yep, the shape of the map is based on aggressor. well spotted.
right now i'm just interested in the pros and cons of making a map using subsurf, so i wasn't too bothered about thinking up a map layout. aggressor seems to be a popular map with good gameplay so i decompiled it to an ase file and used that as a guide. here's a shot of aggressor's model (red) and my latest subsurf model (blue) in blender.
i've been having a few thoughts on mapping with subsurf.
triangles - the subsurf map is made of quads, but when it gets turned into a working game map the quads get split into triangles. sometimes these aren't split in the best direction and some parts of the map end up looking pinched. i think that before i export the model from blender it might be worth converting the quads to triangles and using edge rotate where necessary to improve the shape.
lighting- obviously the lights are badly positioned and need better arrangement and different light levels, but there is also the problem of how weirdly gtkradiant reacts to the shape. it all looks too faceted and there are weird patches all over the place. not too sure to do about this. i'm guessing there is some kind of script/shader that would help with this, but i have no understanding of such witchcraft. if anyone can help with this it would be gratefully accepted.
normal mapping- as i mentioned in my previous post, making a high poly model for a subsurf model is really easy, just add more subsurf. blender has the ability to bake normal maps, but can anyone tell me if this is worth using or is there a better program to do it with.
splitting- one problem is the entire map is a single mesh, so the entire map needs to be drawn continually. it might be worth spitting the mesh into seperate "rooms", exporting them to various ase files and then lining them back up in gtkradiant. then i could do some vis-blocking so that the game didn't have to render as much. i'll probably leave this stage till i'm happy with the shape of the map.
thanks.
