RealAward @ RealMaps!

OMG!!!!

This map is absolutly amazing!
Finaly! a war map that I like.
This NEEDS to be included into the next map pack

WOW...

The guy is a true pro... no doubt.

AngelHeart... you da man.

a HUGE improvement over DM-Nam, definetely!
kudos to AngelHeart!

Well as usual AngelHeart just blows me away with his textures and excellent brush work prefabs and the like.

But for me as usual it is the max 850 polycount that gets me every time, the polycount is all over the place from 70 - 850 and very uneven.

But I guess that if you have a system where the polycount doesn't matter then that's just fine.

Sadly for me the INF levels I build have to be within realistic polycounts (max 200-250) which takes me forever to do.

I MUST go buy a bigger CPU just to play AngelHearts levels, now that a compliment if ever I hear one.

Where does this guy get all of the amazing textures?!

Sort of related, can anyone else offer any helpful links for finding good real-world textures, or photos of military-type equipment that can possibly be converted into textures or used for constructing prefabs? I'm getting tempted to buy a cheap digital camera just so I can get some source material for walls, floors, and the like... Drawing things from scratch with a mouse just doesn't cut it.

bastard_o, I don't know if it's the poly count that's making things choppy, but rather, the massive node count. The level was rather slow on my Thunderbird 800 / GeForce2 MX system even in areas that had a poly count under 200. I suspect this was because of the node count, which was more than twice as high as the poly count in those areas.

node counts are almost always twice the poly count or higher, although different styles can make the ratio different.

Thought I'd just say hi and
thanks for all the good feedback I been getting for this map and all the others.
On the poly node count thing. Believe it or not , I know all to well how to build levels with the stats fps counter running continuously on screen, I just finished working on a commercial UT thing called Devastation where the poly count for levels was 160 .
Thing is, like all the rest of you guys, I just do this stuff for fun in my free time, and although I tried it a few times, I never found it much fun chopping up my maps for the sake of the poly count. If at the end of the day other people get something out of what I do then that’s really great. But ultimately I do what looks and feels good to me.
As for the textures I buy a lot of books and scan a lot of stuff in, I can do textures from scratch, but
I find that when doing reality based stuff its best to use a real photo as a starting point. It still takes a lot of manipulation to get them to look right in a level, but that’s the fun of it for me, getting something to look real The best starting point for military stuff on the web I found is
http://www.olive-drab.com/index.html
there's loads of links and some great side front and top shots of military vehicles etc if you hunt around.
Hopefully I'll soon start putting more meshes in my levels rather than those heavy duty poly brushes
as I've just got the hang of (and a copy of, at last 3D studio Max. this should help a bit with future poly counts, maybe

/me bows down before the Great One...

We're not worthy!!!



Anyway, great to see you drop by, Angelheart! I've been a total admirer of your work for a while now. I swear no one captures the feeling of "being somewhere else" in a level like you do. I grew up in NYC for a time, & I swear your CTF-UrbanReality gives me a true "home town" feeling every time I play it. Sometimes I like to load it up just to run around in there and re-live my childhood...

I pray you keep making these unbelievable maps for a long, long time to come. I can't wait to see what you do w/ the next-generation 3-D engines, where you'll be able to poly-up a world to your heart's content!

Thanks for the great link. Can't wait to see what you cook up with MAX.

That's what I figured.

Yep, when I play AngelHeart's maps, I feel more like I'm walking around in a work of art, rather then a map. I forget the name of it, but the map he made for some pretty map contest, looks like a painting. And plays really well too I always wanted to know how he did his textures, and now I know. Makes sense I suppose, cuz making them from scratch just doesn't look right half the time. One more thing before I go, me and Leo always go to this site for military vehicle pics:
http://www.fas.org/man/index.html
Jaymian

Indeed thanks for calling by the forum AngelHeart.

I understand completly regarding the polycount thing, I just wish I didn't have to worry about it, creating levels would be much easyier me thinks.

Excellent Tiger tank, 88 and well in fact all of the little brushes, armored car, machine gun all superb .

WWII is indeed what I was brought up with I could maybe name any WWII vechicle or aircraft for that matter.. Great era...

I noticed your location as England ! for some reason I expected you to live in Germany for some strange reason.. ?

Where in England do you live ?

Yeah, I wondered if anyone would pic me up on the Phone box and letter box, they are totaly Unreal.
Guess this is a, what might have happend, once those Panzers had rolled ashore, probably somwhere close by here on the Norfolk coast.
If they had ever managed to get past the good old Home guard of course
Just love all those German vehical names, Panzerkampfwagen.
Hang on, I better be off, think I feel a VW Kubelwagen coming on

VW Kubelwagen.. lol.. Not many of those around in 1944 me thinks...

I have a BIG book in my hands that is called..

Tanks of WorldWar II which is 12" by 10" and an inch thick it has some excellent draw plates of most tanks and some APC's..

An excellent set top, front, side, back of the Pather, the Sd Kfz 251 (Mitteler Schutzenpanzerwagan).

Sherman, Sd Kfz 234/2 Puma, T-34/85, Valentine V, T70A, T34/76B, Jagdpanzer IV Aush, Sturmgeschutz III,
etc.. etc.

I could/would scan any of the above for ya, no trouble..

I bow to your superior Knowledge on the Kubewagen front
l Don't suppose theres a German Halftrack in there by any chance? that would be very handy.I'm thinking of doing something in the desert next, Egypt most likely. I got some side shots, but Its always the front and back views that are harder to come by. Usualy I just make them up. Anyway, thanks for the offer
if there's no half track I may well get back to you for another tank sometime soon

There is indeed the superb Sd Kfz 251 (Mitteler Schutzenpanzerwagan) German half track I have all the plates side, front, back and top.

But sadly it has an Olive Green drab slight camo, not the desert camo...

I could do that for you anyway, plus I have all the measurements that maybe of use..

Here is a sample from the book. The Pather tank..



You may have seen this already, the American half-track textures from the images within this book...

http://www.planetunreal.com/realworld/unrealvechicles.html

Great stuff!
I had seen the American Half track a while back
but forgot it was there. Always a different Camo from the one you want hey I thought that with the Panzer in my map. If your not keeping it for a level of your own then I wouldn't mind taking a look at that Schutzenpanzerwagan, I might be able to do something with it. Thanks

Just a suggestion, now you have a copy of 3D studio max you could pick up some models from 3D cafe http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/meshes.asp
They are high poly but the cool thing to do with them is render your side, front and back views and use those as textures for either low poly brushes or meshes. As long as the level is not commercial and you give a credit in your read me I think the modeler would be pleased.

wow, just in time bastard'o! i was going to go on a texture hunt for a tank today! if it's in that big ol book of yours, could you get me a picture of the american light tank used in the pacific? i don't remember the name, but there can't be too many of them.