FreeGameDev

Harmony (Afterlife) 1.3

Description:

That is supposed final version of map after many of corrections and tests with some of players.
Preferred gamemodes for this map are: capture-the-flag, defend-the-flag, bomber-ball, but also
any deathmatch with teams works well. Defend-the-flag works probably best there, because most
of the flags are on the castle in a several of levels (whereas another flag is even on the island and
one is in the basement). Some more info is cointained in the file of license.

[Edited] List of main changes and updates (please excuse if there is any english error):


*additionally added "noclip" material on the golder trims also for towers at the castle
*changed grass color
*in some places used "alpha" material instead of "glass"
*corrected details
*built better entrance to the castle (at the same time helps a lot also with climbing up)
*increased fps by removing useless cubes under the map
*proper jumping from water on the towers by adding "noclip" into the golden trim
*fixed 2 clip errors around map and glitch inside a tree
*added waypoints (changed in version 1.3)
*changed texture of sand
*shaped edges of sand in every part of map, where is a contact with walls
*corrected wrong rotations and scales of textures and its colors
*corrected texture errors on platforms
*added bomber-ball gamemode (bomber-ball is being spawned above trees, from alpha base leads
a way over castle to the ball; from omega base leads a way across the big tree - now is able to
climb and walk on branches!)
*changed geometry for better gameplay - ramps, wider passages at the castle
*added new chamber in the basement
*added clouds
*added smoke effect for jump pads
*added few additional clips on small unequal of surfaces to not be stopped in some areas
*optimized count of weapons and its positions (2 more grenades in basement and smg)
*optimized positions of flags and its number
*lowered health points of grunts
*added grid in a doorway to room on castle
*corrected pavement at alpha base
*added sounds of birds in the trees
*added more platforms in the water for better move
*added 2 player spawn places in the basement
*fixed image of waterlevel in basement (no more disappearing)
*edited small geometry (improved stairs, edges of entrances)
*glowing eyes of doggies (stair-rail) on castle

I will appreciate your opinions/eventual suggestions. Thank you.

Ah, this map? I'll be downloading the new version when I've got time, seems quite interesting. I hope it's good performance-wise as well? It looks beautiful, at very least.

D.A.M.I.E.N , i say that before and say again - that a nice map . I hope my suggestions helped you =)

TheLastProject {l Wrote}:Ah, this map? I'll be downloading the new version when I've got time, seems quite interesting. I hope it's good performance-wise as well? It looks beautiful, at very least.

After removing tons of useless cubes under the map is framerate higher (thanks to TristamK for tip).
Without water reflection I'm getting good fps (with all graphics turned on, just except water reflection),
with water reflection it is worse, but still ok I think. (similar as on the map venus). I replaced download file.

Great map!

Just what do you want me to say, i am speechless/astounded at this map!

Very beautiful map, will have to test it again for gameplay, but the looks are good I especially like the warm lighting.

Hey, the map looks very nice, indeed. Many details are better than before (visually as playability). You clearly put very much work into this project. The big eagle was the first thing I recognized, when I enterd the map at first in the past .

My additions: framerate still isn't the best. I play on a very good (at this time) gaming PC from around 2008. Your map runs slower than the official maps. Sometimes I got a hard frame drop down to ~15-20 frames. That disturbs the playability. I don't say that to anger you and I know how much work you did. I only tell you my experiences and I sadly have the same problems with my actual map . I had to mention it because the official maps run easily with min 90, max 120 frames on my PC. What to do ? I don't know. Maybe reducing some details, maybe let it ? When I'm ready for that step, I'll begin this on cutec. Maybe I'll publish two different versions then.

Apart from that I can not say much about playability. I hadn't enough time yet.
Probably, hopefully not we'll talk about that topic again in the future. However it's a nice map .

greetings

Thank you for trying this map and that you like visual appearance, guys.

raiden {l Wrote}:My additions: framerate still isn't the best. I play on a very good (at this time) gaming PC from around 2008. Your map runs slower than the official maps.
Sometimes I got a hard frame drop down to ~15-20 frames. That disturbs the playability.

I played with all effects enabled and I didn't get such a fps dropping and I don't have any super good pc.
So if someone else has such a badly dropping fps, please type here so I will start reduce some texture quality
(its scales) I suppose.

I made small test for frames per second with fraps to see true difference:

While testing, I have been moving for a time of one minute from one base to another and tried to find
a point, where is possible to see most of the entire map, which decreases frames. (limit of maximal fps is 180)

[AMD Radeon HD 6870, driver version: AMD Catalyst 12.4 (latest)]

Bath (for comparison with official map)

frames: 8942
minimal: 104
maximal: 180
average: 149.033

Cutec

frames: 5801
minimal: 34
maximal: 180
average: 96.683

Average fps is often lower on Cutec, I felt sudden dropping of framerate while just looking to sides,
that's because the whole opponent's base is pretty far and while looking to sides, then suddenly visible,
which makes the fps dropping frame rate. Otherwise it's awesome map, raiden.. and I think at least with
lower details it should be playable. :/

Harmony

frames: 6613
minimal: 50
maximal: 180
average: 110.217

Frame rate is there also lower, but that causes mostly amount of water. Without water effects is
fps in resources-consuming areas increased even about cca 20-30 fps. But I agree, that it's still lower than
on the official re maps.

raiden {l Wrote}:What to do ? I don't know. Maybe reducing some details, maybe let it ? When I'm ready for that step, I'll begin this on cutec. Maybe I'll publish two different versions then.

I have been thinking about making two versions too, if needed, but after removing unused cubes under the map,
fps got increased a little bit, so who knows. And as I notified.. I might try to reduce quality of textures by scaling.
I don't feel like changing much of geometry details there. Also.. there aren't much of complicated geometry,
except the eagle and details at the castle.

So if anyone has intense fps dropping, please post it here. After the months of work,
I really want make it - not just good looking, but also playable without problems, as it should be.

In offline practice team deathmatch I get a high of 30, average of 21 and low of 15 fps. The middle of the map's little towers' trim clips against trying to jump up to them from the walks; one of the walks corners toward the area of complex geometry in the map which makes me miss the turn and fall in the water as the framerate lurches; consider making the corners bent rather than angled. There is a nonfunctional jump pad under something, in the water that looks funny. The sniper attic is hard to shoot out of without hitting yourself on the sill and the ladder leading up to it can be hard to climb.
Cheers

My usual fps is around 150-200 with max settings. On this map I was getting around 80-90 and 40-50 when by the water.

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}: TThe sniper attic is hard to shoot out of without hitting yourself on the sill and the ladder leading up to it can be hard to climb.

That a normal position for camping on this map . I never hit myself there :P

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:In offline practice team deathmatch I get a high of 30, average of 21 and low of 15 fps.

That are really low frames per second.. Maybe you can tell what is your pc? Graphic card? Because as you can see from the test that I made, I don't get these values.
The map is slower, but not like that, that it would lag so extremely. Anyway.. I will start thinking about reducing quality I guess.

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:The middle of the map's little towers' trim clips against trying to jump up to them from the walks;

Corrected.

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:one of the walks corners toward the area of complex geometry in the map which makes me miss the turn and fall in the water as the framerate lurches;consider making the corners bent rather than angled.

I don't understand, which corners exactly you mean?

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:There is a nonfunctional jump pad under something, in the water that looks funny.

That is a water light. I used jumpad with yellow color to make it looking like a "garden" lights or special lights in pool.
If you don't know what I mean.. look at the picture of an examples. Also.. the one "jumpad" in the water makes as though
yellow color around and also there is a position to score bomber-ball.

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:The sniper attic is hard to shoot out of without hitting yourself on the sill and the ladder leading up to it can be hard to climb.

Just look at the screenshots. The shooting from that place is as it should be, there is a range where you are able to shoot. That's natural, because when you shoot,
your sight is not like what you see, eyes are higher than your weapon, so when you aim bad, you get hit (with rifle in this case). That is well-programmed. You can see
that on any other map. If you want to check it, try shoot close to some right corner near to your weapon.

And about the ladder, I found it good. When you are trying to get to the attic, the speed while climbing up is not that fast,
so you should be able to get there with more sureness. I got feedbacks, that it's good, and even while watching someone climbing up, it looks kinda funny.

So I made even few changes. Thanks to "idk" who found 2 errors on clip around map that I corrected now + glitch in tree. And thanks "Dratz-_C" for notes,
the noclip at the towers really helped with getting on it. And I edited even the sniper position at the attic. (more visible with easier move to sides for evading)
+ corrected height of one ramp towards the middle tower and one wrong noticeable texture rotation that I found. :P

Thank you for listing the detailed benchmark here. That gives me a nice comparison between our maps on a different system. Also nice to see your quick reaction here. You want definitely finalize your map, which I can understand . For me only you needn't reduce your maps details. For an official release in the next RE it could be neccessary ? I followed the short discussion about Ulukai's "Ares" (for me a fast and nice playing map) in the map showcase : http://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=1950&start=100. Lastly you decide and if you want to be placed in the official map rotation, Quinton has also to decide.
Sadly "Ares" isn't really played online now (I forgot to vote for it, but shuld do again ).

I decided to do it for my map in an alternative version, especially because to many people beefed about bad frames. I think they are right and I want a fluent gameplay too. It isn't "totally" indifferent for me, whether my map becomes official or not, but I refuse to be rushed by that. I take up time to optimize my map. Furthermore I have not so much time for map making.
greet you

Always been a fan of this map Damien, glad to see you've made it even better. Hope to play some real games on it sometime.

CPU: 2x3.07GHz (Intel Core 2 Duo)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GTX (1G)
RAM: 4G

I think that rest things doesn't effect so much on that how game works itself, so I don't see sense of posting it.

Graphic settings that I use: everything on 'max'/'full'/'I'm the best!' but with disabled motion blur and glare (I just don't like those effects).

FPS:
ArchLinux (32 bit with PAE): not tested actual version, tested on not actual version with 350-850fps (maxfps 900)
Windows 2008 R2 server (64 bit) - tested on deatmatch with Damien - 85-100fps (maxfps 100)

Rate: 10/10

Additional commentary: Great map, I love that bird, whole castle, dungeons (serwers ), and a lot of water! Everything on this map seems to be very detailed and it fit to itself!
That's map really have another theme than maps that we have in RE right now! We need a diffrence!

That's great map so it have my recommendation!

I want this map to become official in next relase!

Thank you, Fallen. I appreciate it.

After I changed/corrected/improved another things on harmony, I replaced download file here, marked as "1.3" version.
I don't plan on to change on that version anything, unless someone will find some bug or error. If you will notice black
ends of branches on the trees - that is not a bug of map, the map models of some trees has just this issue. :/

To frames per second:
When someone has dropping fps (it happens mostly while looking at the castle from large distance), despite on fallen's configuration it runs ok,
I will appreciate suggestions how to increase fps and if that will really work, then here will be probably two versions for download. I tried to remove
a water, that really helped. So if someone has a problem with frame rate, I suggest to disable all water effects at least. But still the castle takes
some resources.. Changing textures didn't help, so I guess it is some detailed geometry that causes lower fps. But I have no idea what and how to
fix that to make it smoother for playing. Average fps are better though, so I think it should be playable.

Also I want to say, that editing in red eclipse is all in all quite nice. Especially I like the menu via F3, although some things are not available there,
but more interested user can find it somewhere else or ask. Anyway.. it's good.

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:In offline practice team deathmatch I get a high of 30, average of 21 and low of 15 fps.

That are really low frames per second.. Maybe you can tell what is your pc? Graphic card? Because as you can see from the test that I made, I don't get these values.
The map is slower, but not like that, that it would lag so extremely. Anyway.. I will start thinking about reducing quality I guess.

Clearly, you can think of me as representing the low end of the performance spectrum that plays Red Eclipse. I average 30fps on the maps already in the game. I play on the lowest settings that make any difference for my hardware (which coincidentally allows me to play at 1080p with 60hz vsync on). I have a 1.6gz atom (pentium 4 arcitechture) processor, 2 gb of ram, an nvidia ion le graphics chip (9300M), and a 24" 1080p monitor. As an aside, I also love that RE supports pro logic surround sound, which I sometimes run through my 5.1 receiver. I have always known that many other people get higher frame rates than me. I'm just letting you know that for me slower represents the quote I've given you. I am actually honored by your (and others') practical concern with the lower performance community.

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:The middle of the map's little towers' trim clips against trying to jump up to them from the walks;

Corrected.

Thanks for fixing this moderate flaw. If you want to go a little farther, you may want to make the walls of the towers outer walls lower where the walks connect them, as in a regular fortified wall.

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:one of the walks corners toward the area of complex geometry in the map which makes me miss the turn and fall in the water as the framerate lurches;consider making the corners bent rather than angled.

I don't understand, which corners exactly you mean?

Starting on the tower farthest from but not yet facing the eagle, I jump down to the walk. The moderately narrow walk makes a 90 degree turn to the right which then leads to the next tower. It is when I make this right turn on the walk that my framerate lurches. I face the complex geometry area of the map by the eagle, usually making me over shoot my turn to about 120 degrees and fall in the water to the right of the walk. I suggest altering the 90 degree turn to become two 45 degree angles to smooth out the turn into a bend. Ask me for a diagram if you need it.

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:There is a nonfunctional jump pad under something, in the water that looks funny.

That is a water light. I used jumpad with yellow color to make it looking like a "garden" lights or special lights in pool.
If you don't know what I mean.. look at the picture of an examples. Also.. the one "jumpad" in the water makes as though
yellow color around and also there is a position to score bomber-ball.

If you are going to use the jumppad as a water light, you may wish to reduce its size more.

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:The sniper attic is hard to shoot out of without hitting yourself on the sill and the ladder leading up to it can be hard to climb.

Just look at the screenshots. The shooting from that place is as it should be, there is a range where you are able to shoot. That's natural, because when you shoot,
your sight is not like what you see, eyes are higher than your weapon, so when you aim bad, you get hit (with rifle in this case). That is well-programmed. You can see
that on any other map. If you want to check it, try shoot close to some right corner near to your weapon. [...] I edited even the sniper position at the attic (more visible with easier move to sides for evading). About the ladder, I found it good. When you are trying to get to the attic, the speed while climbing up is not that fast, so you should be able to get there with more sureness.

That's progress. Normally a gunport is more on level with the targets on the y axis than up in the attic, such as when one shoots from a trench. A little ramp on the inside of it and raise on the top sill could help when aiming with the rifle for targets running to the entrance to this building from which there is no alternate way out of the top. Also, thinning the roof away from the floor and thus the depth of this gunport may help.
Cheers

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:I will appreciate suggestions how to increase fps. [...] But the castle takes
some resources. [...] I guess it is some detailed geometry that causes lower fps.

I'll take a shot at it. For one, the castle towers should have beveled not jagged supports. Also, consider joining the two supports per tower into one thick support for each. The eagle triangles go back and forth instead of in definite, straight, long lines; fixing this should speed up the minimum framerate significantly, eliminating the lurch I experience turning toward it. Changing the rectangular prisms of the wall and tower defenses to triangular prisms with save a couple of triangles in each case (you have already done this in a fashion on some of the walls).
Cheers

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:(...)If you want to go a little farther, you may want to make the walls of the towers outer walls lower where the walks connect them, as in a regular fortified wall.

I think that it's good as it is now. If I change it, then it doesn't look so good.. and the ramps helps enough with getting on the towers. Beside that.. all the three towers has a different height. As I said before, I don't plan on to edit the map (except of correction of errors), and it applies to this too, when I don't see any error on it, when it looks and works enough good while playing.

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:one of the walks corners toward the area of complex geometry in the map which makes me miss the turn and fall in the water as the framerate lurches;consider making the corners bent rather than angled.

I don't understand, which corners exactly you mean?

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:Starting on the tower farthest from but not yet facing the eagle, I jump down to the walk. The moderately narrow walk makes a 90 degree turn to the right which then leads to the next tower. It is when I make this right turn on the walk that my framerate lurches. I face the complex geometry area of the map by the eagle, usually making me over shoot my turn to about 120 degrees and fall in the water to the right of the walk. I suggest altering the 90 degree turn to become two 45 degree angles to smooth out the turn into a bend. Ask me for a diagram if you need it.

If you mean to change one wall of the castle, then I think I will not change that. Of course.. I could make it much easier for playing.. but the other thing is, if it's really needed and how it changes overall appearance. Maybe you can try make a picture, showing the change to understand better your idea, because I'm not sure which turn you mean, if I do turn 90°, then I do it kinda precisely, so.. it's harder for me to understand that. But also the true is, that I don't make turns with 20 fps.

D.A.M.I.E.N. {l Wrote}:

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:There is a nonfunctional jump pad under something, in the water that looks funny.

That is a water light. I used jumpad with yellow color to make it looking like a "garden" lights or special lights in pool.
If you don't know what I mean.. look at the picture of an examples. Also.. the one "jumpad" in the water makes as though
yellow color around and also there is a position to score bomber-ball.

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:If you are going to use the jumppad as a water light, you may wish to reduce its size more.

I like it as it is now and I think it is optimal size that fits good there.

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:Normally a gunport is more on level with the targets on the y axis than up in the attic, such as when one shoots from a trench. A little ramp on the inside of it and raise on the top sill could help when aiming with the rifle for targets running to the entrance to this building from which there is no alternate way out of the top. Also, thinning the roof away from the floor and thus the depth of this gunport may help.
Cheers

It is an attic.. Making that place more open would damage the overall look and base sense of it. And that there is a no other way out.. I think it's advantage and disadvantage in the same time. Beside that, I corrected it to make it little easier to shoot there. Sniping is for long distances, if someone is running to this building, just don't try to shoot then. If I would make it super optimal camping position, then it would be used too often.

Dratz-_C {l Wrote}:For one, the castle towers should have beveled not jagged supports. Also, consider joining the two supports per tower into one thick support for each. The eagle triangles go back and forth instead of in definite, straight, long lines; fixing this should speed up the minimum framerate significantly, eliminating the lurch I experience turning toward it. Changing the rectangular prisms of the wall and tower defenses to triangular prisms with save a couple of triangles in each case (you have already done this in a fashion on some of the walls).

o.o heh.. That is sounding as unknown language to me. But it is good to know that there is a way how to get at least more fps by editing.. of these.. things.. I suppose.

Great map, but the only thing that let's it down is this annoying water bug: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbtr5ubRtmc&hd=1

I have always been amazed by the awesome ethereal lighting in this map. Why is it not in RE? Light file is too big?

ballist1c {l Wrote}:I have always been amazed by the awesome ethereal lighting in this map. Why is it not in RE? Light file is too big?

Poor flow and performance.