Off Topic Productions

Agreed. Basic fixes I'm sure I can do - I need to get a few textures finished before I get to that though.

But yeah if you've got some of the errors, send 'em over.

Wasn't there a thread dedicated to this? I'm quite sure there many people reporting alignment problems and how maps could/should be changed to accommodate for that.

Yes, it's sticky'ed on this board. But I don't think alignment issues ever got reported because people would be spending hours uploading photos.

Simple alignment issues are easy enough to spot, and only take a short while to fix. I'm more concerned about upside down textures - especially on the '3d' textures I made with baked in lighting that make no sense if they're upside down.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42271969/New%2 ... 20Bugs.rar
A .rar of images that I took whilst playing. Not sure how much use to you they will be but it's a start.

Also, these are the maps I've worked on updating/fixing textures. Only simple things are changed however.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42271969/NewVisionMapPack.rar

Maps I've changed are:
- Intro
- Training
- UNATCO (all four versions with similar changes*)
- Airfield Helibase (No idea what I've changed here, can't remember.)
- Hong Kong Helibase
- Hong Kong MJ12 Versalife
- Hong Kong Tong Base

*In UNATCO, I've changed the medlab a little bit so the layout is a slightly different and added a few subtle details.

Cool. The one thing I would like to fix more than anything else is the skyboxes. Because they suck. I've finished off the Battery Park skybox, but frankly, it looks ridiculous:

When you say fix, do you mean 'Add some real 3D geometry to that area so the skybox doesn't look so flat.'?
Have you made any other changes to the map? If not, I'll see what I can do.

Nope, I haven't touched any of the maps yet. But yes, that's what I meant

Eventually for all the skyboxes, I'd like to add a real skydome to them but I'd need someone to compile the model I made for that. That way you could have real looking skies with horizons etc. rather than the floating clouds on black. I may also make some animated smoke and fire for the backgrounds - then in a few of the skyboxes you could have rising smoke in the distance and the burning Area51 would look a bit better.

But for now..having those buildings at a sensible scale (i.e. ridiculously smaller than they are now) and with more 3d geometry would be great. I'd say build as many as possible within the actual map, too, rather than in the skybox. The masked buildings could be used in the skybox for distant buildings. The main building textures that aren't masked (2nd in from left/right in the picture I posted) could be used for texturing skyscrapers, and there's some other textures in 'NewYorkCity' that could make some nice smaller buildings around the compound.

Maybe I'll try and get a bit more au fait with UnrealEd so I can do a more of this myself. In an ideal world I'd also like to shrink the entire map (same with Liberty Island) because as it is, it's way too big. Large open spaces in old games rarely look very good.

I'll upload an updated version of BatteryPark with the new masked textures when I get home from work.


Edit:

nerdenstein wrote:- Airfield Helibase (No idea what I've changed here, can't remember.)

I'm not sure of other changes, but one thing that is very different is the alternate exit in the helicopter bay. If you lift the sewer cover it's just concrete - there's no passage


Also, updated Battery Park utx.

Hey Dave. Glad to read you're making one final version of this mod. Therese are some things that I believe could be made in this final version:

-The multiple brick columns at the beginning of the Osgood's map don't seem to have the new texture. I remember you saying that you were sure that the textures were made but after downloading the patch I still don't see them. Maybe there's something wrong with the way I installed it I don't know. Maybe I can find a nice texture replacement if you need it.

-Ive made a new version of the blue silhouette in the bar. I can send it to you if you need it.

-The NYC Skyline could be modified to be bigger in size in order to match the size of the original. Maybe the new one were longer in dimension compared to the original?

-About the Battery Park skyline. I think instead of doing them with a new skyline of a photo maybe modifying the big ones to recreate new buildings by changing the colors, size shape etc. I think I can help with this as well, just need the sizes if those textures or a small pack with them to modify them.

good luck!

Not sure if I'd done them when I released, but those bricks are done now.

Yes I'll take a look at the silhouette - at the moment I've just blurred the original so it looks a bit nicer (rather than the engine scaling up an already badly compressed texture) It looks ok but if you've got a decent new version I'll use that.

If the skylines are scaled down, I probably meant to do it. The skylines in the original game look awful.

I want to add more 3d buildings to skyboxes where possible - 2d photos look terrible no matter how well done they are.

DaveW wrote:Not sure if I'd done them when I released, but those bricks are done now.

Yes I'll take a look at the silhouette - at the moment I've just blurred the original so it looks a bit nicer (rather than the engine scaling up an already badly compressed texture) It looks ok but if you've got a decent new version I'll use that.

If the skylines are scaled down, I probably meant to do it. The skylines in the original game look awful.

I want to add more 3d buildings to skyboxes where possible - 2d photos look terrible no matter how well done they are.

Well basically the idea is to modify the current buildings in the battery park map to make them dimensional. By simply copy pasting the image and transforming the copy with the original. A very simple procedure that can make it look much better, and can make the skyline much more dynamic without the need of using a 2d photo. You could also edit the big buildings and change colors to make more buildings in different shapes.

an example:

DaveW wrote:That's a good idea - is there a list of them somewhere?

I'm tempted to go through the maps myself and fix some of the obvious errors. At the very least it would provide a good base for another mapper to come along and add detail.

List of Books

http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Book

someone´s are real, other not

maybe you use for the fake ingame books a Dust jacket-texture

Marcelo wrote:Well basically the idea is to modify the current buildings in the battery park map to make them dimensional. By simply copy pasting the image and transforming the copy with the original. A very simple procedure that can make it look much better, and can make the skyline much more dynamic without the need of using a 2d photo. You could also edit the big buildings and change colors to make more buildings in different shapes.

I think a bit of both is the best course of action. I definitely think there should be some larger buildings within the map itself rather than the sky-box, though, otherwise the buildings tend to look too distant.

Cheers for the link, Schlumpf. I'll try and get that texture updated now.

In other news, why the fuck can't Unreal Engine render textures like it's supposed to?

How it looks in the editor:


How it looks ingame:


How it's meant to look:




Now with flashing disco floor:

i love you.... and all the effort you have put in

Have you had any luck with the Unreal Engine editor, DaveW?

I bet struggling with it contributes a fair amount of frustration...

Just got back online after 2 months of having no internet or land line phone at my new house (*curses phone company for not fitting it sooner*)... but this looks good, sure appreciate all the effort you are doing and can't wait to play the finished maps. Have to re install Deus Ex and mods again. I'll see in a couple of days how busy I am going to be, but I may be able to help with anything if you need it if I have free time.