[WIP] Mystique, oh and also... cakes!

Ok well its been hell, dealing with the vistas and windows exploders, gfx card toasting issues, wtf colors, epic fail, loldramas and burnt crumpets. But who gives a bloody shit?
http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/4...4522196ds6.jpg
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/1...0528119vs0.jpg
http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/1...4552263ur9.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/6...5005813cx8.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-52-21-96.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-52-37-06.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-55-22-63.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-52-21-96.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-11-01-98.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-49-40-59.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-56-31-42.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-03-01-25.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-18-58-08.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-19-12-88.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-03-35-12.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-58-08-75.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...4-59-58-89.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-06-46-13.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7...0527421xj4.jpg
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4...0527054ar6.jpg
As you can see, this is a revamp of my old Mystic map for Halo 2. Currently I call it "Mystique", but it's mainly my guinea pig for my upcoming program I currently code named 'Cake". The program is basically just a tool that will enable you to bake your lightmaps to your map using external rendering software. Its a great solution for running you final lightmaps in little time and do things you could never do before with lightmaps.

All the lightmaps you currently see on this map was rendered in Maya and baked onto the bitmaps. The quality is relatively low though. This was the first set managed to get ingame and working. The render time for these lightmaps was mearly 30 minutes, compared to 9 hours it took to render equivalent lightmaps with h2tool. I plan on rendering a much higher res set when I finish finalizing the BSP and portaling.

As for the map now, I do plan on polishing up this map for a release as well as my application once complete. I'm just saddened that H2v has a really bad online set up for trying to do beta testing with maps :(... Hopefully something will be done soon.

Right now just ignore the bugs with the shaders, some of the trees are completely black, and for some reason I donno, the background forest shader is not showing, neither is the waterfall shader or the water shader. Still working on trying to get those shaders to work. Also, this map needs a skybox. Ascension's is not cutting it for me :mad:. guess I better get started on finishing that .render_model compiler sooner than later as well so I can get some custom models ingame.

Wow, I thought it looked good on halo 1. This looks even better on halo 2 nice job.

looks incredible :) excellent work as always. btw why's your battle rifle so much more shinier than the one in my game?

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Originally Posted by Choking Victim

looks incredible :) excellent work as always. btw why's your battle rifle so much more shinier than the one in my game?

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Thanks. The lighting in my map is accesively bright on objects as I did not run a true lightmap on the map (I did direct only). So basically all objects are excessively shiny. You should see the hog it glows, literally.

Did you create those trees, or were they included in H2EK?

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Originally Posted by sever323

Did you create those trees, or were they included in H2EK?

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I created them :P They are actually welded to the BSP... :ssh:
Don't like the lack of custom scenery models and Geometry instances fail my app.

I will need you to make two mangrove trees for my map Tranquil (a Chill Out remake) when I get to the point of needing them. kplzthx?mbmb?

wow... very nice jahrain, once again im impressed...

:eek:cant wait:eek:

Good work Jahrain! I like!

What were your lightmap rendering settings btw for Mental Ray?

Jahrain, that is past beautiful.

Utterly amazing.

Just astounding. Very well done.

Wow, that lighting is beautiful. It looks like Fable without all of the unnecessary bloom.

Looking great.

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Originally Posted by Dole

Wow, that lighting is beautiful. It looks like Fable without all of the unnecessary bloom.

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. That, and the scenery rocks.

Awsome. Just awsome. I just love the natural look of the forest and how its set around the path as it curves. The lighting also hightens the detail of the scenery. Although I do see some texture errors in there, I would have to give this an 8/10, especially for a WIP. Great Job!

looks freakin Amazing

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Originally Posted by p0lar_bear

Jahrain, that is past beautiful.

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/agree.

This map looks so hawt.

very nice

Nice job Jahrain.

ONE WORD "WOW" Very nice.

Looks utterly delicious!! Awesome Job!!

I want my cake...


Where is it...


Have YOU seen my cake?

looks pretty slick. i remember playing the beta. looked great on ce, looks fantastic now. good luck with your program :)

Great app idea, great map so far. It reminds me of Fable for some reason.

Awesome! I'm really excited about the new lightmaps, +rep

Also, if I were you, I would swap that grass bitmap for one without rocks. They don't look that good in 2d. Use some detail rocks here and there (that is, if they provided the tags)

Looks amazing... framerate?

Looks good can't wait to see some normal maps on that map.

As far as I can tell, it looks cool. I played Mystic on CE, and it was fun. But I really can't pass my final judgment based on pictures. Once you release it (in due time, of course), I can repeat the "utterly amazing" and "O_o" stuff. Keep up the good work, and thanks for showing that people can actually make good maps if they don't rush something out and call it a final.

Wow.

You made a lot of good stuff, Jahrain, but this! THIS IS SPECTACULAR!

Stop showing off good stuff people! >=( This makes me even more angry that the fact I'm low on cash!!!!! btw +rep to jahrain

Excellent Job!

Wow, look who's bringing sexy back.

I forwarded this around the office. The responses ranged from "cool" and "pretty map" to "anyone want coffee?". I think that last one may have been unrelated.

Official Hired Gun thumbs up!

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Originally Posted by bum has knife

Official Hired Gun thumbs up!

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Jahrain, take that with pride.

Two spankin solid thumbs up!

awesome and great pics too! i honestly have no idea how the hell you work the editor. again good job

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Originally Posted by bum has knife

Wow, look who's bringing sexy back.

I forwarded this around the office. The responses ranged from "cool" and "pretty map" to "anyone want coffee?". I think that last one may have been unrelated.

Official Hired Gun thumbs up!

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and so the gods have spoken



awesome stuff :awesome: < see awesome

Wow, that is amazing :) Great work jahrain.

Dude, I love that look of the trees! they look so colorful!

the thumb bitmap when he weilds the battle rifle is screwed up









oh yeah good map too :-D

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Originally Posted by SuperSunny

Good work Jahrain! I like!

What were your lightmap rendering settings btw for Mental Ray?

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Accuracy: 400, Quality: 2.0, Particle Density: 1.5, Interpolation: 15. Thats all the settings I can think of off the top of my head.

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Originally Posted by Conscars

Awesome! I'm really excited about the new lightmaps, +rep

Also, if I were you, I would swap that grass bitmap for one without rocks. They don't look that good in 2d. Use some detail rocks here and there (that is, if they provided the tags)

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Yeah I found out about those detail rocks while working around in sapien. I do plan on using a different terain detail map, as I agree with how it looks, anyways thanks.

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Originally Posted by TheGhost

Looks amazing... framerate?

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I wish framerate was something good for any map in h2v. On my machine, with low settings it runs around 30 to 40 fps on average, but on high at high resolution, just like in other maps I can only get maybe 15 to 20 fps.

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Originally Posted by bum has knife

Wow, look who's bringing sexy back.

I forwarded this around the office. The responses ranged from "cool" and "pretty map" to "anyone want coffee?". I think that last one may have been unrelated.

Official Hired Gun thumbs up!

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Sweet! Wheres my cofee? :p

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Originally Posted by SuperSunny

Good work Jahrain! I like!

What were your lightmap rendering settings btw for Mental Ray?

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Accuracy: 400, Quality: 2.0, Particle Density: 1.5, Interpolation: 15. Thats all the settings I can think of off the top of my head.

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Originally Posted by Conscars

Awesome! I'm really excited about the new lightmaps, +rep

Also, if I were you, I would swap that grass bitmap for one without rocks. They don't look that good in 2d. Use some detail rocks here and there (that is, if they provided the tags)

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Yeah I found out about those detail rocks while working around in sapien. I do plan on using a different terain detail map, as I agree with how it looks, anyways thanks.

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Originally Posted by TheGhost

Looks amazing... framerate?

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LI wish framerate was something good for any map in h2v. On my machine, with low settings it runs around 30 to 50 fps on average, but on high at high resolution, just like in other maps I can only get maybe 15 to 20 fps. But my graphics card is broken, (notice the artifacts on mc's fp hands) so I really can't say for sure.

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Originally Posted by bum has knife

Wow, look who's bringing sexy back.

I forwarded this around the office. The responses ranged from "cool" and "pretty map" to "anyone want coffee?". I think that last one may have been unrelated.

Official Hired Gun thumbs up!

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Sweet! Wheres my cofee? :p Or how about just a water shader example *hint* *hint*

Pity I can't beta this time

*CRYY*

One thing that would make this map even moar sexy, is some nice deep normal maps on the cliffs/rocks/trees. If you have Zbrush, you could probably whip up some awesome ones, but I tend to just photoshop them.

very nice jah :D

Water shader example eh? I think I could whip something up.

What other shaders are you guys interested in or need some examples for? I would say that 70% of the shaders use tex_bump or tex_bump_env_combined. Those are pretty easy to understand and there are some examples on disk.

what about animated textures ?

Too bad you can't make models. The Bulldog (I think it was called) was fun to ride around in.

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Originally Posted by baturkin17

what about animated textures ?

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Animated textures, simple ones, aren't hard. Maybe make it for more difficult and complex animated textures?

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Originally Posted by bum has knife

Water shader example eh? I think I could whip something up.

What other shaders are you guys interested in or need some examples for? I would say that 70% of the shaders use tex_bump or tex_bump_env_combined. Those are pretty easy to understand and there are some examples on disk.

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Some type of waterfall shader would be greatly appreciated :)

Hmm, how's the gameplay factor?

Man, this looks really great. I'm loving the foliage in this map.

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Originally Posted by bum has knife

Water shader example eh? I think I could whip something up.

What other shaders are you guys interested in or need some examples for? I would say that 70% of the shaders use tex_bump or tex_bump_env_combined. Those are pretty easy to understand and there are some examples on disk.

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That would be awesome as I have been trying 100s of different water shader settings from water shader templates and none of them get to look anything like water in halo, or even water at all. Hell I'm lucky enough if I can ever get something that shows up ingame. Also, I could use some good transparent refraction shader examples to use for my waterfall in the map.

Speaking of water, Jahrain, make sure to actually set up the water planes correctly in THIS build. <:mad:>

I like it.
One thing though, the BR and MC FP shaders seem to be edited.
It's like the alpha map disappeared to mask the reflection, and now it's in areas it shouldn't be. :S

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Originally Posted by Veegie

I like it.
One thing though, the BR and MC FP shaders seem to be edited.
It's like the alpha map disappeared to mask the reflection, and now it's in areas it shouldn't be. :S

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None of that hase been edited. Notice the blue and red artifacts on the hand texture as well. My gfx card was kinda screwed up a bit by some issues with vista and the drivers so random shit like this starts to happen. I'm still waiting on my RMA.:mad:

Very cool looking map man! I'm digging the trees, and the textures look excellent.

:XD:

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Originally Posted by bum has knife

Water shader example eh? I think I could whip something up.

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if possible, can you give the water used in uplift? :D

thats sexy water.

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Originally Posted by baturkin17

if possible, can you give the water used in uplift? :D

thats sexy water.

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Indeed it is.....but I smell the need for a tag extractor to make that happen :)

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Originally Posted by DominionOvrU

Indeed it is.....but I smell the need for a tag extractor to make that happen :)

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Uh?
Considering the services offered by him already, no not really.

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if possible, can you give the water used in uplift? :D

thats sexy water.

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It's really not that much different from most of the water used.

I'll try to get you guys up to speed on a few of the most important properties and maybe how to create the bump map (cause its a crazy animated bump).

^ I have a question. Is it possible to put a picture of your map like it does with the other maps instead of that question mark? I found one for the example map at "C:\program files\...\...\tags\ui\global_bitmaps\map_shots\(ex ample.bitmap and default.bitmap I think)". It's set in the scenario file as well but when you get ingame it's still just a question mark.

If its anything like the xbox, you have to edit the mainmenu still

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Originally Posted by Kornman00

If its anything like the xbox, you have to edit the mainmenu still

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No you can compile bitmap previews for your map, as well as their display names and use them. Its included in the tutorial.

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Originally Posted by jahrain

No you can compile bitmap previews for your map, as well as their display names and use them. Its included in the tutorial.

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Map Shots
http://h2v.halomaps.org/editor/mapshots.cfm

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To assign the map shot to your level, open the scenario in Guerilla, and then scroll down to the Level Data header. In the Multiplayer section, you’ll see an entry for bitmap. Click Browse to assign your map shot to the level. Save the scenario and recompile the level to see your map shot in the game.

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That's what I did and it still showed up as a question mark.

It looks a lot nicer than Mystic, which was a little too empty for how big it was.

Well I finally got something that appears ingame and looks somewhat like water :/


Also modified the ground foliage texture a bit.

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Originally Posted by jahrain

Well I finally got something that appears ingame and looks somewhat like water :/

Also modified the ground foliage texture a bit.

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You fixed his thumb!

:awesome:

Good job, except that water is icky D: Glad we are getting examples.

O_o? I didn't fix anything...

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Originally Posted by jahrain

O_o? I didn't fix anything...

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Well, I no longer see that assortment of red, green, purple, and orange I had once before.

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Originally Posted by jahrain

No you can compile bitmap previews for your map, as well as their display names and use them. Its included in the tutorial.

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I and many community members have tried everything possible to get them to work, including following the help file exactly as it's stated, and it does not work? It's...odd

It worked perfectly before the "update", now it no longer seems to show up in the UI.

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Originally Posted by Lightning

It worked perfectly before the "update", now it no longer seems to show up in the UI.

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Bah, so it's a bug. Hopefully not a removed feature.

Does the same apply to the description? I can't seem to get one, just says String ID.

Sunny, the descriptions still work... I use em all the time :D

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Originally Posted by Syuusuke

Hmm, how's the gameplay factor?

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It would suck if it's all beauty but unfair for "real" games.

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Originally Posted by randreach454

Sunny, the descriptions still work... I use em all the time :D

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Can you explain how? Mine don't appear, at all, and I create it perfectly fine.

Descriptions work fine, it's the preview image, though, that doesn't.

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Originally Posted by SuperSunny

Can you explain how? Mine don't appear, at all, and I create it perfectly fine.

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Sunny, just copy the example's description, then rewrite it with your information for the map.

Rename the copied file. And then compile your .txt documents that are in the description folder.

Once it's through output, just go to your .scenario, and go to where your description outputted. There's a section in your scenario that is made for description.

And yes, as Lightning stated, the Map Shots no longer work, as the update has somehow screwed it up.

The update was comprised of a new halo2.exe and some other miscellanious files in the Halo 2 Directory.


Oh, by the way Jahrain. Your map is looking pretty sweet.

UPDATE!

Redid a newer lightmap bake better suiting the skybox I chose, but it's still a bit dark. Also I fixed some of the canopy tree and background forest shaders. Some texture bump enhancements as well which really isn't that noticable.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-33-11-70.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-32-19-44.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-31-23-39.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-29-11-84.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...5-36-42-07.jpg

Looking awesome! How's the water coming along?

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Originally Posted by Conscars

Looking awesome! How's the water coming along?

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Its to shameful to show D:

I got it to animate at least. I figured out you can't make a series of moving bump maps like in CE, you have to make an animated bump map. I tried to whip one up really quickly.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z..._bump_anim.png
In the function for the bitmap index in the shader I set it to transition ranging from 0 to 5 in 0.5 seconds and it cycles through all these bitmaps looking somewhat like water. But it still looks like crap. Can't wait until we get real water shader tags and bitmaps.

Awe man.. I love it!
Keep up the good work and keep us posted. ;)

I don't think anyone's even got close to having decent looking water shaders, except for madworkz, Here's my attempt :X http://halo.snaver.net/files/images/watershadertry.jpg

your yelo landscape photos made me came snaver :-3

Snaver, that looks decent actually.

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Originally Posted by Conscars

Snaver, that looks decent actually.

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That's what I though instantly, but if it looks anything like mine when it animates, it probably doesn't look as good as the still frame :X

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Originally Posted by jahrain

Its to shameful to show D:

I got it to animate at least. I figured out you can't make a series of moving bump maps like in CE, you have to make an animated bump map. I tried to whip one up really quickly.

In the function for the bitmap index in the shader I set it to transition ranging from 0 to 5 in 0.5 seconds and it cycles through all these bitmaps looking somewhat like water. But it still looks like crap. Can't wait until we get real water shader tags and bitmaps.

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GREAT job bud. I like seeing nature themed maps :). Also i have been out of town for a week and a half; and am dam close on getting the water to look and actaully hold water properties. Such as spashing from bullets and that cool refraction illusuon it does where the water edge meets the geometry. Had to do a little hex editing. The only problem left is fixing this FoV bug im having and where set. Cross your fingers. Also i have created a few more plants/trees for my map. i have a nice shrub that will match your scene. Its sealed, just need to weld it into main bsp. its 297 polys once i get home ill send you some pics.

Why does it look like you're all trying to use the standard Halo water bump map? It's run through a set of functions to get the real normals. You want something completely different than that if you're just going to go with a bump map...
You want something like this:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...water_bump.jpg
Also, this normal map tiles and looks fine when just moved along a line.

That looks good, but the bump map needs to be animated to have waves moving and splashing around, not just move in one direction or else it looks like the water is moving with uniform waves.

More pictures :D.






^I think he's still working on the waterfall.

ultimate sex.

The map is very good, I received a build. My only dislike is that everything stays bright no matter where you go. D:

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Originally Posted by jahrain

That looks good, but the bump map needs to be animated to have waves moving and splashing around, not just move in one direction or else it looks like the water is moving with uniform waves.

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I understand that, it's just that the normal map everyone is using is not meant to be used as a normal map. It's actually a "function map", so to speak. It's used to calculate the deforming normal map used for the water.
Your method would actually work the best, but if people are going to use a single normal map that simply moves in one direction, then they should use something more like what I posted, not the water function map.

@Skyline:
Amazing

Great looking map! God, I've gotta get my paws on Vista soon!

A couple suggestions... Are you planning on changing the sky? Because it seems a bit out of place. I mean, everything bright and sunny everywhere, but when you look up, you see stars and clouds. Also, in the 3rd pic in skyline's post, it would be really cool if the sun was positioned so that it shone right down through the big hole in the ceiling.

Keep it up man! H2V needs maps like these!

This will be one the best released, well aesthetically anyway.

Please include the oddball so when released we can take copious unobstructed pictures

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Originally Posted by UXB

Please include the oddball so when released we can take copious unobstructed pictures

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When saving my scenario, it always reminds me to make things for all game types. This leads me to believe (I have no proof really) that it won't let you compile the scenario without it. Even if it does, the errors are enough to make me want to take the minute or two it takes to place everything. I'm sure he will place it =D

I like the look of it, but I just can't get used to Castles and Spartans.

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Originally Posted by thehoodedsmack

I like the look of it, but I just can't get used to Castles and Spartans.

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It's actually a structure based off the temple in Zelda: OoT =p. Though yeah, it's castle-ish.