Map of the Month (28th September 2012)

[spazzattack]

Thanks to everyone who played. It was really useful and I had a lot of fun. (sometimes hard on your own maps)
HappyDay has given me a great list of stuff to fix, so I'll have an updated one quite soon.

[spazzattack]

Beta 3. 5/10/2012
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21777257/loco/ut4_loco_b3.pk3
Thanks to all at CMM for trialing, and particularly HappyDay for all your work looking over the map - you've been a massive help
I've used lots of your suggestions
- Removed shininess on railings - suddenly got 15FPS improvement!!
- decreased _blocksize
- Altered hinting - still not quite "right" probably
- Reduced some texture sizes
- Removed geometry I don't think anyone will notice (won't say where else you might notice)
- Areaportals in doors
- Some simplification of some models
- Caulked some stuff - particularly detail brushes I missed
- removed room no-one will use (think you're right happyday)
- removed one toilet
- Made fountain less 'white'
- Made smaller building windows opaque and removed rooms behind
etc

There's still work to be done in making more efficient but I think should be decent improvement for most. (Mine is around 15-30fps better) Even Xan should find a decent FPS - but let me know if not?

[xandaxs]

I don't understand why you say "even xan", lol

I'm pretty judgmental about FPS, I'll give you that, but I've a nice computer, and I can get 125 solid on every map (well, some are just not optimized enough for it).
I'mma try your map now

[xandaxs]

The FPS are way way way better now. I can reach 125 at some places, mostly hangs around 90 (in the middle of the trains area something like 70), but it is a great improvement!

Now I think I can give you a proper feedback on the layout and gameplay!

Here's some picky suggestions:
http://imgur.com/a/NXSPa

[Rayne]

It's good to see someone using higher resolution textures, but even i have to say this. You're taking it way over the top.
Textures like:
wood5
woodfloor
window5
wayout
water
warehousewindow2
waiting_room_picture 1 and 2
ut4_rripwinter
toiletdoor
sundialmap (kudos on shadow baking however)
stone (this one is so blurry even at this res you can't see details)
stationroof
stationdoortop
slateroof-now this one is good, it's higher res but it's packed with details so you can cover a huge surface with it
slate- on the other side this is one is bland, no details, why so high res
skylift
screen7 and 6
rooftile2- another that could be lower res and nobody would notice
roofplate and roofplate2- no real reason to make them so big
rollupdoor
platforms_32,1,2,3 and so on- way too big
plaintiles- quick tip on this one, never let a tile cut in half and extend on the lower side, whenever you can use the grout as an ending line. Let the grouts do the tiling not the main pattern.
out of order
other_shine
ladies
gentlemen
greentiles
graveltrack2
ceilingtiles
zincroof2

All the texture above mentioned need to be cut in size by half. Unless a special comment was made next to a texture.
Space you saved by reducing their size can be used to add decals like old newspaper on the ground, leaves, dirt and so on.

[gsigms]

nice, i am looking forward to play it again online

does that mean we can hope for another try at the shoutcast thingy ?

[johnnyenglish]

does that mean we can hope for another try at the shoutcast thingy ?

Someone (not me, I'm too busy with work) will need to sort this out if they want to try it again. It's a great idea but needs someone with a little free time to co-ordinate everything.

[spazzattack]

Thanks for all comments and suggestions. I got busy and forgot to check the site for a while. Thanks for your thoughts Xan and Rayne.
Will aim to make a final one shortly
Cheers,
Spazz