Creating Inf Maps : Newbie Questions...

[GeordieBoy]

I've been playing Inf for a while now, and have decided to start creating an Inf map. I'm at an intermediate skill level with UnrealEd2 in creating normal UT maps and I have some questions specifically related to creating Inf maps. If there are any Infiltration mapping tutorials then please let me know.

1. Lighting. On the small amount of UT maps I've created, the lighting has been dark and mostly indoor. What's the best method to acheive the nice bright outdoor style of maps (e.g. Kosovo Day, Peru etc.) ? I know how to create skyboxes, but is the lighting applied to the level, the skybox, other zones or simply added in using normal lights ? I'm finding it hard to achieve balanced consistant lighting. Some info on lighting techniques and/or light settings would be good.

2. Inf actors. I've noticed some Inf specific actors in the browser, such as ambush points etc. Can anyone explain what each of these actors are and how to use them ?

3. Playing the level. Is it possible to play the level directly from UnrealEd ? I receive an error and have to open up the level from Inf. (btw, I'm using the 'UnrealEd for Inf' link to open up UnrealEd).


I'd appreciate any feedback that you have .

 

[LoTekK]

first off, welcome to the dev community...
now, onto your questions:

1. generally i tend to blanket the area with lights, if i'm making a daytime map... take a look at some of the official maps that came with infiltration, and take a look at the light actors... they're generally carpeting the map... from there you can play with the radius and (more importantly, imo) the brightness... i personally tend to stay away from zone lighting, but for daytime maps i bump it up just a little so that i don't end up with ultra-black shadows... also, for a beautiful example of how you can mes with lighting, take a look at alpha_9's dm-inf-atoll and study the skybox... :tup:

2. i can't recall the actors off the top of my head, but the one you just mentioned is mainly for botpathing... the ambushpoint actor essentially tells the bots to "camp", and set up ambushes... inf_cspot (or something like that) is an alternative to the pathnodes, and... well, i can't remember off-hand...

3. the .ini that ships with infiltration needs a bit of editing for it to work... either open up the advanced options and edit the "command line" entry, or change it manually in infiltration.ini... unfortunately i can't for the life of me remember what to change it to...

good luck!

 

[keek]

Lotekk basicly said it! So I'll do it in reversed order:

3. In UEd go to advanced properties (it's somewhere in the menu's), open the editor section and change the line called "commandline" or something. It's current value is "-log". Change that into "-log INI=Infiltration.ini USERINI=InfiltrationUser.ini LOG=Infiltration.log". Now you start INF, not UT, when you hit the play button.
I mailed Beppo about this, he said he'd add this to the next release of INF.

2,1: Like Lotekk said: open up some maps that have lighting you like and see how it was done. I'd recommend maps by Spooge.. they are good tutorials on mapping!

 

[McMuffin]

Lighting: unfortunately Unreal has no Infinite Light type (ie Sun) and maximum light radii are rather small for any good outdoor lighting. As LT said, carpet the area and sort of manually 'paint' the light into your map where it should and shouldn't be.

While we're on the subject... I need some tips for pathing. My bots run over the hill and get shot like they're supposed to , but only sometimes. I even doubled the pathnodes just to make sure, but it only helped a little bit. I heard once that bots need an inventory item of some kind to motivate them. Is this true, and how do you work around it in Inf. since there are no items in maps?

[edit] Keek thanx for the tip in point#3 I've been wondering that myself

 

[LoTekK]

McMuffin:
well, essentially you can feel free to place UT weapons and items all over your map (well, where they're needed/appropriate, anyways... ), and inf will replace them in-game... incidentally, this is also why you can run regular UT maps in inf and not have redeemers floating around...

 

[McMuffin]

I know that much at least ... my point is that, because Inf. removes them, what can you do instead to make the bots move their asses with any degree of determination? The lazy retards just don't wanna go sometimes... I don't see what could be wrong, I've got happy little blue paths all around the map, even some of those nifty InfAmbushPoint's (which work nicely, when the bots actually get to them).

McMuffin--> <--Lazy_Bot

 

[GNAT]

although INF removes them the bots still see them, therefore they will run that way!

 

[Dupre]

Yep. So basically lay out the items as if the map was meant for regular UT.. test it using regular UT bots. If they're happy there, usually they'll behave the same in Inf.

 

[McMuffin]

thanks... I *knew* there was a reason for the UT items in Azteca...

 

[Alpha_9]

I should warn you about INF bots, though. Unfortunately as they stand now they're just not as "motivated" as UT bots. So you may path your map & find UT bots navigating it well, but when trying it in INF you'll still find the bots just stop at certain areas to smell the flowers, maybe never even leave their spawn point, and never go to certain parts of the maps (e.g. indoor areas in an outdoor map). Very little can be done about that pathing-wise, until we get INF bot AI worked out better.

 

[McMuffin]

damn lazy bots...

 

[DarkSniper]

Thank you Alpha 9!!!!!!!! I get so tired of hearing people and reviewers saying maps are not pathed well when in fact often it is more of a scripting issue than a pathing issue. LOOK at this people and adjust your critisism accordingly.

 

[das_ben]

you just gotta' put a 9mm in their arse and trust me, they'll move!

 

[smeerkat]

Found this thread through Google.

Regarding the INF specific AmbushPoint, doesn't that entice the bots to go there and camp? Why have that actor otherwise?