - if we make all our panels for all our buildings fit the unreal grid, and have them the same height and width, we can mix and match all of our panels and curves any way we like. This means we can really make lots of different buildings without too much work, and it's better for performance too!

There's a trailer now released for Mirror's Edge
http://www.gametrail...ayer/33586.html

This is very similar to the visual style I had in mind - our use of colour wouldn't be so bold, although our structures themselves would likely be as bland. We'll break that up a lot with billboards, advertising boards and graffiti where possible instead. Take distinct note of the layout of the city and the kind of objects in it. This is what we need to try and replicate where possible

I got some idea but it take a while to get my mind into gear and working it. This video help a lot just need to watch it and get some objects into the game.