Illithid Mines Progress Report

[Mammothtruk]

Thought maybe I could start a thread here for each project Im working on to keep people informed of the progress? If thats not cool feel free to delete the thread

[Mammothtruk]

Check out the snapshoots on Flickr

[Mammothtruk]

Map 1 is rough finished and to be submitted to the staff in module form today.

Map 2 is a complete mess and is going to take longer than I thought.
Day 1: Yesterday was day 1, but for completeness I thought I should add it. I opened up the map and took a good look around it. The walkmesh is a complete mess. I started in one corner and worked on it for two hours trying to move the placeables around and add more to cover the walkmesh issues and attempted to cutter them out to make that area of the map smoother. After about ten bakes I finally got it to stop cutting out half the area and it appears to have a much better pathing in that area.
Day 2:
Part 1: Opened it up for an hour today and continued to work around from the corner moving about half way across that side of the map. Had issues with the cutting blocking entire squares of the walkmesh again... I REALLY hate when it does that and there really is very little rhyme or reason for it doing it. I moved and added placeables and recuttered it about four times before it finally did something of what I wanted it to. Going to take a break for the moment from that aspect and go IG to see how the pathing is for this side of the map now. I figure with the amount of work required for this map and my pace it will take another four days to fix the walkmesh. On the bright side as Im doing it I get to add some stuff to cover the bits required to fix the pathing so half the sprucing up will happen as I go. Adding some crystals into the area as that is something that illithids would be wanting to mine. Psionics after all use crystals extensively in item creation and power control.
Part 2: Think I have the second section and Third section near what I want them to be. About to do a bit of IG testing to see if the pathing is right. If all goes well I will finish up area three of this map tonight and if it hits the fan when I get IG to testing pathing I might have to restart both areas. Moved a little faster on these sections of the map since I have an idea of what I wanted to do with them. The next section is somewhat problematic because its openish with random dead zones in the walkmesh. Ill try and group them as best I can while using as little as I can while keeping the theme of the area.
Day 3:
Part 1: Had a bit more time and the baking went a bit easier this time around. Got map two rough done and just need to go over it to make sure I didnt break anything. I ran around it for about 15 minutes and the pathing feels much better to me. A few more minor additions for theme and it should be ready for upload in an hour or two to be tested by the staff.
Day 4:
Part 1: Got some feedback on the map and will be going in today to correct some of the coloring of the placeables to fit better into the areas. Ill be working on lighting as well today. Lighting is hard since the 'people' that inhabit the mines both have darkvision. I will be attempting to use a new lighting scheme that is crystal based. The real issue is going to be making the placeables fit into the map as they are very limited when you have to match colors.

[HollowLaughter]

I've noticed I tend to have walkmesh issues like this if I bake with one tile down then try to place another on top of it without deleting it first - same with a lot of items. Baking seems to be really problematic, until you feel like it's close to done, otherwise I tend to get some "ghost walkmesh" issues.

[Mammothtruk]

well Im working with an existing map that is utilizing a custom tileset so I dont really have the option right now. I just rebake after moving things around seems like five to six times before it gets near what I want it to do.

[HollowLaughter]

Well, hm...

This is a bit above my current "specs" with the toolset, but to help with walkmeshes, perhaps change any placeables that don't need to be interacted with into environmental objects, then put in some of those "bumpmamp" meshes around them like a fence? I've seen that work pretty well.

An example of it in the OC-MotB was the Ice Troll Lodge and the ice bath - the tub itself is an environmental object you could walk through, but was made to seem "solid" by using those bumpmeshes?

[Mammothtruk]

all placeables are converted to environmental objects and cuttered out of the walkmesh already. standard mapping 101 because they impact performance so much less when done that way.

[HollowLaughter]

Well, what I'm saying is, did you let the engine determine the bumpmap for the walkmesh around the objects, or did you specify that yourself?

Based on what I've learned so far with the set, that might be where some of the issues are coming from in terms of peculiar baking.

[mar3usmc]

Mammoth, part of the problem you are having with the walkmesh is the custom tileset itself. There is no way to fix it besided not using that particular bugged tile. You can though of course toss a bunch of placeables over the bugged area, make it non-walkable, and call it good.

[Mammothtruk]

heeh Mar thats sort of what Im doing. Im trying to make it not completely ugly as sin while doing it. Trying to change it around so that there are 'pathes' from place to place and less open because when its open there are holes of no walk. Its turning out rather well for the parts I have done. I need to poke around a bit more with the current area Im working on to preserve the 'going up' feeling. I think it lost some of that because of the drastic amount of bad mesh in that area. Maybe Ill make the boulders a bit smaller so you can see the level change better. Might have to switch them out for something more suited to making it feel like a cliff to show levels.

I did a lot of testing with the first area since I was walking through anyway today and It feels the same as before in theme, but feels much better with the pathing. Really excited about getting them completed and over for testing from the staff. be good to see if I captured the theme right and get some feedback.

[Mammothtruk]

going really well today for once. After they are tested and I get some feedback Ill be taking some pics IG and start working on map 3 (first new map)

[Mammothtruk]

Added screenies to the second post in this thread!

I did some work on map 1 to add lights and fix a few minor walkmesh issues today. The lights pulsate slowly from blue to cyan and the light source are crystals places on the walls. I still have one more walkmesh issue to fix and it should be moving on to the next step in my process. Sounds! Going to work on map 2 before I move onto sound though. Might completely remake the second map of the mines since the tileset someone created in who knows when is buggy. I can see it being done better anything way... Might take me a while to recreated it though. Ill simply send a reworked version for now and start working really hard on a completely remade version for later.

[Meldor]

Look sweet but very dark.. what about some torch or lighting ?

[Mammothtruk]

I added crystal based lights stuck in the walls that slowly pulse cyan to blue. It is much brighter than the current Duergar area we all know so well. Its not quiet finished yet as there are a few more to put up and some snafus in the walkmesh that cropped up in the last bake.

[Mammothtruk]

decided to recreate the entire second map using the terrain instead of the tileset mapping. Ill be working to copy and paste some of the scenes from the old map into the new map today and getting the layout pretty close to the old one. Then a bit of height adjustment and lighting magic needs to happen. Took me a while to get the game to accept the default lighting I wanted and I copied the little light crystals I used in the first map into the second. It is DARK without them. Not like oh I can barely see dark like the rest of the UD, but a pitch black you cant see anything in without a light source of some kind. Since duergar and illithids have darkvision the crystals will be few and far between normally appearing in areas where they linger for eating, sleeping, or rest. There will be a few others spread out in various places they would frequent and need better than darkvision light. Oh and darkvision works GREAT in the area. It at very least lets you see everything even if you cant see colors very well.

This map is going to be much much better than the old one once its completed.