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Assist => Feedback & Suggestions => Topic started by: Spanky on Saturday, September 28, 2013, 21:02:26 PM

Title: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, September 28, 2013, 21:02:26 PM
ELiZ has been hard at work flexing his skills to see if he can convert AA3 maps to 2.5. I must say, he's doing a damn good job and isn't too far from being done. Because of this, I thought I'd start some discussion on the remaining issues and perhaps to get some feedback on how to release this work.


The first thing you should do is vote in this thread's poll. I'm betting most people would like to see the AA3 maps but the downside is that currently, it would be at least a 250MB download. That does not include sounds which have yet to be worked on. If you vote no, please be sure to tell us why.


Assuming you would like to see these maps, I would like to see if people would like the maps converted as-is or if there's bugs that you would vote to be fixed. Perhaps there's a balancing issue or an area that shouldn't be accessed? Also, in AA3, many things were changed at the engine level and some stuff will have to be created by hand. 2 things I can think of will be the skybox and weather. We will need people to post screenshots on fog color/range as well as any other weather effects. What lighting should the level have? What kind of feel? Where should the spawnpoints be and what weapons should they have? What are the reportin locations? All of this stuff is up for discussion and can be changed as long as most players agree with it and it's tested.

So, have at it!


*EDIT*
Here's a video of the current gameplay:

http://youtu.be/mSqUEFQEVPs
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: FilteredName1488911 on Saturday, September 28, 2013, 21:47:11 PM
Oh, so you want to increase the number of available maps that won't be played anyway? When will you recognize the fact that most of original maps and all of mAAp maps are practically not played at all? One could expect that complete failure of mAAp project should teach you a lesson.

But yeah add 250mb of aa3 maps to this set. Great use of developers' time and players' bandwidth  :up:
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, September 28, 2013, 22:18:37 PM
Thanks for contributing to the conversation and the project Pit.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Vanoke on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 03:58:35 AM
FilteredName1488911
Try to do a little possitive  it looks like you have adder priorities and dreams.
what are yours ??

Spanky/Eliz
Would be great i already have soon 2 adders servers whit enuf  harddisck space on it.
 


Oh, so you want to increase the number of available maps that won't be played anyway? When will you recognize the fact that most of original maps and all of mAAp maps are practically not played at all? One could expect that complete failure of mAAp project should teach you a lesson.

But yeah add 250mb of aa3 maps to this set. Great use of developers' time and players' bandwidth  :up:
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: NoBigDeal on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 04:03:48 AM
Oh, so you want to increase the number of available maps that won't be played anyway? When will you recognize the fact that most of original maps and all of mAAp maps are practically not played at all? One could expect that complete failure of mAAp project should teach you a lesson.
Agree - why..? Some time ago, there was a thread started by ELiZ, where most of people was against... There is no point to discuss AA3 maps in AA2 once again. Besides, you're about to release these maps in alpha state (not finished, not tested...) - this will cause a new wave of complaints.

Off topic:
Pit go fuck itself, go hang itself in ur bathroom...
...and you schmuck, you need to learn some good manners...
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Vanoke on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 04:23:02 AM
About the complains i wood say summthing, you can update ore bring new maps in it NP. but whit help from the admins  they must have time to info. all the players 1- Wat update  2- When update. and the good part is can we help question.
I already have puth this on my clan facebook so i led people look to this and thats what we need. in this community hooah!
And i think to bring in new maps has nothing to do whit settings from browsers,so people have no problems to play there game. and that 2.1 gb now  is realy not muts, whit  sum new maps (5? ) you get around 3.35 gb were are we talking about.

I do think that if you go into 250 mb map it take longer time to start.
but adder think yes it will bring back players how play now AA3 ore 4  Gost R  C.D. etz.


Agree - why..? Some time ago, there was a thread started by ELiZ, where most of people was against... There is no point to discuss AA3 maps in AA2 once again. Besides, you're about to release these maps in alpha state (not finished, not tested...) - this will cause a new wave of complaints.

Off topic:...and you schmuck, you need to learn some good manners...
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Saltuarius on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 06:23:08 AM
i voted yes, but i think, there are more urgent things to be worked on than new maps...
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: SilenceIKillU on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 12:07:42 PM
Im very cool with it, tho i dont know some of the aa3 maps but im willing to learn them. I would work only on the most popular.
I guess if you dont have an xtra 300 mb on ur pc, then i suggest you delete some porn.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 12:16:48 PM
Besides, you're about to release these maps in alpha state (not finished, not tested...) - this will cause a new wave of complaints.

How else should they be tested? Pay volunteers? Release a beta version of Assist that 6 people use once for less than 2 hours like the last couple of betas? The AA playerbase isn't large enough to support beta testers and a lot of people still don't come here so they wouldn't know how to test. One of the points of this thread is to make people aware and then allow people to contribute their ideas and time to test the works.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: SilenceIKillU on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 12:27:52 PM
Does the players of aa3 and aa4 not know that 2.5 is still active? or have they just moved on?
As on old {AK} clan member I contacted old clan mates and told them about 2.5, now there playing and they all said they thought 2.5 was dead
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 12:35:16 PM
Assist has been around for years and years. It's been talked about on many forums and in many threads. I honestly wouldn't know how to get the word out further.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: ArmyAntiCheat on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 13:19:45 PM
Updates should be stopped, but for future steps not a bad idea. I don't understand, you guys made assist version 2.8.5 and now you are also going for AA3 maps, which tells me you guys moving forward and one day this assist can be made into 3.0 version (AA3) even tho its surely not impossible.

If you are about to bring AA3 maps then you would need a better gameplay and graphics, I don't think it would be that realistic without original colors as it was in AA3, surely this engine will not be able to produce them I think, but anyways if you guys doing something within AA3 to AA2 then I recommend in changing the engine somehow.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 13:33:14 PM
We didn't make 2.8.5. ELiZ tried but there was a lot of roadblocks and too much time was required. It was abandoned so he ported the SAI and camo from 2.8.5. The gameplay remained the same. That's all that would happen with AA3 maps. It's just a custom map made by the devs. Of course the gameplay wouldn't feel anything like AA3, it's just the tactics and surroundings.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: ArmyAntiCheat on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 17:11:08 PM
We didn't make 2.8.5. ELiZ tried but there was a lot of roadblocks and too much time was required. It was abandoned so he ported the SAI and camo from 2.8.5. The gameplay remained the same. That's all that would happen with AA3 maps. It's just a custom map made by the devs. Of course the gameplay wouldn't feel anything like AA3, it's just the tactics and surroundings.

Roger, not a bad idea, but it would take more space for users. I don't see any problem tho in converting, seems like ideal logic suggestion. But I would support if you released it with all the minor bugs fixed within all maps, or other way you'll get more complains from the players. I would suggest just to move on 2.8.5, I know it requires a lot of hard work and time but there is a lot of time and players could play now as they play. Also then convert AA3 maps within that version.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 17:22:50 PM
ELiZ would have to comment on 2.8.5 and it's possibility in the future.

AA3 maps are mostly done, they just need a lot of fine-tuning which is where me and the other mappers come in. If Assist does move to 2.8.5 down the road, the AA3 map work can be moved to 2.8.5 relatively easily. When ELiZ was working on 2.8.5, he started converting some of the mAAp maps and once he figured out how, it didn't take him too long to do a few of them.

One of the issues with 2.8.5 is that while there's an editor, the method to import new content stuff isn't exactly easy. Again, ELiZ can comment on that if he wants.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: ImSmokin on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 20:46:02 PM
Voted NO. I think we should be working on the current community and players rather then bringing in new maps to stretch out the servers even more thin. Been nice to see some new maps filling up over this weekend. examples are MOUT/PCR/Extraction.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 21:14:15 PM
Been nice to see some new maps filling up over this weekend

Been able to play 14 different maps in 3 days  :up:
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Yahoo on Sunday, September 29, 2013, 23:16:30 PM
Been able to play 14 different maps in 3 days  :up:

Great news!! One of the main reasons why people kept leaving was because the boredom of Hospital, Pipe, or Bridge, i always see people talking about attract the old school players, im my opinion if you manage to get one or two servers full every night with maps like JRTC, SS, WO, RB, SR, HQ, MA, MP, WC_SE, players would definitly come, im not talking about 200 players, but it would make a difference.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Monday, September 30, 2013, 09:23:55 AM
NO! AAO IS DEAD! GET IT! Spanky you with your stupid map creating,nobody play this shit.

Maybe it would be possible to make it live again by giving some of your money uh  :up:  :D
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Froster on Monday, September 30, 2013, 10:02:34 AM
Oh come on people you're not gonna run out of space,just for this cause .
if no then why you download bf4 16GB , Black ops 16GB (not sure though ) , all other games require these amounts of space..oh come on this shouldn't even be a problem "poll"..love you all though
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Monday, September 30, 2013, 10:13:02 AM
all other games require these amounts of space

That's not a valid argument. A lot of people play AA cauz it's very very very easy to install, and it doesn't take a lot of space. You don't want to be 'like other games' cauz AA is not gonna win this. It's popular because it's not like other games.

I voted no, because there are already a lot of maps that are never played. I have to wait 1 hour on a empty server with original map till someone joins. Hospital, bridge, pipeline, urban for the win, so i don't see what this is gonna bring to the game.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Froster on Monday, September 30, 2013, 10:15:21 AM
That's not a valid argument. A lot of people play AA cauz it's very very very easy to install, and it doesn't take a lot of space. You don't want to be 'like other games' cauz AA is not gonna win this. It's popular because it's not like other games.

I voted no, because there are already a lot of maps that are never played. I have to wait 1 hour on a empty server with original map till someone joins. Hospital, bridge, pipeline, urban for the win, so i don't see what this is gonna bring to the game.


Really ? whats ur internet speed ? cmon man :) and to be honest 250MB-1GB is not that much .
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Monday, September 30, 2013, 12:08:25 PM
I'm with ya Froster but as you can see, others don't feel the same way so that's why the poll was made. Let the community decide. Course, it will get voted in and then people will come here and rage because they didn't bother to come here and know what was going on with this game.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: alechko1 on Monday, September 30, 2013, 13:17:26 PM
1- A computer that don't have a free 250 MB is not functioning computer. No one talks in Mbs anymore since 2005. No one talks in Mbs anymore even when reffering to RAM. I've been too cheep to buy a new gaming computer since 2006 (!) and I still have tens of Gigabytes free.
2- I can understand raging when you add something like SAI and it has lots of bugs and critically affects your gameplay no matter where you play. But how can new maps possibly hurt your gameplay? If they are bugged- don't play on them, that's all.
I really fail to understand what there is to discuss or argue about.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Monday, September 30, 2013, 13:35:03 PM
It should be 'yes' or 'I don't care'. But nobody can say no, if you wanna add maps, go ahead, but they will probably not be played
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Monday, September 30, 2013, 13:42:15 PM
but they will probably not be played

Probably not BUT, ELiZ wanted a challenge and wanted to have some fun with converting the maps. Now that he's mostly done, I get to have fun and do what I do best. Really, it's not like we hate doing it, we like creating content. It's just more enjoyable when other people like that content :) It was a real fun challenge to make mAAp Pipeline. Nobody wants to play it? That sucks but I'll still work on it.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: ~=W!CK!D=~ on Monday, September 30, 2013, 14:53:07 PM
Eliz has always done outstanding work, I'm happy he's more involved with assist
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: FilteredName1488911 on Monday, September 30, 2013, 15:33:20 PM
Eliz has always done outstanding work, I'm happy he's more involved with assist

Yes, it's so great he is so involved. It's really cool to see such a smart guy devoting his time to such a niche project.

BTW, Hope his private business is going well.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: M_TopSecret on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 02:47:54 AM
Yes, it's so great he is so involved. It's really cool to see such a smart guy devoting his time to such a niche project.

BTW, Hope his private business is going well.

Honestly if you can't handle others giving up their free time for the  :censored: of it, then go elsewhere. I don't understand why you have to be such a hater, give it up and get another life playing and hacking COD.

I think it's a great idea, leave the map selection to the users, if they populate then they populate. If they don't then oh well get over it. I'm sure at Mafioso that we can get some of these new maps populated, even with some of the mAAp maps we'll get those who don't know them, but after a while they're diggin it.

My thought with all these newer maps to 25, is the possibility to bring others who loved those maps, to us here at 25.

If you're going to sit there and talk shit about it and that we're going to die as a community, well do something about it, go advertise and help bring people back to the old school America's Army that many loved at one time. There's still quite a few who don't even know we exist! So do work, and stop being little anal  :censored:.

We're only here now because of this community, and speaking from a clan point of view who is still getting newer members each day approaching us, well I wouldn't exactly say we're dying, we're still thriving just slowly.

Yes one of the best things about this game is how many can play with very low resources, computers, laptops including don't exactly come with high specs for RAM and video card specs, but space is coming out of our ear, almost to a point, no one should have a problem with this little increase of space. I don't even think they make 250MB thumb drives anymore, that's so small and pointless now an days. Stop crying, it's just more options for gameplay at the cost of a very small amount of space.

I say continue on with your plans to expand this game, I'm sure those who leave, if any, will be replaced soon enough by more, loyal and true fans.  :cool:
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: NoBigDeal on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 08:21:19 AM
...no one should have a problem with this little increase of space. I don't even think they make 250MB thumb drives anymore, that's so small and pointless now an days....
True: it's not about the HD space - it's about the performance. AA3 maps are more complex (static meshes are more detailed, textures with higher resolution, sounds with higher quality etc.) and this will have direct impact on...
...Yes one of the best things about this game is how many can play with very low resources, computers, laptops including don't exactly come with high specs for RAM and video card specs...
...those people.
I not worried about me, my PC is one level up than Hi-End, but for most people even the middle-high end pc is beyond the reach.

If AA community want more maps, then there is many good Tactic-Ops UE2/2.5 based games - i.e. Rainbow 6 have very good maps - so why not convert these maps..? Same engine, same climate and very well balanced.
Besides, devs should publish AA2.5 editor and let the people be creative. Take example from UT community... Start new Contest thread with two Child Boards: Betas and Release. I assume that purpose of these two is known... At the end, only the best maps will be added to the official map-pack.

BTW: Shame - almost 5000 users and after 48 hours only 36 votes...
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: krIz+ on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 09:12:56 AM
5000 users? where?
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 10:37:59 AM
4270 forum members.
Probably 200 forum members and 4070 Pit's accounts
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: FilteredName1488911 on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 11:30:25 AM
Honestly if you can't handle others giving up their free time for the  :censored: of it, then go elsewhere. I don't understand why you have to be such a hater, give it up and get another life playing and hacking COD.

O.o

If there is anyone hating here, it's rather you, sir.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: FilteredName1488911 on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 11:33:15 AM
BTW: Shame - almost 5000 users and after 48 hours only 36 votes...

It's always been like that: only a tiny part of all players come to this forum.

What's funny is how admins keep creating those polls, and base their decisions on such an illusion of "community".
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: teddy_grizzly_bear on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 13:43:33 PM
I'd guess it's to cover their ass. If they have a poll, then when people come and complain afterwards, they can point it out and say "you had your chance for a vote".

And I don't think adding AA3 maps with the "higher detail" and whatever would do much damage. I'm pretty sure our map developers are pretty decent at managing stuff like that. Look at mAAp Pipeline for example. It might run at a slightly lower resolution (haven't checked), but even if it does, it still looks a lot more than just slightly better than the regular.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: ~=W!CK!D=~ on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 14:16:36 PM
4270 forum members.
Probably 200 forum members and 4070 Pit's accounts

4071 ganja get it right lol
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Koden on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 14:16:54 PM
I'd guess it's to cover their ass. If they have a poll, then when people come and complain afterwards, they can point it out and say "you had your chance for a vote".


That wasn't the purpose. It's a chance for people to come and drop an opinion, cast a vote, etc. . There also used to be a message at the login screen on the Assist.

It's always been like that: only a tiny part of all players come to this forum.

What's funny is how admins keep creating those polls, and base their decisions on such an illusion of "community".

It's not like that: most of the players join the forum, ask for an honor claim, an account activation or such. After they're done with that, they mostly never come back. What would you do to get more people to partecipate? (out of curiosity really)
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 15:10:57 PM
True: it's not about the HD space - it's about the performance. AA3 maps are more complex (static meshes are more detailed, textures with higher resolution, sounds with higher quality etc.) and this will have direct impact on......those people.
I not worried about me, my PC is one level up than Hi-End, but for most people even the middle-high end pc is beyond the reach.

Your computer is largely irrelevant as long as it's dual-core or higher. 2.5 only makes use of 1 core. The stuff in newer games isn't exponentially more detailed. AA3 performance hit was more on the engine's features than the map content. There might have been things like fog and weather effects that are much better looking but they come at a higher CPU price. My point is, I've played some of the AA3 maps and the performance is low but that's largely due to them not being optimized. Once Zones, Anti-Portals and perhaps even cull distances are setup, the maps should be very close to 2.5's maps. More staticmeshes is a good thing, they're faster to render than BSP which a lot of 2.5 maps are made out of (Pipeline...).
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: mauriciomudryk on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 16:23:53 PM
Hello,

   It is an excellent idea, making the "downgrade" a popular map AA3.

   I have some maps and would submit them to maapck.

   I want to participate in this work.

Cheers.
tuatara
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: NoBigDeal on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 17:33:58 PM
Your computer is largely irrelevant as long as it's dual-core or higher.
... :D ...

Well, good Gaming PC is not only because of multiple CPU cores and believe or not, but dual-core or higher in these days is standard... You should know this better than that - like you I am a computer scientist.
As for 'newer games', you're wrong - especially when it comes to impact on the performance by game content.
...More staticmeshes is a good thing, they're faster to render than BSP which a lot of 2.5 maps are made out of (Pipeline...).
Yeah, but height polygons SM will have the same effect... Besides, conversion of BSP to SM entails a deterioration of visual quality (shadows, lighting...). Generally, in such cases, is used LightMap, but probably AA2.5 engine doesn't support it. There is many more aspects, but we are already Off Topic.

It's always been like that: only a tiny part of all players come to this forum.

What's funny is how admins keep creating those polls, and base their decisions on such an illusion of "community".

Still only 37 votes (+1)... Now I see, what you have in mind...
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 18:15:48 PM
... :D ...

Well, good Gaming PC is not only because of multiple CPU cores and believe or not, but dual-core or higher in these days is standard... You should know this better than that - like you I am a computer scientist. As for 'newer games', you're wrong - especially when it comes to impact on the performance by game content.
I was mostly talking for AA. I know quads are kind of the bare minimum for modern games. As far as UE2 is concerned, 1 core or 16... doesn't matter. Often, AA won't even use 100% of your CPU before FPS drops. I don't know if it's cache or something else that slows it down...

Yeah, but height polygons SM will have the same effect... Besides, conversion of BSP to SM entails a deterioration of visual quality (shadows, lighting...). Generally, in such cases, is used ShadowMap, but probably AA2.5 engine doesn't support it. There is many more aspects, but we are already Off Topic.
You're talking about per-vertex shading on meshes in UE2 which is correct. It looks hideous. This can be overcome with some clever lighting practices. BSP has higher quality "baked on" shadows and better collision but meshes render faster. It's a balance.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: teddy_grizzly_bear on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 18:25:52 PM
That wasn't the purpose. It's a chance for people to come and drop an opinion, cast a vote, etc. . There also used to be a message at the login screen on the Assist.
I know the main purpose is to see what people think about it, but I was referring to the fact that you'll have people coming here moaning about whatever you do after it's done. You can never please everyone and this poll is designed to make it plausible to please a majority. But as stated before, not a whole lot of people who play this game come here on these forums (which given the size of the community is unfortunate).
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: NoBigDeal on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 19:39:35 PM
...
You're talking about per-vertex shading on meshes in UE2 which is correct. It looks hideous. This can be overcome with some clever lighting practices.
...
Because of different techniques - pixel/vertex shader - only LightMap (additional texture...) used on SM can compensate the difference. Basically, every UE2 has this feature, but is - in most of the cases -  disabled by devs (the same for BumpMapping...).
UE3 that's another story...
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 19:50:13 PM
I don't think that feature is available for our version of UE2. We can't even do bump mapping...

One thing that was done that was somewhat interesting is that when we had a 3d modeler, he took a mesh he made and loaded the texture onto it and added light in the same direction the map had it and baked a shadow into the texture itself so only 1 texture was needed. This isn't bad but texture quality could degrade it and if you change/move light sources, it obviously won't update.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: FilteredName1488911 on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 19:54:09 PM
I don't think that feature is available for our version of UE2. We can't even do bump mapping...

One thing that was done that was somewhat interesting is that when we had a 3d modeler, he took a mesh he made and loaded the texture onto it and added light in the same direction the map had it and baked a shadow into the texture itself so only 1 texture was needed. This isn't bad but texture quality could degrade it and if you change/move light sources, it obviously won't update.

But what about tesselation? Don't you think evaluation and control shaders shall work even in UE2 engine?
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 20:16:02 PM
I'm sure someone could make a mod for it. I saw a cell shading demo script for UT2004.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: NoBigDeal on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 20:22:01 PM
But what about tesselation? Don't you think evaluation and control shaders shall work even in UE2 engine?
Tesselation first time was implemented in DirectX 11, which UE2 don't support.

I don't think that feature is available for our version of UE2. We can't even do bump mapping...

One thing that was done that was somewhat interesting is that when we had a 3d modeler, he took a mesh he made and loaded the texture onto it and added light in the same direction the map had it and baked a shadow into the texture itself so only 1 texture was needed. This isn't bad but texture quality could degrade it and if you change/move light sources, it obviously won't update.
There is a way... Original texture + LightMap + Combiner = High-Quality Static Shadow on SM. Sometimes, people use Projector - more expensive...
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Tuesday, October 01, 2013, 20:49:33 PM
There is a way... Original texture + LightMap + Combiner = High-Quality Static Shadow on SM. Sometimes, people use Projector - more expensive...

I'd love to see an example sometime if you could whip one up.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, October 02, 2013, 16:12:50 PM
Things are looking good:

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/464376/aac_maap/screenshots/aa3alley.PNG)

I'm starting to gather together the quirks and things that need fixing. As long as I have some time set aside, I can get a couple of maps ready for a beta.

*EDIT*
For those wondering, I'm not getting 4 FPS on the map, that's just how many times the window was refreshed. With live preview turned on. FPS goes to 13-14 which is quite good considering there's no optimization in the map yet and it's rendering everything as a whole.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Mike Mentzer on Wednesday, October 02, 2013, 16:29:37 PM
i vote no, and i got no effort to explaine yet why.  :arab:
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: FilteredName1488911 on Wednesday, October 02, 2013, 16:45:22 PM
i vote no, and i got no effort to explaine yet why.  :arab:

Yeah, when Possessed releases whole source code, the creation of aa3 maps will be least of assist problems.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: teddy_grizzly_bear on Wednesday, October 02, 2013, 17:24:46 PM
Things are looking good:

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/464376/aac_maap/screenshots/aa3alley.PNG)

I'm starting to gather together the quirks and things that need fixing. As long as I have some time set aside, I can get a couple of maps ready for a beta.

*EDIT*
For those wondering, I'm not getting 4 FPS on the map, that's just how many times the window was refreshed. With live preview turned on. FPS goes to 13-14 which is quite good considering there's no optimization in the map yet and it's rendering everything as a whole.
Looks pretty good. I bet it's even better in person (read:in the game).

Looking forward to trying it out ;)
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: ~=W!CK!D=~ on Wednesday, October 02, 2013, 18:25:07 PM
Things are looking good:

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/464376/aac_maap/screenshots/aa3alley.PNG)

I'm starting to gather together the quirks and things that need fixing. As long as I have some time set aside, I can get a couple of maps ready for a beta.

*EDIT*
For those wondering, I'm not getting 4 FPS on the map, that's just how many times the window was refreshed. With live preview turned on. FPS goes to 13-14 which is quite good considering there's no optimization in the map yet and it's rendering everything as a whole.

Looking good spanky
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: cobe571 on Saturday, October 05, 2013, 23:11:41 PM
I vote yes for the maps!  This project is really interesting. DEVS, please continue the good job on that AA3 maps, and the complete game itself, that's good enough at this moment. I'm pretty new into the AAO25 project, but I'm an old player (42). I come from the ages when America's Army 2.5 was also on GNU/Linux. I play also AA3 and AAPG nowadays, but your game is taking my attention. The game is very good playable on PC with not so much hardware resources! I think that's a great achievement and demonstrate to me, serious coders with more clean code written. Continue this way. Thank you for the great effort!
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: FilteredName1488911 on Saturday, October 05, 2013, 23:15:51 PM
serious coders with more clean code written

+1, I'm also impressed by the recent quality of code written by EliZ and other talented DEVS.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: bRU$seLs.2004- on Sunday, October 06, 2013, 00:59:46 AM
4270 forum members.
Probably 200 forum members and 4070 Pit's accounts

dont think so, that are my fans who follow me and want to see what i write down here
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: [Majestic]tidididi on Sunday, October 06, 2013, 06:27:45 AM
dont think so, that are my fans who follow me and want to see what i write down here
There are more my haters wannabe jews, internet fighters (Kari and his losers unknown friends) who gives me minus internetz (motherfuckers, do you really think I care about it?), than your fans.

Sad but true. Sorry.

GJ Spanky. I would really like to play this map if I be still around AA2.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Sunday, October 06, 2013, 06:32:17 AM
And I thought I was the only attention whore around :/
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: alechko1 on Sunday, October 06, 2013, 07:48:29 AM
haters wannabe... internet fighters...

Self portrait?
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: DwightSchrute on Sunday, October 06, 2013, 15:43:32 PM
i want Call of Duty:Ghosts maps in AA2.5, that possible? thxxx duuud i roxx @cod!
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: noobslayer on Sunday, October 06, 2013, 15:58:33 PM
i want Call of Duty:Ghosts maps in AA2.5, that possible? thxxx duuud i roxx @cod!

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FYP0qZ.jpg&hash=36f8e1074b04cd6118853cec256a1a7b)
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: zombax on Wednesday, October 09, 2013, 17:50:27 PM
I think it will bring some action in the game, some new maps will be played during a month maybe less...
Then most people will go back to hospital and classic pipeline. So I voted YES. About AAO25 visibility, could'nt some more be done? Like facebook ads or some shit to attract new players. I think its a serious subject if you want the game to survive longer. Good communication (and its cost?) with persuasive message like its a light, free program, could help alot.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Darthviox on Friday, November 29, 2013, 06:42:17 AM
Alright so basically if adding the new maps into 2.8.5, 2.8.5 will still have its feel, yes? Everything will still be the same? Only difference will be the equipment, gear, maps, etc? By doing so though, will this slow down players like myself who do not have the greatest PC around?

-Darth
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: teddy_grizzly_bear on Friday, November 29, 2013, 06:50:41 AM
The only thing they're doing is adding the maps from AA3, to this version (which is 2.5 btw), without any new weapons or equipment.

There will be no new engine coming with these maps, nor any considerable new graphics (maybe some little elements, but nothing major).

It won't slow down anyone's game as the admins here are working hard to keep the maps as light as they possibly can for the computer to handle.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Friday, November 29, 2013, 11:21:37 AM
Teddy knows. The AA3 maps aren't really that demanding. The engine makes a big difference, on AA3 there's per-pixel lighting everywhere and advanced particles and features that had to be removed from the maps in order to convert them. I have a 5 year old GPU and I'm satisfied with the FPS on the maps.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Darthviox on Friday, November 29, 2013, 14:45:49 PM
Quote
The only thing they're doing is adding the maps from AA3, to this version (which is 2.5 btw), without any new weapons or equipment.

There will be no new engine coming with these maps, nor any considerable new graphics (maybe some little elements, but nothing major).

It won't slow down anyone's game as the admins here are working hard to keep the maps as light as they possibly can for the computer to handle.

Well that's good, just making sure. :D

Quote
Teddy knows. The AA3 maps aren't really that demanding. The engine makes a big difference, on AA3 there's per-pixel lighting everywhere and advanced particles and features that had to be removed from the maps in order to convert them. I have a 5 year old GPU and I'm satisfied with the FPS on the maps.

Oh really? Yeah, when I try to play AA3 on my laptop its impossible lol. I can run it on the lowest settings pretty much but its hard to play that one.


-Darth
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Friday, November 29, 2013, 15:03:53 PM
Oh really? Yeah, when I try to play AA3 on my laptop its impossible lol. I can run it on the lowest settings pretty much but its hard to play that one.


-Darth


I'll upload a video for you. I just played 3 maps at 1680x1050 with full settings on a 9500GT WHILE recording full-scale FRAPS and got around 30FPS on the maps. There's probably more optimization to do but I think it's good enough for a test.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Friday, November 29, 2013, 17:15:14 PM
Here's the video:

http://youtu.be/mSqUEFQEVPs

Be sure to play it at the highest quality and take a look at the FPS counter.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Darthviox on Friday, November 29, 2013, 17:38:30 PM
I'll upload a video for you. I just played 3 maps at 1680x1050 with full settings on a 9500GT WHILE recording full-scale FRAPS and got around 30FPS on the maps. There's probably more optimization to do but I think it's good enough for a test.

Oh yeah man! That looks good still. Without FRAPS you're probably running around 50fps?


-Darth
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Friday, November 29, 2013, 17:43:34 PM
Oh yeah man! That looks good still. Without FRAPS you're probably running around 50fps?


-Darth

I honestly didn't check without FRAPS, I started recording as soon as the game started and stopped when I closed it.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Darthviox on Friday, November 29, 2013, 17:45:13 PM
I honestly didn't check without FRAPS, I started recording as soon as the game started and stopped when I closed it.

Lol. Yeah but with your graphics card you shouldn't ever have any problems.  :up:
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Saturday, November 30, 2013, 06:06:02 AM
Here's the video:

http://youtu.be/mSqUEFQEVPs


It's a little bit off topic, but I always wondered why the sounds were so high on this game.
If you look at 1:01 of your video, this sounds like there's an elephant walking there, there's no way you can hear someone so loud in real life. I guess I won't complain about that, or I will be even more hated by the community :)
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Sherrif on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 11:16:05 AM
Will the airfield map that was added to aao3 be included in this because i would be interested in seeing that put in it would be awesome.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Ganja on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 11:20:16 AM
Will the airfield map that was added to aao3 be included in this because i would be interested in seeing that put in it would be awesome.

Yes, Eliz is working on it ;)
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Bart! on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 12:23:06 PM
It will be as close to that map as possible
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 12:23:36 PM
Will the airfield map that was added to aao3 be included in this because i would be interested in seeing that put in it would be awesome.

All multiplayer AA3 maps have been converted and are close to a release.
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Sherrif on Monday, December 16, 2013, 10:32:20 AM
Sweet thanks!  :up:
Title: Re: AA3 Maps Discussion
Post by: Phoenix. on Friday, January 03, 2014, 11:19:34 AM
For me on AA3 pipeline on Black Team slots are not good all are up and because of that map is not good balanced, and on Impact map background sounds are too much loud :) . Otherwise great joob :) !