Textures

Once the grey box was complete. I started collecting and creating textures which could be used on the walls, floors and ceilings. Just the basic textures would be applied, making the rooms looking quite bare, but extra objects will be added when i import static meshes into the map. More on this later.

I used http://www.cgtextures.com/ for the majority of my textures, combining several to create my final images. The tutorials on this site were useful for creating several of my textures, especially the Match Colour tool which i used frequently, especially when editing the colour of the wood for the library areas. Here are my final textures for each room, and how i created each one.

Cabin

This is the wall texture which is going to tile along all the walls of the top base. I created it by combining two existing pictures which are below. I used the Match Colour tool to make sure the two images combined well.

 I created two variations which will be placed at random intervals which breaks up the repetitive pattern of the first texture. By using the magic wand tool i easily selected areas filled them in brown, and reduced the opacity to create a nice effect of dirt/rust.

This is the ceiling texture which was sampled from a much larger texture. I will use this texture for every ceiling tile on the level.

This will be the texture for the cabin floor. I cleaned up this image using the clone tool to remove some blemishes and patches of dirt, which would stop it from tiling well.

Atrium

  You can see below how these two pictures above were used and combined to create the wall textures. The Match Colour was used again to create the white colour on the plaster which matches with the border piece. The bottom texture is used on the bottom floor, and had a red colour overlay added to create the red colouration. This breaks up the repetitive textures on each level and also helps the player distinguish the floor from a distance.

These are the 3 wall textures that will b used on each level of the atrium/corridor areas.

These are the 3 floor textures which will be used on separate floors. This helps to break the monotony of the same texture on every level. Each tile has been darkened by 15% using a black colour overlay.

Library

This was the main inspiration for the rest of the textures for this room. I wanted to create a room full of wood panelling and think this image matches the colour i envisioned perfectly. I pulled the panel from the centre and applied the Match Colour tool to the two images below, the first being the floor, and the second being the wall.

I also applied the match colour this neat little detail from a picture frame, and tiled it four times along the bottom of each wall texture.

These are the final textures for the library;

Floor

Wall

Wall Variation.

Assessing the greybox build.

NOTE/ Due to the number of screen shots this is a fairly large post.

First thing to note, is that i have left the roof off at this stage. This was more of a practical matter than anything else, it helped when navigating the camera around the level and also left a natural light source which illuminated the level, as i had not yet gone through and added lights.

Shot of the whole level. Can get an idea of the length of the map compared to the width, also it is a good view from which to see all the various routes between each base.

Here is a shot of the lower base. It is themed as a library, wooden panelled walls and bookcases along the walls.To the right is the main exit out into the atrium. The partition in the middle ended up being a series of bookcases which i exported out from 3dsMax. To the left is where the ship ends, and players can see out across space. Ive had a look at how to set up space sky domes and create the illusion of space, but more on that in a later post.

Shot of the main staircase leading up to the first floor. When playing this grey box with bots, this proved to be a key area of the map as it is the direct link between each base. This provided a good area to place a powerful pickup, such as armour or the rocket launcher.

Shot looking the other way, from the top floor vantage point. This is directly outside the top base and offers a space for them to look out over the oncoming enemy. Although it does not allow them to cover both of the side paths which means the enemy can still get in around them.

Top floor vantage points. There are one of these on both sides of the map, and are equally accessible by both teams. If both controlled they can be pivotal in the outcome of the match as they cover virtually the whole middle space of the map, and only have one entrance to watch out for 'intruders'. Although it is vulnerable to opposing team members on the other platform.

Again, one on each side, these are the vantage points for the lower team, Situated just outside thier base they offer a good view of the enemy base and the opposite teams high vantage point. Also as you can see from looking down to the left it provides a useful route around the back of the enemys base. This isnt just one big corridor though and is split uo with gaps in the partition wall and access to stairs to the top floor on the right which isnt visible in this shot.

From the other end of this corridor the other team can protect thier flanks, although they cannot cover the opposite corridor from this position. Also they opponent may choose to take the stairs up and over the head of the player defending in this position.

Stairwell leading down from the top floor, all the way down to the ground floor. One of these on each side of the map means routes which can get the player close to the opposite base without being seen.

The top base. The flag will be positioned at the top of the stairs. To the left is a window looking out across the space landscape.

From the back of this base, there is no direct line of sight directly to the opposite bases flag. This stops players from 'camping' and gathering  kills from a distance.

Improvements over last design

If we have a look here at the previous floorplan of the map, and compare it with the updated versions. I think ive been careful to introduce a few improvements to the layout and flow to the map.

The map is now much longer than it was before, allowing more space between each base and more room to manouvre an attack or defensive strategy.

Each base now has more entrances, which lead off around the sides of the map. Although there is still the obvious 'route 1' approach through the middle which i think is a great feature of the map. It acts a bottleneck area by being an obvious route between the bases, but on the flip-side it is a foolish route to take because it is so heavily overlooked on both sides from various heights.

These vantage points are also easily accessible by each team, the blue team which starts up top has an excellent vantage point just beyond thier base overlooking the length of the map, whereas the red team below has easy access around the sides of the map to various other vantage points. This creates a balance between the two, each cancelling out the other teams main advantage.

One of the points raised in the previous articles, pointed out that you want to have seperate 'flag rooms' at each base. I have included this the blue team having an area at the back of thier base which can be styled as the cabin or navigation room of the ship. Whereas the red team below has a seperate wall blocking off direct line of sight from the blue base. Whether this is a room or a wall of bookshelves once it comes to crafting out the level will be seen.

Now i have a floor plan, i wanted to start of greyboxing it all out, making sure i jept the shapes as simple as possible blocking it out in large simple dimensions.

Photoshopped floorplans

Ground Floorplan

First Floorplan

Top Floorplan

Combined floorplan

Floor plans

Heres a shot of a few of the 'better' sketches which i drew while drafting out my ideas.

Theyre not really readable so i recreated them in photoshop, splitting each floor out into a seperate level, much like i did for my first plans.

Design readings

The first place i went was to http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/. This is an excellent site offering tips on the whole process of creating your own level. I'll come back to this site and where it helped me out later. The page i was interested in at the start of the project though, was this;

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how_to_plan_your_next_map/how_to_plan_your_next_map.php.

This goes through the basic workflow of a level/map creation pipeline. It details steps such as generating ideas, and gathering reference photos, steps which i had already been through.It also highlighted to importance of generating top down views and sketching locations from your map. Before i could do this though, i needed to analyse my previous greybox and decide what was wrong, and what needed to be improved. For this i went over my floorplans, and found readings on map design principles and hints and tips on how to set up the flow of your level. Again, worldofleveldesign.com came in very handy here. Here are a few very useful pages which i used when thinking about my new layout.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/TF2_Design_Theory#CTF_-_Capture_The_Flag
http://praliedutzel.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/tips-tricks-making-ctf-maps/
http://bit7.org/quake/mirrors/team3/CTFMapGuide.html

Of particualar interest was the last link, although talking about Quake and some of its unique gameplay features, it discussed and listed several compenents which he tries to stick to while designing his levels;

• Distinct bases.  A wide open field with 2 flags in it may be considered (by some) a CTF map, but it won't be much fun to play.  Having two separate areas for each base normally works the best.
• Flag rooms.  While there are some maps that really don't have a flag room per say, most maps have something they consider to be a flag room.  The goal is to have something for defenders to defend -- instead of a huge base they concentrate on a smaller flag room.
• Choke point(s).  The best maps being played right now have at least 1 choke point.  Simply put a choke point is like a funnel -- players coming from various rooms are "funneled" through a specific area of the map.  There can be several of these, but it's best to not have too many.  Having 10 distinct, separate hallways between bases will frustrate defenders and after a while there will be nobody left but flag runners.  If you want a lot of action, limit the choke points.
• Alternating paths.  One popular technique is to inter-link the paths out of a base -- that is have 2 paths out of a base join together at some point.  This doesn't have to be a choke point, but rather a hall or hole in roof/floor etc.  This offers both flag carriers and defenders a way to change their path in/out of a base (useful to lose defenders, or intercept the FC).   Be careful to not have too many or you'll end up with a maze.
• 3-D.  Quake2 is a 3d game so take advantage of this and go vertical as well as horizontal in your map designs.

So, with these articles in mind i started work on drawing floor plans!

Catching up

Its been a while since this has been updated, apolgies for that, but i'll try to catch up with where i am, and what has been done over the last few months.

So back in January i had just presented my first greybox of my level, before opening UDK again, i needed to do the background research into various aspects of level design which would help me when drafting out the levels layout. The reading can be split into two sections; Design/pre-production and technical such as UDK/3DsMax tutorials.

I'll start of by going through some of the readings i did before redesigning my map.