Sketchbook: Vig

[Mark Dygert]

After doing next to nothing creative at work for the last 3 months, I've been having a blast getting back into mapping.
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker210000.jpg
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker210001.jpg
Image_03 (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker210004.jpg)
Image_04 (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker210007.jpg)
Image_05 (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker210008.jpg)
Image_06 (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker210009.jpg)
Lift (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker_lift.jpg)
Aircraft Tug (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker_tug.jpg)
Main ref and inspiration (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ref/ctf_decker_masterRef.jpg)
Nothing like a little more ref (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ref/) to get things rolling...

Basically its my take on 2fort. Instead of 2 forts built inches from each other the bases will be an aircraft carrier (Blue) and a dock/warehouse (Red). The bases will be symmetrical and the trick is that only a few key detail props and textures will change. If this comes off as too much of a gimmick or I can't get the dock to look the way I wanted I'll cheese out and just make them two carriers and just hick up the Red base. I'm going to try my hardest to get the first option working but if I can't get it balanced then I'll have to go with plan B.

Harsh crits always welcome.

[Saidin311]

Hey Vig, awesome idea. I hope asking questions is kosher in these sketchbook threads I hope to learn from everyone as well as share my own stuff.

What are the grid marks and green boxes for in your main ref/inspiration picture?

[Mark Dygert]

Each box is 128px X 128px. 128 is the height of a standard story, 72 is the height of a person. You can treat 1px as one unit in Hammer, Max and PhotoShop. To get better pixel resolution in game, all textures are scaled down to .25 by default, so you get 4px for every unit.

I think the same holds true for Maya and UnrealEd but I haven't confirmed it.

[kary]

Thats a very interesting idea, and fits TF2 well. The link on image3 has a problem -- there is extra stuff trailing that needs to be nipped off of the URL.

Not important but; in the first inline image, the barrel of the gun on the left isn't reading as round. The other guns look great so I imagine it'd only be an issue if that 'head on' angle is going to be a high traffic route.

A visual queue to establish the distance between the edge of the top deck and the main tower would be handy (it seems a lot flatter in image 1 than 2). The runway would be on the other side of the tower and this a storage/work yard?

Thanks for explaining the grid.

[Lee3dee]

looks great Vig!. so there are multiple paths, but the main route with in the middle on the lower deck?

[Vailias]

FYI: Unreal has person height at 96 units, effectively each Unreal Unit = 2 CM for unreal tournament series.

looks like a fun map. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif
edit: math error

[rybeck]

Wow.. beautiful works, Vig.
Also thanks for sharing awesome ref images.

For the UE unit, AFAIK, 96 (UE)units = regular human height (6 ft). So it came down to 16 (UE) unit = 1 ft.

[Cody]

Looks great so far. can't wait to play it.

[Mark Dygert]

Kary, great points! You will see the turrets from straight on in some cases so I should round them out, at least on the highest level of detail. The bridge island is a sniper hang out and I was having trouble getting good line of sight from up there so I pushed out the upper level, I think I'll re work the bridge so it all sits more flush. I still have to do the bridge window props so its good to get that cleared up now, thanks =)

Technically this is the run way. The front turrets would rotate forward as the planes take off, I rotated them sideways to help block off the front of the ship. There will be a second runway that angles off to the left in shot #2.

Lee3dee
There are 4 ways to cross the gap between the bases.
- 1st bridge being the top of the lower right turret in shot #1. That turret has been moved more center and lowered and works pretty well as a bridge. I might even add a gang-way ramp type prop kind of half ass strapped to the top of it looks more like a make shift boarding deck and a turret rolled into one.
- 2nd bridge is between the dock and the ship where the angled runway and the dock meet.
- 3rd bridge is in shot 5. If you fall in the water you must use the 4th route, you can't climb up on 3. This has 3 path ways that lead into the ship.
- 4th is a hatch at water level which leads into 3 path ways into the ship. The Red base this same hatch will be a sewer pipe.

Inside the bases there are 3 paths and a few rooms and ramps that connect them. Its kind of complicated to explain but really easy to navigate. It's all kind of compact too because I really don't like running down long hallways and I like having options when you're going in and coming out.

Vailias, rybeck, thanks for the info I'll have to write that down... done.

A big thanks to CheeseOnToast for helping me figure out the texture shaders. I have the paint shaders working more or less like I need them too I'm leaning toward masked reflections but the phong test came out nicely and it ran a tiny bit smoother.

I worked on the sub filling in the details. Because the sub is used to get from the top level of the intel room down to the lower decks, and it provides a Line of Sight blocker (too easy for one eng to rule all three levels) the collision mesh needs to be spot on but not costly.
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/DiveSub00.jpg

[Cody]

Cool prop.

[Rhinokey]

sweet stuff vig, i have a weeks vacation and looking to get a map made.. using existing pieces mostly,, may have to make a nif or 2 here or there

if you need a server to test it out on i'm renting a 64 player server now that i just got up and running.

[aesir]

I love the sub! Really looking forward to this.

[Mark Dygert]

Just to prove I'm not dead and still working on the map I have this >
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/TF2_TugBoat.jpg
This Tug goes between the Air Craft Carrier and the dock, blocking the players off from the open water/sky box. I didn't bother to put in rudders or propellers because you'll never see them. I used the advanced painter script to paint the rope splines on the life ring, man I love that script.


http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/TF2_BridgeTop00.jpghttp://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/TF2_BridgeTop01.jpg
This prop goes on top of the bridge.

I also created a bunch of hoses, wires, hooks, railings, that all go in various places. I also finished the sub and started creating the materials for the Corsair. I'm not going to bother taking renders of them all when they are so minor. Since the blue base is totally blocked out I copied it over to the red side and it looks like I can transform it into a dock without effecting the CTF mechanics, woot!

[Ferg]

Vig that tug is great! You've outdone yourself, can't wait to see it with some colors. Good to hear you're not dead, too.

Let me know if you need any testers, I suck at tf2 but I'm great at breaking things :)

[IronHawk]

not dead = good :)

Keep at it man this is looking killer. I am up for testing as well.

[Saidin311]

Hey Vig, could I trouble you for a wire of that Tugboat? And whats this advanced painter script?

This map looks so cool. Can't wait to play it! If the mechanics are as good as it looks I predict this will be a widely popular map.

[Mark Dygert]

Thanks guys =)
I need to finish blocking out the red base and putting in place holders for future props then I we can play test the hell out of it.

Advanced Painter : http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/advanced-painter
It lets you paint splines (and objects) on any selection of geometry. I've edited the script so the spaghetti tool doesn't place knots/verts so close. But my edits make some of the other tools buggy which I haven't figured out how to fix, so you're better off using the default one until I figure it out.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/TF2_TugBoat00.jpg
I started to optimize it a bit and once I bake the Life Ring down to the low poly it will drop by 1k-ish I went nuts with the rope =P

[EricElwell]

This is AWESOME! Dude.. I love the style of this last one... just.. spot on dude!

[Ravenslayer]

great to see your staying consistent with the TF2 style :)
good job so far

greetz

[Rhinokey]

hey vig i love what you are doing here.. and i have yet to succeed in gettin a model in.

my only crits would be the tugboat seems over stylized. tf2 is cartoonish, but does not really use the skewed (whimsical) geo that it seems like you are using on the boat.

other than that its all fantastic.

[Xenobond]

Vig- you using Max for these assets? I thought it was ridiculously convoluted trying to get stuff out of there and into hl2. :S
Maybe better tools have since come out?

[Mark Dygert]

Mojokey, I agree. I had the same reaction last night when I dropped it in, "humm too much". The ref I chose for the pilot house probably was fine before I FFD'ed it or was just a bad choice. I bounced between the 1920's rounded pilot house and the more modern angled version. http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ref/TugBoat/500pxTugboat_diagramen_edit1asvg.png
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ref/TugBoat/1225002_Huntington_Tugboat_web.jpg
I might mock up a quick rounded version to see how it looks before I start unwrapping.

What kind of errors are you getting? The only thing I can think of its a collision mesh problem, which you could drop the "$collisionmesh" from the QC, or its a material issue.

You need some kind of material assigned to the defuse slot for it to spit out a valid SMD. When you get serious about the material showing up in game, it needs to match the name of the VMT file. The extension doesn't matter, I like to use psd's so when I archive the model it saves my psd to. So if my VMT file is TF2_TugBoat.vmt then my psd in the diffuse slot needs to be called TF2_TugBoat.psd


K-Man, yup using 3dsMax 2k8. The exporter wunderboy wrote works pretty well.
http://www.wunderboy.org/sourceapps.php#max9_smd
But there are some funky rules you have to follow for collision meshes.
- It uses smoothing groups to tell the difference between each collision pieces, took me a few hours to figure that one out.
- The collision meshes need to be closed and it likes to patch over concave surfaces, so you end up having to break up the collision mesh into easy to digest blocks. BUT you're limited to 22 separate collision shapes per model. You can either set a flag that gives you an unlimited number of boxes, or start breaking the object into separate models.
- The UV's need to be continuous pieces, otherwise it will give an error about "2D geometry being less then .05" or some silly error. I just apply a Planar UV map to the whole thing collision mesh and it spits out a valid SMD.

Feel free to post here, PM me or hit me up on MSN, with any errors or troubles you're having. I totally feel your pain, it took me a solid week of head on keyboard action to get it all working. whatever error/problem you hit I've more then likely hit it already, no need for your forehead to be all QWERTY.

[Joshua Stubbles]

haha, that's totally badass, Vig. I always try to do levels, but I can never see them through to completion. Just not a level 'designer' I guess. :)
Really nice work so far.

[adam]

Man I love this! Looooove this! The tires around the boat fall harshly in the middle (the donut hole). I was thinking it might be cool to see it rounded off like the rest of the tire is.

Is the boat in playable space or just external decoration?

[Pedro Amorim]

really nice work vig! im sure this will turn out to be a really cool map.

[Rhinokey]

i just checked out your refs and while the ref has the angled cab as its actual shape, on your model it seems more of a style distortion and not just how the tug is made, thats what confused me most. besides that i think i prefer the round cab in the photo more.

[Mark Dygert]

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/TF2_TugBoat06.jpg
I a little tossed up, but leaning toward the rounded version They are both unwrapped and fairly close in poly count so its a matter of style. If I go with the rounded, I'll round out the decking under it and I might decrease the number of windows. I might make one Red and one Blue and park them on both sides of the map, instead of doing an elaborate hose refueling station I had planned for the opposite end...

[Rhinokey]

i prefer the round, vig anytime i drag something on that studiomdl thing it seems to not be able to find the file.. i think it may not like the space in program files or something.. do you have your dir under program files?

[Mark Dygert]

I have my smd and QC files in;
D:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\MyUserName\Team Fortress2\TF2\ModelsSrc\

It saves the mdl files to;
D:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\MyUserName\Team Fortress2\TF2\Models\CTF_Decker\

The line in my .qc file reads "$modelname CTF_decker/TF2_TugBoat.mdl"
If I delete the CTF_Decker part from that line "$modelname TF2_TugBoat.mdl" Then it puts it in the models folder. If I don't have a CTF_decker folder it won't compile. If you're using the example qc file I wrote up, and your SMD's aren't in a Mojokey folder it won't compile.

Are you dropping the files on a shortcut to studiomdl or the exe itself? I think the drag/drop method only works on shortcuts.

Are you using the version of studiomdl found in the OrangeBoxSDK? I think there is another version someplace else.

[Rhinokey]

http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/tfboo.jpg

heres my qc
$modelname /thunt/box/box_ref.mdl
$body "Body" "box_ref.smd"
$staticprop
$surfaceprop "metal"
$sequence "idle" "box_ref.smd"
$collisionmodel "box_ref.smd"
{
$concave
}

heres the directorys
C:\Steam\steamapps\rhinokio\team fortress 2\tf\modelsrc\thunt\box\box_ref.qc
C:\Steam\steamapps\rhinokio\team fortress 2\tf\modelsrc\thunt\box\box_ref.smd
C:\Steam\steamapps\rhinokio\team fortress 2\tf\materials\thunt\box\box_ref.vmt
C:\Steam\steamapps\rhinokio\team fortress 2\tf\materials\thunt\box\box_ref.vtf

[Justin Meisse]

Rhinokey and I have been banging our heads off of the source sdk for a little while now, as of tonight I've been able to get as far as exporting the model but it doesn't show the texture.

Oh yeah, I created this batch file to make compiling easier:

"%sourcesdk%\bin\ep1\bin\studiomdl.exe" %1
pause

I'm finding sourcesdk to be good advertisement for the Unreal 3 engine!

[BoBo_the_seal]

that tugboat kicks ass! Nice work Vig!

- BoBo

[Sage]

This really nice, that tug boat is really cool. Both of them. :)

Alex

[Mark Dygert]

Thanks guys

T & J, it's dropping the g_path for some reason. that shouldn't read "box_ref" it should be the full path to your QC file. It looks like you might be using the ep1 version of studiomdl? Try the orange box versions found in:
"D:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\rhinokio\sourcesdk\bin\orang ebox\bin"

Since your materials are in a subfolder you'll need to add the $cdmaterials line to your .qc file after the $body line.
Your .qc file should look like this:

$modelname thunt/box/box_ref.mdl --removed the first slash, doesn't really matter
$body "Body" "box_ref.smd"
$cdmaterials thunt/box/ --added this line, points to the materials subfolder
$staticprop
$surfaceprop "metal"
$sequence "idle" "box_ref.smd"
$collisionmodel "box_ref.smd"
{
$concave
}

Also when you export your smd make sure you only have a diffuse texture assigned it (no bump or spec maps). It also needs to have the same name as your vmt file in this case box_ref.bmp would work fine.

[Rhinokey]

try that as soon as i get in the office.

as far as material in max i have the .vtf plug and have the vtf on the model.

thanks for alll the assistance

i disagree with justin about it being an advertisment for unreal.. cause once i do get something in i'd rather it be in a game i'm interested in playing :)

[Mark Dygert]

It shouldn't matter but you might want to also try a standard image format like bmp, png or tga. Technically it shouldn't bother to read the extension and should only be grabbing the file name but I've been using tga's and png's and haven't tried the VTF plug-in yet. I couldn't get it to work in 3dsMax 2008 =/

[Rhinokey]

vig i got it to compile. but i can't see anything when i view it, if i turn on wireframe in the viewer i can see the wireframe of the object. but other than that its completely transparent this is my vmt. does it look proper?

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "thunt/box/box_ref"
"$translucent" 1
}

[Rhinokey]

HAHAHAHAHAHAH i had the wrong light setup in my vmt!!!

feast your hungry viewing orbs on this!
http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/tf.jpg

[Pedro Amorim]

lol. whats that?

[Mark Dygert]

WOO HOO! but now we have to make it visible =/

The top line "LightmappedGeneric" is the shader type. Lightmapped is more for materials used on hammer created objects like walls, floors ect.

For props and models you want to use "VertexLitGeneric (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VertexLitGeneric)" if you get into doing characters we'll need to talk about $phong, but thats another chapter in another story all together.

Heres a break down of all the shader types source uses.
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Shader_Types_and_Parameters

Using "$translucent" 1 means it pulls opacity mask info from the alpha. I think the alpha is white and thats why its not showing up? If you don't need an opacity mask you can drop the "$translucent" 1 line from the VMT and just have it read:

"VertexlitGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "thunt/box/box_ref"
}

To check the alpha channel of a VTF, in VTFEdit go to View > Channel > Alpha or hit ctrl+shift+a (ctrl+shift+c to view all channels again).

EDIT: WOO-HOO NICE GOING!

[Mark Dygert]

lol. whats that?
That? That is a big block of success wrapped in awesome...
What does it do? Absolutely nothing.

[Pedro Amorim]

lolol. gothcha ya ;)

[Rhinokey]

vig youkow if theres a way to make something have collision, but allow you to shoot thru it?

like a chain link fence?

[Mark Dygert]

yup $contents "grate" was specifically created for just such a reason =)
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/%24contents

[Rhinokey]

one more question since you seem to be the man to know.. if i make a map with this model can anyone who dloads the map just strip the models and use them in their maps?

[Mark Dygert]

You can use bspzip, or pakrat (GUI version there are several others) to include/extract external files (VMT, VTF, MDL sounds ect) in with the map, which I suggest doing when you release your map, it makes easier for everyone to download and place one file instead of several, to different folders.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Using_Bspzip_to_Embed_Custom_Content

But doing that doesn't make them bullet proof just idiot proof. Anyone can unzip/unpack the bsp and get your models out, its just not as easy. but I'm sure it will thwart a few assmonkies.

[Rhinokey]

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=802013#post802013 vigggg helps

[GsKanible]

I used the advanced painter script to paint the rope splines on the life ring, man I love that script.

does this script allow you to draw splines using a wacom tablet? Eitherway, I'd like to know where I can get hold of this script? You make it look very useful :)

[Mark Dygert]

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/advanced-painter

It's a great script and you can control the brush with anything that works like a mouse. Sadly there is no support for pressure sensitivity. It would be great if pen pressure controlled the size of the cross sections when using the toothpaste brush. But being able to paint wire bundles in seconds kicks ass.

You might not like the way it creates some of the splines, and in those cases convert it to edit poly select an edge that runs the length of the spline and hit "convert to shape" this will give you a new spline that behaves.

I also use it to paint/scatter objects, rocks, bricks, leaves, grass planes, bushes, trees, garbage, bla bla bla.

[GsKanible]

ah hah this is so cool! Def gonna give my environments a boost in detail. I see normal mapping potentials right off the start too. thank you vigs now I see why so many people like you here :)

One thing tho, maybe you've run into it. somewhere between me running the script and adding 27k polys in the scene I can no longer render the scene properly, im thinking its just a glitch because it works fine again after I re-opened Max, but if its somethign I did that I shouldnt have I was curious if you might know what would cause that problem?
thanks again vig

[Mark Dygert]

I haven't hit that particular render problem, but I have had issues if I try and exit out of paint mode by any other way besides un-clicking the paint button. In 3dsMax8 it would cause a memory leak and eventually crash max in a few min, so I learned to always exit painting by clicking the paint button.

Also undo was twitchy and sometimes would crash 3dsMax if I undid a paint. So instead I would exit paint, delete the object(s) and repaint. The script seemed to get more stable under 3dsMax 2k8 but I ended up changing the spline painting part of the script around to suit my needs and it made some of the other brushes in the tool buggy.

I think, (haven't actually checked it out) Maya's Paint effects do the same thing, and much much more. I'll be really disappointed if this kind of thing doesn't exist in Maya. Which I'm thinking about learning later this year...

[GsKanible]

I think maya does have painter a painter effects similar to this script, I was showing one of my teachers the script and he mentioned something about it being just like maya, and I'll keep note of those problems you were having

[GsKanible]

hey vigs I was using the script and I had a mild brainstorm for your TF2 level. had you considerd using the pebbles ink to make barnicle clusters on your aircraft carrier / tugboat/ dock? I know most of it would be underwater but would be a neat bit of detail to add some along the waterline or so. Its just that for a tugboat it looks a bit clean. I know textures would rough it up too but since its already somewhat high poly, wouldnt hurt would it? anyhow just a thought


the sub pen looks like it could use some barnicle lovin too

[Mark Dygert]

Thats a good idea GsK =)

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/CTF_DeckerF4u00.jpghttp://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/CTF_DeckerF4u01.jpghttp://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/CTF_DeckerF4u02.jpg
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/CTF_DeckerF4u03.jpghttp://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/CTF_DeckerF4u04.jpg
No spec, no bump, 100% self illum screen grab from 3dsMax. Still have a fair amount of texture work left to do on this one, but its getting there.

[Sage]

Hello, cute plane alert. :poly110: I really like the shape of this plane, I think I'm going to have to go and make something. This should look real nice once you finish it.

Alex

[Small_Sumo]

Your map will pwn I have to keep an eye on this.

:)

[Mark Dygert]

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker220009.jpg
I had a pretty productive day. I took a break from texturing the plane, and started texturing the tug. Still not sure which version I'm going to use, I started to texture the cube cab, and I'll do the round one next. The rest of the tug is about 60% done. I also made a pretty accurate collision mesh and I plan to have the front half playable.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker220008.jpg
I took Adams advice and re-worked the tires. It made sense because you really do get close to them.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker220007.jpg
I also cranked out some new hull pieces but only roughed in some colors. And finished off the hatch leading out of the water on the blue side.

[Mark Dygert]

I was working on the crews bunks and I decided to do a personalized bunk for each class.
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/BunkDBear.jpg
Heavy's Teddy...

[kary]

Hah, spot on for the teddy. The shadowing is a little distracting at the moment (black for the bottom of the char left ear, intense darks at the bottom of the face) but I imagine that is just an effect of the grab.

The plane is very cool, retro futurism coming through clear. The tug is very clever, a bit saturated for me, but hard to comment on mid creation of the texture. Am I right in seeing some odd shadowing on the tires? Looks like there are double strap shadows on single strap tires -- or at least it is darker at the top then the sides which seemed off.

Turning out well, look forward to updates :)

[Mark Dygert]

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240005_Thumb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240005.jpg)
Bunks are in and copied around, personalization begins along with a final texture pass. This is spawn room A for the Blue team.
Alternate View (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240039.jpg)


http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240006_Thumb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240006.jpg)
Lowest level of the ship, I might slope the floor to indicate the hull and put in a cat walk in.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240042_Thumb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240042.jpg)
Bridge windows are functional but waiting to be textured.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240043_Thumb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240043.jpg)
Exit #1 from Blue spawn room A.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240044_Thumb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker240044.jpg)
Upper level of intel room, might be too bright...

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/DeckerPropsMany_00_Thumb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/DeckerPropsMany_00.jpg)
A few of the props I've been working on.

I have next week off so we'll see how much I can get done.

[vahl]

looking cool dude :) very close to the TF2 style, that plane is pure win :)

[Rhinokey]

vig i'm curious,, did you playtest this much in rough stage before going into the prop work?

[Mark Dygert]

When I was blocking it out, I ran it on a server at work and on a public server I play on (open to invite only one night, didn't want it getting around when it was so rough). Based on that feedback I modified the core base structure a bit.

My wife also helps me do tests, mostly eng turret placement stuff and other repetitive tasks play testers don't like doing over and over again. Heh, thats right baby the wedding band cuts both ways! HA! jk...

The Red base is a carbon copy with a few changed props, mostly in the skybox and the hull is replaced with a dock (that use the same collision meshes) so I haven't done much on that side, since its more prop detailing.

It has pretty good flow and the few props that can impact the game play are still very malleable. The rest are very generic and will accommodate any future changes without modification. But I don't see having to make any major adjustments to the flow, its pretty solid at this point. But it would be good to run it through the paces again.

After next week I'll probably have the Blue base detailed and the Red side copied and it will be ready for another round of play testing. I should do a rough level layout sketch so people can start to get a feeling for the flow.

[Spark]

Awesome work Vig, keep this sketchbook up!

Spark

[illybang]

you sir are awesomeness. looks great so far!

[Mark Dygert]

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310011_Thumbnail.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310011.jpg)
Started detailing the dock, and the lower bridge. I was using a hanging cargo container as the lower access point. I wanted at least one way that the snipers couldn't watch but was not on the beaten path. But it blocked off the tug so I opened it up with a dock and a hanging platform. Turns out you can get across there just fine without being spotted.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310000_Thumbnail.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310000.jpg)
Below the ship/dock. The dock side still needs rocks and more support beams but the ground is in and makes getting in and out of the water very easy (with the help of clip brushes).

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310007_Thumbnail.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310007.jpg)
Blocked out the decals for the flight deck.
Also did a new asphalt material.
And modeled /unwrapped a crane prop that will support the lower bridge. Not too sure about the lower supports on the crane, might have gone a little nuts with the FFD. I tend to do that...

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310002_Thumbnail.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310002.jpg)
Flight deck, those decals need a little lovin, they're solid color right now.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310001_Thumbnail.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker310001.jpg)
Welcome-Cam 01, of the main battle courtyard.

The second round of public play testing went really well people playing all classes seam to really like it. A few people made some really good suggestions and I've put them in. I've been working on a lot of prop clean up, materials and fixing clipping issues. As well as the few things you see above.

The blue base is about 65-70% complete and then its onto the red base.

[Cody]

Good god. Amazing work, vig. And a wife that helps you test your TF2 levels? You lucky mother...

[hobodactyl]

This stuff is looking incredible! Keep it up, I'll be watching :)

[Unleashed]

that is looking badass, cant wait to see how it plays!

[Mark Dygert]

I made a promise to myself that I would finish this map and so I've been working on it about 2hrs a day when I can, sometimes going weeks without working on it. We wrapped up crunch at work so I'll be able to hit the 2hr commitment a little more often.

So far I've made 50 props and created 77 texture maps. The blue base is 98% done, and the red base is functional but not detailed.
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380010_thmb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380010.jpg)
The locker room below the sub/intel room. There's a stair case leading up to the intel in the center left of this shot. There are also two others on the right side not pictured. I think I've managed to end the engineers single handed strangle hold on the intel room, without making engies useless. Hard class to ballance a map for, that one is...

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380009_thmb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380009.jpg)
This is the ships cafeteria. The second spawn room is through that door. Soon to feature its own Soup Salvid and Sanvich Bar.
The condiments and napkin dispenser where my first physics props. At first Col. Mustard did not like being shot, but he's come around.
Lighting looks like it needs to be turned up a bit?

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380007_thmb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380007.jpg)
Mid level bridge looking into the blue base, the tug is to the left of this shot.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380004_thmb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker380004.jpg)
Upper-most level of the intel room.
The upper left door leads to T hallway with a branch leading to the blue spawn.
The lower left door leads to the hanger/lift and centeral stair case.
The door on the upper right (barely visible) leads to another T, going to the battlements/central stair, and the middle bridge.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker360003_thmb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker360003.jpg)
Doodling over the top of the red base. Not sure what I'll keep and what I'll cut.

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker360000_thmb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker360000.jpg)
I replaced the turret/board bridge with a AA turret and a cargo container. I had to decompile the cargo container. Then model and texture the inside. I took a page from the 2Fort play book, the center bridge needs cover, snipers where having too much fun =P

http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker360002_thmb.jpg (http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker360002.jpg)
The smallest AA turret alternate view/placement.

[Ged]

love this shot http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/ctf_decker360003.jpg, it looks amazing! well done

[kite]

that looks so good vig, you've really nailed the style

[wizo]

incredible progress since last time I checked.

I really admire how many asset you pulled off in so little time.And they are all looking great, especially the vehicules.
I dunno if you are done with the ship turrets and plane, but I would definately add some strong glossy spec to them, a bit like on the shotgun on your before-last screenshot.

Keep it up!

[J Randall]

Vig when this is finished I am gonna buy TF2 just to play your map.

[konstruct]

WHOA WHOA- watch it Vig. you might put the original level art in TF2 to shame. No one likes a showoff.

[Pedro Amorim]

waa waaa weee waaaa

[Cody]

Man, this is really great. Very inspiring.

[Slingshot]

Wow yes these scene is lookin sexy keep it up!

[Mark Dygert]

Moving the CTF_Decker progress out of the sektchbook thread and into P&P where it belongs.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=901440#post901440

[hendrix]

loving the feel of your props, kind of reminds me of that french cartoon, belleville rendezvous!

[ocarian]

Excelent Thread Vig

I Realy like your model

Keep up and good luck for the rest

[Vredesbyrd]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RESPECT REALLY LIKE THIS, one of the few kick ass maps for tf2