It works pretty well but if you use it with FloatingX's weapon's display plugin the weapon's display gets noise interference/garbled when you activate the night vision goggles.
Update: After doing some more testing, I discovered it was with the OpenGL settings. I used OpenGL Classic and having Color Effects checked was causing the problem. If I unchecked it the than FloatingX Weapon display works with the Night Vision goggles but the color is not the traditional green color but it makes all the dark areas bright - like turning on a lightbulb.In Software mode it works without making any adjustments to the Graphics settings. This is Ubuntu 11.04 and testing with Marathon Infinity using the 0.23.3 engine.
Update: Just moved up to alephone 1.0b4 and tested - same results.
I've always been a fan of what people nowadays refer to as gimmicks. This pack is all about that.
Caustics is a cool effect. I don't agree with quartz that it cannot be used, it would just require a custom scenario. Texture sets in marathon can have 100+ textures, and you can write level specific mml.
The amount of textures can also be reduced by 30. You only need one normal texture, which can be used over and over for each bitmap.
Star wars and hamsters shows the new power of untextured sides in the new renderer. Fake floating polygons. Makes me think of old abandoned idea of bridges of balconies. What a marathon we could have had!
Tight rope builds on the same tech as hamster och star wars, but the limits of the floating polygon trick are not visible. It's a foolproof line the air.
Old factory has no gimmicks. It's an unfinished netmap showing of Quartz ability to create good looking architecture.
Although none of the items in this package are actually finished and polished items, all of them do show remarkable quality.
The Old Factory in itself is almost a polished netmap. The texturing is a little overzealous, but the map itself is of very good quality. I'll go into more detail in a Pfhorums PM.
The tidbits, like Starwars, were very nice too and made with an exemplary amount of effort.
Although all the maps are sound, my favorite by far was Megalomania, and my least favorite- by far- was Hollow Void. But anyway.
None of the maps have even small nitpicks, other than one or two places where the 0.5x0.5 WU water light texture was on small raised portions of the floor, and, in the middle of a netgame, I thought they were teleporters. Ah well.
Good stuff, here.
the power drive maps were good maps but the embedded physics made me lag, so thanks for fixing them. and good work on your other maps. my favorite of the bunch was 'Miracle mile'.
This looks very cool but how do i make it work?>?
The architecture, textures, and weapons placement is now far more pleasing. Differential shading is still lacking but it's definitely there. Detailing is impressive (if somewhat isolated, and in many cases, only on the ceiling). This is all good to see, and I hope you continue on this tangent.
However, the detail is precisely where this map loses a 3-star rating. You say the flow is 'good', but actually, it will flow like treacle, despite the fact that it's not for conventional reasons. Go into the corners of the map, and press the '?' key. An FPS counter will appear. Whenever it begins to fall below 30fps, consider that when a group of people are playing on it, the lag will be multiplied exponentially and the map will- unfortunately- be totally unplayable. The Aleph One engine can only handle so many lines crossing the player's view, and when internet lag is taken into the equation, the map loses credibility.
It's good to see zealous detail, but overzealous detail, in effect, is just as bad as an empty map.
I'd be interested to see what you could come up with for solo mapping, since over-detailing is much less of a problem there (but still keep an eye on the FPS counter).
Very nicely done. Gameplay is excellent. Though this was said before, i really enjoy the chaotic crossfire between allies and enemies, and being ambushed in tight spaces. Ammo is plentiful, but not too plentiful.
Architecturally, also very well done. The wide vistas, in particular, are a nice touch. A lot of mappers aren't very good about giving the player a good sense of the immensity of a particular space station or facility. Eternal Lucid Dream, with the lookout stations jutting out from the cliff face, did this particularly well. The stone areas, and the water pools/streams especially, look awesome. You've done some great things insofar as taking advantage of Aleph One's lack of geometry and viewing distance limitations.
Two minor things annoyed me a bit:
(1) Too many inoperable doors. Several times i found myself wandering around maps in circles long after i had already killed everything, searching for which door a particular switch opened, and being frustrated by the number of doors that were permanently inoperable.
(2) Too many texture sets. i believe this was mentioned earlier, in an earlier release, but while i see what you're trying to do with the variation in stone textures, at times it looks gaudy, particularly where you've added textures from the Pfhor set to the mix. It's difficult to appropriate this set in other environments, and i've very rarely seen it done successfully.
What's up guys?
your maps have too much uneeded space, which getting rid of some of it will make it easier to have enough ammo and such. as for the architecture: its still pretty simple but your efforts in good flow in this map are, to some degree, significant.
also ,continue to take dugit's advice and other's advice realistically. even people who have strait on ridiculed my mapping have helped quite a bit...
it sure looks better than the dull, dark, gloomy, and depressing infinty pfhor textures...
Treellama has graciously pointed out to me (I am indeed last person in existence who reviews your damn maps with a degree of professionalism- bar Etan- and frankly I'm not surprised) that you are indeed AN1Guitarman. Dugit's brain is easily confused. Please avoid changing your name in the future, and if you do decide to, at least spell 'crap' with two letter 'p's, not three. Douchebag.
Anyway. To the map. To be honest, if you're not going to actually take in viable advice on how to make maps even mediocre and playable, never mind Marius-worthy, why should I be bothered to supply it anymore? There has been no visible application of any previous advice. The architecture and texturing is just so uninspired. The flow is average, bordering poor. The ambiance is choppy. Make smooth transitions between each ambient sound zone. The weapon placement (again) is all in bunches. For fuck sake, stop doing that. And that stupid pit with the recharge canisters.
The name. Just so uninspired.
If you want some idea of how to make a good map, by all means, play packs like Paradise Lost and Sovereignty and try to emulate their successes with your own style, then perhaps you can work to something unique.
Please, if you are going to continue making netmaps, at least have the courtesy to try to implement the advice you've been given. Advice tends to help better the person it's directed towards. If you happen to release one more AN1-brand shit map, I will not review it. I just don't care anymore.
Not only are the maps playable and excellently laid out, the flow is without flaw and the lighting, if I'm not mistaken, has been redone to proper aesthetic standard, which is a neat touch.
Toolator, by far, is the funnest map of the two.
Yus! Finally you decided to share! :D
I do not only love the playability and flow of this maps, but the brand new design on the architecture (and without destroying the essence of the original design!)
Old maps gone right is always WIN, i hope we se way more of your work soon man!
PS. For future references, Toolator is as FUN AS HELL when a lot of people is in it to be obliterated... and stuff!
The secret is the Dick growing out of your forehead.
Freeking amazing! I love all of them!
i wanted the coke but it killed me wtf is this not even a map okay flow
This works really well, just wondering though, if it's possible to re-package it somehow to load separate parts as scripts? like a weapon script, enemy, wall textures? cheers
So far I've managed to make it a plugin, but due to using a custom shapes file it's an "all or nothing" deal, any suggestions? (and of course even this way I have to change the shapes file for it to work, which I'm trying to get around)
This almost seems like a complete senario. The level design is nice and makes it worth while to look around and not move on for a bit. I though they were very creative and non-straight forward, i like that. One thing though is that the alien weapon in hand is not blue. Overall this is very good and i would recomend it. I think the full version will turn out great.