DM-Backspace (V2a - September 3rd 2016)

[Shivaxi]

I laughed at this, cause in UT99 this is how it was. In fact pretty much everything you saw in UT99 was the collision for it as well. My play style has adjusted to that, and i've learned never to fire Flak at ANY stairs haha. I've also used little side beams to my advantage, spraying it with Flak as I run by to let it bounce behind me just in case I think or hear someone following me. So I think an argument could be made to keep the collision "as you see it" for some things. I'm not a big fan of things being not quite what I am seeing, throws me off, and then you have to learn a single level by heart from experimentation...which I'm sure some people enjoy, but not everyone.

[Neilz0r]

Wow that is a comprehensive review Captain. Slightly off topic, you mentioned optimizing for low detail - do you have a link or reference to instructions to do that?

Searching Google "Unreal Engine detail mode" will yield some results. Optimizing for low detail mode involves finding extraneous meshes, emitters, decals and setting their detail mode to "high". This forces them to only be viewable on "high" detail mode. This is good for people with lower end CPUs and GPUs as it will reduce poly count and draw calls at the same time. This works well on things like vegetation, rocks, hanging chains, wires, etc. Special care must be taken to avoid creating shadows for pieces that hide on low detail mode. You can easily preview the detail modes in the editor by looking at the scalability settings.

An advanced step would be to add branches in your more complex materials for switching to less complex material nodes. This helped a lot with Lea since I kind of went crazy with my master material.

Lastly, you can combine meshes with same materials to further reduce draw calls. There's an experimental "merge actor" tool that you have to enable from the settings. Warning - it doesn't merge mesh collisions and normals do not merge correctly which will require you to regenerate normals - which can be problematic in some cases. Use with caution.

Oh, and one more for good measure.

[Scinbed]

Thanks again dude! More feedback the better.

The arches in your last screenshot are actually from Epic, so I'm gonna blame them. I've hidden the seam elsewhere (stinger windows for example) with the metal trims.

I tried a scale of 1.03 but it began to feel a little overscaled. 1.02 is good I think.

Shivaxi: I'm going to lean on the side of making collision as seamless as possible. Running around at a fast pace (sometimes) firing wildly as you do in UT, I appreciate the map not killing me accidentally.

[Stevelois]

Wow, awesome feedback from CaptainMigraine

I suggest when you upload a new release, RC2 in this case you also add the release number in your thread title. I didn't know RC2 was available until I've checked your progress. I thought it was still RC1.

I'm eager to play RC2 ! Downloading atm

[Scinbed]

Wow, awesome feedback from CaptainMigraine

I suggest when you upload a new release, RC2 in this case you also add the release number in your thread title. I didn't know RC2 was available until I've checked your progress. I thought it was still RC1.

I'm eager to play RC2 ! Downloading atm

Sure can do.

WIP Broken floor at stinger:

[Neilz0r]

Hmm, I was hoping for something a lot cleaner. Looks very messy and not very aesthetically pleasing. This looks like it will produce a lot of other problems. It's cool that you're looking for a different approach tho.

I don't want to be able to fall through the hole. I just want to be able to shoot through it, similar to the windows.

I was hoping you could just put some kind of border with iron bars, or some kind of grate mesh/texture. That would look very clean and intentional.

[Scinbed]

Hmm, I was hoping for something a lot cleaner. Looks very messy and not very aesthetically pleasing. This looks like it will produce a lot of other problems. It's cool that you're looking for a different approach tho.

I don't want to be able to fall through the hole. I just want to be able to shoot through it, similar to the windows.

I was hoping you could just put some kind of border with iron bars, or some kind of grate mesh/texture. That would look very clean and intentional.

Oh, well.. that I can do.

[Scinbed]

Tried a straight square grate and it looked quite out of place so, here's something in-between. The opening is still straight angles but it blends in a bit better with the surrounding wooden floor. Collision will be as simple as possible, of course.

[Neilz0r]

I like it! There's only one possible problem - and that is it would seem very awkward for a person to be able to run around on bars like that in real life. You might want to consider something that is feasible. At one point I had bars like that on Lea and I was advised to change it to a flat grate. Perhaps you can find a middle ground here - for instance: flat square bars that are closer together so that a person in real life could easily walk around on it without falling through.

[Scinbed]

I like it! There's only one possible problem - and that is it would seem very awkward for a person to be able to run around on bars like that in real life. You might want to consider something that is feasible. At one point I had bars like that on Lea and I was advised to change it to a flat grate. Perhaps you can find a middle ground here - for instance: flat square bars that are closer together so that a person in real life could easily walk around on it without falling through.

Huh? I would totally not break my ankle tripping over that.

[MΛuL]

Searching Google "Unreal Engine detail mode" will yield some results. Optimizing for low detail mode involves finding extraneous meshes, emitters, decals and setting their detail mode to "high". This forces them to only be viewable on "high" detail mode. This is good for people with lower end CPUs and GPUs as it will reduce poly count and draw calls at the same time. This works well on things like vegetation, rocks, hanging chains, wires, etc. Special care must be taken to avoid creating shadows for pieces that hide on low detail mode. You can easily preview the detail modes in the editor by looking at the scalability settings.

An advanced step would be to add branches in your more complex materials for switching to less complex material nodes. This helped a lot with Lea since I kind of went crazy with my master material.

Lastly, you can combine meshes with same materials to further reduce draw calls. There's an experimental "merge actor" tool that you have to enable from the settings. Warning - it doesn't merge mesh collisions and normals do not merge correctly which will require you to regenerate normals - which can be problematic in some cases. Use with caution.

Oh, and one more for good measure.

Fantastic, thanks! /thread hijack

[Frostbite83]

Is a cool Map has Potential i lke it the Map to Play

[BloodK1nG]

These rails are way too much unreal

[Neilz0r]

Oh my god he's right. Cannot be unseen! !! :O)

[FXTR4]

Looks beautiful!