Langerd Mapping tutorial - how i make maps?

[Langerd]

IMPORTANT

 

I am not calling myself proffesional. This tutorial will not teach you how to model, how to make textures or how to use programs (in case of gtkradiant i moght help you if you will ask me to do it but with blender .. i am a learer )

 

I will just tell you and try my best to ahow you how my sitting on my ass and make these models and maps rly looks like. If i would make some mistakes (even horrible mistakes.. or someone would tell me i use noobish works ) let me know! I will teach you with my techniques and my point of view and you might teach me how i can improve myself. Double profit. Double fun.

 

EDIT: AAA MY BAD. THIS SHOULD BE IN THE MODDING SUGGESTION THREAD. SORRY..

[Noodle]

If you could record yourself animating, modeling or mapping, it would be a great resource for everybody in the community since we can learn a lot from your ideas and also from your errors. If the latter happens, you can also get something in return since people would point out if you ever do a mistake. 

[AshuraDX]

EDIT: AAA MY BAD. THIS SHOULD BE IN THE MODDING SUGGESTION THREAD. SORRY..

Fixed it.

[Corto]

I voted yes, but I honestly don't want to see a tutorial on how to make a simple map. You can find those easily on Youtube. I would like to see who you tackled very specific challenges, like terrain, stairs, water, moving platforms, etc.Thanks.

[Mandalorian]

There is always a need for more tutorials in my opinion the more the better. I'd personally like to know more on enclosing an area more seamlessly . Not many tutorials that go into skybox, animating a .md3 the more advanced stuff. Simple basics don't particularily need to be covered as much, but more advanced things do . 

[Langerd]

Fixed it.

Many thanks and sorry for trouble!!

 

Well making a simple map would be lame. I was thinking more about a corridor were we can see frames that are MD3 . How to scale them into the map. How to use MD3 frames and how to work with them Nd with brushes. Maybe some organic stuff too - a monster in the wall that pushes player inside and kills him. For animated MD3 i wouldnt recommend it. I might show you how i use blender for making terrain but my technique is not at finished state. It is far from perfect.

I made a lot experiments with skyboxes and they end up very well. I might send You screenshots today - in which things i am good at You will decide yourself!

[Mandalorian]

well I have done a few skyboxes myself but others may not know. Terrain in blender would be useful. Just throwing out idead and I think you have some good ones that would be useul Look forward to your tutorial because your one of the most creative modders here.

[Langerd]

OK! I have some screens. If i will found some new screens i will upload them in this comment.

Lets have this list started! I will add a screenshot and i will try to name every single topic of what you see on the images.

1. How i use MD3 models on my maps and when is use them - I usually use models when i want something to be more detail. Making barrels, consoles, door frames overall props using brushes and patches is not always good idea (most of the times - bad). The important thing with MD3 is that we can achieve some really amazing effects. Tho i dont recommend using the animated MD3 . The animation for this are little stiff and jerky.  I suggest something different and i will tell you later why.



2. How i use skybox and what we and how to achieve some cool effect - Working with skybox is not always just texture and it is over. We can achieve something cool when we will make a box somewhere in the map and we will make .. some cool effects.  A small effort to make your ship that is in space ... inside hyperblast tunnel. Or to make your map that are two buildings inside a whole city - or maybe in the middle of the ocean. And we can achieve this effect with the entity called - misc_skyportal



3. How i make terrain with the MD3 models - Well this is my tricky method on making the terrain. It is not easy process and in some way it has a lot of issues but i achieved some rly amazing effects on some maps. The only problem i have right now is that terrain use one texture only and texture (rly BIG image texture) . I might make this technique a bit better in the future but here is the results on one map. So in this field i am still learner 

 

4. Lighting , colors of the map and style - This topic is very important and a little different than the others (mostly). We dont have same taste of style - in term of visuals but also the gameplay because this is most important part of any map. I will show you my style and how i see things. How i work with lighting and how i love it the most. How i pick palletes of the map  and what are my inspiration and where i look for them. Also i will try to show how i add some small effects but this topic is mostly for style and visuals.

5. Why i dont recommend MD3 animation. What i recommend instead is..  - first thing .. the MD3 animations are very stiff and have a lot of issues. The smooth animation for this is mostly not possible. So we want - smooth animation and quick use. It depends what we want to achieve here. Misc_models can be parented to the other enitites and they will follow their paths - for example for func_train or func_door we just parent MD3 misc_model ship to the invisible brush/enitity func_train and we have flying ship. But that is not all. Why not use glm models with their gla to make our map more lively? Sure their shadows and lighting would be not as the map but we can achieve a lot things with this. From just floating ghost on the map, tentacles, moving statues or if we will use them wisely ships, monster or even.. sarlacc pit - I used MD3 for making the teeth body and glm with gla for head (also tentacles are glm that are moving around). Here we must not only know modeling props and creating maps - but make animations too. Which believe me or not - they are not that hard than you think




I will also add some topics that are not about mapping.

[Mandalorian]

that's pretty good you could explain to people a bit more detail on fov for skyportals, you could also explain how to make custom .glms and gla's  maybe you could make a video series or something on some of these aspects.might be easier than explaining them.

[Droidy365]

Damn, that's a cool Sarlacc pit! Do the tentacles grab you, or are they just for show? 

[Langerd]

that's pretty good you could explain to people a bit more detail on fov for skyportals, you could also explain how to make custom .glms and gla's  maybe you could make a video series or something on some of these aspects.might be easier than explaining them.

Yeah the whole point of my post is because @@Circa wrote in his status that @@MUG tutorials are not longer on youtube. There were pretty cool and they learned basics of gtkradiant ... Now they are gone and i remember tutorials made by @@Rooxon how to create lightsaber models. He showed us how he created some his great models. Showing some style and taste too. 

 

And it is important to share with the style specially because.. every person copy something from others. It is nothing to be shamed of it is true. Even artists copy .. look for inspiration. I for example look for inpiration everywhere even if i look on wooden planks i see some shapes that looks for me like for example like demon head or some monster. Imagination is the key! 

 

Today i will try to start some new topics with numbers. Later i might ask you what exactly you want me to cover the most. I gave you some topics that are more connected to the mapping area of modding but i will give you some other ideas - And pay attention on the creens above. I will try to add some more images.