I'm working on the most-requested map around, Toys Story. This one isn't finished yet, but I've been working on it pretty steadily the last few days. I'll post a full changelog later, but I've done a lot to improve both the look and playability of the map.



(Click for full size to compare details. In this shot I haven't finished the lighting in the living room yet, so it looks a bit dark. Also note the colored artifacting that is very noticeable on light-colored surfaces of original due the the lighting mode.)

You won't be able to see a lot of change in just those two screenshots, but I've got rid of the ugly black lines and smudges on a lot of the textures, replaced others, set up specularity on things that should be shiny, worked on collision (A LOT) and made or used meshes from other maps to replace some of the more ugly ones.

P.S. Mutant forehead woman is gone.

She will be missed.

Here I made the stairs a lot easier to traverse than before. There is a jump pad at the bottom which will send you (and monsters) most of the way up, and two sets of track to walk on. I also spaced the wooded posts on the banisters out wider. I replaced the old TV and computer screen with some more modern models. I moved the PC desk out a bit and removed the blocking volume behind it. (The reason you couldn't go back there is because the other side of the desk wasn't modeled.) I also put more jump pads around the chairs, as well as blocking volumes so that you can walk up from the seat to the arms without getting stuck on the mesh.



This hallway had only "ambient" (i.e. glow) lighting. Not much change here, beside fixing collision on the doors. You really can't make it out in this screen, but I set up the curtains with an alpha layer so they look less like weird cutouts.




Here I set up the tub with some more realistic looking water, and made it a fluid surface rather than an opaque sheet. Also some small details like a sink handle and drain.




Here's a finished view of the kitchen. I've completely redone the sink and appliance textures.





And here's a new thing I'll be adding standard to map edits, visible music switches. I've been adding switches for a long time, but with the exception of UTCRAFT's jukeboxes, they've always been hidden and hard to find. The new switch style even displays the name of the song, so you don't have to guess. Press 'E' to activate. Of course, if you don't play with music on, you can just ignore them.

Speaking of that, I've uploaded a new DC custom map music pack, including the music from this map, as well as recent additions like UTCRAFT and Sarigorno.

http://www.vgmp3.org/DLs/UT2004/UT2004-DC-CUSTOMMAP-OGGPACK-05.zip

You can grab the other music packs here if you don't have them already.

There are a lot more optimization changes that you won't see in the screnshots, such as setting up zones, and many many blocking volumes. You will notice that I've redone all the health pickups; they are now fewer in number but more powerful. The vials and health bases are now bubble gum pickups worth 25 hp which super heal like a vial. I've used the gum in other maps, (originally from DM-shok-Childsplay) but I've retextured it so it looks a lot nicer now. The orignal version of the map had no adrenaline, so I've put in shokazulu's lollipop pickups worth 15 adren.

I didn't change weapon or ammo pickups much, but I did switch a few of the weapons around for DM. Powerful weapons are generally a bit harder to get now.

You really can't tell in the screenshots, but you will notice when playing that I've set up specularity (shininess) on most appropriate surfaces. Many of the old photo-based textures looked pretty weird without it.

There's also a small hiding area in one of the dressers now. I'm not too crazy about adding things like this as they can make maps slow when people hide out, but it seemed appropriate here. It will count as out of bounds, so you can't stay there for too long without monsters in sight.

I've said in the past that I didn't like this map, but mostly because of the looks and glitchy collision. It was also played way too often, as there were two identical copies on the old server. It's a fun map, but I'm a bit picky.

I updated this one a bit more to fix some collision problems Muir found near the sofa under the stairs. I also redesigned the fireplace, since it was one of the few photo-based meshes I didn't fix.




Download: http://www.utzone.de/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=4309