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Screens of industrial Sci Fi Level

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:08 pm
by nanogod
Hey guys!

i do nearly never post anything (shame on me...) but i´m nearly everyday lurking on this forum...

Well i wanted to show you guys some screens i have made in the last few weeks.
I would appreciate any comment, critic and suggestioins how to make something better.

The Game will be a very fast-paced hallway shooter. The goal will be to finish the level in a short time period. You have to collect all "points" (PACS) of the level and fight some evil creatures... (I tought of something like: mix Pacman an quake together...).

OK now...

here are my srceens: http://www.freewebs.com/nanogod/screens ... design.htm

As said: feel free to comment.

Cheers

nanogod

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:20 am
by psYco
:shock: Beautiful... just beautiful :shock: , I have no advice, just beautiful! Do you have a demo of the game? How far are you along wiht it I love the concept!

I cant wait to play it quake mixed with pacman ahhh what simple genius! But the one thing I can add is make the music fast, and techno (watch the madness combat flash animations they have the perfect music for you and a similar sounding concept (in feeling) but yeah) this game sounds great! :D

But (oh sorry and here i said I had no advice) make sure that its not too hard, these kinda games in hte past have been too unforgiving, because it has the challenge of pac-man wiht out the advantage of seeing the wole map, so mabey you can have a big map in teh corner or sumink but as far as the screens... Just beautiful keep up the good work! (does this map run in RF when you add monsters and stuff? ive found such detailed map geometry crashs offten (by complex geometry I mean the pipes etc...)

Oh and mabey you should host your pics on PhotoBucket or pictureshack and have them load in your post! Some ppl dont like opening links and having to wait for the pics to load!

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:26 am
by AndyCR
Excellent work!

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:07 am
by Spyrewolf
hey nice work Nanogod! the level designs look rock solid light has been done well also, the only thing i could suggest is the textures are a little...clean, if you give them a slighty more dirty, used feel they may look awsome part from that that is very nicely done!!

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:49 am
by shadow
Very nice work nanogod
Its got a great look and feel to it.

I always like to see what people are working on.

Now I just have to finish and upload my new script and little demo

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:19 am
by steven8
Bring it on shadow!!

Terrific work, nanogod!! John Carmack would be proud!!

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:02 am
by scott
wel i was going to comment on this last night before i went to bed but as usual just lately the site was down so just as i pressed submit it went to page can not be found so here it is.

exelent work i love the effects like the lights the textures are spot on and look awsome the ONLY comment i can make is you may be able to improve the pipes but not sure on this, if you make your pipes in a modeling programme and import them i belive they will have a smoothing group on them this would then remove those nasty line and make it look alot more curvy but apart from that your game looks exelent keep the good work up :D

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:56 am
by MakerOfGames
:shock: :shock: :shock: ABSOLUTLY AMAZING!!!! Those screens are so beautiful!

Only one thing to comment on:
I noted you have around 2000 polygons on screen and 15 FPS. That is good, but have the frames been raised higher yet? Higher frame rate is a nesssicaity of first person games.

Oh yeah, if you haven't used them yet, maybe hint brushes* can help get rid of unnessicary polygons and raise FPS. Also, are you using any LODs? They can boost frame rate as well.

*Info on hint brushes: Hint Brush - Optimizing polygon count in complex levels....

And again, WOW!!!!! Awesome work!

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:36 am
by steven8
Yes, this kind of level is the PERFECT place for hintrushes. Follow MoG's link and check it out.

I am a HUGE Quake fan, and your level is just beautiful.

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:55 am
by Jay
That looks REALLY good, i think it's maybe even commercial quality.

Did you use actors or level geomtry or something inbetween?

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:23 am
by nanogod
Wow guys!
I didnt think of such a response!
Thank you so much! It does mean a lot for me!!! :D :D :D

This is an early state for the level and i have so much more in mind!

As some of you mentioned, the frame rate is a little bit low. I use BSP brushes for walls and rooms. Everything else (pipes, structure, lights) are currently detail brushes. That gave me a better FR. (at the beginnig it was some 6-8 :cry: ).

Currently i have no Hintbrushes or area brushes. I hope if i put them properly in the level i hope to increase my framerate. I agree that a good framerate is very important in FPS-Games.

At the moment i have no actors in the level. I made a few tests with SMs and SEPs for the pipes, but the result was not what i expected. The main problem with them are, that they dont cast shadows on BSP Geometry :(

I have read how tabulanaris (correct nick?) made his cool levels wit SMs and SEPs. He is baking shadows in the texture.... hmmm but i find this way of leveldesign a little bit "unpracticable"... but the results are hell!!!

Would it be better for my framerate to use SMs or SEPs?
Also i use a lot small foglights for the glow effect. I hope this will not affect my FR too much...

Again thank you guys!
Your nice words gave me a new PUSH ;-)

I will post some new screens asap...
I have this weekend a few jobs for my work to do, but i hope to go along with my level (if my girlfriend doesnt mind ;-) )

Thanks and stay free!

nanogod

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:47 am
by psYco
Ahhhhhh I see your frame rate problem! Fog lights are hell for the FR I ounce had a not too detailed level with a Foglight in the middle adding emphisis on your new big gun there, but when you looked at it the FR nearly halfed to what it was looking hte ohter way! so in my experience try to keep fog lights to a min! (im not sure if there are many alternatives though and the lighting of your level does sooooooooo much for it so im not sure...)

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:39 pm
by hike1
At the moment i have no actors in the level. I made a few tests with SMs and SEPs for the pipes, but the result was not what i expected. The main problem with them are, that they dont cast shadows on BSP Geometry Sad

I have read how tabulanaris (correct nick?) made his cool levels wit SMs and SEPs. He is baking shadows in the texture.... hmmm but i find this way of leveldesign a little bit "unpracticable"... but the results are hell!!!
You can't mix them without a lot of work.



Looks great, but you can't have anything 'expensive' like fog lights, etc.

Asylum demo runs fast, but has no fancy stuff

http://terrymorgan.net/asylum.htm

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:22 pm
by Juutis
Stunning work! I've never been much of a level designer myself but it's always fun to see beautiful levels. Keep up the good work. :D

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:27 am
by nanogod
Hey guys.

I have uploaded a few new screens of a room and a further hallway.
Framerate has a little bit increased since i use a farclipplane :-)

Foglights are really hell for the FR. But they look sooooo beatyfuuul...

I have made a few tests using hints and areas, and they seem to work nice.
But i havent implemented them in the level yet.

Sorry, i havent had the time to upload them to a place where i can hotlink them, Sorry about that. please use the link on top of this threat.

Or this:
http://www.freewebs.com/nanogod/screens ... design.htm
(Copy this link to your browser)

Next time i will try to find an upload place... I hope nobody is angry with me for this... :oops:

Im currently working on a title screen, a hud and a menue screen. I will post something as soon as it looks good...

Thanks all and have a nice day...

nanogod[/url]