This forum needs more JA.




[EDIT: Yes I know that texture is very repetitive, there are no good freaking Nar textures in JA, they all got removed. Sine Nomen is my hero.]

That's looking good

I think it looks great!

Cool!

I've been thinking about trying my hand at making some JO/JA levels. Is it difficult to do, compared to JK editing?

Its a different world seeing as JK works from negative-space while the brush engine that JO/JA use it more in the idea of stacking bricks. I personally enjoy brush engines more for the simple fact of the ease in adding detail.

I also prefer brushes.

And also an engine where you can see lighting in-editor. Like Unreal Engine(s).

Fastgamerr speaks the truth

I'm personally going to get into Source editing onec Dark Messiah of Might and Magic comes out.

Anyways, I don't want to turn the thread into an engine discussion.

To Zell, I think you captured the Nar Shaddaa architecture very well, you try adding neon signs and litter and it'll be tops.

You make me want to download GTK Radiant again, and bug you on AIM...

Perhaps I should try UT2004...

Looks good, but the blue seems too...different.

Jep, the one sign you see is the one sign I can find in the JA texture packages. I can't find that package that was used for the coruscant level, that probably has more useful stuff for me, but alas.



Ze landink pad.

Yeah, you seriously need better city textures

JA's Coruscant level was one of the most awful piece of s***s ever.

A pity unrealed sucks so bad.

You guys are all gay.


I mean seriously... .... you don't like cleavage.

Try using different shades of texture on the walls, preferrably some less busy ones - custom if need be. Also use some more architecture to break up the monotone look of them; if you're showing a JA map, make it look like one dangit. Still, you're one the right track, but there's a lot more work (and time) you'll want to invest in this.


On another note, thanks for making me want to reinstall GTK.

I see an alignment error.

<.<
>.>

Also, these last screenies don't feel very Nar to me....if thats what you're goin for

You may also want to tone down the blue. Take it back a few notches so it isn't so apparent.

To me it looks very generic and unappealing. As does everything in the Q3 engine.

No fault of your own, though. I'm sure you've put a lot of work into this.

That's quite a generalization.

I was away yesterday, but here's what I whipped up to make it slightly better: smog and ships.


And also:


Better? I know it still needs better textures, I'm working on adding new ones as I find them.

[EDIT: I screwed up the image linking, my bad.]

something with the scale looks off in that picture

I realized how small those ships were when I tested the level. They're big now. It's a shame they're just textures, it becomes fairly obvious that close. And I don't know how to make looping, moving models, assuming I can even get random nar style ship models.

Why are the ships all flying tipped up sideways?

The engine has nothing to do with the artistic style that authors employ. You clearly have seen very few maps designed for the Q3 engine, because there is some brilliant work out there.

It looks good, Zell. And yeah, those ships look 50 feet away!

I changed the ships, they made no sense where they were. It looks better now. I'm compiling at the moment, so when I test it, you get pictars.

Good, Nar Shaddaa usually is pretty generic and unappealing.

More:

I plan to eventually have that walkway over there be part of the mission. Dunno how, but it'll be cool.




This is the bottom of that first area, which will be a cluttered pedestrian street, which you have to find your way down to. Somehow. For unknown reasons. It really looks quite cool when you look up and see all the pipes, wires, and walkways, though. I forgot to take a picture of that though.


Oh snap! Headshot! (I spawned some Rodian snipers way up high on those catwalks with the ads on them, and it turns out that they're perfect ambush spots. )

Oh fine, one more:

My biggest dislikes about JA are the animations. Some of them just seem really poorly done. Like the running animation. Anyway...

From what I understand it's an early work, so I'm probably going to over-analyze and nitpick too many things. I may also be trying to analyze it more from an artistic point of view, so, uhh... there's your warning?

The beams of light in that hallway really don't do it for me. If it were really dusty, dark, or foggy it might make sense to have a visible beam of light, but it looks pretty well-lit there. It may also be because they seem a bit too close together. If that's the lighting you're going to keep in that area, I think it might look better with some sort of standard light shader, just not the rays of light like it has right now.

The outdoor architecture looks alright. In general, some of the textures need replacing or need to be resized. For example, the holes in that grate-like texture are probably big enough for the character's legs to fall through.

I like the first and last shots from the newest batch. I think it's probably the atmosphere. In the first shot, the sign on the left side of the center building detracts from the appearance a bit. In the last shot, the building in the bottom-left corner of the screenshot seems too bright compared to the rest. It's probably just me, but I think the area would benefit from having the sign as the brightest light source.

The area in the second shot from your second post also looks pretty good to me, aside from a few of the textures. I think I generally like the open areas. But, aside from the dark-ish landing pad area, the inside area and the back alleys don't seem as good to me.

Looks like it's a good start. I hope you keep on it.

Yeah. Now I kind of feel like installing JA and Radiant again.

Is this better? I made half of that ad flicker, and it really adds to the atmosphere. It was flickered off when I took the picture.


And:

Why isn't the landing pad round?

It's not hard to fix Radiant's nasty square curves. Just drag the corner verticies in.

It is round... or, round enough. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle. You aren't gonna be hovering in the air where I am in that picture, anyway.

I think I have enough stuff for this one area, I may have to move on.


And I decided to go with some kind of junkyard down here that some crazy hermit collects.

I saw that same not-roundness in prey (doom3 engine; same patch mesh system) and it was disgusting. Really, fix it.

Never mind. I'll try.

[EDIT: Sorry dude, no can do. I tried rearranging the vertices of all the patches I have there, and it got all warped and screwed up. I have like 3 patched following hte curve of that platform, so there are too many vertices to keep track of, and honestly, it's not a big enough deal for me to try again. I'm gonna move on to another area, and hopefully people can deal with the not-quite-perfect circular platform. :)]

So, multi-select them, and move them all at once.

Christ, don't they teach you guys anything in school anymore? In my day, when you took a class on Radiant, you actually learned how to use Radiant.

Dude, I did that. They all warped because the vertices are in wierd places to make it fit. On top of that, it crashed Radiant. Chill, it's okay.

Moving on...

Nice work. This is definitely evocative of the Nar Shadaa of Jedi Knight. The layer of traffic in the sky is a nice touch indeed. It gives a nice sense of being in the lower levels of the city- a place that it seems we never got so much of a chance to explore. That junkyard area is also a good touch. All I want to know is this- how in the blazes did you find out where I live? That's a bang-on duplicate! And 'crazy hermit'? I dont' remember meeting you before!

Keep up the good work- I'll look forward to successive updates.

Edit- I forgot to mention how much I like the lighting- That complete lack of continuity is perfect for a place as old and decrepit as Nar Shadaa.

You aren't using JORadiant, are you? Please tell me you are using the latest builds of gtkradiant.

GTKRadiant 1.4.0. I messed up changing the vertices, so I loaded my latest save of the level and it crashed.

Hmm, dunno but some of the coloured lighting might be a little TOO much.

My suggestion is that you take a slightly grey-er blue and purple lightcolour to tone it down a little.

Yeah, I did that the best I could. For some reason, whenever I press K to change the color and select the shade of purple I want and press okay, it reverts back to bright pink. Every single time. So I ended up fiddling with the numbers in the light properties, and I hope it came out alright. My test compile is a half hour with the lighting stage, so you'll have to wait until later to get a picture.

Also, I'm stuck. I don't know where to go from here.

i really like the little hatch thing you did above. it makes all the difference in the world with respect to atmosphere.