There's a lot of imitation that goes on in mapping
Once I've decided what I want an area to look like
I load up other existing maps that already have similar props and locations
I then take lots of screenshots and use these to detail my map until I am happy with it
For this map for example, I bench marked my Bombsite A against Monastery
The offices in T spawn against those in Office and the warehouses against those in Assault
This is the point where you can really admire how artistic the mappers are Valve are
They can make large parts of the map look great just by add very few but well placed and chosen details
Of course, you don't want to copy them completely
But just like a child trying to imitate their Dad's painting
Or when you try to play a song you know on the piano for the first time
The result tends to bare no resemblance to the original thing
And even if it does, you'd be surprised how different the combinations of the same elements can be
In fact, this applies to most things you make in life
And serves as a great way to get you started in things you may have no experience in yourself
Take Chris Huelsbeck's Thornado tune for example:
I used this to try and make my first proper song and it turned out like this:
Same tune, but different in every other way
Back to mapping:
When detailing a map, you have your favorite areas
It's inevitable, there are some parts that you nurture and build on from an early stage
And there are others that you almost have to botch and make last minute because you have to
What's interesting is that how I make them doesn't seem to have any varying on their end quality
I love the back area leading to A from T spawn
I like this factory area!
I like this dark little alleyway as well
None of these areas were created from a vivid idea
Nor did I enjoy working on them
Compare this with the Church or the large building at A
Both of these areas were originally proudly placed and stretched until they looked impressive
As solid, undetailed blocks
I could picture them in my head, and yet, couldn't be bothered to work on them
They seemed like too large of a project to even comprehend
And it was only in the last week or so when i had to grit my teeth,
Reward myself with sweets
And sit in a darkened room for hours on end that they actually got done
The building at A looked horrible
It stood out like a sore thumb and i didn't know what to do with it
At a very late stage I replaced it's material with a warmer orange one
And suddenly it looked great
I'd say it's the best looking part of the site, and it immediately draws your eye
It's so warm and comforting!
I spent ages detailing the sheltered area around the Church
It looked amazing in the editor, but I loaded it up and was like:
Meh
I then compared it to an earlier version and was shocked at just how much prettier the earlier version was
Was I better off starting again with this area?
Or was it almost like a half finished project that would suddenly look great once additional work had been done on it?
Vex and myself added displacements early on
It's something I tend to leave untill the end
But there was a benefit from doing it early:
It made the map darker
The big problem with the Church area was the materials I had replaced the walls and floors with
They were less bright and because of that
The scene lost it's beautiful clean glow that earlier versions had
I think that I had managed to get it back by upping the sun's brightness and colours
And by choosing lighter tiles on the Church
Making the roof shorter let more sunlight reach the Bombsite as well
Which helped to improve things
The statue was a great addition
Before then the site was a mess of buildings and clutter
The statue serves as a focal point which really makes the site more memorable
If done wrong both of these tight corridors could have turned out disastrously
Not much light reaches the ground
And it could feel really claustrophobic and corridor-y
I guess the main thing is to make sure it's decently lit
With the Warehouse, the walls are mostly a bright material
The snow on the ground also helps
I made sure that the wall receiving the sunlight was taller than the other one
Allowing for sunlight to bounce down from above
And I ended up some sunlight colored entities to give this area a warm glow radiating down from above
Also notice how I break up the skyline
It's easy to spend a lot of time detailing the floor and walls
But it's where the map hits the skyline that you have really got to detail
I did this by making the building messy
Some bits are taller than others
Some areas stick in and others jut out
The pipes were a finishing touch to give this area more character
The same principles apply here
Look up and you'll see things sticking out
I was able to use an assortment of props to add yet more detail to the edges of the buildings
At one point I think I lit this area up with lights
But as I progressed I decided that it was bright enough already
And the flat lighting in this area of the map probably made it easier to pick out enemies from
It also nicely contrasts with the warmth from inside the marketplace
Now on to my favorite part of the map
The same principles apply here
I break up the skyline with detail and alter the height of the walls
I think that this is the most successful part of the map as far as lighting is concerned
There's a beautiful contrast between the orange glow of the sun bouncing off the buildings
And the icy blue shadows of the structures opposite
It's all very easy on the eyes
And players stand out against the rather faded backgrounds
The chimney is the distance was a lucky accident
I randomly placed it in top show where the factories were
And it just happened to be in the perfect place to be visible all along this corridor
Much like the statue is to the graveyard
The chimney here adds a focal point to a pretty
But an otherwise generic row of buildings
Interestingly if you look at this from the other end
You'll see a mountain between the buildings
Really adding to the feel of conflict in this map
Between the factories and the quaint mountain village
I wasn't happy with these factories
They were added in early on and I always thought I would go back and redo them
But the deadline was reached
And they ended up not mattering too much in the grand scale of things
They are tall enough to be visible from Bombsite A
And light the rest of the area up thanks to their light colours
So i guess they turned out okay after all
I haven't talked much about the marketplace or the factory
These are the two areas where Vex did most of the detailing
Since I find interiors far less exciting than exteriors
And she is the opposite
I was responsible for making the initial structure of the buildings
You know, like the layouts and how tall the ceiling would be
She would then find suitable props and place them artistically
Then I could return to those areas near the end and add some final touches
I didn't add much to the market place
But with the factory I added some lights and the interior offices
And finally! CT Spawn
With a mixture of displacements and props it was easy to botch together a precarious path around the Church
I don't have any time-lapses showing it since I did it all in one go
One of those, grit your teeth and do it moments
It's not the most detailed area of the map
But it serves it's purpose and sets the scene for the rest of it
A good first impression is worth a lot in CSGO
Vex kept insisting on adding the ice texture
And when she showed me it I was blown away
It barely required any tweaking and I'm sure you know it's one of the key selling features of the map
And now I'll show you some footage from this stage of development
Bare in mind that Welshe hadn't seen it since the time it was mainly square areas with a lot of blocks thrown about
Yet another good thing about showing people maps from an early stage
Is that they are then impressed when areas get detailed
and turn out completely differently to how they remembered them
Welshe: "It lives up to my expectations"
Welshe "Okay, I'm in, I'm in"
Welshe: "Ohh, wooooooow"
Welshe: "It's okay, it's just black. I'm not racist by the way"
Welshe: "Aww, it's black ewwwww. It looks like poo HA!"
Welshe: "Hmmmm, *gasp* Philip!"
Another person will spot problems in areas you think have you sorted out
Welshe would detect things that had evaded days of playtesting within seconds
Welshe: "You should probably like write this down or something"
This is a very good idea
Don't expect to remember every problem, I'd write things down then scribble them out as they were fixed
I told him (Welshe) that the graves would later be replaced with higher quality models
They were simply placeholders for the purposes of cover at the moment
One of the major problems later on is when you add small details like random props and think nothing more of it
Welshe: "Disable shadows on the props Philip!"
Because they are small, problems with them often go unnoticed
Until somebody else checks your map
Welshe: "Ohhh, this actually looks pretty decent"
Welshe: "I would say it's amazing 'cos I'm, like, easily impressed
Welshe: "Mmmm"
Welshe: "Ohh, wow look at the lighting oh my god wow!"
Yaaaaaaay, he noticed a small thing that most people wouldn't
Welshe: "Oh now, I like this!"
It's always nice to have playtesters who occasionally give complements
As well as constructive criticism
Welshe: "Wow, who did this? Was this you (Philip), like all the jaggedness"
Yes it was me!
Changing this from a platform to a house altered the gameplay
But it was worth trying because it ultimately became a big feature of Middle
Welshe: "Yeah, this changed a lot"
Welshe: "Let's see if you changed that house that was here"
Welshe: "I'm pretty sure there was a house here wasn't there? Or was that the other side of the map?"
There were a couple of houses that I made somewhere then repositioned,
This was one of them
Welshe: "You probably this already but the displacements on the snow or whatever is a bit, woah"
Welshe: "Jesus Christ! *gasp*"
Welshe: "What...What happened to the window?"
*laughter*
Welshe: "What happened to the window?"
Oh yeah, just saving that for later
*laughter*
Welshe: "*gasp* The Garry spot!"
I was very proud of a window I had added and I just had to share it with him (Welshe)
Welshe: "Oh that looks nice, ohh it looks like mustard mmmmm give me some"
I found one massive glitch since I had copy-pasta'd a prop that had collision disabled for gameplay reasons in another part of the level
However, in this part I hadn't added any sort of clipping
I challenged Welshe to find me
*laughter*
Welshe: "You have released the map as that and you are like "oh I have never tried this oh"
*laughter*
Welshe: "That shouldn't take too long to fix to be honest"
Welshe: "Just add clipping and that's it"
I then had a horrible feeling that I had the same with other props
Oh dear
Still, better to find these things now then for someone else to discover them post-release
I'm pretty sure I left another thing unclipped though
Hmmm
Probably just my imagination
And that concludes the detailing stage
On to, the crunch period