Quote from Crawfish on February 14, 2015, 8:45 pm

Another Bad Pun wrote:

Crawfish wrote:

Is it allowed to post screenshots of a map that one isn't planning on releasing at all?

I think I've only released 1% of the maps I've shown in this thread. So go ahead! Maybe I'll actually release a finished map here someday. Maybe.

Thank you! Also, that's a mighty pretty screenshot y'got there. I don't think I'd ever be able to dedicate the time to something A4-themed. Way too many massive vistas and props, and I'd probably miss 30 leaks for every 10 minutes of work.

Anyway, as I've said before in pretty much all of my posts, I'm practicing mapping by recreating Portal 1 chambers in a Portal 2 style, just so I can get down all of the things used in them (tracktrains, light textures, etc.]. I seem to be constantly changing how I make them too.
Some are pretty much just texture changes, others add arms and panels and such, and most recently I've started randomizing white tiles and decorating ceilings, in the fashion of some coop maps, and the few clean ones you see in Portal 2 before act 3 starts.
Here are a couple screenshots from my most recent remake, chamber 4. I figured it's small so I'd be able to concentrate more on aesthetics.

Pictures
[spoiler]


[/spoiler]
Any advice?

Quote from TeamSpen210 on February 17, 2015, 6:04 am

This definitely looks quite nice. You should probably remove that orange glow, though. That's unique only to the Portal 1 era levels. You might want to replace it with a bunch of extended panel arms holding the floor up, or the squarebeams models and a BTS scene (use areaportals!). Add a base for the weighted button too (you can't use an instance here, since the window would clip into the normal-sized brush).

Quote from Another Bad Pun on February 21, 2015, 12:32 am

Posting a hallway super quick. That's all.

Quote from Ciirulean on February 21, 2015, 12:29 pm

Crawfish wrote:

I think it's a pretty good start. It's a little bit plain looking though, I would suggest throwing in some global_ents, testchamber and destruction are my personal favorites for a map like this. Some black tiles wouldn't hurt, especially since the concrete in Portal 2 is so much cleaner than the one in Portal.

Lighting is a bit plain too, maybe throw in some light strips or a projected texture? Whatever looks best I guess.

Quote from MrBoss on February 24, 2015, 3:45 pm

A map I was working on a while back. Stopped working on it for a bit, but currently trying to finish it off for release

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6

Quote from josepezdj on February 25, 2015, 8:38 am

MrBoss wrote:

A map I was working on a while back. Stopped working on it for a bit, but currently trying to finish it off for release

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6

Very very very impressive overgrown detailing there! Keep up the good job, man!! How much time will it still take you to release?

Quote from Crawfish on February 25, 2015, 11:42 am

TeamSpen210 wrote:

This definitely looks quite nice. You should probably remove that orange glow, though. That's unique only to the Portal 1 era levels. You might want to replace it with a bunch of extended panel arms holding the floor up, or the squarebeams models and a BTS scene (use areaportals!). Add a base for the weighted button too (you can't use an instance here, since the window would clip into the normal-sized brush).

To be honest, I'm quite a fan of the orange glow and think it still goes nicely with Portal 2's designs despite not being used in the main game. But I get what you mean.
I'll do some experimenting with arms or a BTS area when I get the chance.
Also, there is actually a button base, it's just sunken into the floor because that's how it was in Portal. Kinda strange, it's the only sunken button base I've seen in either game.

Ciirulean wrote:

Crawfish wrote:

I think it's a pretty good start. It's a little bit plain looking though, I would suggest throwing in some global_ents, testchamber and destruction are my personal favorites for a map like this. Some black tiles wouldn't hurt, especially since the concrete in Portal 2 is so much cleaner than the one in Portal.

Lighting is a bit plain too, maybe throw in some light strips or a projected texture? Whatever looks best I guess.

I get what you mean about the black tiles, I can never decide what looks good where though.
In the next chamber above it (in the same map, just up the elevator), I did more experimenting with tiles and such.
I'm not quite experienced with global_ents yet, so I guess I'll have to look into that soon too.

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep all this in mind in the future.

EDIT: I followed some of Ciirulean's advice, and added some black tiles and global_ents! Opinions?

Images
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

I think I made decent use of those 64x128 black tiles. I don't think I've ever seen them used though, are they not in the single-player campaign? Or are they just used sparingly?

Also, I might change that ring of black tiles around the cube dropper to be the darker kind like the rest on the ceiling. I thought the contrast looked good at first, but now it's just bugging me.

Quote from CamBen on February 28, 2015, 11:18 pm

For the ceiling I recommend making sure the textures are the designated textures labeled ceiling. Also I don't think the black textures are used anywhere in the game except maybe some spots where the devs forgot to change them, but I've seen some people make very efficient use of them as accentuation for the regular gray ones.

Quote from Crawfish on March 1, 2015, 2:17 pm

CamBen wrote:

For the ceiling I recommend making sure the textures are the designated textures labeled ceiling. Also I don't think the black textures are used anywhere in the game except maybe some spots where the devs forgot to change them, but I've seen some people make very efficient use of them as accentuation for the regular gray ones.

I was attempting some form of accenting by using them on the ceiling, and it also gives me some more artistic freedom because I'm not limited to one size of tile, but I guess ceiling tiles are probably there for a reason.

Also, I believe the black tiles are used in the single-player campaign to make things look incredibly "shiny and new" in the reconstructing parts of the game.
Once in a while you'll notice that the tiles that are pulled in by panels when you enter the room are darker than the rest.