jay pettitt on 13/1/2006 at 14:00

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Similar to glaswolf, I'm not much interested in mapping a whole level here... Though I'm up for making some smaller mapping contribution... such as placing ambient sounds or doing AI mesh donkey work.

Me thinks there is some small confusion over the pass the parcel level thingie. There are at least two ideas floating around currently; make that 3 - because I think Ziemanskye is suggesting yet another.

1, suggested by doctorMidnight after reading Prustage's suggestions was a fun exercise. You know when you meet a group and do a team game to introduce yourselves - that sort of thing. I don't think docmidnight was particularly expecting great things in the way of a finished product, unless the process went suprisingly well. For the record - I don't think it's a bad idea.

2, Suggested by me, is the idea that 2 or maybe more people will work collaboratively (and concurrently) on a map (or any other products of the project).
There's a oodles of reasons why I believe it's the way to go...
-Producing a mission is a substantial task and many hands make light work. Or perhaps more importantly many hands can be bright and attentive over a broader range of map making sub tasks.
-It provides an informal system of peer review and quality assurance during the build process. It's a hell of a lot cheaper, time and resource wise, to fix or change things earlier, rather than later.
-It's a proven, agile and increasingly adopted production method in other fields, I think would be fun to effectively pioneer it in a community map making project.

Regarding ownership - naturally it will have to be shared. The credits will have to read "Missioon 3 by Str8g8 and GlasWolf" or whatever. Complete artistic control, credit or ownership is probably best reserved for personal projects - though I don't think any of us have such unwieldy egos that we're going to be too worried about joint ownership...

And yes, I was envisioning a mapping pair to be responsible for a map from pretty much from conception to delivery.

The system of passes is pretty much how this is going to have to work. It's not particularly feasible to have two people sitting down together in the same room and simulataneously placing BSP brushes and chimney smeshes. So yes, I'f you've foolishly volunteered to do architecture, I'd expect - by and large - you'll be doing the architecture... Other person may then do most of the ambient lighting or sound effects. Though I'd leave it to each mapping pair to organise who does what and when. If Ziemanskye and Partner want to divide tasks by way of splitting a mission in two map parts via portals, I don't have a problem with that.

STiFU on 13/1/2006 at 14:24

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hehe oups... I am quite! :p But I must say that I like your idea with the "editor-couples" :) . This could really be a good way to handle that. And that ownership thing is not so important for me neither. It is a community project anyway. We did it all together so nothing is mine. But if you guys want we can divide the credits.

Another question just came up in my head: How shall we realize cutscenes? My idea would be that we just have the camera scrolling over some conceptarts(or whatever) and the story is told by some narrator, which the player doesn't know. This way we wouldn't need to fake Garretts voice... And most of all who will make the cutscenes? I will definitely help with their soundtrack but i really cannot draw any pictures and i don't know with which tool i would cut the scenes neither.

godismygoldfish on 13/1/2006 at 15:48

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Depending on what you need I could maybe edit a few briefings for you guys.

I worked on T2X's briefings, did a little thing called (http://www.evilarmyfilms.com/atp) A Thief's Path and am doing The Dark Mod's cutscenes and briefings.

ascottk on 13/1/2006 at 18:01

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Hey ,Z, great pictures of Edinburgh! The texture refs might come in handy although some of them might be a little tricky to make seamless.



I've been using the gimp (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/) for graphics

I came across cross-platform video compositing software: (http://www.zs4.net/) although the interface kind of sucks & the site links don't work. Another video tool is based on VirtualDub (http://virtualdubmod.sourceforge.net/). There's also jahshaka (http://www.jahshaka.org)

godismygoldfish on 13/1/2006 at 18:50

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Depends, I created all the image elements besides particles in Photoshop (used (http://www.wondertouch.com/) Wondertouch for the hallway torch) and assembled them in Premiere and After Effects. I also combined in chroma-keyed (green/blue screen) live action actors with silhouettes, which were composited into the final shots.

You would need at least a decent understanding of the programs in order to do it as I did, but more importantly you will need butt-loads of time and dedication. It took me 2 months just to create the first 2 1/2 minutes of footage for ATP, though I was picking up a good workflow to get it done faster before I cancelled it.

Contact me when you get a final story and planning done, and I'll see if I can guide you through the trickier bits of doing it.


Concerning Video Editing tools, most of the free ones are very weak in comparison to the full blown Professional Programs like Avid, Premiere or FinalCut. Look at Premiere Elements, it's a stripped down one that may work, and is only $60 or so. You can also look on E-bay for the professional programs on the cheap.