The "author size-map scale" concept

[Phloxx]

Have you ever played a map and noticed that brushes such as chairs and other furniture are twice as big as they should be? This results when a map is constructed by a younger person. You see, if a 9 year old and a 17 year old both made a map of the same kitchen, the 9 year old's oven, table, etc. would be a lot bigger because that's how he views things in real life. If you play DM-Christmas Streets for instance, you can tell that map was made by a little kid because the couches are head-high! If you are younger, you should probably check your maps to make sure they're in the right proportions. One good way to do this is to play the map in third-person view mode. If your player model is a human adult, doors and stuff start to look a bit silly when 128 high. Of course this isn't to important if you're making a castle level or something, but if you are constucting a realism map, you might want to look into it.

 

[Chrysaor]

Good insight

 

[cdeaconu]

i like cheese

Wouldn't a 9-year old smart enough to use the Unreal Editor be able to figure that out by himself???

Besides, it matters not, for if they are smart enough to use the editor, I'm sure they can use a ruler to tell how many feet tall something is. I'm sure they know how to multiply by 16 (or use a calculator) as well.

I'll shut up now.

 

[Seco_In_The_Bushes]

Be that as it may, Im still not smart enough to get things into the right proportions. . . Dis-proportion is the biggest problem I have with map-makin. Never seem to get that height exactly right. One problem is that if you switch betwee behindview and first person in the game, things will look bigger or smaller in relation to you, so you have to choose which is more important.

 

[Skorch]

put a bot in the map next to where your building and use him for perspective...

 

[[CD]Icedude]

this thing about author size scale is true (and those who think a 9 year old couldnt work the editor, i started mappin in the unreal engine when i was about 10), i did it myself once by accident, but it wasnt a problem, the map SUCKED

 

[Evil_Cope]

nice theory.

quite wrong id bet, but a nice theory.

 

[Zarkazm]

I simply feel that everything appears smaller in the editor than in-game. Maybe that's due to the small viewport? And maybe they don't care to scrap everything later, or are not objective enough to admit their mistake.

 

[Nocturn]

Perspective is a large chunk of the whole battle. The world does look different to different folks. I'm over 6 ft tall, the way I perceive the dimensions of things (without using equalizers like rulers and calculators) is different from the way a 5 ft tall person perceives them. Like time, my buddy says "its been a long time since i've played that game" , I say "but the game only came out 2 months ago". My buddy is a whole foot shorter to me, so to him...........the top shelf is too far away to get the item, for me its just right.

The thing to remember when realsim mapping is that the height of an unreal player is aprx 6ft tall. And even though we are all using the same player models, we are all still different sizes, and thus our perceptions have been trained differently. So even if you map "perfectly" according to the numbers..............it still won't look\feel right to everyone.

Instead of bashing 9 year olds for their preceptual differences why not praise them for doing something more with their time than just laying around eating doughnuts watching pokemon re-runs for the millionth time. When those 9 year olds grow up they can revise their work and make it fit their perception. But always..............."you just can't please everyone".

 

[Bot_40]

Nobody is bashing 9 year olds...or at least they weren't over a year ago when the last post before yours was made
Nice thread resurrection