Anyway, let's get these CS maps knocked out. Here's the last two (or should I say six since I took two big maps and split them in two, making two big and four small maps).
I guess as a little history about Perfect Dark maps...let's begin with Area 51. This was one of the first maps I ever made, along with Goldeneye Complex and Sonic Adventure 2 Ark. So I thought it would be kind of cool to go back and run around Area 51 from Perfect Dark. In retrospect, it was a pretty asinine idea since the idea of recreating a huge single-player level in a multiplayer game would be a huge reach for a novice mapper like me.
Take a look at this Area 51 diagram on GameFAQs (can't post it here). On the other hand, compare it to my map's actual layout:
So looking at this map, I start to put together the whole damn place myself (well, except for the A51: Infiltration outdoor parts) and then I went back over the years and constantly fixed the texturing, lighting, you name it. BTW, I got most of these map textures from texture-dumping the rom itself or by other means (a site called Rare Witch Project dumped all the GE and PD textures...I don't know where to get the PD textures anymore, but I do have the GE textures link). Although I had to go back and modify every single texture I used to make them look fine so it wasn't as easy as ctrl-c, ctrl-v.
Now I'm done and it really isn't 100% accurate mostly because the diagrams provided to me (like the GFAQs one above) aren't precise so I had to go back and nudge some rooms around to make them fit. This was also my bane of existence back when I made the Goldeneye maps, particularly Frigate. I used the Official Nintendo Goldeneye guide and the maps in that book were even less accurate so I had to go back and adjust everything all the time.
Also, some of these flaws were probably novice errors on my part--for instance,the ramps may be too tall vertically and to go back and fix it would mean to slide half the world brushes which would be a tremendous pain in the ass (imagine raising/dropping your house). Remember, I never started clean with A51, I just kept updating the layouts that I had 5+ years ago and that can only get you so far.
It may not be very practical for multiplayer but I did add an additional hallway leading from the crate warehouse to the labs as to give more approach points. I guess it's just fun to screw around with. It's still a cool little diversion so early in my mapping "career."
Now here's my Carrington Institute--most of the level has some sort of brick ceiling which obscures the pathways below:
This map, which was started later than A51, was done from the ground up--I didn't use the same exact floor layout as the N64 game (the building was tilted at 30-degrees which was a huge pain to implement in GoldSource--90-deg angles are best). I eventually started to apply the same techniques used in Area 51 to Carrington Institute, most notably the "light ball glare" sprite emitted from every lightbulb. My idea behind CI was to make a crazy map with tons of little hallways and backdoors (as seen in the training rooms) which I actually managed to implement to do somewhat right.
"A movie is never finished, only abandoned." - George Lucas. We're talking about CS maps here, but he did go back and fine-tune Star Wars a hell of a lot...like Han shot second or something, lol.
Now I'm done and it really isn't 100% accurate mostly because the diagrams provided to me (like the GFAQs one above) aren't precise so I had to go back and nudge some rooms around to make them fit. This was also my bane of existence back when I made the Goldeneye maps, particularly Frigate. I used the Official Nintendo Goldeneye guide and the maps in that book were even less accurate so I had to go back and adjust everything all the time.
Also, some of these flaws were probably novice errors on my part--for instance,the ramps may be too tall vertically and to go back and fix it would mean to slide half the world brushes which would be a tremendous pain in the ass (imagine raising/dropping your house). Remember, I never started clean with A51, I just kept updating the layouts that I had 5+ years ago and that can only get you so far.
It may not be very practical for multiplayer but I did add an additional hallway leading from the crate warehouse to the labs as to give more approach points. I guess it's just fun to screw around with. It's still a cool little diversion so early in my mapping "career."
Now here's my Carrington Institute--most of the level has some sort of brick ceiling which obscures the pathways below:
This map, which was started later than A51, was done from the ground up--I didn't use the same exact floor layout as the N64 game (the building was tilted at 30-degrees which was a huge pain to implement in GoldSource--90-deg angles are best). I eventually started to apply the same techniques used in Area 51 to Carrington Institute, most notably the "light ball glare" sprite emitted from every lightbulb. My idea behind CI was to make a crazy map with tons of little hallways and backdoors (as seen in the training rooms) which I actually managed to implement to do somewhat right.
"A movie is never finished, only abandoned." - George Lucas. We're talking about CS maps here, but he did go back and fine-tune Star Wars a hell of a lot...like Han shot second or something, lol.
I really don't have anything else to say about the development. I'm tired right now. If this didn't make sense, then I'll go back and re-explain/edit it later.
This may be the last maps I upload in a long time. I'm "out" of maps for now but we'll see what comes up in the future. Once again, check out the rest of my CS maps here.
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