The new Inferno is officially out. Valve has a very nice comparison page with
plenty of before and after shots. Check their page out in this video’s description. I
won’t bother covering this again in the video, instead let’s move onto stuff you
might not have known. Taking a look at it in the editor, much like
other recent maps like Nuke and Train, it relies heavily on models to detail the scenery.
This shows a shift away from func_details which they used to use a lot more, where pretty
stuff was manually pieced together using shapes and textures rather than a proper modelling
program. Using models feels like a more modern approach to map-design, makes everything look
prettier and is clearly preparation for a SOURCE 2 FACELIFT. Or not. But it does at
least give mappers plenty of high-quality props that they can just drag and drop into
their own maps, so we should see improved looking community maps coming out soon as
well. Another feature I like is the blended textures.
It’s been around in Source forever to smoothly merge, say, grass into dirt, but the stonework
on Inferno uses a smarter kind of blending to make the paint work look worn and faded
with time. It helps break up repetition in the textures and is great fun to play about
with in the editor. This isn’t the first time this smarter blending style has been
used, I think even Mirage has it in some spots, plus it’s similar to how snow was painted
onto objects in Skyrim and an old Crysis 2 tech demo showcases it on brickwork similar
to Inferno’s. But it’s nice to see pretty pixel shaders such as these being used to
bring Source up to date to perhaps just 5 years behind the times.
But in some ways Inferno is more similar to the older maps again. It’s got a very tight,
enclosed skybox. This helps with optimisation, but does mean that you can’t chuck grenades
high into the air. As long as you keep them close to roof-height you’ll be able to chuck
them great distances, though there’s a skybox stopping you from throwing them between CT
spawn and banana / T-side of mid kind of area. And here are the spawn points. As with most
other CS:GO maps they’re placed in groups of 5, each resembling a C-shape. For terrorists
there are definitely good and bad spawns, with this one here being the best to reach
mid and this one for alt-mid. Over on CT-side it’s a bit more complicated. This one is
best for reaching library, this one for mid and it’s a battle between these two to reach
B first, my money’s on this guy because although he might be a little further away
he does have a clear path to the site. Time for a VERY QUICK little chokepoint analysis.
Does T Spawn’s new entrance have a point? Yes it does, you can see from here that it’s
about a second faster for reaching alt mid from than the main entrance.
The fastest way of getting a view into apartments is up through alt mid, through the door and
around this corner which will grant you visibility to rushing CT’s over a second before the
path around the outside does. But the outside path will still let you enter the apartments
soonest. As CT, unsurprisingly the quickest approach
to apartments is the risky rush past mid and window, you’ll reach the foot of the steps
just after terrorists reach the inside corner, and just before they turn the corner outside.
And although T’s alt mid exit is the fastest way to reach apartments, exiting through the
main terrorist spawn entrance and rushing up the stairs to bridge will grant you over
a second to line up a sniper shot before rushing CT’s pass the window. There isn’t time
to reach the other balcony without letting the fastest of the CT’s slip past unseen.
And unshot. This is how both teams meet in middle…
…and finally, the approach to B. Maybe you could shave time off these runs,
that’s the beauty of a new and mysterious map!
I’m going to be very disappointed if pre-firing and pre-nading that sticky-out bit of wall
doesn’t become a thing. FPS! The old Inferno map would have given
you plentiful -nay, copious, BOUNTIFUL quantities of FPS, what with its roots back in Source
so it’s no surprise that the new one runs slower. I compared 10 locations at 4K, maximum
settings and with 8X AA. A real worst-case scenario. ‘But WHY?!’ you might ask. Because
I have a Geforce 1080. This is by no means a definitive conclusion or one that you might
experience, but I found that framerates dropped by about 30%. So for every 10 frames you were
getting before, you’ll now get about 7. Or 3 if you did the math wrong.
I went and got framerates from other maps as well. These are all an average of 4 different
locations: 1 in either bombsite and 2 others in areas I felt represented the map in general.
Once again, not a definitive test by any means but the result was still a surprise. New Inferno
is a lot slower than you might expect. It’s slower than Train. It’s practically on par
with the locations I tested from the new Nuke! I’m going to give new Inferno the benefit
of the doubt here though since I found it to be more consistent- probably thanks to
its more closed design which makes every location behave more like an indoor area. My framerate
in Nuke in comparison varies a lot more depending on where you are, and even which angle you’re
facing. I wouldn’t worry and if you are then your
setup probably struggles in most modern games. And Nuke. And the other maps a bit as well.
And now for the bit you’ve all been waiting for: how do bots perform on this map? To aide
me in this most important task was Bez the Bot Whisperer.
‘COME ALFRED’ ‘GOOD BOY’
He took me on a tour, showing me all of the problems he could find with the nav mesh.
He says that it’s mostly automatically generated, clearly Valve is still horribly out of touch
with what’s important in their games. They still don’t understand the true importance
of bots. WHEN WILL THEY LEARN?! They’ve lost a few of their tricks that
they had on the older Inferno. They’re no longer able to jump over this railing. And
since they’re reduced to a walk when they approach a planted bombsite, having to walk
around takes a substantial amount of time. Valve have at least bothered to remove the
jump command from a few areas to stop them from wildly hopping about. But the whole thing
seems to be based on an older version of the map. He found empty spots, clearly where there
used to be things that were removed- like a bench or something here. And in other areas,
there were navs where clearly there shouldn’t have been. These coffins here were a late
addition to the map, as was this wall near T spawn.
None of these areas cause too much of a problem though. He says that with the coop missions
Valve have really improved bots, mostly by teaching them to ignore Valve’s commands
when they don’t make any sense. But the nav meshes don’t help matters. When camping
at Banana, for example, bots will favour this side of the cover over being behind it! And
since the whole thing is at a strange angle, the navmesh believes that every bit along
either side makes for a great camping place. Please fix.
He commended bots on realising that the shoddy nav meshes on these hay bales just aren’t
worth dealing with. Sure, they can jump down okay. But when summoned up again, instead
of dealing with them… ‘Yeah and now back in the apartments’
Bez predicts that at some point there’s going to be a horrendous bot pile-up in library
caused by this sticky out bit of wall here, where one bot will bump into it, causing a
catastrophic chain reaction between the rest of them, resulting in them all nervously bumping
about and waiting for each other to move for a comical amount of time. Like a bunch of
old people meeting each other at a roundabout. It’s going to be cataclysmic and yet, Valve
doesn’t care. So that’s a quick look at Inferno. I’m
impressed with it so far, though it’ll take time to decide on how it performs, gameplay-wise.
Though I’m very pleased they’ve pimped out the boiler… and even more so that they’ve
brought back the best music from Source.
Thanks, Valve.