[Map] CNC-Storm

[Ruud033]

Hi all,

I thought it'd be time to post this, @Schmitzenbergh and me are working on a new map for quite some time already called CNC-Storm. I'm hearing you thinking; Why 'Storm' ? 

Well.. thats because we'd like to implement a dynamic weather system into this map where a storm comes by every now and then. That is still work in progress, but first we need to finish off the base-map.

Screenshots below, further info; 

• The map is based upon a noon-style lighting, it's located within the mountains. 
• The main reason GDI and Nod are here because it's a long range radar outpost along with a hydrodam.
• The map is non-flying
• It's got a bridge in the center, spanning a large cliff
• It's quite a big map, similair in size to lakeside / mesa II
• The radar tower domes are new and made by myself

We're not really sure on how the gameplay on this will work out, especially since there are a lot of places where you can have long range bombardements. We'd like you guys to test this map in the future (when it's not ready yet) to gameplay test it and give us feedback so we can adjust the map so it works out better for RenX.

 

Remember; the map is still WIP, my estimation would be that it is 70% done.

Map overview

GDI base

Nod base

Middle piece

Radar dome

Bridge view

1 out of 2 silos.

 

So post your thoughts here, we're particularity interested in how the gameplay will be in this map since it is very open. (Maybe to open). We'll see.

[Sn4ke]

Beautiful!

[IllumZar]

10/10 Epic!

Can't wait to see the dynamic weather

[TK0104]

@Ruud033 @Schmitzenbergh

 

This map looks insane!

 

I hope an official patch will make it!

 

 

[Schmitzenbergh]

yay, more internet

Edit: Going to post some production lighting screens in few minutes.

[TK0104]

Just now, Schmitzenbergh said:

yay, more internet

[Schmitzenbergh]

More screens, but now with production lighting (Took a whopping 4,5 hours on an I7 laptop, I need to get my Xeon workstation back...):

Spoiler

 

[TK0104]

@Ruud033 @Schmitzenbergh I suggest you reduce the moss on the rocks slightly. It's a bit too mossy

[Schmitzenbergh]

2 hours ago, TK0104 said:

@Ruud033 @Schmitzenbergh I suggest you reduce the moss on the rocks slightly. It's a bit too mossy

We are hiring Garden Keepers at this moment

We are aware of this, the material of the rocks needs some polish. (The rocks in front of Ref @ nod base is complete moss xD)

[j0g32]

Love the look and layout of this map - somewhat refreshing^^

Great work!

[TK0104]

So how is the progress on the map??? @Ruud033 @Schmitzenbergh

 

Love to hear somethin' about it

 

[Schmitzenbergh]

I don't have the slightest amount of time to work on the map. The last thing I've done was fleshing out the paths for tanks and infantry. @Ruud033 was busy with some nice materials and he changed the layout of the nod bas a bit. Other than that, the map isn't getting that much progress due to real life kicking us. We haven't abandoned the map though, we still have big plans.The overall map is quite done now, but the devil is in the details! (If that saying has the same meaning in English as the Dutch one)

I hope to have some time in 4-5 week as my master semester is reaching its end and summer vacations are kicking in. But after the summervation, I'm back in my book fort.

My life is made of mediocrity

[Ruud033]

Same here, just moved over to another city and got a new contract at my employer. I now have a contract for an unlimited time  also really busy to get myself a new lease car. I've done some stuff to this map in between (when ever I have time) so i'm definitely gonna finish this map. Stuffs that have to be done now are the details as @Schmitzenbergh has mentioned.

I could post some updates soon, expect them within a week or 2.

[Schmitzenbergh]

So, due to me having my workstation pc back I could render some fancy screenshots of the map in it's current state. The lighting was build with medium settings, the final will be production ofcourse. The map is still WIP, so sometimes you see stuff that is going to be removed An example would be all the mammoths and other vehicles scattered around(They are there for scaling purposes).  Anyway enjoy the hi-res screens. People with a mobile connection beware 

Spoiler

 

 

[TK0104]

Really nice! Looking forward to play it

 

[SvN91]

Fantastic! can't wait to play in this

[Madkill40]

I like the levels this map has, looks like this will be really fun to play on.

[Ruud033]

Just so you know this project is still alive.. progress is just slow due to busy lives..

and by night

[TK0104]

@Ruud033 so since I matinee on the night screen we can expect a day-night cycle?

 

[DaKuja]

12 hours ago, TK0104 said:

@Ruud033 so since I matinee on the night screen we can expect a day-night cycle?

 

Spoileralert!

[kenz3001]

name gives it away lol

[Schmitzenbergh]

Soon™

(No hi-res, this time. Needed to record it from PIE)

[Sn4ke]

@Schmitzenbergh / @Ruud033 I have a feeling that we'll have a PUG soon - not with a meteor inc. - but featuring: storm front ahead

[TK0104]

14 hours ago, Schmitzenbergh said:

Soon™

Soon as in a month or Soon as in December?

 

Anyways I like the night scene. Looking forward to it!

 

(This reply was posted with my brand new laptop for my education. I'm lovin' it! (I can play RenX PUG's when I'm on holidays from now on!))

Edited August 3, 2017 by TK0104

[Schmitzenbergh]

32 minutes ago, TK0104 said:

Soon as in a month or Soon as in December?

 

Anyways I like the night scene. Looking forward to it!

 

(This reply was posted with my brand new laptop for my education. I'm lovin' it! (I can play RenX PUG's when I'm on holidays from now on!))

Soon as in "Hopefully early, but depends on tests"
 

(PS: What for laptop did you buy?)

[TK0104]

13 minutes ago, Schmitzenbergh said:

(PS: What for laptop did you buy?)

HP Power Pavillion 15-cb030nd

Intel Core I7-7700HQ

8GB | 128GB SSD + 1TB

GTX 1050 - 2GB

 

I can say it's maybe even better than the PC I use

He can record 4K So when I play PUG on my laptop, expect 4K vid (Haven't installed RenX on it yet because I'm not going to waste space for RenX right now since I need to install other software first (Adobe Creative Cloud, Maya and Office (Thinking of putting MS-Office on the C drive))

[Sn4ke]

On your feet, soldiers! @Ruud033 @Schmitzenbergh

Storm is forecast for the rest of the month

 

[Ryz]

Can't wait

[Luhrian]

On 3.8.2017 at 1:48 PM, TK0104 said:

I can say it's maybe even better than the PC I use

He can record 4K So when I play PUG on my laptop, expect 4K vid (Haven't installed RenX on it yet because I'm not going to waste space for RenX right now since I need to install other software first (Adobe Creative Cloud, Maya and Office (Thinking of putting MS-Office on the C drive))

Oh, that would be something for me.

You don't know how envoius I am. On Outpost you can record and work in your SDK at the same time.

For me it is crashing all the time, because data media is 24/7 at the limit if I'm using anything, I need SSD's. Sadly it is all about the money today. But well, happy editing and playing with your new computer

 

[TK0104]

@Luhrian I just figured out that my new videocard on my PC can record 4K aswell I'm testing it out if it really changes to 4K

[Schmitzenbergh]

Small update. The map had its first global testrun to check for all sorts of problems related to gameplay, graphics and collision (Thx @DarkSn4ke and  T.O.!). We are busy with fixing those problems as well with adding a thing or two that might benefit the gameplay. One of those things is base tunnels to help infantry defending to get to a part of the battlefield unharmed (But also give sneakers a less detectable way in). The GDI tunnel is mostly done and the Nod tunnel is progressing nicely. Here are three screens to keep y'all pleased

The tunnel connects to the WF but not directly near a door.

[Luhrian]

6 minutes ago, Schmitzenbergh said:

The map had its first global testrun to check for all sorts of problems related to gameplay, graphics and collision (Thx @DarkSn4ke and  T.O.!)

I want too

But I hope you leave some possibilities to sneak, that what I saw yet, isn't very friendly for sneakers.

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2017 by Luhrian

[TK0104]

@Schmitzenbergh Be careful with these tunnels. They will lead to  rushes inside the tunnel

Edited August 22, 2017 by TK0104

[Madkill40]

2 hours ago, TK0104 said:

@Schmitzenbergh Be careful with these tunnels. They will lead to  rushes inside the tunnel

I think those columns will be quite the deterrent in that regards.

[NodSaibot]

http://prntscr.com/h6l4ma

http://prntscr.com/h6l4uh

http://prntscr.com/h6l4yt

Edited November 5, 2017 by Sarah!

[Guest Gliven]

When in doubt, make vehicle blocking volumes super high

[Schmitzenbergh]

Thx all playtesters! Post your screens and other remarks here or in the dev forums. I will check them out.

[TK0104]

@Schmitzenbergh Can you please edit this wall material with the wire on it so it doesn't look shit from a distance? Much appreciated

[Schmitzenbergh]

On ‎6‎-‎11‎-‎2017 at 8:07 PM, TK0104 said:

@Schmitzenbergh Can you please edit this wall material with the wire on it so it doesn't look shit from a distance? Much appreciated

Busy with it, but we can't get the appropriate result. Might need to change the whole mesh.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Schmitzenbergh
Note to self: Typo's can change a lot

[Ruud033]

On 6-11-2017 at 9:03 PM, Schmitzenbergh said:

Busy with it, but we can get the appropriate result. Might need to change the whole mesh.

No the mipmap is shit

[Schmitzenbergh]

30 minutes ago, Ruud033 said:

No the mipmap is shit

Whoops, typo in the fault here. It should say this: "Busy with it, but we can't  get the appropriate result. Might need to change the whole mesh.

[TK0104]

@Schmitzenbergh @Ruud033

I just tested out the map and I noticed some stuff

- Materials were missing like Under the Main Bridge, Tunnel Entrances etc.

- Bridge collisions are a bit crappy since they are made out of BSP I guess

- Guard Towers are gone when you kill them and the meshes that are attached to it are still there after it's destruction

- When you exit base there are some roads to choose from. There is one path covered with tankblockers, but you can pass them and it feels like your with vehicles on an infantry path....

- Redo the roads to out of the map under the small bridges, because you pass the objects and bump some meters later in an invisible wall

- There is a "line" in the sky material....

- You used fractured meshes of the walls under the small bridges, should the bridge collapse when they are all destroyed??

 

 

And now non-1st priority stuff:

- A minimap  would be nice for this map since it's a quite complexy map (In a good way)

- Endgame Camera missing

 

Furthermore I like the storm and that it turns to a complete nighttime scene, but the lighting is still a bit too bright for a nighttime scene, so try to bring the night time light down a little bit.

Edited November 12, 2017 by TK0104

[Schmitzenbergh]

19 hours ago, TK0104 said:

@Schmitzenbergh @Ruud033

I just tested out the map and I noticed some stuff

- Materials were missing like Under the Main Bridge, Tunnel Entrances etc.

This is due to us building against a newer build of RenX. Some texture are missing and need to be put in our package.

- Bridge collisions are a bit crappy since they are made out of BSP I guess

This is also due to missing meshes, See reason above

- Guard Towers are gone when you kill them and the meshes that are attached to it are still there after it's destruction

Yep. That one looked nice on paper, but now i'm feeling stupid. Will be fixed.

- When you exit base there are some roads to choose from. There is one path covered with tankblockers, but you can pass them and it feels like your with vehicles on an infantry path....

One of the bases (I think the nod one) needs and extra tankblocker +  blocking volume. 

- Redo the roads to out of the map under the small bridges, because you pass the objects and bump some meters later in an invisible wall

Known

- There is a "line" in the sky material....

Known

- You used fractured meshes of the walls under the small bridges, should the bridge collapse when they are all destroyed??

Hmm, unknown. Will check that out.

 

 

And now non-1st priority stuff:

- A minimap  would be nice for this map since it's a quite complexy map (In a good way)

- Endgame Camera missing

Again. This is a playtest. Release is not planned and those are finishing touches.

Furthermore I like the storm and that it turns to a complete nighttime scene, but the lighting is still a bit too bright for a nighttime scene, so try to bring the night time light down a little bit.

Migh be worth looking into, but its not nighttime. Its a storm.

It's nice that you are testing the map, but a lot is known already due to a recent playtest. There is no need to further test this build atm.

I've put my answers in the quote.

[TK0104]

Oh okay good to know

[Ruud033]

Just so you know, this is still a thing. We're having issues on performance at the moment and fixing this by testing testing and more testing

[Handepsilon]

I assume the Day/Night cycle is very heavy? The first attempt by Kenz was very lag-inducing

[TK0104]

42 minutes ago, Handepsilon said:

I assume the Day/Night cycle is very heavy? The first attempt by Kenz was very lag-inducing

I think this one has less lag since the switch from day to night is very fast, while Kenz' was very slow so it looked very realistic

[kenz3001]

my implantation of the day night cycle  was 100% dynamic storm uses a "semi dynamic" system

mine had the light "rotate" wile changing colour wile storm uses a light that never moves but only changes colour (afaik i havent took a good look at maps kishit)

[Ruud033]

On 4-2-2018 at 9:06 PM, kenz3001 said:

my implantation of the day night cycle  was 100% dynamic storm uses a "semi dynamic" system

mine had the light "rotate" wile changing colour wile storm uses a light that never moves but only changes colour (afaik i havent took a good look at maps kishit)

This is correct. Unfortunately we struggle with optimisation still. We are almost forced to use Post Processing. Messing with the lights themselves (dynamic lights because static is.. static) causes to much performance issues. I've had contact with lots of other developers in UE3, most of them cheated by using a post processing scheme and a color lookup table. We also intend to use this, but, since there is the possibility of turning PP off, people might have a unfair advantage. 

Therefore we decided to make a daytime version only of this map with static lighting. We also consider making a night version, but have static lighting. Especially since we have a lot of stuff in the map and the map itself is quite large.

[Madkill40]

5 hours ago, Ruud033 said:

This is correct. Unfortunately we struggle with optimisation still. We are almost forced to use Post Processing. Messing with the lights themselves (dynamic lights because static is.. static) causes to much performance issues. I've had contact with lots of other developers in UE3, most of them cheated by using a post processing scheme and a color lookup table. We also intend to use this, but, since there is the possibility of turning PP off, people might have a unfair advantage. 

Therefore we decided to make a daytime version only of this map with static lighting. We also consider making a night version, but have static lighting. Especially since we have a lot of stuff in the map and the map itself is quite large.

Couldn't you just use a dense and gradually darkening fog instead? 

Or (b)force post-processing for this map only?