Beta Map KF_Oilrig

[Ricky(SCO)]

KF_Oilrig
Scenario
That Horzine lot have lost communication with an oilrig in the North Sea that they have been operating. No Communications from the rig for a few days now. We just know that they have been up to all sorts of dubious experiments out there. They thought they were safe, away from prying eyes. And now it looks like they may have lost control of what they were doing. Get in there and sort it out !

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Beta 1 of my Oilrig map.

http://pliki.red.orchestra.pl/maps/killingfloor/download/KF-Oilrig_b1.exe
http://pliki.red.orchestra.pl/maps/killingfloor/download/KF-Oilrig_b1.zip
http://pliki.red.orchestra.pl/maps/killingfloor/download/KF-Oilrig_b1.7z

http://www.moddb.com/downloads/killing-floor-oilrig-kf-oilrig-b1



I have spent 20 years of my working life in the offshore oil industry, so have plenty of reference photos. I am hoping to recreate the layout of one of the rigs I have worked on - rust and all.

Hope you enjoy it.

 

[shah3211]

great idea and goodluck.
look forward to your first beta.

 

[Maksimus]

Not the scenario and is direct the story beginning has very much impressed! Necessarily we wait and certainly we wait for the first бета versions for testing

 

[arramus]

This is a fabulous scenario and setting. With all your rig experience we'll get a perspective from someone who knows all the intricacies of platform life and work. Looking forward to the screenshots and seeing how you overcome the technicalities of what looks to be a complex project.

 

[gusone]

Agreed excellent concept. A North Sea gale storm with the sea crashing against the rigs legs far down below and at night time. Got a ton of potential and could be scary as hell.

 

[Delacroix]

Any links for the beta?

 

[ButterBiscuit]

dead?

 

[Ricky(SCO)]

This one isn't dead at all.... Its coming along quite nicely. I should have an internal beta for my clan mates in about 2 weeks time, at which time there will be a few screenshots posted... There is a lot of custom content due to the location being an oilrig, so I have been busy in the paint packages making really dirty textures and such like.....

The layout is close combat and confined, it is set at daybreak, and I am aiming to get the lighting really atmospheric.

It should be ready for the competition entry.

 

[Ricky(SCO)]

Having enjoyed a very relaxing break over the festive season, I have been able to put in some hours on my oilrig map that I initially started way too long ago. The map is now playable and is currently in alpha testing on the <AKA>Battlegrounds server ( IP 62.67.42.103:7707 ), if anyone is interested in play testing it.

The map is currently playable with all the layout of the rig in situ, with four working traders. There are some pretty horrendous areas where the map takes a massive dive in Frames per second, which are what I am currently working on optimising, to get the fps to an acceptable level.

The map is dark(ish) in some areas, with electrical panels where you can switch lights on, for different areas of the oilrig, just to make it a little bit easier to see what you are doing.

Once I have the fps issues sorted out, I will post the link to the beta files. Hope you enjoy it.

Some screenshots...

 

[Olivier]

O-M-G

 

[_Duke_]

What happened to setting it during daybreak? Or are the pictures misleading because it's an Alpha?

 

[Ricky(SCO)]

I have changed if from daybreak, to a more murky night time. Zeds are so much more scary in the darkness. I also consider that my oilrig looks much more pleasing to the eye, when you cant see it so well !

 

[Freshmeat]

I am really impressed, and very much looking forward to this one.

As for the FPS drop, you might want to consider the light switches. Dynamic light eats fps like popcorn. It might have a tactical importance if the switches are hard to get, and reset themselves after trader time, but otherwise it sounds a bit like a nice, but sacrificable gimmick.

EDIT: Ok, after a test with Ricky and several other AKA members, I can make following observations:

The visuals are really good, it is not just the screenshots.

The frame rates are pretty bad. In corner areas I had 10 fps average.

The gameplay is good. Due to low lightning and _lots_ of props, we where overrun several times. The layout is confusing at a glance, but there are several good waymarkers to communicate to the team. Further, there are very few dead ends, so if you have the general direction of your teammates, you can run to them. A few long corridors leads to ZED funnels, where they can be killed, but that might be doable with crawler spawns indoors and ZEDs jumping down from higher areas outdoors.

Summary: I want this map

 

[S281]

Just tried this map and must say that visually it is very nice. A few meshes are scaled slightly too large such as some wooden desks, but for the most part it is dead on. The lighting is good too, although maybe some more flickering lights. Also, maybe try changing the lightmap on some of the bsp to get some sharper shadow casts. I would also add in some creaky metal sounds.

On the outside of the map my FPS was fine. It stayed between 40 - 50 fps. Once inside though it would drop to around 20 fps. If you zone off parts, put antiportals in some of the walls, make sure collision is only on things that need it, and maybe change the cull distance it should improve dramatically.

Gameplay in majority of the map is good. Parts that need work are the smaller cramped areas. Try adding a vent or 2nd entrance. I camped the kitchen area and didn't take any damage at all.

All in all, a very nice map with lots of potential.

 

[Ricky(SCO)]

Thanks for the feedback and some things to look at.

I have been concentrating on the fps of the external areas upto now, and I am guessing that the area you are seeing the 20 fps are in the accomodation areas? I havent done too much optimisation in there yet, but will certainly be paying some attention to this area too. I have a load of Static Mesh detail to go in there yet, and have kept back placing these meshes in the map until I have smooth frames (I aim for at least 60 fps)

In most of the tests of the map I have tried so far, play was flowing into the outside areas, so we never ended up inside the accommodation level
for any length of time, so I didn't get any feeling for what it would be like to hold out in there. I have left a little space between the floors for some vents which will spawn crawlers in further revisions of the map. and there are many opportunities for the larger zeds spawning out of nearby bedrooms. I will have a good look inside this area to make it more complete.

I tried removing the switchable light sources, and the drop on fps was not too bad (2-3 fps) so I have decided to leave them in for the time being.

It always amazes me, how long it takes me to optimise a map. The culling of SM's are something that must be done on a detailed and cluttered map, like mine, and of course it is not the most exciting thing to do, but needs to be done to allow the map it's full potential for smooth gameplay. I have often had to change the design layout of a map, due to being unable to get the optimisation good enough. I also find that placing blocking volumes around static meshes and removing the collision properties from the SM, gives me my biggest boost on fps.

Thanks for your time. I appreciate your time in responding.

 

[S281]

Optimizing all those meshes can be annoying and time consuming. An easy way is to select almost all that you can make a blocking volume for and turn off bBlockActors, bBlockKarma, bBlockNonZeroExtent, bBlockZeroExtent (for objects that are not going to be needed to block coronas that you have placed in your map), and bCollideActors (for objects that bullet hits don't need to impact, like a metal grate with holes). Setting any bsp that is not seen by the player to unlit with the "black" texture from the killingfloortextures package will also help out. And of course zoning. If you want to get even more creative with the lighting, try using some of the light texture projectors (like the ones from the biolabs package) and setting the projector bProjectActor to True. It will give a really nice light cast on the player and zeds and add to the horror aspect. If you decide to do that and need any help getting it to work send me a message and I can give you an example. This does take a small hit on the fps, but if properly zoned off it should be fine. Also, I would keep the dynamic triggered lights if it is only a 2-3 fps hit.

 

[_Duke_]

stuff I don't understand but sounds really helpful!

Just wanted to give you a +1.

 

[Fel]

Can also take more complex meshs you need with collision, and set the collision info to simple in the static mesh browser. Such as movers (but only movers that NEED collision)

 

[Ricky(SCO)]

I have decided to release beta 1 of my oilrig map. Check the first post for download links.

 

[Z-MAN]

great looks
nice build.

But, Need PathNode more.
It stacks.