Puhnkss - DM_Lavaalley

[[S-UK] Puhnkss]

Hello PVians

I finally get to start a thread for my contest entry. Hurray! It's bin about 20 days since I signed up for the contest and only am getting to create a thread to display my progress. If you need excuses, here, have some: (in no particualr order) constant hammer crashes (which appear to have stopped), getting addicted to a certain audio/surfing game, and finally the utter lack of progress. But that's over with and I am now on track, though still not much to show at this stage but I do have a couple'a pics for yall.

In the begining I had loads of small ideas mostly relating to how I'd like to push the movement in valkyrie and get the most out of the suit's features. (Morphball, double jump etc). There was just so much one could do with PV I was not sure where to begin. Then I thought it would be cool to have a level that was on a different planet to twinbridges, maybe something with trees and foliage. I was thinking of a big landing pad standing above tall trees but that didn't really work and I didnt want to be too ambitious, so I went back to the drawing board.

I decided that the best asset I got is the 3mm/PV materials. Once I knew I wanted to keep the style of twinbridges (to an extent) I liked the idea of a wide canyon/valley where the lava had melted most of the rock away and there was only various natural platforms and bits of rock left to cross the to the other side. A place where perhaps it wasn't as easy to build bridges like twinbridges or maybe they just hadn't got around to it yet. But where there were easily deployable/makeshift morphtubes criss-crossing over the top of it all. I want the main part of the map to feel rugged and dangerous.

Sketch of lava area

The grey things over the top are estimations where the ball tubes will be. Although there will be a couple of underground tubes as well. And here is a hammer shot:

Hammertime!

Textures etc are way, way W.I.P. The name at the minute is lava allye (not a typo lo) although I'm open to suggestion. Anyway, more progress to come yall. Thanks

[moconnor]

I like the idea of running around on small islands/platforms that are surrounded by lava.
Perhaps throw some spewing lava into the mix as well for extra dangerous-ness

[Minus]

I think this is a really good idea. My only suggestion would be to make the area as not-square as possible.

[[S-UK] Puhnkss]

I think this is a really good idea. My only suggestion would be to make the area as not-square as possible.

Yea, that'll be the real trick won't it? ...The joys of displacements eh? Anyway, some updates for yall.

First; an updated hammer shot,

Second; an in-game shot of the main rock bridge. *What you can't see here is all the nodraw-ed brushes I'm using to block out and height check the other rock platforms that are going to be there.

Third; an in-game shot of one of my custom materials: a morph-ball decal.

I will probably change the name, or maybe the spelling but I'll see where the level goes.

A part from the square'd-ness I want to avoid, the biggest problem for me will optimisation, cause it's a big-ish open area in the middle. But I'm getting ahead of myself, I'll cross that bridge sooner or more likely later. I was also thinking of creating a dark-ish melted rock texture for where the lava connects to the rock. I've alot of work to do tho. ...Thank fudge I'm currently unemployed or I might not have the time to do this lol! I wish everyone luck (including myself heh) for the rest of the competition, shall be intresting to see what happens in the next two months.

[Victor 'Woe' Krengel]

Looks like a good start. If I was making it I'd extend the rock platforms down into the lava which would make them more convincing and help to break up the repetitive lava. Obviously you need to up the texture scale on that lava by loads cause that'll help too.

The days of having to worry about big open spaces from a performance point of view are over. It'll run fine with a bit of optimization so long as you don't pack it out too thickly with high poly models and complex brushwork. Saying that, big open spaces aren't usually so good from a gameplay point of view.

I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this

[Minus]

Your displacement work kicks the crap out of mine. Luckily my map doesn't require too much.