For a first map its not looking to bad at all.

In the first screenshot you are using the same texture on the floor & ceiling, this can look wrong in most cases, I would suggest putting a different texture on the ceiling.

I like the lighting overall, but you do have a few dark boring places in some of the screenshots, try adding some light sources/spotlights or something to liven it up a little.

Keep on mapping! :) 

Thanks for encouraging me and give me some advices... There are not yet monsters, and I would like dark places you mentioned to add monsters (in the future...)
About lighting, a great thanks to aguirRe who helps me a lot for this stuff...
Bye.. 

 

 

Patterns are important but that much symmetry makes for a bad map. 

I think I was hungover when I said it. 

Where's H-Hour's article on counterpoints again? 

http://www.notthisway.com/writing/counterpoint.shtml 

beta download(4.something mb): http://www.fileplanet.com/dl.aspx?/planetquake/eggman/shortfusedbeta.zip

screenshots:
http://www.planetquake.com/eggman/mapshots/sfpro1.jpg
http://www.planetquake.com/eggman/mapshots/sfpro2.jpg
http://www.planetquake.com/eggman/mapshots/sfpro3.jpg
http://www.planetquake.com/eggman/mapshots/sfpro4.jpg 

oh yeah the map is a medium-large DM map for 6-12 people with assymetrical ctf support. 

I may release a beta soon myself, so I'd like to earn some good karma here. :D

Overall I liked the map. Very sprawling, kinda hard to get a sense of the layout. I don't see any way to get to the penned off area on top of the building or the rooms just below that without a rocket jump. I don't much care for that myself, but that's a personal choice.

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/shortfuse/shot0000.jpg
Room with the lg. If you look to the right at the red beam of light there's some z-fighting, which of course never shows up well in a screenshot. That's the only instance I found, and that sort of thing tends to catch my eye.

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/shortfuse/shot0001.jpg
You have all this great rock formation throughout the map, and then you have this lame platform here. It wouldn't be so noticable if it didn't stand in such a contrast. Make the rest of your map suck more, make this area look more rocky, or better yet choose a metal texture.

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/shortfuse/shot0002.jpg
You have this dead-end in a cave with only two itty-bitty pickups to make it worth your while. More over they're kinda hard to get to. If I was playing I'd be pissed off I'd bothered to go this way. I always like crystals though. Great shader on your's.

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/shortfuse/shot0003.jpg
I like that a lot.

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/shortfuse/shot0005.jpg
http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/shortfuse/shot0004.jpg
I was able to rocket jump into this crevice and had trouble getting out. It looked like there should be something of interest over there.

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/shortfuse/shot0006.jpg
Come on, that's just lazy.

I also thought the quad was overly hard to get to. My personal feeling is that the best players have enough of an advantage in a map without intentionally trying to tilt the map in their favour.

Great work over all. 

thx a ton for the detailed feedback pushplay.

the deadend cave, my intention was having greedy players go into the deadend for extra health and armor, get caught and obliterated. maybe ill up the reward for that risk.

the quad trap thing is me adhering to the guidelines for hte burial-grounds mapping competition, i agree with you, but im trying to win an ipod mini :)

you caught me with reference to that lazy corridor and rock platform, sometimes you skip ahead to finish off the remainders. ill try to make the detailing more consistent in those spots. i still have a 2nd round of crate distribution and other details in mind to fill those voids.

by any chance did you observe a seam where the skybox meets? or is that just an artifact on my vid card? 

I said I'd enter the burial grounds contest and I have a map almost done, but it's not the sort of thing they're looking for. Oh well. I think they want something that's specifically a trap, and not just a tricky maneuver.

The thick black outline on the skybox is actually correct, ironically. The geforce opengl driver is supposed to clamp some value but doesn't which makes the skybox look as intended. The ati drivers get something right for once, which unfortunately causes the box. It would be nice if q3 was patched to fix it or the ati drivers autodetected q3 and compensated. 

That's looking much better than before !! Better screenshots to ;)
That same texture for floor and ceiling in shot 1 does look a bit funny, as Daz said.
Keep at it. 

'Come on, that's just lazy. '

Do you mean it looks a bit auto-brushed?

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/q...

I agree with you there. That is some very convincing brushwork in that picture. 

Hello,
I've noticed that too after Daz comments.. This is changed now... Screenshots will be updated as soon as possible..
Bye... 

I just meant it was a cookie-cutter hallway that could have come from one of a billion maps. 

First screenshot updated !!
PS: All others part with floor and ceiling with same texture are also modified: thanks for the advice... it looks better now
Enjoy !!! 

Yes, that looks much better than it did with the same texture as the floor.

Here is something that may be of interest to you, when you get time, have a look at this tutorial from xenon,(if you haven't seen it already)

http://xen.quakepit.com/tut1.htm

It may give you some ideas, or get you thinking more/differently about how you go about things. You may or maynot be able to implement the ideas in your current project, but it is good to keep this sort of thing in mind.

I'm glad to see that you are keeping at it, good on you. 

You can run q3map2 (the latest version) with the -skyfix switch to fix the black skybox border on ati cards. 

balance is the basis of design harmony. Balance and symmetry are not the same - ( see: The Golden Section )

inertia: you mispelt both those words. Is that supposed to be irony? 

Thanks for the link, it really interesting to have an overview how to modify a hall in order to improve its quality...
Bye... 

Thanks, I'll use that from now on. It still looks the same on geforce, right? 

In the first shot:

Flat ceilings in large rooms are a design no no. No offence, but this room reminds me of something from Wolfenstein (the original). Consider a recessed ceiling.

The sides of the sarcophagi don't gel with the tops, I believe there is a sarco "side" texture available from the DoE set that matches the tops you are using.

In the second shot:

The "rock" walls are too clean/square, natural caverns do not have such perfect geometry. Try messing 'em up a bit and maybe introducing some outcroppings in a different but complementary texture. (I made a similar "mistake" in my first level, but was saved by the small size of the area concerned...your huge cavern will be very unforgiving in this respect)

In the third shot:

This also looks a little too "clean". Just a few brushes (to break up the lines) can make all the difference. Does jumping down the well get you to pic 4?

In the forth shot:

I actually like the lighting effect quite a bit. Once more though, perhaps a rail around the columns would break up the plain ceiling.

Otherwise, keep it going... I'm craving a good temple level.