Work arounds, hints, etc.

[Kelly]

Some of that depends on the renderer the mapper is using. It could have been correct if he was using a different one than we are.

[Nelsona]

D3d in original shows texture properly but that original render has definitely other nasty flaws more or less known as poorly coded as it is.
Texture(s) is(are) messed up for a simple reason shown, by inspecting them in Texture Browser and trying to deal with "bMasked" flag obviously they react like are "Read-Only" or that property doesn't even exist in that MyLevel. I've exported them and re-imported them masked 256, and everything went at normal. I don't have a clue how these textures have been imported and why that way...

For the ship appearance probably a small cube mover with a decoration attached would be more suitable than lagging with useless details in a polygoniada spree, eh...

[D13GO_{HoF}]

Man, this is too much information to read in one sitting, hmm i wonder what Kelly and Nelsona really think about the maps i share in UT99.org even though i'm still a newbie creating maps

Well when i make my next map i can try some of this hints and see how they can work for me(already have a picky eye for some details like boxes not floating in floor or textures with masked,translucent attributes at least), i learn better by practice than just read
Thanks Kelly

[Kelly]

Don't compare yourself with anyone D, you just do what makes you happy. Your maps are your art form so just enjoy the process.

[Nelsona]

Then just do not read here and... do messed up things even after years of "mapping". You should take in account that is explained some stuff at Wiki which I could figure by inspecting these works where people seems blind and deaf around tutorials, or just ignorant because "I'm making maps for years" - this sound like "I'm making sh!t for years" in my ears - that's the point for these debates and for interested candidates. I had to read myself and to improve my skill because to be honest I did not do the best Levels but I have the dignity to accept any criticism because this is the way of learning. Non-Coplanar surfaces are the pain in all that BSP/Goblin complains and also BSP Cuts coming from miss-aligned things.

If you know Hook, he gave a good advice to stop mixing subtract from a subtract and adding a solid into another solid (space being already used), but some genius denied this advice coming from an elder explaining about EPIC works as samples. Well... for your (and everyone's) deception, EPIC are not having many good samples, BlockAll used = BAD MAPPING, coming from laziness toward de-intersecting and Vertex Editing.
Mapping process requires not only art (my bad point) but also requires a bit of math and tech skills (not my best points as well).

Given the hard task for making a good Level, I don't get the point for not Team-Working at something, having a selfish attitude and then ending with a messed up map - but happily announced later with big letters and whistles resulting in admins removing it sooner or later. I gotta admit tastes are different, but rules are the same.
_______

Good... Now after starting something like a map, I must do a check if I did not fired a wrong start - checking BSP Cuts - which means appearance of some lines causing a high-contrast of colors in stage:

timed_checks.PNG (19.55 KiB) Viewed 10565 times

These checks are preventing a future pain if something goes evil.
So far the human eye view is like this:

real_view.PNG (312.5 KiB) Viewed 10565 times

Which means this area doesn't include flaws so far - I even dare to not hit a try directly in game because Editor did not report any issue for the moment.

[Kelly]

Don't get me wrong Nels. I'm not telling him to map incorrectly, I'm telling him that it's OK to feel like you aren't as good as someone else. Don't compare your work to other people's and judge yourself as worse. When you map it's very much creating your own art and that's not "better" or "worse" than anything, it's just yours.

It's like writing a book. You need to follow all the rules of grammar and spelling but it's fine to tell the story you want to tell. I hope that explains better.

[Nelsona]

I couldn't say it better , exactly this is the right term "Editor's grammar". Doesn't matter that much tastes (because are different from a man to another) but mapping rules are the same with no exceptions, and here we can talk about a "bad grammar" used in Editor which was a pain since forever.

[D13GO_{HoF}]

Don't compare yourself with anyone D, you just do what makes you happy. Your maps are your art form so just enjoy the process.

Still some criticism doesn't hurt, especially if it helps to improve

[Kelly]

When you get going on your next map I'll throw you some things I have lying around that will make it...interesting

[Nelsona]

Okay, let's break a bit the silence in order to chat a bit about some... sorta mapping and "map conversion". Getting feed for the thread from UT99.org and speaking about whatever (fake) map named Thra_Fortress having as main issue a zone pushing player (on whatever X axis).
The beginning of examination was... entertaining...

Thr_For.PNG (79.78 KiB) Viewed 10438 times

When a map has such a ScreenShot it's probably "awesome" in next moments...
After doing a quick view around what I was describing before I can see some... stuff...

Th_For_Leaked.PNG (145.41 KiB) Viewed 10438 times

This is proving that some moving zone has a leak into void and another zone has another leak into void both of them being ONE ZONE.
The problem might be useless to solve by splitting these zones properly and fixing stupidly messed up cubes (yeah, not complex brushes, but amazingly... cubes miss-aligned).
Why might be useless ? Because map will get turned into other crapped thing. Let's see stats:

Ring_Out.PNG (11.33 KiB) Viewed 10438 times

In Unreal's maths we are counting from 0 to whatever. In this case we have 0...63 zones = a total number of 64 zones - MAXIMUM possible for not turning map into an UNI-ZONED Level - Leaked.
If we want 2 more zones (for fixing issue) we are reaching over boundaries making a mess. Map is in that stage because geometry is badly messed up creating USELESS zones where no pawn can ever reach proving that mapper and/or whoever converted it doesn't care about Editor's silent stories - ignorance at extremes. What's wrong with you, people ? Are you blind or deaf or just wierd ?
ZoneNumber 1 having that modified gravity is limited by a sort of Cube-Portal. Let's see some... vertexes - snippets down there:

• ...
  Vertex +04463.999512,-00064.000000,-00032.000000
  Vertex +04463.999512,-00064.000000,+00032.000000
  Vertex -00256.000000,-00064.000023,+00032.000000
  Vertex -00256.000000,-00064.000023,-00032.000000
  ...
  Vertex -00256.000000,-00064.000023,-00032.000000
  Vertex -00256.000000,-00064.000023,+00032.000000
  Vertex -00256.000000,+00063.999977,+00032.000000
  Vertex -00256.000000,+00063.999977,-00032.000000
  ...
  Vertex -00256.000000,+00063.999977,-00032.000000
  Vertex -00256.000000,+00063.999977,+00032.000000
  Vertex +04463.999512,+00064.000000,+00032.000000
  Vertex +04463.999512,+00064.000000,-00032.000000
  ...

I don't have any clue if in this brush exist a polygon which is not crapped up. That 64 has... many values proving that we cannot even use the term polygon for what is there... I'm not gonna ask what is that 04463,999512 and not 04464,000000. And now draw your conclusions about these "maps". Grid alignment here is a myth, Screenshot is screwed up, settings here and there have no logic, we have here a real forum spam if we want to debate this junk.
I was almost to forget, map uses (some of) those textures from ChicoRuinsPack.utx which I like to call "Chico_Ruined_Packages" given the number of versions and structures used for the same named textures and making a dumb packages soup - have fun, MH admins.