Criticize my video i just made. (BSP Modeling)
Tell me what to do and what not to do.
All the bad techniques.
And bad Habits.
But don't completely troll my video please.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuT4E2etO24
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Thanks. - yeeyay
Edited by yeeyayy on Nov 11, 2010 at 11:10 PM

Your doing a good job. Make sure to use the cut tool like crazy to add detail. Not sure if you've watched my tutorial or not but I use the same method.

http://vimeo.com/11781231

Thanks man.
And I know the cut tool helps alot!
Very nice video btw! Super detailed.

You could change that reference of yours into a height map. Just use gimp,a free but amazing picture editing software, to turn it black and white.

A height map is a black and white image that defines a mesh,mostly environment meshes. Black represents down and white represents up.Here is an example:



The height map tells the mesh where its vertices should be on the z-axis. A height map and a flat plane alone can create this.



I'm not sure about Gmax cause i don't use it very much since it it hates me(or rather I hate it) but you can model using height maps directly in blender. Height maps will save you a lot of time(from 34 hours to just 5 minutes) and it is easy to use.(note:though height maps are textures technically, they are merely used as an auto-guide and are not used for texturing the mesh.You can delete it after you had done modeling)
Edited by cyboryxmen on Nov 13, 2010 at 06:12 AM
Edited by cyboryxmen on Nov 13, 2010 at 06:23 AM

Hieght maps are probably one of the worst ways to model BSP

Edited by cyboryxmen on Nov 13, 2010 at 08:12 AM

Failquote?
Also, heightmaps are absolutely the way to go if you are making non-play-zones such as skyboxes, but for levels, skyboxes should never EVER be used.

and again I ask,why?
-zekilk

A level created with heightmaps:
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3103

A level created with original polygons:
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3167

It also depends on the person, now if they can spend the time working on all the different shades of gray to make the heightmap more realistic then yes its the way to go, it works for them. If not, then if they can spend the time working on each poly then good for them.

it really depends how complex the height map is. But the sheer number of polys to make a height map look good won't work out well in halo.

Height maps can only go so far. They cant indent on them self becuase they can't overlap, and you can't build vertical faces of buildings or structures. I would only use a height map on backround things, but even then I might as well take a plane and use paint deformation tool.

heightmap i made in paint in about a minute in a half:
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3352/dxhdh.jpg

thats not an ideal BSP, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA.

foo height maps = fail
Worst than sky boxes

did you seriously just compare a level that looks like it was done by a complete noob who used five shades of grey and doesn't know anything about highmaps to delta ruined, which was done by some guy who's probably done more than his share of mapping

really now, that's a bit unfair don't you think
Edited by HaloIsAHorribleGane on Nov 14, 2010 at 03:18 AM

That's the point.

oh so the point was to compare a map made by someone using one technique who doesn't know what the hell he's doing to Arteen and use that as grounds for calling the technique inferior

okay then

you could work for fox news

Sorry for being "MIA". I usually live on the other side of the world to most people on most of the forums I visited and my Skype contacts.

So anyway,what I can make up from this thread is that even though the tutorial i read recommends height maps in most game engines,he/she was talking about modern ones (like blender's game engine,the source engine,unreal engine,unity, etc.) but not halo's game engine which is more than ten years old considering that bungie has been developing it since 1998 or so,straining the use of height maps until it creates lots more problems than solutions.

Thanks for answering my question rather than totally flaming me out. This community is not as bad as your reputation recommends. Though I only learn about it through you guys yourself.I may be a new member but I have been lurking here for a while

(wow that was a mouthful )
-zekilk
Edited by cyboryxmen on Nov 14, 2010 at 08:40 AM

heightmaps would be fine, but you'd have to change them into low-poly. high poly would probably be good for normals, but halo doesn't have that.

problem is most everyone around here only thinks there's one right way to do things, and don't know anything about 3DS Max outside of what they specifically use it for

Lies
lies

you're right I'm misleading him intentionally, not at all holding a legitimate conversation about heightmaps

Height maps are a very legitimate way of making maps. For Halo? Not always. Like HIAHG said, you'd need to make them more low poly.

Just because most often maps using heightmaps turn into horrible extruded messes, doesn't mean they always will. Actually I have more reason to believe they're made by overuse of the extrude tool that heightmaps.