Some truths you might as well realize early on.
First maps, are usually thrown away. (Well, actually they
are shelved, cause game makers never throw anything away). That's just a
fact, mapping is not hard, but it is time consuming and if you haven't
done it before, expect to make mistakes. Expect to make quite a few of
them. It's not so much that they're shit, but rather, by the time you've
finished your first map you will have learned so much that the second
one would be considerably better, more efficiently built, and a better
representation of your talent. And since a lot of people get into
modding to develop a portofolio for entry into the gaming industry, you
want the best possible releases associated with your name. And if you
don't think that matters, and you don't give a damn about the quality of
your product, rest assured no one else will.
What's the learning curve like for Dedit?
If you have previous experience with 3D mapping, it
shouldn't be too difficult, to incorporate what you have already learned
and adapt it to these tools.
Since Dedit tools are the second set of tools I've had the
fortune to work with, I find them very intuitive and quite capable for
producing almost anything. Now if you are new to level mapping, it will
take you anywhere from 40-100 hours to get a handle on the tools. This
is directly a function of your ability to visualize things in three
dimensional space. That's a couple weeks, working full time, at least a
month if you're learning it after hours. I suggest you take a quick read
of this brief article by Black Angel that's a good overview of modding
in general. There are a few terms you should become familiar with.
Use the Navigation bar on the side here, they'll lead you to
a set of tutorials that should help you out familiarize yourself with
Dedit. I took time to give it a sense of order and chronology, following
them should give the milestones to give you a solid grasp. Then again
you might just be looking how to get a door to function so you can jump
to it as well. Since I firmly believe that sharing information and
wisdom is part of growth, I hope you find these useful.
I know you guys want to get into this in a big way, but take
the time, and make sure you have a firm grasp on the basics before you
move on to other topics. Everybody wants to move straight to AI and
weaponry, but it is imperative that you make sure you build properly and
without leaks. So these tutorials are set up in a logical developmental
pattern. If you learn to build following basic rules, you will save
yourself headaches later on.
Here are some additional notes I once posted on a forum:
Build in small chunks, components and prefabs, and then
assemble it together as your project takes shape. Advantage? Small
incremental accomplishments. You make something, you see that it
functions properly, learn some stuff in the process, and then start the
next component. It never gets overwhelming. If you build that way,
you'll find that thinking through the creation of a level is easier.
You'll then know you need a couple rooms, a corridor, an atrium. That's
how the professionals do it, various team mappers build components and
then they're assembled and tested. And if something sucks, then its only
that component that sucks, its doesn't translate to the rest of the
level, so that chunk is shelved, and a new piece is created in its
place, compensating for whatever inadequacy was present. And you should
always put something down on paper. Mapping is akin to archtitecture, in
the real world you'd never build anything without blueprints. Its just a
starting point, they don't need to be adhered to, but they are a step
in the process. And to follow through on the analogy, building from the
ground up makes a lot of sense, cause it helps towards scale,
composition and space.
It's just a little advice. Take it if you want, ignore
otherwise. But learn to crawl before you walk. If you get the basics
down, the rest will just fall into place. The worst thing is having a
map half finished, then realizing you've done things wrong, and will
have to make efficiency repairs to actually make it playable on most
machines. So like I said, most mappers usaully shelve their first level.
And if they have the commitment to create a second one, they're on
their way to becoming mappers.
Just a small addition.
Start with a small map. I don't mean small in size, but
rather something that won't overwhelm you. Maps that are crammed with a
ton of stuff tend to not run well unless they are fully optimized.
Realize that the maps developed by Monolith for Multiplayer are sparse
on details for a reason, they run better on line. Excessive interactive
events, numerous polies in any one view, and bad lighting design and
particle FX can all lead to laggy maps. Start small, finish it, move on.
My last analogy, you are not going to be doing algebra if
you don't have the foundation of basic math arithmetic. Mapping is
similar. Learn the basics first.