I've been using 3ds Max 2012 for about a year now. I'll try your sun test later. I have rerun radiosity dozens of times as I've played with portalling and lights and shaders and fog and so on and the light still bleeds through. I'm trying a new sky to see if that changes anything (plus clear afternoon is dull). I'll be on available for xfire later tonight. Thanks!

check this possible problems

1.- check the .sky tag, and make sure that "affects interiors" is unchecked
2.- Try playing around with portals again, try using +exactportal, just in case you aren't
3.- ???
4.- PROFIT? (you tell me lol)

hope i helped :)
Edited by ChBgt909 on Jan 15, 2013 at 07:34 PM

yea that 1st one should be a priority. 2nd one could work.

No dice on the light deal. I tested it in Max and didn't see anything unusual. Also, any custom sky I use, while seemingly identical in settings, does not affect lightmaps. I tried 1 0.4 with the Revelations and Precipice sky and got nothing. Even the light materials didn't show up. It looked like 0 0.9.

Anyway, to remain productive, I've been at work on the new minimap. For some reason the direct linked images are horribly fuzzy, hence the link below to the album for better quality. Let me know what you think:

http://postimage.org/gallery/ae7cphm/50ed400b/


The overall size is smaller than BG. Two bridges remain (to be redone) and connect through a short tunnel into the minimap. I might put some doors in that can be opened permanently from the inside, hence the side passage in the tunnel (see below pic). The center of the minimap is cut by the base, which is itself a basic, small structure sandwiched in between two larger ones, both serving as covers for the ramps that lead to the basement. The small tower from a30 has the hallways that also lead down to the basement.

The green blob is a Scorpion; while not visible in the blurry image, behind the tank is Chief.


The center of the wall features a small balcony and attached room. This is where the side passages lead, and where I would put the door controls.


Here's the main entrance to the base. It is a three-floor model: the basement is in a below picture. The second floor is simple, inspired by Coagulation's base (it has a central glass floor insert). The top floor is more BG style and might have an opening to allow quick entry from above. The small structure you see on the top is the ladder housing: a ladder runs the height of the base with stops at each floor. The base is connected to a large, angular structure (on the left) that covers the Sidewinder ramp down to the basement. The structure to the left covers the ramp back up.


The base. Behind the ladder housing is the access point to the a30 hallways. To the right, the ramp leads to the central room where door controls may be located. To the left, the ramp leads to the rear of the minimap.


Here's the structure that divides the central room. Door controls would be somewhere around here. The balcony's guide-walls are about half the Chief's height so you have some cover but not a lot (especially if someone has high ground on you).


The base's basement. To the left is the access point to the a30 hallways.

It looks amazing, but this map is big enough to be a campaign map 0.o

like I was saying earlier, any map larger than the original extinction might cause games where a player may wander the entire match without encountering a single enemy

The reason extinction worked was because of the heavily vehicle reliant combat, huge interior spaces (unless vaulted for aircraft) would make traveling across the map monotonous.

I know it's big. I know. But if I made it small it'd seriously cramp the air combat side of things. Besides, the beauty of my new overhauling system is that all new components of the map are just that: components. If I need to change something, I can localize it to the component. If I want to get rid of a component, I can do that relatively easily. And once released, if someone wants to make a smaller version of my map, they can rip a component of the BSP and seal it up as they see fit. BAM! Like writing a program (thank you Database and Algorithms Analysis class).

well, as long as the ceilings are large enough for a troop pelican to take off and land, it should be fine

It would encourage team play as well.

Team play, yiss. And also some interesting multikills.

Nothing new to report. Just wanted to reiterate that the minimap (pictured above) is designed for all gametypes except CTF and Slayer. In those gametypes, I'm thinking of placing gametype-specific doors/walls to seal off the outside map (with some interesting ways to get around them).

While designing the new minimap, I kept visioning a CTF game. It wasn't until I was nearly done with the design above that I realized the flags weren't going here...oh well. A neat minimap all the same. And it can be extracted and modified later so others can use the minimap as a stand-alone map if they want.

Reusability. Scalability. Flexibility. Yut.

Ahh...3 years of planning, ideas and implementation. I remember when I read the original post...I was so damn happy.

Fast forward to now...3 years in the making, it's starting to feel like Black Mesa...

...but I can wait.

I guess my point is, OH MY GOD THIS IS GONNA BE FRIGGING AWESOME!!

Plus, what is the ETA (if any) and are you, or anyone else, planning on remaking the other major maps i.e. Hugeass, Coldsnap and...?

EDIT: with the dumb bombs on the Longsword, are they going to be dropped sequentially with a single click? Or is it alt fire to release one bomb at a time until it needs to reload?
Edited by Bottletopman on Feb 12, 2013 at 01:22 AM

Except that Black Mesa is already out, has wayyyyyyy more than 1 map in it (not to mention updated graphics, gameplay, new content), and it's creators were working on it most days.
Edited by callum12341 on Feb 12, 2013 at 11:41 AM

Except it was a team of people who were simply overhauling an established storyline.

Yeah callum, to note, from the day of announcing a team planning a Half-Life remake, to the actual release date...it was seven years.

You know what would be a really cool feature on this map? The seraph model from Reach, with the hinged tail.

Well, been a while since I gave you updates. How about this? As you no doubt realize, it's been a heck of a long time since I announced this project. I've learned a lot along the way. Unfortunately, due to pressing academic, ROTC, and other needs, I cannot keep up with it.

But fret not! This project is far from dead! It's mission parameters are simply changing. I shall still release the map in all its glory...but as a .MAX file for now. When I finish the design and am happy with it, and it is loaded in sapien (but not necessarily portalled perfectly) fine, I will release the BSP as a .MAX file. Once released, I'm sure it won't be long before someone produces a playable .map (or even a yelo map). Quite frankly, I'd love to be the first to release a playable map of my own map, but it's just not going to happen for a while. I simply don't have the resources (mostly time), being a one-man team and all.

I'll make my own "official" version of the map someday. My goal is to release that before I commission, which is in about 1.5 years. Until that day, anticipate the release of the BSP. My goal for that is this summer. Please quote me on that so I'll put a lot more work into finishing it up in time. I know you guys have been bored to tears waiting for me to get off my behind and make something of myself. I'm still taking suggestions for map design and content, but now refrain from any mention of tags and whatnot. Just BSP issues and anything inherently related to them.

*baaaaarrrrrrmmp*

Whaaaat? You mean I just read through 43 pages for nothing?!

Lawl.

Oh, shush. Would you rather I release the BSP I have instead of finishing it? Being a one-man team in college with metric butt-tons of assignments isn't easy, you know.

How many vehicles there will be?

4 :P

Shush?

Perhaps one should have listened to all the experienced map makers way back in oh, what was it 2011? When they said this was impossible to get in game. What's stopping you from completing it? Portalling?

I still have faith that this BSP will make it to a playable stage.

Portalling has been an issue, but the biggest roadblock has been time. I simply don't have enough to go around. I have college and a bunch of assignments, especially as the year ends. I have ROTC duties, especially in preparation for next semester. I have a myriad of other responsibilities in life. Plus, quite frankly, I'm running out of inspiration for the rest of the structures, and I hate mapping. I LOVE designing sexy Forerunner things but have little patience for meticulously mapping the billions of faces.

Here's an idea.
How about giving it to a trusted individual (or anybody at this point) to finish?
That's what I did with my stuff.

Someone will make it into a legitimate map. But before that happens, I want to finish the BSP. I want to at least say "Hey, I couldn't make that super awesome map I wanted to when I was younger. But I made a super awesome BSP and someone took the baton and finished the race."

That's actually a really good idea. I would love to see this finished. Just don't give the BSP to somebody who will turn it into a "Halo4" map. I don't want to see that quite yet, though I guarantee it will happen sooner or later.

Just don't give up hope quite yet, Gonzo. You really need to finish this. Sooner or later works I suppose

Thanks, 4 is cool.

But is there any flyable vehicle?

No, it's all mythoses

Yah mean to say there won't even be a massive carpet nuke dropping longsword?

So apparently I'm not getting emails when people post here. Odd. I get emails for the other threads in which I participate. Sorry for not checking up on this.

I'm not at my desktop right now, but if you guys want, I can put up some pictures of my latest work. As I'm basically done with red side, I've been focusing on blue side (took a break from the minimap after it got boring). I don't have as much as I'd like to show you guys, but it is something. I've had to focus on classes, my various jobs, and life.

A little about what I did: I'm creating blue's new addendum which will be a large room similar to red addendum, but features a bridge connecting both sides. One entrance leads to a cliff path, the other leads further into the addendum, into a sick interior I made. You can have fun in that, or proceed on vehicle through large hallways to emerge near blue base. There are teleporters here, as well, for easy foot travel.

Blue base is being redesigned, too. Who is familiar with the Spartan Ops missions based on Control? It is the same BSP used in the Halo 4 campaign level Requiem (huh, look at that name...). Anyways, I'm modeling that as blue base. Bear in mind I'm not ripping from Halo 4 (don't know if you can rip BSPs from it anyway), nor am I making an approximation of the area. I hate the finer details of Halo 4's Forerunner palette, but after spending hours exploring various structures, I am forced to admit they got the general concept right: big areas, cool pillars, supports, etc. and good BSP concepts. I really like Control, so will be emulating the basic design: several levels in a U shape with a base inside at the base of the U. However, the overall appearance will conform to Halo 1 standards.

I think I'm going to work a bit more on it then just release what I have for the benefit of the community. I'll continue to work on it all the same, and put up releases as appropriate. At least with your hands on the BSP, you can make a map or use portions of what I made for something of your own creation (remember to cite!).

I am most upset that it's taking FOUR years to get only this far, and it's not even a complete BSP...

would u post some pics of ur recent progress? how serious are u about finishing this map? its true, this has been dragged out for years....

and decades... and centuries

haha, i remember the raging in that thread, then someone mentioned whoever finishes their map first gets to use the name...... well.....

PICTURES! Link: http://postimg.org/gallery/bdbsllei/f200b25e/

I had this all typed out except a few sentences when I somehow clicked the back button and lost all my work. After raging for a few minutes, I'm retyping it...yay.



This is the core. The entrance is to the lower left (fits a Scorpion). The initial area is a tall ceiling with three ribs and a alcove below them on each side. There are also 2 b40 hallways to take, leading to small rooms with a teleporter. This structure is mirrored. The main area is a large shaftroom that is shaped similarly to the classic trapezoidal lights of the Forerunners. The large rooms (from c20) lead out: one leads to blue base, permitting vehicle and foot traffic, while the other leads to a locked door, hinting at structure below.



This is the initial area, seen from the other side. The alcoves below the ribbing can be for vehicles and/or weapons, plus look cool and give the area some depth.



This shows the size of the core. I aimed for a combination of b40's and b30's shaftrooms, drawing in familiar elements from b30, b40, and c20 while still keeping it new and exciting. The shaft is very deep, while the top portion draws inspiration from various aspects of Portent (one of the most amazing CE maps, by the way).



Here is the small room with the teleporter. It is roughly the same height as b40 hallways. A central ditch runs the length of the room, inspired by Derelict (I have yet to add the grating). The area to the right will be a window that exposes a large room; the room will be dimly lit and is simply for aesthetics. It was inspired by the various exposed areas in the Anniversary map Battle Canyon.

There is a b40 doorframe to Chief's right; it leads nowhere, simply serving as a teaser of areas inaccessible.



This is the outside entrance. It used to be little more than a locked door but now leads to the bridge room, which in turns connects to the core. The bridge room is inspired from various bridge rooms in the Halo universe, including areas from Halo Wars. Two large slits in the ceiling are present to allow air traffic to get in, albeit somewhat clumsily (for Pelicans, unless I'm flying. I fly gracefully). These slits come from Hang 'em High.



The bridge room. It features two sides, one higher than the other. The core entrance will be on the right wall, centered with the bridge. I am considering putting in some a30-style doorframes in some of the walls here to hint at more areas, but it may be overkill. I am also experimenting with detailed lower portions in this room, evidenced by the two white rib structures (from Halo 2's Sacred Icon) and the yellow structure (from Halo 2's The Arbiter). This lower portion will feature an energy ribbon or conduit leading into the darkness (the shaft will extend beyond the walls of the room but will not be accessible, just visible).

I am working on this off and on to get it assembled. Mapping is gonna suck big time. I still have great ideas for the rest of blue side, including the modeling of Halo 4's Control as blue base. I also have various BSP snippets from Halo 2's Uprising and The Great Journey, such as the large structures embeedded in the cliffs near the entrance to the Control Room, the Control Room atrium, the water tower from an interior battle with Brutes (with Elite and Hunter allies), and more. These snippets may or may not make it into the final cut of blue side, but may end up on red side.

I want to add an additional physical entrance for vehicles to red side. The only one is from the minimap, which can present all sorts of camping nightmares. Practical map design in Halo calls for at least two ways in and out of any given area. This new entrance will likely employ the use of the currently busted light bridge in red addendum, so will mean vehicle traffic can emerge from the cave or from the a30 tunnel.

I'll probably release the BSP when I'm done with blue side. The minimap is essentially done (it needs mapped, and the bridges need built). At least then the community has some awesome structures to use for something more tangible than a long thread with pictures and teasers.



Lastly, today is 9/11. Please take a moment to remember the brave men and women who lost their lives this day 12 years ago. Do not be tempted to complain about something in your life until you consider the gravity of their situation. I'm sure the men and women who died 12 years ago would love to get up early and learn something new in class, or feel sore and exhausted from a stressful day at work. I bet their families would feel the same way, having instead to endure their tragic loss.

Here's a really great picture I found:



NEVER FORGET
Edited by CAG Gonzo on Sep 11, 2013 at 11:06 AM

Good to see you're still working on this, Gonzo. It's great to see that kind of dedication.

(And yeah, Portent's a great map.)