Reflection | Quadropolis

Skur | 2014-10-20 22:08

Reflection

[

points ]

(10 votes)

Blurb A large CTF map.

Screenshot Reflection

Get original file (458KB)

Detailed description

A large shopping mall CTF map for Tesseract by Yannick 'Snowy' Weber and James 'Skur' Rucks.

Here are some screenshots
(click them to view in full size)

To do:
-waypoints

Map file reflection_v1.0.zip (1.62 MB)

URL http://tesseract.gg/forum/viewtopic.php?id=207

Rating

points

(10 votes)

Comments

Doko | 2014-10-21 01:35

I dont like it, specially because there are not spammed boxes, spammed lava and walls of death with no sense.

1/10

vampirefrog | 2014-10-21 14:21

This map is large, roomy, with good flow and nice lighting. The visual style is modern and consistent, with a good level of detail, though not exactly next-gen. The sunlight beams through to the lower regions, which give it a nice natural feel.

As an Easter egg, the teleports are spinning cardboard boxes.

However, I am getting low FPS on my lower-end machine (GeForce GT240 + Pentium Dual-Core E6600 @3.06GHz + 4GB RAM). I get from 40 to 77 FPS. Not sure what the cause of that is, but I'd start by replacing the railings with mapmodels, and seeing if that fixes anything. Other maps, of course, run at 60FPS all the time. Also, the plant pots could use some actual plants as well.

Also, I'm not sure why it's called reflection.

I haven't playtested it, but it looks like it would go well with 10 or more players.

8/10

Cheers!

Snowy | 2014-10-21 17:08

Hey Vamp,
thanks for replying/voting

I'd like to know what you mean by "not exactly next gen detail" because we kinda had to sacrifice details for it being a large map, not sure if there's a way to improve on that, I assume replacing detailgeom with mapmodels but meh... that means we've got to get mapmodels omigawd
Low fps probably has got to do with the shadows and all, we tried to keep the amount of light ents as low as possible, most of the map is lit by sun and especially global illumination. So the shadows kinda do the detail work or give it a detailed feeling. And even though the map is just around 110k wtr, I still have no idea why your fps would dip... the railings can't be THAT demanding, can they?

We are just not sure how high we can set the bar on graphics and stuff, multiple things kinda play their role in that, be that cubecount or the fact that the other maps on tesseract vary heavily on those things, when comparing complex to steelribs, I'd say reflection fits in between, but being twice the size.

Oh and the teleports aren't really an easter egg.. we went with boxes because it sort of fit the theme, the up facing arrows on the boxes also made it more obvious that stuff's supposed to go up in there.

meh.. reflection.. because we didn't know a proper, non-cliché, non-obvious name, now that I think of it, reflection sounds kinda cliché :/ suggestions welcome?

Alright, the plantpots... yeah... plants don't yet exist in the tesseract universe

cheers

vampirefrog | 2014-10-21 19:16

Well, no highly detailed areas, no lush plant life, no moving objects, no ambient sound. I'm only comparing to Tomb Raider, which is the most recent game I've played, and runs fine on my hw.

Poly count is indeed low. I've also noticed the small number of lights, but forgot to mention. That's very good.

In the meanwhile I've disabled AA and Aniso filtering, but it only added a few FPS. I've also noticed that FPS is higher when standing still, which makes me think some parts of the rendering process are cached. Also, some lights can be set to shadowless or static, to improve performance. There is also the fact that the mapsize is 11, and complex (where I get more FPS) is mapsize 10, so I guess the sunlight needs a bigger shadowmap or something.

Also, it is indeed unclear what the map actually is. It's a mall with more beams and walls and less shops? Is it some sort of shopping + parkour centre? The skylights are nice, and the revolving door looks good too.

I agree with Suicizer that there is a lot of gray. The sunlight makes up for this, but after a while you probably get tired of all the gray. Maybe color each floor in 2 colors from a palette of 5-6 colors. Add your own textures.

As for the name, how about 'centre' (goes well with complex) or 'skylight/skylights'. 'shopping', 'mall', 'railings' (same idea as steelribs), iunno.

Cheers!

Suicizer | 2014-10-21 17:31

When seeing it for the first time; I gave Tesseract another try on my desktop.

The map looks very clean and lovely; there nearly anything to mention that could actually be improved. However; I did found a few things when I wandered around;

I love the atmosphere of the map (although that shouldn't be too hard on Tesseract) and the use of different colours each level. However, the map generally feels like a broken white-coloured mass. There's no contrast in it. Perhaps the tilesplain0119 texture has been overused, as it's every where you look.
Maybe if another texture than the tile02 on the floor would be used every where (like using another texture on stairs), that would add some variety within the map also. Perhaps the vertical sides of stairs could use some other texture also.
The base03 texture on the beams feel pretty out of place as it's texture meant for floors or walls, but not on metal beams.

I miss some happy mall-shopping sound on the background of the frags. Perhaps you can even add a Halloween or Christmas theme to the map.

Despite being a shopping centre; it all feels pretty much concrete. Have you thought about adding something green like small trees or some art in it? I think the sculpture of Sauerbraten would be a perfect example that would fit here somewhere.

You get stuck in the vents when trying to reach the other side. This seems like a bug of the wall which the vents are connected to (as you get forced to stop right at that connection point on both ways). The only way out is to suicide (or by ducking again but why would you do that?).

I like the map, but can't call it a prize winner yet.

P.S.
Is the playermodel having some weak flash-light or so? as it feels like a light-beam moves along with the camera near the weapon.

Snowy | 2014-10-21 19:41

Heya suic
thanks for replying

uhh let's see...

The low contrast style really is a matter of preference, I liked to use it on collusion and nucleus as well, the monotone-ish style that is... we decided to go for that on this map, and let the light do most of the work.. because tesseract...

Hmm.. this facility is supposed to look like a freshly built mall, stores still being filled, things still being set up... Now, I know that this isn't really visible right now because we mostly focused on being efficient and careful with details since at this point, adding more can be in the way or distracting (or not even being looked at).

ah right.. the vent glitch has already been addressed, I'll be lazy and assume the problem doesn't lie in the map but in the code, I tried alternatives or tricks as well but that killed it even more... but yep, you basically get stuck because the playermodel wants to extend after release, for some reason it collides with the wall above the ventshaft or something...

on your ps, I'm going to assume that the weak flashlightish stuff has got to do with Screen Space Ambient Occlusion...

Well...
I see what I can/want to do :P

cheers

-Snowy

Suicizer | 2014-10-22 05:52

Well, if it's freshly built I suggest to add some places where it's not finished yet (as that's what happens in real also). So like loose wires and pipes popping out, ventcaps not yet added, tiles on the floor not all placed, etc. That's some realism which the map lacks. It feels like the map has been more or less copy-paste work so far.

P.S.
It was the ambient oclusion yes, thanks. Although Tesseract may have dynamic lighting, it sucks with no AA on.

SomeDude | 2014-10-21 20:29

I have to say I that agree the box-teleports are a little odd. Other than that, it's a great map. ^.^

Mmeaninglez | 2014-10-22 01:17

This is really really nice, with a pretty crazy yet very refined attention to detail. I especially like the air ducts for being in play but also basically being sensibly-placed air ducts, connecting logical vents. (Well okay, sensible and logical as far as this mall goes, but no one cares about actually proper architecture.)

10/10, the best thing I have seen in cube engine in a long time.

Sauce | 2014-10-22 16:33

This map is amazing! It's really awesome to see a new map released on Tesseract. I just love the big glass windows on top and all the buildings you guys made on the outside. There is a lot of little details and that screenshot looks fantastic. Tesseract is amazing and this map kicks ass. The layout is good, but some parts are questionable, that's why I can't give it a perfect score, but it definitely deserves a solid as fuck 9/10.

IgC | 2014-10-25 06:03

Kisses mates. just lots of love
One thing: I'd try to get a more 'shopping-center-feel'. I know it's hard due to the lack of textures but maybe there is something that can be done.

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