AngelModder

It's been a very long time since I've put any thing into JKO. I'm not sure I remember all of its limits etc. However for you good sir and a love of the still going JKO community I will do my best to port as much of the project as I can to JKO. Will suck a little bit on the note entities and compiling but I agree it would be a worth move and honestly a nice tip of the hat to all corners of the JK community. As far as the swoop track is concerned that shot is before a lot of the details have gone in, just the general theme really was being displayed. Since then jump pads, obstacles guidance arrows on the walls and some piping has been added. Not the extreme huge piping as seen in the first draft but some piping none the less. I've tried to set up boobytraps that players can use against each other, explosive conduits, oil slicks, fire, explosions, and of course blast-able barriers, even the walls deflect and bounce shots fired so shooting at your opponent is as dangerous to you as it is to others etc. A small update status. I have managed to as mentioned get the map back down to around 11k brushes via some ase's and cleaning up of my work. Like many I get into idea's and just rush build, then I go back and refine and reappraise my concepts. As many of you may have noted along the way, what you first see is usually just the first draft. I'm constantly tweaking my work. Never fully satisfied. XD Any who the map is back to compiling normally and fine! And FPS is holding solidly on all systems so far. I set my cap at 250 and generally never go lower then about 190 with a couple of area's open plus a reflective surface near by. I've tried to keep in mind not every one can use D glow and see or play around reflective surfaces. Hence the reflections will be enabled for those who want them by a plug in PK3.

I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means. I feel in many ways I didn't properly exploit the resources at my disposal at the peak of there existence. Sadly many tutorials were lost when Map Craft went down, and losing contact with Darth G hit me to a even a personal level. :/ Still miss the old man. However gaining early tips from Him, Lk, Lazarus, Raven and Ydnar really helped me later on with this project. As I sit here with my gf though trying to teach her the techniques she needs to complete the training section of the map I am quickly reminded of my own impatience and desire to reach an end product before I even know the right questions to ask. :/ Odd too be in that situation. I never reallt properly thanked any of them for the patience and guidance they gave me. Much less I didn't even appreciate it at the time as such folk were in some ways common place to learn from at the time. Or atleast so I thought. I to often am reminded this is a dying engine, and a dying game. I suppose in many ways this is a tribute to what it can do and what has come before me. Without the insight of others, the practice of others, myself and infact all of us would not be able to create what we are now. The hindsight of those before us must not be overlooked. They pushed the limits that set our goals today.

Putting both together would make a complete map.Technically speaking yes, however in radiant it would be a logistical nightmare and in ue4 even worse, sections would need moved and rerouted as when you bring the maps together and connect them rooms from one would be going into the other rooms etc Sadly Raven's designers didn't work from a blue print first as many of us more modern developers do. They just built with goals driving the layout.

Had a slight problem with the old Max edge error during meta compile. Not a problem or worry though, I'd been meaning to go through and make a lot of my columns, stairs, light fixtures etc models any who. So this just pushes me into it. Dropped the maps brush count from around 16k to just a little over 11 k with a bit of old elbow grease. Decreased it's physics calculation by 48% Which means better fps for you and less work for the compiler on my end. I love ase's. Another perk is when mofo's de-compile your map ase's get erased so they can't steal your pretty stuff!

Welllll I decided to make a quick few dozen changes to the concept of the swoop tracks look!!!

This is why people should read what I've typed up more often. This map expands on the original idea of JH(s). Meaning? Well you'll get the normal enclave area but then outside it's doors from the courtyard on you will be submerged into a more cloudcity feel. Incorporating cloud city also means bringing in aesthetics such as industrial area's at times as well as the sleek white designs we know and love from cloud city. So this is part of what would be the public area of this sections. This whole facility as a fan fiction (perhaps my own personal feel of shadows description of the original JH after speaking to him) is a Cloud City Bespin like structure during the Republic era before or after the original trilogy. The enclave is just a section of this facility given to the Jedi to build a small enclave. I feel it only makes sense that as politicians etc come to visit the Jedi for w/e reason they would need a place to chill. hence the hotel lobby and hotel cantina leading to the swoop track.

The making of Jaina Solo starring Jyn Erso and Rey.... That's an adult rated film I'd pay to see !

The making of Jaina Solo starring Jyn Erso and Rey.... That's an adult rated film I'd pay to see !

Early test shot of Swoop Tracks!

FYI Swoop tracks are a logistical nightmare of epic proportions. Who knew? From getting it to vis correctly, entity set ups for jump pads, oil slicks, flames jets, breaking pipes, electrical sprays to even the lighting they are a time consuming effort! XD

I think you need to shoot my your Death Stick Dealers number...

Be careful not to choke on your aspiration!

So today was the first time I got to compile the majority of the map together. Took about 90 minutes from start to finish with 26 light bounces. Theirs only one major section thus far missing, the public training center. As discussed before the main core of the map is JH; however outside of that from the courtyard on you expand into what is more of a public access Bespin Cloud City like facility. The idea was to keep the core familiar as far as layout and what you're use to having and seeing in the original JH(s) and then from there expand out. Allowing more skill orientated training facilities and Rp sections to grow from the original core map but not taking away from what you're all wanting to see and 90% of the time will use. Most importantly they wouldn't hurt the map's FPS or Lore. Any who here is a Z Axis overhead grid view of the map thus far and a in GTK Radiant 1.5 shot of the map from that same point. I filtered out entities so that it's a bit more discernible. The only other area's missing from the map aside from the Public Training sector are the secret area's. Did you think I'd make it that easy for you... XD You will find I'm a bit of a prick when it come's to secret area's. Noclip wont help you as the area's wont be visible even until they've been turned on, the area they normally are in is filled with a kill trigger, so even noclipping around will do nothing for you. As the area's are entities decompiling will just erase them.

You just picked the name of the Civilian cantina! Congrats! The High Ground.

Doesn't mean I don't still question myself. I wonder should the swoop track be styled more as a grungy Nar Shada style or sleak and clean/ technical feel of Bespin

At one point in this topic I posted a tut I found online about the science of color; the emotions the attractions and even the detraction of colors and light. In another document I came across by the same authors they spoke about scale and the effect of shine. Shine tends to make things look smaller, and this vs color vs scale is highly important. As silly as it sounds I really have been using almost a science behind this maps construction. For instances, theirs the main academy its self and then theirs everything beyond the additions. In this map I wanted JH to finally feel more in an element rather then being guess work as to where this random floating palace was. Example "A" when I look out a window, I know that via layout of the map (after i've ran around it or decompiled and looked at it's construction) that theirs really a room 50 feet infront of me. But thanks to good old vis etc allowing the said authors to hide this fact I see nothing, I see no explanation of how this whole place is floating among the clouds, no explanation of where the other sections of this facility is at all. I don't know about the rest of you, but these sort of thing's bother me. Maybe it comes from an offhand RP POV or just from a Titanician but I want and expect a bit of realism in layout. These new sections are based around not only Shadows original design choices but many and or most RP'ers ideal's of it's location. A cloud city facility. Maybe and probably not the same one we saw in the movies. Some thing like that however. So while the main Jedi Enclave like area will remind you in design and layout of the original JH(S) the rest will expand and move into a theme more closely related to Bespin Cloud City. Each part of it's layout playing visually into the next area's if visible. This will be even furthered later by the use of about 5 different slightly adjusted skyboxes. Different area's should see or showcase distance and location of the facility. Believe me when I say at this point and time you're all just seeing the basic general construction of JH, no where NEAR the final product on lighting and atmosphere.

Wth is a Machinimas?

Starting on the swoop track atm.... Yes a swoop track!

An example of clean mapping!

Yep always loved the weird light fixtures in jh(s) so I of course had to recreate them!

Well we do have to keep in mind SOME limits. the map thus far is just under 14000 brushes according to GTk 1.5's reading so that's not including patches. >.> Which theirs a lot of. Oddly enough the meta compile and vis compile both only take about 30-60 seconds. However we must always keep in mind that old 32k brush limit. Annoying p.o.s.! So while I personally vote an imperial star destroyer... XD no can do in a map like this....

I actually have the .map of the one you're referring to, how that even compiled I will never know XD!

I would be happy if all else fails to make this for you guys as another map if all else fails if it loses the poll, however I can't seem to find much about it's interior even the layout seems controversial.

UPDATE - Spent the week working on a small duel map idea I want to include as a secret area and working on a few new cool mechanics for such sakes. Any who here is two area's I "can" show you, just built for your pleasure. Secret Prison Includes poison gas for misbehaving prisoners! The Student Cafeteria And a bar for Obi Wan Kenobi