Dm-hyperon beta testing

[Guest]

Hey, if anybody is feeling up to it, you can download my map dm-hyperon (http://www.geocities.com/penguin9632001/maps.html). What I want to know about is gameplay issues like weapon balance, little pet peeves, or whatever. Too many healths/weapons? Too little?
I can't find out how to get a screenshot in the map, even though i've looked through tut's and followed them exactly. I can import the screenshot into the editor, put it into the MyLevel package, then hit use, and you'll see it in the editor in my map, but not when starting the game.

thanx.

[NutWrench]

"Critical Error: Can't find file for package 'madark_machine'"

P.S. on the screenshot: make sure your thumbnail is really 256 colors. Programs like IrFanView will bump the pallete back to 16 or 32-bit to avoid dithering during a resize operation. (So save the pallete color reduction until last)

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: NutWrench ]

[Guest]

Sorry, didn't realize I had it set to that music, dark machine by Paul Oakenfold. Anyway, changed the music, and it should work now. The screenshot appears in the editor, but not in the game. So you don't need 256 colors for it to appear in the editor, but you do need it for the game? Doesn't make much sense, oh well. 1st bug fixed images/icons/grin.gif

[Bean]

-MAJOR slowdown on a 1 ghz with Geforce 3. Sloppy mapping i believe is the culprit.
-Lighting is very washed out.
-Interesing level. Needs to be cleaned up a bit. Some mesh deco doesn't fit with the spaceship motif.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Bean:
-MAJOR slowdown on a 1 ghz with Geforce 3. Sloppy mapping i believe is the culprit.
-Lighting is very washed out.
-Interesing level. Needs to be cleaned up a bit. Some mesh deco doesn't fit with the spaceship motif.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">So, how can I make my map less sloppy? I've added some zones, even more zones? Or just deleting geometry? Hmm... more prefabs? Optimizing geometry I guess. Do lots of lights + botpaths need stronger cpu's? Hmm.. or maybe it's the unnecessaryily giant space skyzone.

Do you suggest I make the lighting darker, or lighter, or with less color?

Which deco's don't fit the spaceship motif, trashcans, giant shells, or flag?

thanks

[ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Duke-in-Black ]

[Bean]

-The hanging black-wire lights do not seem to fit in.
-Too much light washes out all the different colors inside. Reduce the radius if some lights from 64 to something smaller depending on impact.
-snap your brushes to the grid to speed up performance.
-make decorations semisolid and see how it affects node count.
-small wavy eats frame rate away easily.
-extreme vertex editing can cause slowdown.

[NutWrench]

I liked the detail in the three long hallways, but I would add some boxes in a few spots that partly block it. There's too much of a straight shot down the entire length of the hallway and nothing to hide behind or use for ambushes: any fights that take place there would be over very quickly.

I also got a HUGE slowdown in the engine room. I don't know why it's so slow there: I've played maps with more complex geometry. There's a bunch of dynamic pulse lights, but there area isn't THAT complex.

[SpaceCow]

It's slow because of a little something called intersect images/icons/smile.gif And of course procedural animations.

Unreal's custom engine animated textures (like the water and fire textures) take a pretty bit of memory to render. Add that with a shape (wedge) that when intersecting with the walls causes some serious slowdown. those green linings eat into the wall a very small amount, causing the shimering effect and some serious slowdown images/icons/smile.gif .

- SpaceCow

P.S. You might wanna get rid of some of the lens flares as well, they slow down things a pretty bit as well! images/icons/smile.gif

[EDIT] The P.S.

[ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: SpaceCow ]

[Guest]

thanks guys,
I'll be taking these things into consideration when I get around to fix some of this stuff. The thing about Unreal is, when I try to fix stuff, I usually get more problems than I started out with graemlins/dopefish.gif