Crossfire port from Half-Life 1 (FFA+INSTA) (wip)

[Kato]

Here my work in progress on the crossfire map port from Half-Life 1 deathmatch, as i m a old player of Half-Life deathmatch, i always want to see this map in Cube 2 engine, this is my first map in this engine, i learn the engine in the same time when building the map, i have finish to cubify the whole map in one week with accurate precision from the original crossfire map, now i texturing the map but not finish yet, also for my needs in editing in cube 2 engine, i have make a custom build of sauerbraten with some new features to help me when mapping, i talk about them in new post later, for the moment the map is not available in download.

Here the screenshots of the Crossfire port and the Crossfire original map made by Dario Casali for Valve.

Cube 2 version:


Crossfire original:


Cube 2 version:


Crossfire original:


Cube 2 version:


Crossfire original:


Cube 2 version:


Crossfire original:


I have tested the map with some bots and it's really cool, fast death as the original map  , i need to finish the texturing, i'm using the textures packs available by default in cube 2, need to make the lightning, put the items and some assets, make the waypoint for the bots, and test test test, i 'm far to finish the map as i learning in the same time the engine but it's really fast to work in the cube 2 engine, thanks to the devs for making this cool engine.

[Kato]

I have changed some textures, and begin texturing the 2 towers, the helipad and base interior.





One question about the creation of a map, the best method order to mapping is this ?

1) Cubify the whole map.

2) Texturing the map.

3) Add lighting.

4) Add items and props.

5) Create the waypoints for the bots.

It's all ? or missing something?

[Ardelico]

Hi, looks like you're doing great for your first map.

1) Cubify the whole map.

2) Texturing the map.

3) Add lighting.

4) Add items and props.

5) Create the waypoints for the bots.

It's all ? or missing something?

You don't necessarily need to follow a specific order of operations, but that it the *general* order.

Some key tips to remember for gameplay:
Your head should not hit ceiling when jumping.
Try not to overpower one side of the map, in example having healthboost too close to armor, or quad too close to rockets/gold armor.
I try to follow this ratio when placing entities:
3:1.5:1:3:2 - what this means is, for every 1 rockets ent (the third number), there are 3 shells, 1.5 bullets, 3 rifles, and 2 nades.  Try to keep the amount of health ents on the map relative to the rockets.

Make sure to distance the green and yellow armor as far apart from eachother as you can.  In an ffa match, a person could jack the green, and then the yellow, destroying an opportunity for the opponent to acquire some form of defence.  A skilled competitive player will do this tactic anyways, but no reason to make it easy for them.

Make sure to make use of /sunlight, /skylight, /ambient.  You can use /lightprecision for prettier lighting, though not really necessary.
For natural lighting with /sunlight and skylight, maintain a ratio.  Example: /sunlight 210 200 180  ;; /skylight 120 115 105 ;; /ambient 27 26 24

Don't forget to use /clip, /noclip materials, for improved gameplay and to prevent people escaping the map.
If you cannot see materials, type /showmat 1 ;; alternatively press 'M' while in edit mode.

When you think your map is finished, make sure to /genpvs.  This is a performance booster. Genpvs should be the *very last* thing that you do.

My preferred order of operations is based on making all the pieces of the map first, then fitting them together into a layout.

1: select my theme, apply the sunlight/skylight/ambient // fogdome/skybox in advance, to help motivate me with the theme i've chosen.
2: build objects relative to the theme, fully textured, fully clipped/noclipped so all I have to do is copy paste them together.
3: copy paste them together, fixing/adding along the way.
4: once copy pasted layout is done, add interior/detailed lighting and improve anything I feel needs improved.
5: ents.  Flags first, then bases, playerstarts, quad/hb, armors, weapons, healths.
6: double check for materials in case missed anything
7: waypoints
8: a full playtest of all compatible modes for the map.
9: lighting improvements, mainly /lightprecision. 
10: genpvs
11: screenshot, package map for posting.
12: (optional but i always do it) video for lazy people
13: go hardcore against bots in sp, usually throughout the entire night.

As you see my order of operations is different yet similar, there isn't really a wrong way to make a map, as long as everything fits in at one point, it's good enough.

If you have any other questions, I'm in irc.quakenet.org 6667 #sauerbraten nearly 24/7.

[Kato]

Thanks Ardelico for your advices, i will follow them, for the moment in my map i have placed all respawns players like in the crossfire half-life version, some items also placed like crossfire half-life version, after some test with bots , i have see that with the grenades launcher weapon we have too much ammunition grenades, i need to place less items for this type of weapon, it's difficult to place items because need a lot of test to see the balance with the items.

One thing i need to do it's to change the gameplay where there is the base with the two towers, as we don't have the gameplay like half-life (ex:door, button), then the base with the two towers will have the entrance door locked, this force the players to climb the ladder to enter the base, in half-life when you push the button in the base, this call a mortar and lock the big door and kill everybody outside the base and after a moment the door is unlocked, in cube 2 engine i can't do that, for this reason i need to think a way to escape the base because in half-life when you enter in the tower you need to fall in the sniper nest but after you can't go back in the top of the tower, the only exit is the big door, i need to think about this problem and change the gameplay in this part of the map.

For the clip/or no clip and other things, i study the maps shipped with sauerbraten to understand how all things works and youtube have good video tutorials about cube 2 engine mapping.

[Kato]

I want to finish my crossfire map but after my recent upgrade to Windows fall update, my mouse have strange behaviour inside the cube 2 engine, the cursor disappear or jump in top or bottom of the screen, it's impossible to map or play in cube 2 enigne, i have tried with a other mouse and same thing happen, i can't finish my map, i waiting the update of the update of the windows fall update, i don't want go back with the old windows creator update, and also some others games have this mouse problem. i need to wait a fix from Microsoft.

[Salatiel]

I want to finish my crossfire map but after my recent upgrade to Windows fall update, my mouse have strange behaviour inside the cube 2 engine, the cursor disappear or jump in top or bottom of the screen, it's impossible to map or play in cube 2 enigne, i have tried with a other mouse and same thing happen, i can't finish my map, i waiting the update of the update of the windows fall update, i don't want go back with the old windows creator update, and also some others games have this mouse problem. i need to wait a fix from Microsoft.

Hi Kato, this problem has been fixed recently, take a look here:
http://www.sauerworld.org/from-eihrul-if-windows-10-fall-creators-update-breaks-your-mouse/

Good luck!

[Kato]

Thanks Salatiel, but the mouse problem is still here, also the new "sauerbraten.bat" from eihrul patch broke my mod, all menus clicked result a return in Windows without error message, maybe its my mod that make this behaviour i need to investigate the problem on my pc.


EDIT: i will make more test, by installing the new Collect edition setup installation file and test it normally without my mod and after i will recompile my mod make a new executable and test it again.

[Kato]

I have installed the new "sauerbraten_2013_04_01_collect_edition_windows.exe" file with a fresh installation (no mods) and my mouse work fine, thanks Eihrul for the fix, now i need to recompile my mod to see if the problem appear or no.

Edit: i have recompiled my mod, and it's half broken, my new texture library based on platinum sandbox 2.7.1 don't work anymore with the new sauerbraten.exe freshly created, all menus clicked made sauer to exit in the desktop, i have only put minors change on the octaedit.cpp file and its the only file changed, but with the recent patch made by Eihrul to fix the mouse problem this don't work with my mod. , i don't find where is the problem, maybe it's the new glsl.cfg file or the new SDL.dll file.

[Salatiel]

Edit: i have recompiled my mod, and it's half broken, my new texture library based on platinum sandbox 2.7.1 don't work anymore with the new sauerbraten.exe freshly created, all menus clicked made sauer to exit in the desktop, i have only put minors change on the octaedit.cpp file and its the only file changed, but with the recent patch made by Eihrul to fix the mouse problem this don't work with my mod. , i don't find where is the problem, maybe it's the new glsl.cfg file or the new SDL.dll file.

I had this problem while compiling Sauerbraten on windows using Codeblocks, unfortunately idk how to fix it. But join the Sauerworld channel on discord, someone will try to help you:
https://discordapp.com/invite/012c19bkwljlWsh3y

[Kato]

Thanks Salatiel, i will try to find a fix or i will release my mode without the new texture browser menu or i will release the whole mod
without the fix, for my last test, my sauerbraten executable file compiled always crash when clicking on every menu, it's not a big change in the code, it's few lines but with the last files provided by Eihrul, this don't work anymore, i will invistigate again to fix the problem but the real problem it's the fall update of Windows. Microsoft release a patch that broke the mouse in some games, it's incredible that they don't see that before deploy their patch.

[Salatiel]

Ok np, but your mod is about what exactly?

[Kato]

For my mouse problem i have found a way that fix partially the problem, now i can use my new sauerbraten executable file with eihrul patch, but this time i don't use sauerbraten.bat from the recent patch, i use the one from the previous version 02-03, with this way i can keep my sauerbraten executable file functional also i need to turn on the vsync button to have less problem with the mouse, if i turn off vsync the mouse go up or down when playing or editing everytime i move the view in game when walking, with vsync "on" i can play almost normally but the mouse problem is still here but less than before, today i have installed the recent windows cumulative patch but this don't fix the mouse problem.



About my mod, the name is "Sauerbraten Level Design Edition (v1.0)" :

Main change:
 
-New executables files of Sauerbraten in 32&64 bit.
-New menus theme and new menus for editing (*.cfg).


Source code based on the last official release "Sauerbraten Collect Edition" version, this mean my build is 100% compatible with the official Sauerbraten Collect Edition servers.


Remember it's work in progress use at your own risk, save often your maps, normally from all my tests all things works fine, i never have a big problem.


Full list of my changes with the help of my brother Mugen:


- Added new font made by Siesta (source: "http://gamebanana.com/guis/28207").

- Added transparency background for all menus.

- Added "Editing" menu in the main menu.

- Added "Custom map" menu in the main menu.

- Added "load map" menu inside "map" tab menu to write the name of a map to load.

- Added "load map" and "load map name" menu in the main menu.

- Added "load map", "load map name" and "Save map name" menu below editing menu, "ESC" key when you are in the edit mode.

- Added "newent jumppad" menu inside "ent" tab menu.

- Added and modified some new icons and background image from "Marble Arena 2" game, "MetalHeart" game, "Comed" game, "Mars Massacre B3" game and Mono theme GUI by Scnd101 (http://quadropolis.us/node/2261) to make this new cool theme GUI.

- Restored the old logo of sauerbraten cube 2 engine but now it's blue logo, blue theme everywhere ( icons, cursor, loading bar etc.. )

- Modified the texture browser menu (F2 key) to show the texture properties with preview texture and texture info settings (bump map, diffuse, parallax etc...) while the mouse cursor
  move over the thumbnail texture; feature from the source code of the "Platinum Sandbox 2.7.1" game (http://www.sandboxgamemaker.com/free-game-maker-old-downloads/), see the new "octaedit.cpp"  source file,
  this result of new sauerbraten exectuable 32bit & 64bit files, sometimes the menu can shake all textures, i don't know how to fix that, maybe it's a problem with the texture name that is too long.
 
- Added a new texture menu "Texture parameters" (F1 key), (Esc key to exit the menu), when you have a texture selected in edit mode, press F1 key to have the texture parameters menu and apply some change on the texture like the scroll,scale,
  offset, color etc.., no more console input to do these things, also the menu is 100% transparent to have a better preview when manipulating the texture settings input, feature based of the "texmenu script" made by SomeDude and
  RaZgRiZ's feature at ("http://quadropolis.us/node/3548"), added some new code and new arrow icons, also the menu try to mimic the texure parameters style menu of the "Marble Arena 2" game. ( see file : "texmenu2.cfg" )
 
- Added texture name, grid power size and brush name in lower left menu when we are in the edit mode, feature from the "stdedit.cfg", file from the "Platinum Sandbox 2.7.1" game (http://www.sandboxgamemaker.com/free-game-maker-old-downloads/).

- Added Outline "ON" toggled when entering in the edit mode.
 
- Added several colors for the Outline in the edit mode. (F9 key to swap colors),  feature from the "stdedit.cfg" file from the "Platinum Sandbox 2.7.1" game (http://www.sandboxgamemaker.com/free-game-maker-old-downloads/).

- Added some new development grid textures for editing map, now the default grey texture is more accurate and come with various colors, also some new dev textures with sizes and rules and the dev texture from Marble Arena 2.
  Make your choice!  (the installation replace directly your old defaut grey texture with the new one more accurate.), to use the others new dev texures you need to rename them in "default.png" file name, test them one by one.
  The "default.png" file is in "texture" folder.

[Salatiel]

Looks interesting, but all these functions, except the modification in octaedit.cpp, are basic cubescript (such as menus.cfg modifications), or simple icons/images modifications... By the logic your mod should work correctly, i'm almost sure the problem is in your modified octaedit.cpp (or something wrong when compiling), try to keep the original octaedit.cpp from Collect Edition...

[Kato]

Yes all these things are cubescript a part the new texture browser menu, i join in this post my octaedit.ccp modified, you can try to compile it and see if you encounter the same problem as me with the sauerbraten executable file freshly compiled for the new collect edition version, just one thing i'm not a programer i have make a lot of tries and fails before to have a funtional code. But it's working good in collect edtion before my windows fall update. I see that Eihrul make a change in the fps for the SVN sauerbraten version maybe that fix the mouse problem with the vsync feature. 

[Salatiel]

Hm yes, works fine here.
Well, i hope you fix this problem and finish your map. gl  (: