Happy New Year 2010

Speed Mapping

by MangyCarface @Nodraw.net

There are a few things you can do to greatly improve the speed at which you map. I’ll be going through a few of these things, point by point, but you must use them in practice in order to get faster!
Read more...

Merry Christmas 2009

Source Engine Dynamic Water Demo

by Jimmy42222

I know somebody has already done this but they were being all bitchy about not telling how they did it. I, however, will happily tell you how it works. The whole this is an info_particle system, stored in the little orange box (hah, pun). The info_particle_system is set to trace all around it with a trace collision property.

Here's a download link if you want to play around with it. If you do it in GMod you don't need the particle_manifest.txt file.

http://www.filefront.com/15188993/dynamic.zip

Optimization in Source: A Practical Demonstration

by MangyCarface @Nodraw.net

Optimization is one of the least understood parts of mapping in source; there is a lot of hearsay on the matter and generally the topic can appear overwhelming to new mappers. Today we’re going to discuss how optimization in source works, not from a theoretical approach, but from an example-by-example method that will hopefully bring us around to understanding the underlying theory. When implemented correctly, good optimization can be more beautiful than the aesthetics of a map itself. Read more ...

Interview with Level Designer Mateusz Piaskiewicz

by World of Level Design

Mateusz "Seir" Piaskiewicz is a professional level designer currently working at Techland. Techland is a game developer located in Poland. They are known for Call of Juarez series. Read more ...

[REL] dod_schlosshotel

New DoD:S map release!

Mapname: dod_schlosshotel
Gameplaytype: Capture the Flag
Leveldesigner: [MG]B@D
Website: MURDERGROUNDS.COM & bad.dod-federation.com
Download: http://murdergrounds.com/dod_schlosshotel.rar
Download-Mirror: http://www.mydod.de/index.php?c=cmap_d_243...
                             http://www.dodmap.com/index.php?option=com_r...

This is my first project FINISHED !


This is my final release of schlosshotel I hope everyone enjoys this release as much or more than rc2 screens below ....

Changes from rc2 release >


New redesigned Spawn areas
detailed entired map & Optimized the entire map to the best of my ability
Removed some custom models and added a few new ones
Added more areas to get up on the buildings
Fixed 99% of model misalignments and texture errors
added german flags and banners "more detail"
added a few water puddles
added custom german march song triggered around center hotel


Increased FPS 10-15 on my box over all by optimizing map ...

Credits >


Valve for all the Building Models
Custom Models by Pedroleum , Moroes,Surgeon,Thujalvi

Special thanks to >>>


Furyo for too many things to count , Moroes for help with the lighting!
My son Kill@ for the Overview !
My Wife for all her help & support and Ideas to get this map finished!
Splatt for his great Bug Testing !
And to all the [MG] members for help with the alpha,beta testing!


And to all the other dods forum members for their suggestions , comments


Look for more upcoming dods maps from
MurderGrounds Mapping Core @ "HTTP://MURDERGROUNDS.COM"

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=966222

TF2 and DoD: Source Update Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Orange Box Engine

• Fixed an exploit that allowed files to be uploaded to the server at arbitrary locations in the file system
• Fixed a server crash caused by a client packet claiming to be an HLTV client when HLTV is disabled on the server
• Fixed a server crash caused by spoofing a client disconnect message
• Fixed a server crash caused by sending malformed reliable subchannel data
• Fixed a server crash related to unbounded settings on some convars

Community requests

• Removed centerprint texts for TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game mode
• Changed TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game mode capture reward from 10 kills to 1 capture
• Added OnCapTeam1 and OnCapTeam2 outputs to the item_teamflag and func_capturezone entities
• Fixed HUD "carried" image for the TF_FLAGTYPE_ATTACK_DEFEND and TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game modes using the wrong team color
• Fixed dropped flag for the TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game mode using the wrong skin

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/2759/

DoD: Source Update Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Day of Defeat: Source

• Fixed an engine crash

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/2743/

Source SDK Update Released

Updates to the Source SDK have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Hammer

• Fixed bug in which the model browser can become unresponsive
• Game overlay no longer attaches to Hammer which fixes incorrect 3D camera position bugs
• Google Sketchup to Hammer exporter now ships in the Source SDK

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/2635/

Source SDK Update Released

Updates to Source SDK have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Source SDK

• Added source files for ten shipping TF2 maps
  
  • arena_lumberyard
  • arena_ravine
  • cp_badlands
  • cp_dustbowl
  • cp_granary
  • cp_gravelpit
  • ctf_2fort
  • pl_badwater
  • pl_goldrush
  • tc_hydro
• Updated shadercompile binaries and added missing DLL needed for shader compilation

SDK Tools

• Fixed the issues with the following tools: height2ssbump, normal2ssbump, pfm2tga, splitskybox, vbspinfo, vmt_tweak, vmtcheck, shadercompile
• Fixed an issue in studiomdl pertaining to $shadowlod

Hammer

• The texture browser automatically ignores most textures that cannot be placed on brushes or displacements, as well as anything inside a .svn folder for those using svn as their choice of versioning software.
• Added additional auto visgroups for sprites and cubemaps
• Separated the VRAD calls into two sequential while using HDR (-ldr and -hdr) instead of -both
• Model browser is now created once per session
• Displacement brush dial now has greater range
• Added a stop button to sound previews

SDK Launcher

• Added the ability to edit game configurations with vconfig

Source Code

• Added a new template mod that replaces the old 'advanced' source . This template has options for teams,classes, sprinting, prone, stamina, etc.
• Added shader source; fxc.exe, psa.exe and vsa.exe must be placed into the dx9sdk\utilities folder and you must modify materialsystem\stdshaders\buildsdkshaders.bat to set your paths.
• Most tonemap controller options now work in multiplayer. The 'template mod' map 'sdk_teams_hdr' demonstrates this.
• All three mod types by default mount the required appids - Multiplayer uses 218 and mounts 320 for example. Gameinfo.txt contains a new entry 'AdditionalAppId' for this purpose.
• Particle systems can now be defined with a per-map manifest, similar to soundscapes.
• Fixed a number of issues which caused the server to not compile in linux

Multiplayer Source Code

• Players animate with the new animation system that came along with TF2.
• Fixed third person animations and all effects
• Fixed SLAM issues
• Fixed Use of UTIL_GetLocalPlayer on the server in various locations
• Fixed a number of other bugs / asserts

Singleplayer Source Code

• Fixed a number of issues preventing the source from functioning correctly
• Added new vehicle "hl2buggy" so that users may have both the charger and the old buggy

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/2579/
  http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_SDK_release_notes_archive#6.2F15.2F2009_Release

Becoming a Level Designer and Env. Artist Part 2

by World of Level Design

Once you have began on your journey to acquiring artistic skills it is now time to apply what you learned into a 3d digital package and a level editor.

I am going to cover the basics of what level editor to choose, which 2d package to work with, as well as 3d package.

All of these are based on my own experience and my opinion. You may want to try different things out and decide for yourself. It is ultimately up to you which one you choose and become a master at it. All I can tell you is to pick a few as opposed to many. Become really good at one or two. Read more ...

Becoming a Level Designer and Env. Artist Part 1

by World of Level Design

How do you become an environment artist and level designer? Where do you start? What do you learn first? Should you purchase a 3d package? What about Photoshop? Drawing? Painting?

There are a lot of decisions to make and too many choices. As a matter of fact, there are so many choices that we don't make any decision at all.

It is paralysis by analysis.

Before I begin, there is a difference between an environment artist and level designer.

Environment artist is someone who builds the assets that go into the environment. They model, often texture and sometimes light their environments.

Level designers are responsible for taking the assets that environment artist have created and assemble them into an environment that we can all play in. They design gameplay elements, create scripted events and test gameplay.

Depending which studio you work for or what mod team you are apart of, you may do one or both of the title descriptions. Read more ...