[WIP] Valhalla

[Con]

BUMP

HOLY SHIT BUNGIE, I fucking love you!

[wshot]http://www.bungie.net/images/News/InlineImages2007/Halo3BetaGuide/valhalla2.jpg[/wshot]

This overhead view will give me all the right proportions for finishing/revising the map, especially being orthographic. The project is going to go much faster now that I have this, but only once I've finished my obligations to CMT.


Once I'm done this homework, then I'll line up my BSP with theirs to see how accurate I was, and I'll post it here.

EDIT again: Their #9 should be on the outcropping BEHIND the pelican.

[Hurrvish]

i can see now how valhalla is a rebuild of blood gulch

i expect some sexy results conscars!

[Con]

I'm liking where they put the turret, it fits into gameplay well without being a big problem.

[Stealth]

^_^
Con you're working the a great map! and with the up dates on the Valhalla, you'll have a easier time modeling it's shape and a easier time placing weapons.

[soccerbummer1104]

its good so far as in the lines its taking, but i see a few random pollys here and there. I suggest you go higher polly. Atm those cliffs have almost no detail, and the detail im talking about cannot be made up with bumps and textures. don't be afraid, portaling is your friend

[SnaFuBAR]

Con you're working the a great map! and with the up dates on the Valhalla.

What the hell did you say?

[SMASH]

What the hell did you say?

I was thinking the same thing.

[bleach]

so this map is still being done right? can we see some more pics? i love em. My favorite halo 3 map right now is valhalla.

[Con]

its good so far as in the lines its taking, but i see a few random pollys here and there. I suggest you go higher polly. Atm those cliffs have almost no detail, and the detail im talking about cannot be made up with bumps and textures. don't be afraid, portaling is your friend

I purposely chose to model it low-poly until I was finished the general shape. The reason was that I had no completly accurate reference images to work from until today. I don't want to waste time and effort modeling in details when it could be all wrong. Don't mind the random poly's, they're 'artifacts' of my deleting rampage when I discovered a bunch of stuff was wrong. I was discussing my modeling method with Phopo on AIM, and I have come to the conclusion that it should not be used unless your reference point has more than 1 axis that you can use to align with your reference images. Valhalla is a bad map for this. The terrain is very ambiguous, I don't know anything for sure about it's shape and angles. I chose the bases as a reference point because they were the only things in the map that had straight lines and definite angles. The problem is, my base still ended up inaccurate from the lack of proper reference images from it. Besides modeling a map from an inaccurate reference object, the base itself does not extend along many axis except for the vertical one. This doesn't help me at all. To like up my cameras with it to model from, they need to be aligned to the base's rotation. It's hard to tell if your image in the background lines up with the base model because it doesn't extend close enough to the camera. This has lead to the map ending up a bit warped. I do not reccomend this method to anyone who wants to model an OUTDOOR map. Camera-triangulation modeling is great for any map that has perfect angles and flat surfaces to reference, but not outdoor ones where the base is all that you have. That being said, I have the layout comparison below.

(click to enlarge)
[wshot]http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8216/accuracyeb1.jpg[/wshot]

As you can see, some parts of the map ended up quite accurate while others did not.

By the way, does anyone know how I'm going to get grass, stone, AND snow detail maps into my ground bitmap? Or is there something in H2 that will let me do that.

edit: thought of a solution already; since these 3 surfaces don't all meet together anywhere, I can just have 2 ground bitmaps. One will have grass/stone for the center, the other can have grass/snow for the edges/cliffs.

[DaneO'Roo]

close enough, for perspective images, I say. Can't wait for this to be 60 percent

and soccerbummer, in halo 2 vista, Bumps CAN make the cliffs look hi poly. Through halo 2's fully dynamic lighting and normal maps, you can get it within reason to look almost exactly the same as bungies, had you painted exact textures, and got deep enough normal maps. Thing is, they'd have to be really big giant hi res textures. He's got the general shape down, so yeah, I think with the combination of smoothing groups and wicked normal maps, He can get it looking kick ass.

Also Portalling doesn't work too well on maps that are this open. It just wouldn't work, so I think modelling low poly, and letting the material do the talking like bungie do, is a good move. If thats what con is planning, anyway. Frankly, I'd like to keep my fps nice and high Do whatever ya want con.

Btw, you making textures for it yet? CAN I HELP PLOX :?