Oil Rig Reboot

[AcapulcoGold20]

So I haven't posted here in a very long time. I stopped mapping for a few months to work on my web design as well as picked up more hours at my shitty part-time job. I've completely started over on the map for the most part, and have been spending most of my time modeling in 3DS Max and "painting" in Photoshop. Here are some shots of the room I've been working on. It is a small water desalination plant on-board the oil rig that supplies all the fresh water for the crews showers, cooking, ect. At this point these models are done as far as the actual modeling and diffuse texture work is concerned. I just have to tweak the shaders some more to bring out more Phong highlights and what not. The lighting and level textures are all temporary place holders as of right now.

Let me know what you think!

[Gary]

Lighting and texturing needs work, but you said they were place holders, so besides that, it looks really good.

[[JFG]Propaganda]

Solid work. Any of that oil rig stuff I sent to you helpful?

[jgoodroad]

it doesn't look well populated to me, like the system was simply plopped into a rectangular warehouse, but that might just be the strange reflection off the floor.

What is this map for? looks like l4d...

EDIT: ok, I looked at it again...there is a hole in your floor, I feel that what I said above is directly related to the floor, both the hole and the texture. it just doesn't feel right.

[AcapulcoGold20]

The hole is part of the larger map. It leads to the "undercarriage" of the rig via a ladder. This is just the single room cordoned off for a quick compile. Now that the models are almost done I can get to actually working on this area in Hammer. And now that I have that catwalk done and textured, modifying it for the various catwalks and staircases I need throughout my map will be rather simple.

Haven't started on the mast yet JFG, but I'm sure it will come in handy. Like I said, I only got back into this a few weeks ago, and have spent all that time modeling what you see there in 3DS Max.

[ErikKiller]

Please go with dev textures for now. The metal and the floor kind of pull the attention away from the models.

[Smurftyours]

That room looks too large to be in a oil rig. these things are supposed to be claustrophobic.

[AcapulcoGold20]

There are some massive rigs out there dude.

[Smurftyours]

Look how filled it is. Your going to need a lot more props and what not in the room.

[thenone]

Your best bet would be to create simple brushes where you want the props (pipes) and then import those into 3DSMAX to re-create and texture better. This would optimize your map better if you are going to add more pipe/valve/tanks etc.. Unless you are already creaing everything in Max.

[AcapulcoGold20]

Did some heavy modification recently.





In reply to 'thenone,' my process was that I built the catwalk and blocked out the models in hammer, and then imported them into max to do the models. I build the railings and pipes using UV mapped pieces that tile very easily and I assemble them as you would in real life.

[Hollow]

Looking much better

[thenone]

Nice, thats a good idea to UV, then copy around the pieces, saves alot of UV mapping time I bet. The new progress looks really good, everything looks like Crysis, especially the catwalks.

[YokaI]

A few problems I see is that the models don't cast any shadows when they easily could / should be. You should also plan the lighting ahead before hand, and have a general idea of the types of lights you are going to be having in each scene.

The issue I have with this specific area is that it allows only for 1 type of light, adding some various other lights in the area will give the map a better overall dramatic feeling, and will also provide each room with a distinct property if done correctly.

My suggestion right now would be to turn down the white lighting from the lamps a tad bit, and make a creamy orange color from the windows above to provide for an pseudo ambient lighting set up. That color from the windows is the color you'd probably like to emphasize the most, and use the white lighting to break up the lighting from being a constant color. (Obviously, keep only only slightly saturated to prevent the color from being too strong.)

As for the models, they're great, but the best way to know whether or not the models look proper is by having appropriate lighting and cubemaps. Without those, it's hard to get a good idea of whether or not they work in that specific scene.

My advice for when the map grows, to prevent you from having to recompile every time to test newly implemented models, copy and paste specific parts of the map where you implemented new models and then compile, this way you can quickly test the way a scene looks without having to wait a whole night to see the results. (Sounds bloody obvious, but it took me a while to realize that this was a good idea.)

Hope this helps.

[Pwnd_Ja]

My advice for when the map grows, to prevent you from having to recompile every time to test newly implemented models, copy and paste specific parts of the map where you implemented new models and then compile, this way you can quickly test the way a scene looks without having to wait a whole night to see the results. (Sounds bloody obvious, but it took me a while to realize that this was a good idea.)

Or just cordon the bit that is being tested.

Looks good so far, lighting seems a bit... meh. Maybe add some clashing colors? You could try a night scene where the light coming through the windows is a bluish tone and the light from the actual lights is a soft orange. Would definitely liven the place up.