Team Fortress 2 - CGSociety Players

#644

Lol, I just noticed the stat link on the front page and was feeling pretty good about being 18th on the server. Then I noticed bolo (also me) is 28th so nvm. The stats they do nothing!

Guess I’ll have to stick to one name now.

#645

Ahh a problem I have not been able to cope with since I first entered the brave new world called The Internet(s).

I don’t think I’ve stuck to a single username online as long as I have with Steam ever. I don’t even remember half the names I’ve used, generally it was something new everytime I joined a game.

But I could’ve sworn that clanservers used your steam ID to track your stats, not current username. Oh well, I guess it makes sense if more than one person uses the same Steam account.

So EscherBeta 6 should be available soon. School was cancelled due to snow (well, it wasn’t cancelled but the roads are too nuts to drive) today. I am devoting my time to fixing up bugs and compiling the latest version with more than enough time for people to be aware of it before Friday.

Grand plans are in the works for a new map. CP_Redstone has me inspired and jealous. It’s just so much nicer looking than my work I need to up the anté. I plan on a multi-stage CP style map with a wake of new textures and props to help sell a new theme OTHER than mining, industrial or farming.

Last week’s game was just so awesome I hope to see a repeat this week.

#646

Sounds like the new install is running much better. I’m used to you beginning a post with “Argh, compile times”. :smiley:

I think I may revive an old UT '99 map I made for TF2. Not so much the map as the concept. It will make for a perfect CP map.

#647

Yay, Im number 3! Watch out Kirt and Kromano, I’m coming for ya. :twisted:

Great gaming last week gentlemen. It’s about time we got that server full. Mostly thanks to the CD guys. Hope this week is just as eventful.

#648

FYI - Some server config changes that I made recently. Let me know if they are working properly. I never know until Saturday. :hmm:

sv_pure 1 : A request was made to change this to ‘1’ to allow custom sprays. Since we’re artists, I’m guessing the need is there to show off your iconic masterpieces. So, I’m going to allow it for now (assuming it doesn’t get abused). Personally, I don’t like sprays in game … but clients can disallow these anyway. So it’s not going to affect my game. :stuck_out_tongue:

alltalk 0 : With full servers now, it makes more sense to turn this off so that teams can coordinate their assaults privately. Admins still have the ability to turn this back on. If you’d like to open chat to discuss the custom maps or just BS let one of the Admins know.

Sudden Death! : I’m hoping this is fixed (fingers crossed). Last week Sudden Death wasn’t being triggered on tc_hydro and I think it was dissappointing to many. If you remember a few weeks back we had melee only sudden death rounds which were … hmmmm … KICK ASS??? Yeah, I think they were. :smiley: Anyway, I believe I have this reset properly. We’ll see.

#649

Ha ha ha! I wish. It still crashes just as often and compile times are as awful as ever. 2h30m+

I’ve found I can greatly reduce them by changing the map to be less linear, but that would completely alter the map so I dunno. Performance optimizations need to be made but I’m just not very good at those kinds of decisions so I’m not sure what to do.

A new map would be great! We need more CGTalk maps on the server, pretty soon we’ll wind up with a pure custom rotation which, to me, is what the CGtalk server is all about!

#650

Some friends and I wanted to get our hands dirty making a custom map for TF2, but the thing is we don’t know what we are doing. We are a little lost on what is involved. Is there any information out there or tutorials that would help us get started?

#651

Check out these sites, Animalator:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.interlopers.net/index.php
http://www.editlife.net/tutorial.php
http://www.hl2mods.co.uk/links.php

They should help get you started. There are some really nice tutorials on Interlopers for beginners, too.

#652

I want to make one too, but my boss made me uninstall Steam and all it’s goodies. :frowning:

Here are some resources for the beginner mappers:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Docs
http://interlopers.net
http://tf2maps.net
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=193

#653

Linear you say? So might it have something to do with whatever zoning your using? Perhaps it has to generate a lot of z-buffer data, IDK.

Kirt, can we have those tutorial links added to the front page also? They’ve been posted before but then it gets buried in pages and you have to dig for them. You know how it is. :thumbsup:

#654

dink! It is so! :smiley:

#655

Allow me to attempt to illustrate what I’m trying to say. It’s pretty “technical” I suppose. Quake-based engines using the B(inary)S(pace)P(artition) [size=2]map style use what are called VisPortals to determine what geometry is visable in the game engine. A very basic idea about Visportals would be to imagine you have a 2d plane divided into squares. Some of those squares will represent a solid wall that would block vision.

Pick a square on the plane and imagine that you’re standing there, then draw lines from the center out in every direction, stop when you hit a wall. Any one of those lines that crosses another visportal means you can “see” that visportal and thus it will be drawn by the game.

That’s all fine and good, if everything is carved up into nice, even square chunks, but that’s rarely the case. In the case of Escherhaus, apparently you can stand at the far end of one base and the visportals can see all the way to the back of the opposing base, despite the fact that there is plenty of wall blocking what the player can actually see.

I couldn’t find the original document I read that explained visportals very well, but I did find this discussion with links to images that illustrate what I mean.
[/size]http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/Talk:Hintbrushes

and while I’m at it, a tutorial I haven’t read on visLeafs and optimization:
http://www.student.ru.nl/rvanhoorn/optimization.php?chapter=visleafs&PHPSESSID=4d4ae8edd7e941722e4ef602de19b00c

#656

I gotcha. In UTEngine based editing the word is zones instead of portals but it sounds like the same concept. Anything that is in another zone is not drawn unless it is visible by the player/camera. Therefore a more linear level would create long draw distances. It is surprising that you can see from one end of your map to the other as thats a long way with a lot of objects/brushes in between.

UTEngine and Hammer seem to work in opposite approaches. In UT you carve out empty space (rooms/areas) from a solid void wereas in Hammer the void is the empty space and you add brushes to fence off the void and in the process create your rooms. I’m getting it, just need to keep reading. :smiley:

#657

I believe that Unreal Engine 3 has the option to build maps either additively (like Source) or subtractively (like old Unreal) on a per level basis.

#658

this is correct, and a welcome addition in my opinion…

#659

Tonight’s Match Info Is UP!

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/CGTalk/events/

Match starts at 9PM EST (2AM GMT).
Invite your friends and let the gibs fly!

#660

I haven’t been able to reach VanillaChicken yet, perhaps he’s on holidays. Akin assures me that, as long as the map names are different, you should still be able to download beta6 from the game server even if it’s not on the “fast downloads” server (Vanilla’s site).

So until bandwidth gives out, I post a link to my map for those who wish to preload before tonight’s match

Download here: ctf_EscherHausBeta6

Last week was awesome, let’s keep up the pace we’ve set for ourselves tonight!

#661

Sorry about that, sir. I’ve got it uploaded now, or atleast in the process of uploading. It’ll be up by the time anyone reads this, though, so I guess me saying this doesn’t really make much sense…oh well.

Here’s the link for anyone wanting to preload:
http://www.vanillachicken.com/tf2/tf/maps/ctf_escherhausbeta6.bsp.bz2

I think I will make it tonight aswell, hope to see plenty of you there.

#662

Server seems to be down at the moment. I don’t know why.
I’ve put in a support ticket, hopefully the problem is resolved soon.

Sorry guys. :cry:

#663

doh!
where is the server actually located at?