UGAC – Moving Juggernaut Vehicle Level - Rules

#81

here’s kind of a dumbass sort of question but i just wanted to clarify. with my model, i’ve got stairs & originally i modeled one individual step which i intended to instance. well it wasn’t working so well. i took some of the steps & rigged it up into a stair case which fit better. i instanced that & plugged in at different points. now, with the staircases, would each step count as ‘unique’ geometry? or since they were based on just the one, would i count one step & the other things like the case & the railing as one instance? just wanted to be clear so my poly limits were cool when all this is said & done. thanks

-J

#82

Stepping away from the instancing questions…

I’m starting to think about my light sources. I’ve never made anything this large before. If you’ve read my wip thread I have decided to go for a really industrial and militarized setting.

I would like to make spotlights a important part of my model. I want to have them both on the exterior pointing out for intruders and spotlight towers on the inside looking out for escaping or trouble making prisoners. I know I have seen spotlights before in video games and was just wondering if they work any differently than simply setting up my spotlight.

What types of lights are recomended to make it authentic game art? How many should be visable at once under these specs?

Thanks.

#83

New here, so I don’t know the ropes too well. A few questions though before I spend time on this:

1 - Is this a strictly solo project? Or can it involve at least one other person? And if its questionable, would it make a diffrence if one person was strictly art, and the other unreal design work?

2 - Is this limited to just assault type matches? Or are other game modes alowed? (example - Deathmatch, CTF, etc.)

#84

while i’m not entirely sure about the whole solo v. group project thing & i know for sure that the level doesn’t even have to be a UT style level or even something for an FPS for that matter.

-J

#85

Well, if we do create a UT2004 level, will we get bonus points? :thumbsup: Or get points knocked off? :sad: Or it doesn’t really matter? :shrug:

Carrot

#86

there’s no points system to speak of & i don’t know where you guys get the impression that it MUST be a ut level. it was one of many examples given to start off with. all the discussion later was only using the same convoy level as a frame of reference for poly constraints. i’d say look over the rules again, as there’s really no mention of this.

-J

#87

I didn’t get the impression that it must be a ut level, I just want to make it one cause it’ll be fun. Will also look good in my portfolio and I know that a lot of industry people frequent this site and I want to get picked up as a level designer somewhere, preferably Epic.

Carrot

#88

well then there you go! that’s the only thing you need to be concerned about. that, & poly limits. oh. and texture budgets. and then there’s also that whole time thing with the deadline.

but yeah having fun, poly & tex budgets, & deadlines! lol

-J

#89

The level does not need to be exported. Just modeled and textured, within the rules…
I am thinking what gave you this impression is the fact the some of the contestants already said they will try to export their level to UT, of HL2
This is strictly for fun, we get no points added or subtracted for exporting the level, and are mostly doing it just for our portfolio.

#90

Ahhh!
You make it sound like an job. [size=2]LOL.[/size]
This contest is just for fun and experience.

really. it is

:smiley:

#91

Is that the prize? Winner get’s a job? LOL

I’d be working a lot harder…

#92

guys, this sounds like an amazing contest…a really fun challenge.

i do want to take a moment and apologize for my sudden disappearance for a spell. i was and am still going through some pretty heavy and life-changing personal issues and cgtalk was on the bottom shelf of the list of life saving properties…so with that out of the way, I will mark my return here with a more vested involvement in the game art community here at cgtalk…and I am looking for another moderator [whom I already have in mind] to help alleviate any woes that can arise given a situation where the current moderator is unavailable…

anyway thanks for trucking on guys. you continue to inspire me, and inspiration is what I need most right now. thanks for making this a place i want to visit.

later,
Nater

#93

Hey everyone…
Sorry for the text above for being in image form, word crashed and I was able to capture an image of the screen before it completely blacked out. Saved me a few min to do it this way

Going to bed now, and barley keep my eyes open. :surprised

#94

Nathan, glad to see you’re back!

We should start thinking about rounding up some judges.

#95

Yep.
I will put out an call for judges next week when I put up the submissions thread.

Also, what would everyone think about having an official “what do you think the next challenge should be” thread, that would become an permanent sticky? The winner will still have the last call on what he/she thinks the next challenge should be, but this would at least give the winner some ideas…
And, in the process, make the gap between challenges shorter…
:deal:

#96

Welcome back bentllama.

I have 2 quick questions.

In max is there a way to display your tri’s to suptract or atleat tell me the number of my instanced objects? It is becoming a real pain in the but to have to first select all my originals, check the count, then select all else.

Also I’m planning on using some seamless normal mapped textures. Does anyone have any advice on painting normal maps rather than modeling them?

Thanks guys.

#97

Hi JuddWack!
Here is one plugin for normal map creation from ordinary image.

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html
And here is a great tutorial for normal map creation, low poly modeling etc.

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/normal_workflow.htm

Hope it is useful for you and others.

#98

Earth, you never fail me. Looks like were becoming good friends, lol.

#99

ned mor time!

#100

How much are you thinking?