General Mapping Question

[SuckyModderDave]

here's a general question concerning mapping from a person who is considering taking it up:

how long does it take? how long would it take for one person to complete a map similar to one of the single player maps in the original game? im just wondering how time consuming mapping is.

[SunBurN]

Well that's a tough question to guage since the answer relies on various things such as: your skill, problems you run into such as leaks, going over a func_brush limit, etc. Plus, The more you get into mapping, you find that you are almost never satisfied with the map you're working on and if you let it, you can go on for weeks and weeks just trying to get something right even though it may have been "good enough" to begin with.

 

The most time consuming part is not the actual mapping, but the wait times for compiling a map into a .bsp. There are many factors that play into this such as, the size of you map, what you put into it (such as lights, efx, etc) and if you're using good mapping techniques because if you don't, you could end up with a map with extremely low FPS (Frames Per Second), leaks, HOM or critical errors that keep you from actually launching the map in game.

 

After you take all of that into account, you also have various degrees of rendering (compiling) your map in different levels of light detail such as Fast Vis/ No light which will render your map in "full bright" and is only for quick testing out changes you make to the map. Then you have Fast Vis 1/2 which will render in a slightly longer time period and give you a good idea of how your map will look in game. Now, if you use Full Vis (1/2), Full Vis or Full Vis (extra) the last being the longest and most detailed of the compile options, and depending on the speed of your machine and size of the map, these compiles can take from hours to days!!

 

There are other things to take into account such as scripting for NPCs in single player, bot route support, and host of other things you have yet to learn. So, if all of this seems overwhelming..well it is...at first...but once you get into it..it all becomes second nature. I'd start out by making a box (much like king room on http://www.pcgamemods.com) and once you get that working in game, go from there. For a pretty good tutorial on getting started, go here:

 

http://richdiesal.jedioutcastmaps.com/tutorials/

 

I hope this helps!

 

SunBurN

[Shadriss]

As one who has been captured by this mapping bug, I can testify to the time consumption aspect. My most recent map (Duel of the Fates, V2.0) took me and a friend some 2 months to complete. And that was only, , tecnically, three rooms. Granted they were LARGE rooms, and had LOTS of detail to them, but all the tweaking and such that we took took forever.

 

It was all worth it to see people's eyes bug out though...

 

Really, what it comes down to is a desire to create them. I've mapped for a couple of other games before this, and aside from the challenge itself, ,it's a way to express your own creativity given a set of limits.

 

But, if you don't think it's for you, ,thoat's OK too. It's a hard thing to make a good map. If you DO try - well, know that we all here in this forum re "here to support".