Realism in Maps

[Tutorial]

category
General Half-Life 2/Other

description
Some tips on making sure your map fits into a realistic setting.

keywords
realism, realistic, map, maps.

This is a tutorial for new mappers or rather mappers who need to get a bit more realism in their map. One thing i find about new mappers' maps is that they are most commonly unrealistic in both layout and look. this is a tutorial on how to get a map look better/equal to the play.

Get outside

Common maps that are boxed are like that because the people who make them never get outside. Look around the type of area you want, or look up source pictures. The best way to know what something looks is to see it in real life, rather than imagine or see in a picture. Although pictures are decent, you still want the map to look as 3 dementional as you can.

***Note: this still counts for maps that are "fantasy" or "fy_" because no matter how fictional it is, it still needs to look simalar to the real world or a player isnt able to connect with the map***

Layout/Disign

For Layout i suggest you search/look at a map to find out what exactly you need to hit to make it real.

Right now I am going to make it simple, a street will be a perfect example. Now i need to use the tool that the gods gave us, http://www.google.com image search, to find a image of a street layout. Ill just use the Buckley layout and presto, a city type street layout!



NOTE I dont want you to copy the layout exactly, I want you to use this to find out what street layouts normaly are like.

Sketch Work

Nobody said mapping was going ot be a short proscess, scetching is the best way to do the look and size of the map. The scetch doensnt need to be perfect or even good, but common stuff like what you want the roof to look like and etc.


Get to the mapping

That should be at the least a week process if you work eficiantly. Now the mapping should take 3 - 4 weeks. Then profecting/finalizing the beta should take about another week. This is for the new players out there who dont have a clean idea on how to get started mapping. If you ask pro modelers, those who make movie cg and proffesional modeling, this is probably what the would say: "get outside and see the real world as it is."

Thanks and I hope you like it.

~Yokai

[Spartan]

Good tutorial but there is a lot more that could be said, and there is a few things that I could disagree with. Also you spelled "sketch" wrong.

[YokaI]

my bad rofl

Thank you ill pick up... Any suggestion would be nice too!

[BaRRaKID]

you shouldn't base the map layout on real loctions, since they sometimes don't provide a good gameplay, you need to know how the game works, and wath would be more interesting to the players.

[RabidGoat]

while i don't think this is a tutorial, I really do like the writing and it has the best intentions. may I humbly suggest that an "Article" section is made on the forums, where things such as this could go. Other idea's for articles include:

-Creative thinking process
-Optimizing your map
-Humor type articles
-guides for the different skins of world models
-a list of common errors
-etc. etc. etc.

I think of a tutorial kind of like a step-by-step instruction of how to implement something in the Hammer editor.

Thats just my humble opinion.

Your friendly neiborhood Hammer n00b
-Rabid Goat

[YokaI]

you shouldn't base the map layout on real loctions, since they sometimes don't provide a good gameplay, you need to know how the game works, and wath would be more interesting to the players.

Ofcourse...

NOTE I dont want you to copy the layout exactly, I want you to use this to find out what street layouts normaly are like.

I just want them to know how streets are set up. Streets are usualy set up similar to that. Although intire layout should not be like that, you still want toe map to look like its going somewhere.

[YokaI]

PART II for those who want more:

Sound Manipulations:
Sound could be the biggest thing that makes a map feel realistic, you just need to know how to use them correctly... This section i'll cover on how to know where to place certain sound clips. This part you should be somewhat familiar with soundscapes, becasue you may or may not want to use them depending on the map. Here is signy's Sound scapes part one tutorial: http://forum.interlopers.net/viewtopic.php?t=2252. When outside, sounds are clear and easy on the ears (meaning not too loud). You would mostly hear birds in the open and trains in the urban city. Indoor is pretty simple aswell, big wide spaces have echos and small indoor areas have clear noises.

more to come with noises... sorry about all of this, im just kinda busy at the moment ;D I have 3 weeks of nothing to do so ill be writing tutorials!

[Idono]

Another good tip is Textureing.

I walked around and photographed things for use of texters.

[smeerkat]

Great site, it took me awhile to find it!

I would like to know the proper dimensions (CS:S SDK) for "realism", e.g. what size windows, doors, steps, rooms, that sort of thing.

[Blink]

You can get a lot of common measurements from the "dev" textures

[Deleter]

you shouldn't base the map layout on real loctions, since they sometimes don't provide a good gameplay, you need to know how the game works, and wath would be more interesting to the players.

actually, it works if you start with a real location then modify it accordingly. it doesnt take much to make a regular real location into a frenzy filled dm map, or panic inducing sp map.

[RaccoonKing]

When outside, sounds are clear and easy on the ears (meaning not too loud). You would mostly hear birds in the open and trains in the urban city. Indoor is pretty simple aswell, big wide spaces have echos and small indoor areas have clear noises.

In addition to that, the materials making up the surfaces in whatever room/landscape you're in (in real life) make a huge impact on real echoes.

For example, if you yell at a forest (one of my favorite pasttimes, and yours too I'm sure) a yell will sound different than if you were to yell at a canyon or gigantic rock formation.

Softer surfaces decrease volume and echo, harder surfaces tend to reflect. (amplify)

And of course, wind is an ambient noise, and can have a huge impact on whether you can hear at all, like any ambient noise.

AND... snow dampers sound also, I'm not sure if it has more to do with the atmospheric snow, or the fact that the ground is covered in a soft surface, I think the latter.

--RK

[Formologic23]

Wow, Buckley, home of the White River Hornets. Just dropping by cause I saw this tutorial browsing around, and I grew up in Enumclaw, just thought that was funny. Buckley of all places! Anywho, sorry to be off topic.

[Formologic23]

Great site, it took me awhile to find it!

I would like to know the proper dimensions (CS:S SDK) for "realism", e.g. what size windows, doors, steps, rooms, that sort of thing.

What I do is take spawn entity, and place them near my object that I am creating, to give me a rough estimate of what the size should be.

[BillyDa59]

actualy, formologic, i live right up in Greenwater, so dont think your the only person surprised to see buckley (and btw, if u went to EHS, the school has realy gone to hell)