DM-Garden of Dreams [PC][PS3]

[Kantham]

What about DM-DreamGarden instead? Just seems to sound better IMO.

[Slainchild]

Nice, reminds me of the Spyro the Dragon games on Playstation for some bizarre reason.

[Dante]

Originally Posted by Kantham

What about DM-DreamGarden instead? Just seems to sound better IMO.

Well "Garden of Dreams" was a name of the song that i couldnt forget when i was making the map, and it sounds better than "Dream Garden", no? Besides, its a little too late to change it

[[VaLkyR]Anubis]

I like the name of your map and the whole design,it is just awesome.I remember to the time when several people said that UT3 is only a dark and grey looking game,pah now that is really a surprise.I never really believed in these opinions,because in the past I knew they said not the truth and now it is obviously they don't said the truth.Great job,can't wait to play your map on my new system.

[Anuban]

Originally Posted by {RU}Sirius

Thank you. And Anuban...chill out. I was not bashing anything or anybody. I will hold this up as being one of the most colorful maps out there. The only stock DM map that has any color IMO is DM Sentinel....and that's not much.

Sounds like bashing when you say stuff that is false and gives the impression the UT3 maps have no color ... they are desaturated to be sure but to say there is no color is just crazy. defiance has a lot of blue in it as well. Sunrise has blues and yellows, a lot of the larger maps have lots of green ... look at Serentity ... so I really do get peeved when I hear this nonsense. Folks are either colorblind or complaining for the sake of complaining. This lack of color talk couldn't be farther from the truth. Is this map more colorful than the UT3 maps ... well in some respects yes ... it is brighter that is for sure. But adding some more color saturation to levels via that mutator by Xyx is an option for folks, try it.

[Lruce Bee]

Screen shots certainly indicate the chocolate box/candy wrapper garden of loveliness the title suggests and it's a fitting tribute to the violent and tortuous locals the tournament represents.
I would rename it something like DM-Percy_Thrower.
A very nice juxtaposition of imagery and reality forging an impossible alliance between beauty and the beast so to speak.
My only suggestion would be to add the odd blood splattered wall or upturned paving slab inter-dispersed with hanging jibs or flailed corpse on a row of razor sharp wrought iron fences against a eye catching primrose picket fence or maybe some bright green ivy on a wall - sounds weird but i think it just might work.
Alternatively, you could design your work to make people think about the content of the level.
Where am I? - Is it convincing? - Does it feel right? - Do I like fragging here?
Are you in an environment that a tournament could happen or is this somewhere that Radio2 would broadcast Gardeners world from?
You could throw in some blisteringly original architecture and even before the player starts firing a shot they will want to take a walk around the level simply to gawp at the place.
If you can get people to appreciate the theme and the location before the carnage commences then you're onto something.

[Dante]

Originally Posted by Lruce Bee

My only suggestion would be to add the odd blood splattered wall or upturned paving slab inter-dispersed with hanging jibs or flailed corpse on a row of razor sharp wrought iron fences against a eye catching primrose picket fence or maybe some bright green ivy on a wall - sounds weird but i think it just might work.

Indeed this sounds like quite a nice idea, kinda didn`t come up with that when i was building the level.

Originally Posted by Lruce Bee

Alternatively, you could design your work to make people think about the content of the level.
Where am I? - Is it convincing? - Does it feel right? - Do I like fragging here?
Are you in an environment that a tournament could happen or is this somewhere that Radio2 would broadcast Gardeners world from?

Well i really wasnt after believable environment, and it wasnt suppose to look like a Tournament arena, actualy "background story" has nothing to do with neither tournament nor Unreal, it is suppose to be happening in Your head. Though of course I agree that you have to take this into account when creating a level, but this time i really wasn`t making something at least a bit real.

Originally Posted by Lruce Bee

You could throw in some blisteringly original architecture and even before the player starts firing a shot they will want to take a walk around the level simply to gawp at the place.
If you can get people to appreciate the theme and the location before the carnage commences then you're onto something.

I think i sort of achieved that, atleast numerous poeple (during beta testing) said that they actualy were flying around the level, looking at environment ant beautiful surroundings for quite some time before pushing that "fire" button

[Igoy]

Gorgeous map! Will check it out later.

[Growler]

I'm surprised your inspiration didn't come from Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic - which was on SkyTV a few days ago - that has the 'floating island' thing *just* like that on there o.o

[Dante]

Originally Posted by Growler

Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic

Terry Pratchett? Bastard is stealing my ideas!

Since many fantasy-theme games (World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 12 would be just 2 examples) have some sort of "floating islands" (There were floating nali cities even in Unreal 1!) no wonder it seems familiar

[Lethargy]

Amazing work of art, looks and runs great. Keep up the good work.

[Sir Lemming]

I was curious about this map from lurking the forums, and then last night it popped up when I did a Quickmatch, so... yeah.

The thing that hit me immediately about the map was that the lighting seemed too uniformly bright. It's definitely an outdoor map, but it feels like it has indoor lighting.

How are your lights set up, exactly? It seems like there isn't one main light source, or that it's directly above the map and pointing straight down. What I would do is situate the sunlight on one edge or corner of the map and let it cast some interesting shadows. I would maybe have one directional light for the main sun/shadow stuff, one skylight for general ambient color all over the level (to reach the unlit areas), and possibly one simple light right by the directional light for added oomph. Then I would only add a few other lights as necessary.

It could be that there's a static mesh lighting setting that's missing. I'm not really a mapping expert yet, but I know the Unreal engine is capable of lighting this level better than it's lit currently. Shadows are important for really bringing out the beauty of this map.

I'll point out some of your screenshots that I think best demonstrate what I'm talking about, with comments by each one:

Originally Posted by Dante

Screenshots:



There seem to be some shadows near the bottom of the screen, but I still feel like those rocks and trees aren't doing anything.

Additional screenshots:
Screenshot 5 Shouldn't at least one of these tall objects be casting a shadow on this area of ground?
Screenshot 7 Shouldn't it be fairly dark under this roof?

I can't say with 100% certainty that all of those comments are accurate, because without playing the level I can't look around a corner and say "Oh, it actually is casting a shadow over in that direction." But I'm just trying to give you the general idea of what I'm saying. The one thing I CAN say for sure is that the map needs more variation in lighting. More dark areas.

I have a feeling this could actually be a fairly easy change to make, at least compared to all the work you put into the rest of the map. It could even be that your lights are simply too bright. You know your map better than I do. Good luck!

[Dante]

Originally Posted by Sir Lemming

How are your lights set up, exactly? It seems like there isn't one main light source, or that it's directly above the map and pointing straight down. What I would do is situate the sunlight on one edge or corner of the map and let it cast some interesting shadows. I would maybe have one directional light for the main sun/shadow stuff, one skylight for general ambient color all over the level (to reach the unlit areas), and possibly one simple light right by the directional light for added oomph. Then I would only add a few other lights as necessary.

There is one skylight and two directional lights, first one to cast shadows (facing roughly the same way as the sun in skydome) and another facing the opposite way. Probably Skylight is too bright compared to directional lights, so shadows are not so deep and some are almost invisible. Also, terrain`s lightmap resolution is fairly low, so shadows dont look so sharp (my fault there, forgot to increase it in final version).

Originally Posted by Sir Lemming

It could be that there's a static mesh lighting setting that's missing. I'm not really a mapping expert yet, but I know the Unreal engine is capable of lighting this level better than it's lit currently. Shadows are important for really bringing out the beauty of this map.

Indeed I noticed that some places need lighting tweaked, but that was after i released final version Talking about screenshots, i believe problems #1 and 2 are because of low terrain lightmap resolution. Not 100% sure about #3, might be low lightmap resolution as well, or maybe its because one flat surface, but i agree that that one indeed doesnt look the way it should look

Originally Posted by Sir Lemming

The one thing I CAN say for sure is that the map needs more variation in lighting. More dark areas.

Well i both agree and disagree, indeed variation is possitive thing, but i dont think there should be more areas in the map. Whole map is pretty open, and pretty much every area is directly hit by the sun, so everything is pretty bright. Dark and solid shadows do look nice most of the time, but keep in mind
that map time is noon, and bright sun is shining in the sky, and there arent many object that could cast quite dark shadows (even the biggest rocks are not big enough, atleast thats what i think).

Originally Posted by Sir Lemming

I have a feeling this could actually be a fairly easy change to make, at least compared to all the work you put into the rest of the map. It could even be that your lights are simply too bright. You know your map better than I do. Good luck!

Yeah, most of the changes shouldn`t be too hard, thanks for pointing this stuff out But final version is out, i would probably need to do Second Edition or something.

[Sir Lemming]

Originally Posted by Dante

Well i both agree and disagree, indeed variation is possitive thing, but i dont think there should be more areas in the map.

I guess I should have said "more areas should be dark"; I wasn't suggesting adding areas to the map that are dark just to add contrast.

Originally Posted by Dante

Whole map is pretty open, and pretty much every area is directly hit by the sun, so everything is pretty bright. Dark and solid shadows do look nice most of the time, but keep in mind that map time is noon, and bright sun is shining in the sky, and there arent many object that could cast quite dark shadows (even the biggest rocks are not big enough, atleast thats what i think).

Hmm... I guess all I can say is, maybe it shouldn't be noon! Just seems like a waste of such a pretty environment.

Originally Posted by Dante

Yeah, most of the changes shouldn`t be too hard, thanks for pointing this stuff out But final version is out, i would probably need to do Second Edition or something.

Right, okay. I'm not really familiar with how things work here; didn't realize it was completely finished. I guess that's why it was in the map rotation. Well, do whatever you will then; I realize it's hard to get motivated to change something you already finished unless you're George Lucas.

[Dante]

Originally Posted by Sir Lemming

I guess I should have said "more areas should be dark"; I wasn't suggesting adding areas to the map that are dark just to add contrast.

Yeah, i understood what you meant, just forgot to add word "darker" in my sentence

Well it`s not like i don`t have motivation, but since the map is already finished and bunch of people downloaded it, and lets say i release another version, some people might think "why should i redownload that map if the old one isn`t broken" etc etc. Indeed there are flaws, but it wouldnt be fun if it would be perfect

[sneh]

nice work!

[Galivan]

UT3 needs nature maps and this is a fantastic example that this is posible in UT3, really nice job & very nice looks O.O

[Tux Android]

Very decent atmosphere, lighting and enormous layout. I've counted an eight or nine miniature floating islands with large shark boat at the bottom, connected with waterfalls, bridge, sculptures, pagoda, trees, leaves, crystals, etc. The jumppads and portals are the good connective paths through the surface and z-axis, but be careful to watch those steps that can lead you fall to your death. The skybox is pure ecstasy with large tainted island view. The bots are very likeable but I hate that these guys can frag you with a long dream sniper (my teammates can handled in TDM), but enjoying this map by now.

Eight mirrors for this map on PC:
ftp://ftp.unreal.ie/unreal.ie/ut3/ma...denOfDreams.7z
http://www.fileplay.net/file/3862/dm-garden-of-dreams
http://www.gamefront.com/files/10092...enOfDreams.zip
http://www.game-maps.org/index.php?/...eams-by-dante/
http://www.hlkclan.net/ut3/maps/DM-GardenOfDreams.zip
http://www.map-factory.org/ut3/death...nofdreams-1014
http://www.mapraider.com/maps/?fileid=4234
http://www.utzone.de/forum/downloads...o=file&id=2867

One mirror for this map on PS3:
http://www.ut3mod.com/2008/03/deathm...of-dreams.html

[SkaarjMaster]

I originally thought this map was not bad, but I'm going to have to change that to good. The atmosphere is great in this one with decent gameplay with jump pads, jump boots and an a-hole bot up high sniping at you. I usually don't like maps where you can fall to your death, but this one grabbed me.