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DM-Fondation, final available!

I’m very happy to share the final version of DM-Fondation 😀

Final changes, in no particular order :

  • Switched Shock Rifle and Rocket Launcher and their ammos. By design, the player standing on the Belt platform can be kill from the opposite of the map by a hitscan weapon. Only with those changes made, the gameplay is better, to my surprise 😮
  • Decreased the lift time near the Belt. From 0.7 to 0.65 so players can jump a bit higher without hitting their head on the ceiling blocking volume.
  • Adjusted few static meshes collisions here and there.
  • Adjusted blue and green light materials colors.
  • Corrected the English story.

A big THX to Achernar, ÐutchSmºke, Mac Apex, Mic and Wulfgar63 for their RC1 feedback 🙂

DM-FonDuality, the next level

Dev on DM-Fondation is practically finished. The final will be released this Friday 😀

I had 1 week off in the holidays, so I started DM-FonDuality using the same set of awesome assets!

The post pic is the view from the Sniper Rifle, my bud ÐutchSmºke will be happy to know his favorite weapon is there 😉 Meshing of the play area is finished (I didn’t start the surrounding yet), lighting is mostly done, post process isn’t activated. Eventually, the level will look up to my standard, as for now, it’s just to provide a basic look and feel of the level 🙂

DM-Fondation, RC1 available!

I’m please to share the release candidate 1 of my new level, DM-Fondation (French title) 😀

RC1 mean that, for me, the level is practically 99% finished. I’m releasing a pre-final version only to make sure everything is well done, bug free, and polished before releasing the final in 2022 🙂

You want to make a suggestion? Much can be done in the pre-final phase. Even if I like the level the way it is, any good suggestion is welcome. Let me know! Post your comments here plz! I’m eager to read ya because once I’ll publish the final, except a major bug, I won’t touch it again. So this is the right time to share your opinion, it’s your way of contributing, making a possibly better final version 😉

This is my Christmas gift to you all! So, meeeeeeeery Christmas 😀

DM-Fondation, coming soon… :)

Progressing is going extremely well on DM-Fondation 😀

I’m fine tuning the level to my liking at the moment and I’ll release it for all very, very soon. It is, imho my best UT4 level yet and the more you’ll play, the more you’ll get addict to it lol 😮 😉 So, stay tune 🙂

DM-Fondation, post # 2

Progressing is going good on DM-Fondation.

It will be imho, my best level yet 😀 It’s not the first time I take inspiration from another level, even from my own previous made level lol but I must say that with all the enhancements I’ve made, gameplay is really awesome, much better than the original and with low level bots above that, which isn’t an easy task to achieve! It already look super nice and I’m not done yet. I upload a pic of the Shock area just to compare with the previous status 🙂

DM-Fondation, my next level

After the release of DM-Dystopia. I started this new level.

As mentioned in my previous made post published in November, What’s next Stevie?, for those who did read the post but didn’t care about commenting it, briefly, I’ve said that I’ve bought several sci-fi packs and it cost me more than 200$.

I import all assets in UT4 editor but there is a bunch of problematic SM which some faces are flickering? Since I didn’t have any error while importing them, I have no idea what is the cause of this odd behavior, so I had to leave them aside. Damn frustrating when you pay for something and can’t even use it 😦

To start with, I inspired myself on another UT3 classic level, DM-Acquisition which received praise at the time made by ‘Slainchild’ or Ben ‘Scinbed’ Edney, author of DM-Backspace. Instead of importing the map by using a map scaler, I did play a lot the original, counting how long it take to travel from point “A” to point “B” by running, dodging, jumping and going back and forth many times. That mean the UT4 scale is 100% like the original.

There was little things I enhance like the liftjumps. In the original, bots didn’t make them at all. I’ve report that issue in the beta phase at the time but ‘Slainchild’ didn’t or couldn’t fix it in the final. Now, even low level bots use liftjumps 😀 I also add a bit more health so it’s more accurate to UT4 health system.

The post pic is the Shock Rifle room. Lighting is basic (there is few static point lights), shadows are dull and flat, the meshing is the bare minimum, post process isn’t activated neither. Eventually, the level will look up to my standard, as for now, it’s just to provide a basic look & feel of the level 🙂

I might start another series with those assets like I did with the Journey to Oblevia project, I don’t know yet.

DM-Dystopia released

For those who have plenty of drive space and want to play a great looking and very enjoyable level, I present you my latest one called DM-Dystopia 😀 Head over the map page to learn all about it and for the download link 🙂

DM-Dystopia, new level

Now that DM-Oblevia, Part 2 final as been released, I’m taking a break from Oblivia assets. Therefore, I want to work on something new. I have to admit that it’s level design addiction!!!

I like to challenge myself, so each time I start a new level, each level must use a different theme, lighting scheme, colors, music, sounds effects, etc. When I reuse some stuff, I change the materials properties so it doesn’t look or sound exactly the same.

I started this new level called DM-Dystopia. For this level, I use a combination of 2 different assets packs since they’re both awesome BUT very limited in term of assets to use. So, this level use the Polar sci-fi facility pack for the interior (ceiling, floor, pipes and wall), also the IVFX Production test pack for the exterior (sci-fi debris, cliff and rocks), and this awesome 350 sci-fi alpha decal pack to add interesting and unique sci-fi decals all over the place 😀

Therefore, there is a size issue… both assets pack use mostly 8K, 4K textures rez. No wonder why the demo scenes look so detailed and sharp, which is what I like in a level. For UT, I had to lower the quality of all textures to at least 2K to reduce the cooked file. Even then, the file was way to big 😦 So I had to cut more on quality again… reducing a big bunch of textures to 1K rez. Even with all this compression, the file remain to big for my taste and I’m loosing a noticeable visual quality overall. I did that reduction process for all my levels and I honestly hate cutting down so much on visuals just to be able to share my level by uploading it on UTCC or any similar host with size limit.

Beside, for me, the file size is irrelevant. Since my first level, I cut the quality so I can share it with you. I do that so you can play more interesting and unique levels than the game offers. But what’s the point working on HQ levels for months to get nothing in return from you? Showing your appreciation is the only thing I’m asking you. Even that seem to be to much to ask! In the end, more than 95% of the players don’t care to simply post a comment, add their like or share the level I’m releasing! I receive few or no comments at all when I release a WIP level and almost none when I release the final version and that all platform reunited 😦 Only a bunch of players give me feedback and truly appreciate my levels. Brief, I’m not sure I’ll share this new level, or any new level since most of you had let me down since years by not providing any kind of feedback. For the few who support me by posting positive and constructive comments, like the articles, you’ll recognize yourself and you are the only reason why I did share my past levels.

I’ll create a page for this level if I decide to share it. For now, the pics is to give an idea of the overall color scheme and meshing style I’ll go for. Very bold colors for a change and mostly cliff and rocks assets for the layout.