Foreshadow A cliffside coffin of the past, present and future. 4-16 players Map Description I decided to take a break from my usual race oriented maps and took a second shot at making a competitive map (the first I have yet to post). I constructed this similarly to the way I construct most my race maps which is freeform. I did not draw this map out before I made it but I had a pretty good idea of what kind of map I wanted. I barely had enough of a budget and was still so tight that there are a few game types that I simply couldn't spawn the objects for. The end product is a medium to large sized map that works great for ffa and team slayer, capture the flag, crazy king and oddball. Weapon List DMR x6 Needle Rifle x2 Needler x2 Plasma Repeater x2 Plasma Pistol x2 Shotgun Sword Grenade Launcher Sniper Rifle Frag Grenade x5 Plasma Grenade x6 *All supported game types have been tested* Pics! Download Foreshadow
I'll be amazed if this map doesn't have frame-rate drops all over the place. To be honest, it looks like there's just too much going on from the pictures. It certainly looks like it could support BTB quite well, but I fear 4v4 matches may result in frustration when it comes to finding opponents to kill. The forging looks clean and the aesthetics are there..what have the players you play-tested with had to say?
I was worried that frame-rate would be an issue as well while I was working on it. I can tell you that there are only two places I've noticed that there is a little bit of a frame-rate issue. That is while in either of the upper bases, looking out the center window towards the sniper tower (only other noticeable frame-rate drop is while in monitor mode in Forge). Frame-rate only seems to be an issue when there are too many objects being rendered on screen at the same time, not necessarily because you've used all the available budget. Because of the way this map ended up, you are never seeing too many objects to cause frame-rate loss. I have had everything from 1v1 matches on this (which it is definitely too small for), 2v2 team slayer, assault, ctf, and stockpile (which works pretty well actually because the two bases are fairly close to each other), and with bigger team games people are forced to travel downwards on each side to avoid the initial bloodbath that occurs top center below the grenade launcher spawn. I think 10 people was the max number I could round up for final testing. But even with ten people playing FFA, oddball, and crazy king, nobody said they were having problems with frame-rate, they said it had nice flow and kept people moving around the map. I would be grateful for any constructive criticism. It's only my second competitive map so I know there are things I can learn.
The frame-rate lag is caused by what you said: too many objects needing to be rendered at a time based on the direction the player is looking. Even the tiniest edge protruding from an object will require the game to render the whole thing. Something to keep in mind during future forging. A common problem you see is people having windows facing the center, or most cluttered area of a map, and then you see the frame-rate take a huge hit. There's even an article somewhere on the site that details which objects cause what amount of lag. Some even have z-fighting within themselves (3x3 tall for example) that you'll want to avoid using. Anyways, keep it up.
So I played a few more games on it and the frame-rate lag only seems to happen while in forge and the objectives and spawns can be seen. The two windows I mentioned actually don't appear to be an issue like I thought. I myself am surprised that it doesn't lag. Guess you'll have to play it to believe it (or maybe tell me I don't know what I'm talking about).
Framerate lag in forge is due to spawns and objectives, i've had this same problem slightly before. it clears up in custom games when the spawns and objectives can't be seen, (which is only in forge) but this map seems rough with the tunnels, try cleaning it up a bit.
can you be a little more clear on what you meant by "rough with the tunnels"? did I use too many or something? I thought the small tunnels going from the teleporter receiver nodes to the middle balcony were very functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. and what needs to be cleaned up? did you play it or just look at the screenshots?