Timmy's maps

[timmypowergamer]

I wanted to show off a bit of the work I've been doing at the Guildhall for the last few months, so I decided to start this thread. I'm probably going to be posting screenshots from a few of my maps and mods that involve UT3. We are also starting work on Gears of War single player maps, so i may end up posting a few screenies from that, but ill probably just stick to the UT stuff unless people are really interested.

Anyways, lets start with this one:

CTF-IceWorld

Frozen River



Human Base



Necris Base



The assignment was to create an 8-player (4 per team) CTF map set on a frozen planet mining colony. The back story was that one race was already settled there, but overnight another one mysteriously showed up and set up their own mining operation. Resources are limited, so the 2 races are continually raiding each others bases trying to get a leg up on the other one. I had about 2 weeks to complete it and it turned out really well. We weren't allowed to create any custom assets, so this was made entirely with stock UT3 textures and meshes.

[timmypowergamer]

This second map is a remake of DM17 (aka Yard) from Q3 Arena. The assignment was to recreate the map and retain the same scale and balance of the original, but to give it our own visual style. I had about 3 weeks for this one, and ended up creating about 7 or 8 custom static meshes and textures for it.

The idea was to make it feel like a hidden temple suspended from the underside of a massive cliff. Most DM-17 remakes I've seen are usually set in outer space or just floating in the middle of nowhere, so I really tried hard to tie in the level with its surroundings. I also did a lot of environmental effects for it, like fog, particle effects for the spray of the water fall, and lots of ambient sound work. This is probably my best work to date, so I'm kind of proud of it

Overview


Inside the Temple



The Fountain


The Rope Bridge

[Skillz]

Wow DM-17 looks freaking awesome no doubt.

[XYZ8000]

Arrrrrgh you stole my map name!
Hehe just kidding, I've got a DM-BCE_17 that should be released soon but it's for UT GotY


Those maps looks pretty nice, especially good work on the Q3DM17 remake
If I would have to give a suggestion, you could work more on the lighting. Lighting can improve the maps' look immensely.

In IceWorld I would suggest to add a more colored SkyLight instead of the nearly white one you have at the moment, the map feels pretty deattached from the skydome that it's into. I would also use that bright orange sky that you have there to cast some nice shadows.
For the interiors I suggest to use brighter lights, the big red neons that you have there don't seem to cast much light. Generally try to use less ambient lighting and add more contrasting lights (don't be afraid of greenings, in UE 3 you can use lights as bright as you want, just use high falloff values too )

17 looks nice, but again some more contrast in lighting would have been cool (the lighting that those orange lamps cast is barely noticeable). Some more contrast could have been used also texture-wise, adding some more BSP work on the floors. I would also suggest to use another river texture, the current one is too stretched and it's meant for waterfalls.
Architecture-wise you could have "broken" the rock wall behind the map (which looks like it has been created with the terrain tool) a bit more with some of the rock meshes, maybe also adding some "platforms" where to place some more temple stuff (just to give to the player the feeling the he's on a small part of a huge complex surrounding him). Also the main part of the layout seems to be a bit suspended in the void, if it would have been me I would have added some bigger supports under it.
Overall the map feels good though, it's nice to see a Q3DM17 map that's not in space

Keep up the good work

[timmypowergamer]

The directional light in IceWorld is actually a red/orange color taken from the skydome, and the ambient light is a blue color. It looks a little desaturated in the screenshot because I brightened it up before i posted it, but I assure you it looks right in-game. You cant see the orange as much in that shot because you are looking toward the sun. I purposely angled the light so that it is coming from the sun in the skybox. When you are heading toward the red base, all of the rock faces look red, and when going to the blue base everything looks blue. I think the same thing happened with the red lights in the red base. That shot looks especially wrong, but I was in a hurry and just did an auto balance in Photoshop before i posted it. I'll see if i can take a better one.

I think most of what you said for DM17 is right though. Alot of those things, like the buildings around it and more rock meshes on the wall, were in my original plan. However, i had a pretty strict deadline and just didn't have time to get that stuff in. It would have meant more custom static meshes that I didnt have time to make. The water texture doesn't look so bad in motion, but I'm well aware its not meant for that. Stock UT3 doesn't have as many options for water as 99 or 2k4 did. That was actually the best one i could find after trying many.... :(

[MEAT]

Great looking maps but have you or do you ever do maps for UT99?
I run a Redeemer server and I love the larger maps.

[timmypowergamer]

I made quite a few back in the day. I made a big roman coliseum instagib map for a clan that Skillz used to be in. A smaller TRON themed DM map, and a couple of MH maps. But they are all pretty much crap compared to the stuff I'm learning now, lol. Someday I may make another ut99 map just to see if I really have gotten better, or if the newer engines just make it look better.

[gopostal]

You'll quickly frustrate at the UT ed, trust me. Once you get used to the detailed textures in the later versions, 99 feels very dated. I've mapped a bit with it and I'm never happy because I keep expecting lighting and textures in the 2K4/UT3 range. Instead it always looks bland.

[shadow342]

Yeah, I must say, it lacks somewhat in lighting and textures .