I'll post a few screenshots and shortly describe what's it all about. Lighthouse is a single player campaign of three maps, two of which are playable, one being purely cinematic.
The plot in short: Kyle and Jan receive an encoded, cautious text-only message from Mon Mothma, who is very concerned about recent ingeniuos attacks by the Remnant. It is clear the Imperials have either inside information or some highly sophisticated listening post. Of course, it is Kyle's and Jan's job to go to a suspected place, where such a deep space listening post might reside, and secure it at all cost, but they are not allowed to let it be detroyed.
The status of the map pack is about 90% done,
Architectural mapping is 95% done,
ambient sound placement is about 40-50% done,
scripting including cinematics is 75% done,
voice acting 0%...
EDIT:
This project is finished and currently version 1.2 is available for download at PCGameMods, JK2Files, and Massassi. Some (if not all) screenshots show below are outdated.
Then some screenshots I promised...
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss0000.jpg)
A hall containing some defence installations brought by the Imperials...
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss0002.jpg)
A tall chamber with the well for an express lift. Plenty of room for a long fall...
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss0001.jpg)
The obligatory hangar (with an FPS issue because of too many NPCs present at the same time).
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss0006.jpg)
And this? A small piece of the "highly sophisticated" listening array.
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss0005.jpg)
And here's the dude that should get his own voice. And believe me, you won't see Desann in this campaign. They are just talking about history...
Looks like a very promising map, especially for SP. Good work on the lighting as well. :]
Lots of potential here, I like the design and theme.
Btw, what kyle skin is that :p?
Great job! :thumbs1:. Nice architecture.
Whole level a cutscene? Wow. How long? How is that working out for you?
Your map looks cool and like pnut which kyle skin is it cause it looks cool too
Wowee, looking great! Love the architecture, lighting, and most of all the fact that this is gonna have a plot :) Glad to hear it's so far down the road to completion already, cause I am already looking forward to this one a lot!
Thank you all for the positive feedback. The lighting is not even throughout the levels, and it's changing quite a bit from area to area, depending on the purpose of use of the room.
Btw, what kyle skin is that
Eh... The kyle skin? It's probably one of the first SP skins you could download from jediknightii.net. The name's darkkyle, unfortunately I cannot recall the author. It has been installed on my system for ages... The original game looks funny, when Kyle looks like a dark jedi and has those dead yes... Especially during the more tender moments with Jan...
Whole level a cutscene? Wow. How long? How is that working out for you?
The cinematic level is not overly large, rather it's just a small house and a courtryard surrounded by stone fence. The story starts there. I like to call the place Lando's cottage:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/shot0002.jpg)
wow! cool sky box, i really like the origrinality of this map, keep up the good work.
That last shot looks a bit dark even for sunset maybe...but that is one beautiful skybox :D
Custom skin for Kyle is a nice touch!
Excellent skybox. I agree with Kengo, though. There should be a little more light.
Heh... the Author of the skin? That'd be me. ;) I tried resubmitting it a few times... but it kept on getting removed from JKII.net for lord knows why.....
I still have it, was thinking about maybe updating a model and skin for it... dunno.
Here's a modview shot of it:
http://wat.midco.net/eggnog1/djk-pk3.jpg)
I might resubmit it again. We'll see I guess.
And now to be on topic.:
Cool Lookin' Level. :D
------------------
Note: Put a Modview pic up to replace an old WIP shot.
Custom skin for Kyle is a nice touch!
Sorry to let you down, but I cannot actually include the custom skin for Kyle in the campaign, because the skin's not made by me. It's just a separate skin mod that I installed long ago, thus it's evident in all the screenshots.
Heh... the Author of the skin? That'd be me
Thanks, infinity_blade, for posting this bit of information! This custom Kyle skin of yours is excellent, and so I hardly even remember anymore the original bantha herder looks of Kyle... And I can also promise that all the future screenshots will include this same skin, even if the final campaign cannot...
The place of the last shot may in reality be a little brighter, because the screenshot is truly old, ancient to be exact. It just happened to be on the server, and so I posted it quickly to give some indication of the surroundings of Lando's cottage. I'm out of town for a few days, but later I can give a more recent picture of the place.
You know if you ask Infinity he might be happy for you to use the skin in your mod, if you want to use it, as long as you give him full credit for it in the readme. He might not but you never know :)
I don't think I'd mind, but odds are the scenario calls for a less... evil Kyle.... ;)
So, you wouldn't mind, eh? Let's put it official: can I include your custom skin into the campaign with full credits given to you, of course? Your package would be in it's original form, because it's stand-alone, only the readme would be renamed to separate it from the main readme of the maps (altough you would also get your name in there).
And I can also tell you all that the campaign will contain some third party components as a small surprise element in any case...
What comes to the evilness... Well even the original game with its "kill 'em all, take no prisoners" attitude was quite far in the Dark side, in my opinion, so that's not really a problem, is it?
The only drawback will be the final file size that can exceed 20 MB, but who cares anyway nowadays...
Well, I've been doing minor touch-ups to it now and then, so perhaps you'd rather include that.
I've been thinking about resubmitting it to JKII.net, AGAIN, and maybe in a month or two I could start a model tweak and some retexturing for it. That's a big 'maybe' though.
Anyway, if you used the minor touch up version, would have the same one that I would eventually resubmit.
It's mostly to take care of some compression artifacts and detail loss due to excessive Jpg compression. I was new to JO/Q3 editing, and resaved it ALOT as a jpg instead of converting it after I was done.
And as far as being evil... well, while I don't completely agree on the SP game having alot of Dark side elements to it, I do feel that it's entirely your choice as this level's creator.
If you feel it's a good way to go, then I'm fine with it. :D
Well, maybe you are right about the Dark side of the SP. The motives do not ultimately origin from the Dark side. And you have to take into account the role of the game Engine...
But still, it just pleases well my twisted sense of humour to have the dark jedi Kyle. And most of all, dark Kyle looks better than the original, as is made also evident by the feedback above.
So, being as busy as I am (who wouldn't) I cannot give any date for the release of the campaign, but I guess it will take long enough that you can make the little touch-ups you have planned, if not the major ones. Let's be in contact later on, because the dark jedi Kyle is after all easy to include in the packet just before the release. Thanks!
To make sure nobody thinks I'm dead or something, I'll post a couple of screenshots.
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/bu_shot00.jpg)
This is a shot I promised a while ago. It shows the surroundings of the opening cinematics ("Lando's cottage", yet no Landos in these maps, just a work name).
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/lh1_shot00.jpg)
More fancy, red lighting, eh? It's a sort of scanner.
The map's still 95% finished, folks. And who knows how long it will be, because most of the time I spent on it goes straight to rebuilding older parts of the maps. Hmm, maybe not in the future; it's about time to seriously think finishing it.
Looking great. Sounds like youre close to beta testing stages, I'd love to help ya test this one :)
Thanks for the offer, Kengo. But one has to remember there's still missing about half of the last, big room or should I say chamber (it's the place where that "sophisticated listening array" is located). It's a bit difficult to map, because the place is not composed of just doors and walls, but rather a variety of different BIG machines, bridges and small elevators, computer terminals, pipes and screens.
And then there are two cinematics missing. And I cannot script them before the map is otherwise finished.
Wow, sounds rather Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (TM) there man, i.e. amazing :D
Well, when you think its ready for testing I'd love to be one of the testers if you want :)
And please finish this level, too many great levels aren't finished because mapers are such perfectionists!
And please finish this level, too many great levels aren't finished because mapers are such perfectionists!
Yes Kengo, how many times did AKPiggot threaten to cancel the map in the last two months ( not perfectionism, but terrible errors)?
I, however, am not a perfectionist. Compared to most mappers, I am LAZY. I don't caulk if it requires clipping, I rarely make detail brushes. I use the hollow command (although, I do adjust the brushes to fit, it's much easier than making each wall, floor, or ceiling manually (Rich has advised against all of these "Everything the player can't see should be caulked", "generally, all brushes not exposed to the void should be made detail", and "never use the hollow command".
The only thing I do follow is I never use CSG subtract. He is right, it is evil. Once, I had a huge staircase and accidentally hit CSG subtract, my massassi pyramid MP level, well, died. It took 5 minutes of subracting (I didn't realize I hit CSG subract so I thought it had crashed, but I left rigfht afterwords, came back, and had and had an error message. I closed it, and my level had 27,102 brushes because of the subtract. One click, and it crashed.)
Looking good, Lassev.
This map is really looking good! Keep it up and I'm looking forward to it. If you need any beta testers -- sign me up :D
Mind you Thomas...you don't want to be too far the other side of perfectionism either. I'll admit I didnt use detail brushes or caulk in my early mapping days, but really they are both utterly central to a good map. Detail brushes will cut your compile times drastically, and if the compile times arent much without using them, then you map definately needs more detail! I use the hollow tool myself, even though I know its wrong...
Yeah. On my part, I strongly support detail brushing. Absolutely most of the stuff in my maps are detail. My compile times are really short. Of course I could use more brushes for detailing, but then again, I want to release this campaign someday and it's already growing old, and certain deadline called Jedi Academy is closing...
What comes to hollowing and CSG substract, I have used them all the time, from beginning to the end. They are perfect tools (well, not really, but anyway), if you know what you are doing and when you should use them, and most importantly, when you should not use them.
There's little fear of this map being cancelled. Only Force Majeure in the form of a broken hard disk could cause that. And I have perfect trust in my Maxtor case heater.
Originally posted by Louis
If you need any beta testers -- sign me up :D
Well, I'm truly sorry to let you down. What little beta testing I'm planning for my campaign, it has already been sealed behind closed doors. I can assure you there were no honest competition, only historical reasons.
This has been a long project, because I only learnt to map along the way. I have mapped and remapped until you wouldn't recognize the maps to be the same, should have an opportunity to have a look at the older versions. I textured them anew a couple of times, not to mention changed the lighting.
So, I will, one day, just release the map and wash my hands. It doesn't need to be perfect, but it's the measure of my skills and shall be judged as such, with no lenghty feedback chain of beta testing. This is my personal view of things, and I don't say other people shouldn't beta test their own maps. Yet, I can promise my campaign will have a good integrity and a very low count of errors.
Sorry, I over exaggerated on alot of things; I don't know why. I have two main projects. When I do my rare detail brushing, I do alot of it. Therefore, I get decent compile times. Only a maximum of, like, two faces lack caulk.
I use hollow and merge (why not), but just not subtract (I've had more problems than I posted).
With my mapping style, I have gone through about 30 map files that I just didn't like until I started The Attack on Yavin 3 months ago. I started mapping 4 months ago. That's about one map a day.
Well, it has been quiet for a while, mainly because of this:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss_new01.jpg)
Now, let me add, before anyone gets any ideas: the level is not finished yet, far from it (still 95%). But Kengo played through the major part of the levels, because such is the state of things, that only one chamber is partly unmapped and a couple of cinematics unscripted, not to mention one big puzzle, but rest of the levels are quite finished. And I haven't still contacted the voice actors Kengo has offered me a few times. Because the lines are not fully finished.
A couple of irrelevant shot (except for Kengo) to brighten the day.
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss_new04.jpg)
Now the doors should be a bit more inviting, and the func_plats are themselves a bit boosted, as well (not shown here).
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ss_new03.jpg)
This seems a bit dark here, but in the game, it's not anymore totally pitch-dark, but gives a nice gloomy atmosphere, yet you see now, where you are going.
I like it, I lke it a lot :)
People, this level will really be worth the wait, I will say no more ;)
Despite my best intentions, I haven't still finished the last chamber. My time was spent on adding a totally previously unplanned room to the last map. It's a part of an eastern egg, so to speak, and totally irrelevant to the general plot. It's coupled to a rather funny cinematic (in my opinion), that is as well absolutely optional considering the general plot. Thus it's not automatically played but requires some trying on player's part.
I'm aware of the fact that this kind of thing may eat away some realism, and some people don't like that. This is basically the reason the place is hidden and is NOT compulsory in order to play the level through. Yet, this additional room will be kind of different in architecture compared to the other places in my maps, and thus worth visiting.
Interesting idea.
I like what I hear from Kengo.
For the enjoyment of all those two people still interested in this level, I'll post one more screenshot. I intended to post no screenshots of the last chamber (besides the array picture already posted), but as most (almost all) of the time I spent on this campaign goes to the last chamber, it's the only indication of progress.
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ssnew05.jpg)
So, here it is. One of the many machines. Lighting is temporary right now, as I'm only mapping architecture for the moment. The blue parts are covered with a peacefully pulsating shader. There will also be occasional electric discharges between the towers. Ambient sound will be static electricity.
Looks good, Lassev. It has been two weeks since anything was posted here.
So, ETA is when? I know I havent posted in the past on this project, but as I'm doing SP myself now, I find myself curious about the better projects in progress... and this definately qualifies as one of them, from what I've seen.
ETA, ETA. Indeed I'm sorry to say this, but I'm afraid the ETA will be closer to the time your ship sails back, Shadriss, than any moment soon. It would be finished sooner, but the last chamber is a bit of a headache. I want it to be as impressive as my skills allow, but it seems right now my imagination is a bigger obstruction. It's hard to design fine looking big machines that would also look like they have some function right where they are.
And then there's still the voice acting. I have actually selected one of Kengo's excellent voice actors, yet I still need to finish the lines and contact Kengo. Obviously I cannot give any estimation of the delay it causes. AK gives a good example that this part can be the last hindrance.
But in the mean time, I will post yet another screenshot. It's essentially the same as one of the earliest shown here, but a bit upgraded following Kengo's advice. I hope you like it.
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ssnew06.jpg)
:-O
This map has equal if not better quality to the original JK2 sp maps made.
Do those cylinders just have a "_glow" texture applied??? Please tell me that's temporary...
They indeed have just a _glow texture. To be honest, and once again I have to remind you all this is my first map ever for any game (and thus I have been given too much praise here), I applied that _glow texture a long time ago, when I was dumb enough to not even realise it's a just the minor part of a shader. Well, I have become a little wiser by now, but I never changed the texture.
I might draw a dark modification of the actual texture and make a decent shader code to use that glow properly. With FPS of 71 I have still some margin to play with. Yet, in the end, it will still be stark contrast between very black and very white.
PS. The most sharp-eyed of you have noticed there are two brushes missing in the last picture...
Yeah. I changed the _glow texture to a very fast noise pulsating shader. It looks quite good, but FPS dropper from 71 to 35, so I guess I won't be leaving it there. Most probably the rgbGen wave will be removed and just lightmap left in place.
Well, this is but a minor thing in my recent revert to enhance old places and structures in my maps. I have done it before, and actually there's few enough places I wouldn't have ripped to the ground and built anew. Yesterday I did also some major changes to a very old room. Maybe I will post a screenshot later (I'm not finished with it yet).
Unfortunately this all means delays to the release of the map. Well, it'll be that much better.
Hm, Attack on Yavin one took me three months (though, I spent a good amount of time on others (More like 1 and a half month). It turned out mediocre (like all first maps). So far, this map is so good, it can only come to mediocrity with, like, 5 glaring errors.
I don't mind the extra wait. Bring it to its maximum potential.
I'll post here a screenshot of the latest achitectural modifications I did. The lighting continues my experimental line, so feel free to post any comments. It's kind of green, and has the potential to be ugly, but then, one can also keep in mind that nobody seems to be working in the room right now, probably because of the disturbing noise generated by the generator thing (well, you can barely make out some imperial worker, but he's only temporary and was present during the mapping to help with proportions), so why would the lighting be any more convenient?
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/ssnew07.jpg)
There's a very nice puzzle in this room. One illogical, stupid puzzle Kengo criticized after playing the very early beta has been all but removed. The new one required some advanced scripting, and it's very elegant in my opinion. Quite obvious, hopefully, but also smart enough.
Nice work, man, the lighting has a pretty cool effect (why do control rooms always look better under colored lights? :)) Be careful with stretching textures, though.
The EF2 demo had a neat little puzzle, where you actually played a sort of mini-game...probably way beyond JKII, but if someone could figure out how to do that, it could be an interesting way to incorporate puzzles into a SP mission.
Can't wait!
That was an intersting little addition (the EF2 puzzle).
Looks great, Lassev. It's very cool that you are focusing more than a bit of attention on slick puzzles. I look forward to playing.
-clu
I tried the EF2 demo. Although the game in game did give me some ideas, it certainly would require much research to actually accomplish puzzles so sophisticated in JO. I mean, you couldn't even do exactly that kind of thing, but perhaps one could build some puzzles that would seem to be more complicated than those we saw in the original SP levels.
I guess I won't be building any new puzzles in Project Lighthouse (except the very last one, but that's kind of fixed already), but who knows, if JA will give more possibilities. The scripting should be better, so I believe somebody mentioned. My next project after Lighthouse will anyway most likely be for JA (I even have the plot somewhat planned already...).
Thank you all for the feedback. I really appreciate it.
Just wanted to report back in to say this map is looking very awesome...can't wait to see it finished!
It has been more than two weeks, so I thought to let you know the project is still breathing. After doing some rather major enhancement to older parts of the level I'm finally satisfied enough to fully concentrate on finishing the level. Actually, I have done enough mapping on the last chamber to evaluate it to be about 85% to 90% complete architecturally. That makes the whole level about 98% mapped architecturally.
Also the last puzzle is now designed and currently under construction and the custom textures and shaders are ready and waiting, so it really could be a matter of days, before I can announce I have nothing but scripting left.
The scripting shouldn't be underestimated, because the last cinematic will be very long and rather complicated. However, I have proceeded nicely with the sole voice actor I have / need, and I should get the sound clips soon.
I'm afraid I won't be posting screenshots anymore, but I'll keep you up to date otherwise.
Sounds good, lassev. From what Kengo says, it's a real winner. Can't wait to play it.
It seems there can be no progress without setbacks. After encountering one nagging, albeit slight, problem with JK2Radiant, I decided to give a chance to the much acclaimed GTKRadiant (actually it has been sitting on my hard disk for a long time, unused). Well, it did nothing to solve the problem, but to reward me for my troubles, it did, however, give me one surprise.
I saved my map once in GTK, and went back to JK2. I mapped this puzzle I've been talking about and went to scale down one mammoth sized corridor (this scale issue is related to the plot tightly, so I had to do it). Well, first I noticed one forcefield was missing (func_wall). I checked the situation and noticed all func_walls were missing. Well, since there were just four of them, it was easy to copy them from the back-up. Then I noticed trigger_onces were missing. It was time for a heart attack.
Well, if you knew my map, you would know there used to be about 50 trigger_onces all over the place. I can't imagine how jolly good time I'll have hunting them all down in my back-up to copy them to the GTK ravaged map.
Unless GTKRadiant is the official editor for JA, it will certainly take much reassurance to make me touch that foul program again (no offence at all to those people who are happy with it. I know it's good, but not for me, it seems).