The Development Process Of A Map, Featuring Faunus as an example

[Dorthu]

Posting this for anyone who is interested in the painful and tedious, but incredibly satisfying process of mapping...

A little over three months ago, ONS-Odd-Faunus, our latest map, started life as an idea in the brilliant mind of Primrose, and was draw onto a simple piece of lined paper:


original concept art by Primrose (scanned kinda poorly)

From this, her and I discussed the layout and flow of the map, as well as Power Node configurations and possible vehicle placement, and I drew a few technical concepts of my own. Once finished, I began construction on the map in UnrealEd.
Mapping in UnrealEd is a reasonably simple process for such a thing, complicated indefinitely by the endless stream of glitches and errors the editor throws at you while working with it. From the sensible to the bizarre, when the UEd is glitch, all hell breaks loose. Making terrain was the first major step of creating this particular world...
Creating terrain is a lot like sculpting. There is an undo button, but I doubt they ever put any functionality to it, I personally think it just sits on the terrain editor window to taunt the user and make them dream of what could have been. Terrain is traditionally sculpted by raising or lower portions of ground using what is called a 'painting' tool, where precision is difficult if not impossible. Referring to a preexisting map for technique, I decided that all of the map's paths should be comprised of raised levels of terrain forming the boarders. This required precise terrain placement, so I decided to use a diffrent method to make my terrain: tracing the original concept in Photoshop and importing the result as a heightmap (grayscale image which denotes what areas are of what elevation, where black is the lowest and white the highest). Here was my result:


real heightmap used in Faunus.

I read up on importing the heightmap on the UnrealWiki, which told me I needed to make it an alpha channel on an image (easy enough) and give it to UnrealEd as a G16 (an corrupt file type, 16-bit grayscale bitmap image, will not open or save in any graphics application). To get this file type, I had to export the entire image as a Targa and change it's format in UEd. Once that was done, I miraculously had a full terrain layout, and with a little tweaking, it worked perfectly.
The next step was to add indiviual textures to the terrain, again with a painting tool. Texturing each individual tree was easy enough, but time consuming and rather dull at times. Once that was done, I added power nodes and their general construction, then moved on to one of the biggest undertakings of the map: adding foliage. I had found tree branch meshes in one of the game's preexisting packages that would suffice, but they were individual limbs, and I had at least 25 trees that needed to look like large, thriving, natural plants. Adding realistic foliage to all of the trees took forever, but the result was wonderful.
Once that was out of the way, I consulted my World Mesh Artist, mr_smith, and told him what I needed done; three types of torches, a temple, a tree-mounted base, and spikes to line the paths. While he worked, I began making the sky and lighting for the map, a very artistic and less technical process which involves building a realistic-looking sky and placing lights in position to make the level come to life. Withing the sky I placed a giant full moon which looms over the forest and casts light unto the world.
mr_smith got back to me with his work after I was finished, and I began implementing it:


screenshot in maya of original mesh.

His work is always good, and as usual I was impressed with what he had for me. The tree bases were completed last, and were tweaked several times, but in the end worked perfectly. The temple was exactly to specifications, and the torches were all perfectly in sync with the look and feel of the map. I created a fire particle effect using preexisting textures and set it in the torch along with a redish-orange light, and the map came to life. After placing torches along the paths to light them and tediously placing spikes along the entire boarder of the paths to prevent vehicles from jumping them, the map was near completion. Some tests were conducted and some issues resolves, especially concerning game flow and vehicle placement, which turns out to be very difficult.


Screenshot in UnrealEd of Faunus in an almost-complete stage. I labeled it in MSPaint to make it more clear.

I then added the secret room (good luck finding it though) and declared the map officially in beta. The map sat in beta for a long time because of several technical issues in testing it; new router prevented hosting a server, no time to get together, etc. Finally we tested, Primrose pointed out to me the few things that still needed fixing, I fixed, took a few screenshots, had her write a description for it (it was her idea after all), added the finishing touches and sent it on it's way (Finishing touches include level info, screenshots for menus, and a credits banner in our secret room).

The process of mapping is an intense and interesting interlude from everyday life, and I do enjoy it. Although creating a level from scratch seems like a daunting concept at first, with the support of a team and some good ol' experience, a map will come together into the beautiful product you see online now; Faunus is a complete success from my standpoint, being mapped efficiently, lighted convincingly and playing well. Then intense combat focused on the center node is exactly as Primrose envisioned when she first drew her concept, and the result is, as she has expressed many times, exactly the way she wanted it. The whole thing takes a while, but in the end, it's worth it.

[AsToRoTh]

I could be wrong, but reading into what you posted above it sounds like you individually placed the static meshes for the trees? Personally what I would have done is used some of the stock trees (there are quite a few complete trees in the stock packages) or at worst placed the body of the tree then the foliage... selected both sets of smeshes and converted them to a single mesh in the MyLevel package. You can then use the deco layer tab to paint the mesh onto the terrain.... You can also use an alpha heightmap to pre-paint the deco/foliage layers before you start in the same way you did the heightmap for the terrain as both use alpha channels in their creation

Interesting read tho..... Im not sure how I would go about mapping with a team as often I dont even have a clear concept of how a map should look. I did with my earlier maps but ones that I "freeform" tend to turn out better. The map Im currently working on actually started out as a very modular/boxy map that I was going to set in a space station. I also attempted to create some custom vector-like textures... it ended up being a gothic themed map LoL.

[Dorthu]

Awesome! I actually made the trees part of the terrain heightmap, which i made in Photoshop, they are the white spots, and added stock meshes of branches with foliage. I tried adding them as a deco layer, but they wouldn't line up right. I ended up making a few groups of branch meshes and duplicating them onto other trees.

Mapping with a team is different. I was more used to making things on my own too, and it is something to adjust to. We have two concept people, and they couldn't be more different. Primrose, who did the concepts for this map, had everything planned out and drawn out before she even pitched the idea to me. On the other hand, lunarstudioxk, who I'm working with on MelindorStation12 now, came to me with one building sketched out, and has since added at least 8 more and an underground tunnel system. It is good to have support though, I especially like not having to do work in Maya myself.

So where can I find your maps at?

[AsToRoTh]

atm they are a bit scattered.... you can find the majority of them on the |EVO|Servers and most probably links to a few on the site itself. Im currently working on a "maps" page for the site seperate to the downloads area... Just a case of collecting mine and the rest of the clans maps together and taking screenshots etc.

IMO my last 3 are probably my best and in all honesty if you dont play lowgrav arena maps the rest arent worth downloading. So far each one has basically been a lesson for me. Full-Metal-Racket was my first real attempt at terrain, BunkerV2 was my first foray away from arena, Lounge was my first mini-me map and the latest (DM-[EVO]-Unholy was an attempt at a tight 1v1 map and I basically went out of my way to make t tight and as far from an arena as I could get.... even in the open areas of the map Ive added decor just to stop it being a frag fest in there LoL.

http://www.evoclan.biz is the site link. Server monitor with the IP is on the main page... cant remember it off the top of my head LoL.

[Dorthu]

I've played on some of them before, I liked them. I really liked the skybox in Lounge (i assume it was a skybox...where the car is parked in the driveway). Did you do all of the 2k6 maps? (sorry if that's a stupid question) I know what you mean about learning from the maps, Faunus was the first map I made with a heightmap made outside of UEd, and I have to say it is a lot easier to get detail in terrain. I know what you mean about getting maps to be confined...that is one of the things i didn't like about Tahhara when I finished it, it was much too open. (Although we did have in mind the EZE's servers when we made it, and open maps are perfect on there, so it wasn't all bad). I've looked at the maps that come with the game, and I can see how they do some of the things to keep them confined, but I can't seem to replicate the effect myself. Game flow is a lot more difficult to control then I had thought before I started mapping myself, which is why I was so satisfied with Faunus, it plays just as we had hoped it would.

[AsToRoTh]

heheh cheers for the comments. the bit you refer to on lounge i actually half and half. From the window to the fence and trees is just another zone in the map itself just added for effect... then beyond that is the skyzone. I was debating whether to allow players to get outside of the main map but after realising how big it actually was I decided against it LoL. Im gonna be working on a remake of it soon to cater specifically for snipers and to address some issues with the emitters not showing online (made the mistake of using stock emitters rather than my own LoL).

Nah I didnt make all the -2k6 maps. Thats a prefix that uses a mod for playing custom music through the announcer. (more detail on that in EVO forums) If I remember correctly I did setup the level preview details on all my maps so they should sho as "by AsToRoTh" or "|EVO|AsToRoTh" one or the other LoL.

Know what you mean about flow which is why I tried to make sure there are no dead ends in unholy... and where there are theres a pickup worth having. Easiest way to get an idea of flow is to watch a bot match... specially for weapon placement as bot tend to go for the most powerful weapon first then work down. That and the fact I tried to have as many exits as possible from any given area so theres always somewhere to duck down... or appear from LoL.

[Dorthu]

Yeah, I found a really nice mutator on the UnrealWiki once...lost it since, and I'm still looking again...that draws to the screen the info about the bot you're watching, including it's current objective, the path it's following now, etc. Really helps check pathing and gamplay in general. I agree about the dead ends: only good for spawning and uber pickups. That's a mistake I made in Tahhara, donno if you saw it or not, but the 8-story building in the center has no exits on 5 of it's floors (for bots anyway, players can translocate out a window) so they rely on one faulty elevator in the center for everything, and it really messed up the map's flow (bots end up stuck there until the elevator comes). It didn't kill the map, but I was never happy with it.

Very nice technique with the window, I wouldn't have thought to do that. The biggest problem I have is with getting the skybox to blend in with the edge of the map (I try to avoid the Mario64 Invisible Wall scenario). I usually end up blocking off the edges with giant hills, which can look alright, but tend to seem unrealistic. That's another thing I can't replicate from the pre-made maps. Torlan and ArcticStronghold in particular block the edges off so well, one doesn't even notice it's anything more than the natural layout of the land while playing. I liked the way you did the edges in Full-Metal-Racket, it didn't use a ridiculous wall of earth/rock, and it looked good...I am going to try and use a big concrete wall surrounding Station12 to get a good effect, but I think it may look cheesy...

[AsToRoTh]

Well, I would have put couple of jumpspots and looktargets for the bots to use the trans to get out too.... there again the bots are pretty feisty.... you will find if theres one chasing you and you bail out the window the little bugger will follow you through it LoL.

Mastering Unreal Tech advises actually adding terrain to your skybox too if you are doing an open air map... that way the mountains in the main map stopping you hitting the "invisible wall" look realistic as the ones in the skybox will look like mountains fading into the distance. One of the things I was gonna do with FMR was to surround it with mountains and have some sort of pass that had collapsed.... at least that way it looks like theres a way in.... although instead I took the easy approach of putting trees all round it and adding blocking volumes to stop you getting stuck in them.

[Dorthu]

Yeah I read that part in Mastering Unreal Tech, but when I tried it, it never looked too good...mostly you either couldn't see the skybox's mountains, or else they looked out of proportion...I couldn't get it to look right, so in the end I gave up and added giant hills instead lol. I even stuck an IonKillZone around the tops of the hills to discourage their use for sniping instead of putting a real limit, mainly because I wanted to see whomever tried to do it get fried with an ion blast: it works nicely too! Took the lazy way out on the terrain though, I guess.

Didn't know the bots followed you out windows...how high'd u set them? I tested with them on experienced or the one above that, and they would trans locate onto buildings and snipe in the specified areas, but they wouldn't go through windows after me...wow.

[AsToRoTh]

Cant remember how high I did my windows now but the map never saw the light of day... got fed up and deleted it completely a while back.

Tbh the only map Ive ever used terrain in the skybox on was BunkerV2 (remake of another map I screwed up LoL) however the map is an indoor map so the skybox is only visible through the windows.... turned out ok tho with lots of distance fog Lmao.

[Dorthu]

Ahhh, yea i tried that once, not as a real map, just to see how it would look...it looked pretty good. Then i started experimenting with warpzones, and with some careful placement you really can make your brain implode. I had an elevator where the top was across the hall from the bottom...never did anything with it though...except of course mess with my friends' heads and all. I wanted to make a real map that screws with your head using warpzones, but the weapon selection there would be would make the map so...implausible. I think it would be bio rifle, flak cannon and rocket launcher...maybe a mine layer or grenade...i don't think it would work though...need to recode the warpzones to allow instantfire weapons...and i don't feel like doing that now that I'm making an embedded translocator for the PacArcade map and trying to finish our weapon pack...I'll get around to it sooner or later though.

[lunarstudioxk]

please ddo one of station 12 like concept to creation

[Dorthu]

Oh ooookkkkkk.