Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[nenjin]

Spoiler: Front View, now with 50% more rearing (click to show/hide)

I'd say that's a marked improvement in the awe factor. Not sure what I can do about the towers though, they are sort of lynch pins in the whole design of the outerwall.....which makes changing them difficult because altering them tends to have a ripple effect on every geometry that they connect to. Might be worth it to rip down the whole outer wall and start fresh.

[burningpet]

just hide it, that will let you freely work on the model and when you wanna show it then unhide.

[nenjin]

The maze is now 75% complete. Should be another couple days (because I've sort of burnt out on trying to finish it in 8 hour stretches) before it's finished. Then I can finally get back to some more interesting work. I don't necessarily have to finish the maze now...but as one of the exterior areas, I feel like it needs to be done sooner than later. Because if I keep putting it off, it'll never get done.

Spoiler: I don't think I'll make a hedge maze this big ever again (click to show/hide)

For reference, that's nearly 3 football fields worth of maze >.>

And here's a shot of something pretty, that I worked on to preserve my sanity/drive.

Spoiler: Your chances of ever getting to this place are slim to none. (click to show/hide)

[Haspen]

I love Castlevania.

Posting to watch.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

This is pretty epic. Did you know that you can import from Google SketchUp into the Valve Hammer editor, converting SketchUp models into playable maps for the Left4Dead/Portal/Half-Life games? Be forewarned, however: your scope is so huge that it's possible the Source engine will be unable to handle it at a reasonable framerate.

[nenjin]

Yeah, I knew about the importation from Sketchup, but that's a feature of the premium version.

I've also built maps in UE2.5, about 1/4 the scale of this, so yeah, I'm cognizant that it wouldn't work .

And since it's been bumped: the maze got the better of me, and sapped all my motivation to work. Fear not, the file is backed up, and once the moon rises and I go crazy again, I'll go back to work.

[MaximumZero]

Is this still going, bro?

[nenjin]

The exterior is pretty much done in terms of design. The maze needs to get finished off. Then it's detailing, new ideas, and maybe actually devising some game play mechanics and building them into the map. Then it's the monstrous task of interior design.

I'll be honest though, this has always been meant to be a long term project for me. I've tried in the past to work beyond the point where I'm feeling it and it usually doesn't return good results. So I'm waiting to be inspired again. Don't worry though, it's not going anywhere.

[Lord Dullard]

Yep, that's the best way to handle long-term projects. When you feel burnout approaching, be willing to shelf the project briefly until you're more up to it and the creative juices are flowing again. In the end it's much better to have patience than to burn yourself out completely and end up scrapping all of your hard work.

It's looking awesome, anyway, and I look forward to seeing more results when you're ready to start it up again.

[nenjin]

Thanks. And on that note LD, where's mah Cult updates

[nenjin]

I keep glancing at my work so far and you know what? I'm not going to be beaten by my own damn maze. It gets done naow.

Spoiler: Never again! (click to show/hide)

Now I can move on to more eye candy.

[nenjin]

'ere we go again.

First off, big thanks to burningpet for reminding me about the hiding feature. Using that, I've found it much easier to do mass alterations without causing insanity.

So in that spirit I ripped a generic tower off the keep and moved the clock tower on to the keep. I wanted a tighter group of spires for one and I remembered a very iconic image in the games of going across the bridge to dracula's tower, with the clock tower in the backdrop.

Spoiler: I think it looks better (click to show/hide)

Might even be able to sneak another tower in there somewhere.

That's not really what I posted to show though. This is:

Spoiler: The beginnings of the Grand Courtyard (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Main Entrance to the Keep (click to show/hide)

Think Dracula is over compensating for something?

Spoiler: Cathedral Main Entrance (click to show/hide)

Bonus points if anyone knows which cathedral inspired the entrance design.

Spoiler: Grand Ballroom Main Entrance (click to show/hide)

One day, this will be a fine place for the restless dead to dance eternity away.

Spoiler: Courtyard East Entrance (click to show/hide)

Can't have 3 great entrances to the courtyard, and one mundane one, now can we?

I've been trying to take to heart what people were saying about the gothic look. To me, gothic is in the details, not the broad bases. But as I keep going over things repeatedly, I'm going to keep looking for ways to slim stuff down, get them more spire-y. What I think some people might find as too realistic is just the fact that most things are simple shapes now. Creating refined patterns, like what I did with the cathedral:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Eats up a lot of time and tends to lead to burn out, IMO, when you turn around and realize you spent 9 hours detailing one wall out of 600.

So as you can see, there's a lot of room for detail but it takes time to hand craft even simple stuff like window braces or ornate door jambs. As time goes on you'll see stuff in the map get progressively more refined, when I get sick of seeing things in block form. But in the end, I have to tell myself when to stop at some point because there's literally no end to the depth of detail if I so wish.

[MaximumZero]

Wow, that all looks amazing! Well done, ser. Can't wait to mess around in this awesomeness.

[nenjin]

Spoiler: Fun with impaling in the Execution Yard (click to show/hide)

Sadly there isn't a ton of high quality content available through the Sketchup libraries. But it's enough to get the general idea across.

[nenjin]

Last one of the day I think, but it is worth it.

Spoiler: Hey, that's not composed out of boring lines and sterile angles! (click to show/hide)

I think I'll call this area something like "The Overgrown Path"

After banging my now sleep deprived head against a wall for 25 mins, I finally figured out Sketchup's Terrain Creation Tool. I made that in all of 30 seconds. It's fairly flexible, if terribly slow at calculating then rendering all that shizz. But I was making it do 7,000 objects at a time, so I guess it can be forgiven. This really opens up a lot of new possibilities like believable looking fluids (say goodbye to that rather awkward looking underground river) and overall more nice, uneven terrain where it's warranted. I suppose is could be used to make curtains and such....but I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself.

On a side note, I wish more game engines were this user friendly. I know they're doing more, but man, I may have to investigate exporting maps to something at a later date (not this one.) Because once you know what you're doing, this shit is a snap.