DM-Imber
Map Info
	File Name dm-imber.zip Author darth_weasel Gametype UT2k4 Deathmatch Date Added 01-10-2005 File Version 1.00 File Size 4.6 mb Player Count 4 - 8 Map Description None Review Rating 8.5 User Rating 8 Overall Rating 8.5
Review
Reviewer AMmayhem Awe Score:  3.0/3 Date 02-16-2005 Build Score:  3.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  2.5/3 User Point:  0 Overall Score:  8.5/10 For those who crave great visuals in a map more than anything. Slap on some protection now, this one's going to be juicy. Don't shy away if you're all for gameplay either, darth_weasel's got you taken care of as well. AWE: 3 Look at all the pretties! Well ok, let me state my two peon gripes. One, could've used a bit more contrast in color. It's all a fairly consistant cold blue color look like Sae. It still looks absolutely awesome, but a little color here and there would've look a bit more interesting. Second, there are a few textures throughout the level that look too stretched out (reference doorframes in pic 6). Ok, now that that's done, leave your jaws in open and drooling positions. The one thing here in Imber I found especially cool and interesting, was how the author inter-worked caves into the layout. It's just fantastic, giving you that sense of wonder of how the Mayas built their temples back in the day. I especially loved the roundness to the columns too. They aren't an even elipticle shape, but they just have a balance to them. And who here doesn't love rainy days? The clear skies with rain didn't bother me much, I've seen it before in real life, adds a bit to the mystery of the place. BUILD: 3 Most of what you see here are static meshes, though you wouldn't realise it. The caveworks and foliage are expected, but even the doorways, arches, and simple looking supports are all meshed up. The sections of the map have been chopped into lean zones for computing betterness. I will say there was a missed opportunity with ambience. With the theme so well executed, some ghostly sounds or chants would've been awesome to hear. But alas, none to be heard, only what is normally expected, burning fires, drizzling rain, and the little critters of the jungle. All is good, and not ghouly. CAST: 2.5 Ok, here's where the game goes one hit away from a perfect game. I like to give bad news first, if you haven't figured by now. With that, the only real faults I noticed in the gameplay were the bots inability to reach the U-Damage, and I didn't much prefer for the two health chargers one double-dodge apart. That's it really. Wait, what's this I'm hearing about frame rates? Oh, right, the map plays "slow." Well folks, I don't knock points for this, unless it's an absolute slide show or makes my computer crash. Yes, the frames dropped as low as the teens in some areas, and ran in the 20's most of the rest; and I did reach the 30's and possibly 40's in a couple spots (so I was too busy fragging). If it's running a slide show on your rig, it's time to upgrade. Heck, it's time for me to upgrade, I'm playing the game on practically all the low settings. So use what testosterone you've got and stop crying. As for the rest. Layout was excellent, no areas were out of the way, nor difficult to travel. Most of the action down the main middle sections, which is common. Leaving the outer routes less furious, but still traveled, and the goodies out there are worth it. Mostly, the link gun and flak cannon are probably the least traveled areas, and those are some powerful weapons to behold. With the above exception, bots navigate perfectly, not following one same route, so patterns are difficult to find in them. I could have used a little more Z-axis play, but as it is, I'd say there's a decent split, leaning more in favor of 2-D play. It's still made may list of favorites. SCORE: 8.5 You know, I could've docked a point here or there, and result in a 7.5, but you know what? If we all become picky then we'll never see big scores. Not saying that this map doesn't deserve the 8.5, believe me, it does. And if for some reason you're still reading this review and not playing this map, I'd like to take this moment to remind you that your friendly portable toasters for bears run on pinecones. Don't forget it. Now get fragging!
Map Comments
nELs0n 01-10-2005 11:40 AM MST Rating: 9   woohoo!!! at last =) d*mn, i've been waiting for this map! and it just meets my expectations in almost every way... the floorplan simply rocks and the lighting creates a nice atmosphere - maybe a bit too bright in some places but that's a matter of taste. ah well... just don't know what else to say about that map than go,go,go download this one!!! Yameneko 01-11-2005 02:37 PM MST Rating: 9.5   All I have to say is that this map is amazing. The rain soaked hallways and the broken walls and floors all really make you feel like you were in a temple ruin that had been lost for many years. The lighting is dramatic and made you feel like you should have brought a flashlight to see with, but, at the same time, is enough to let you look around at the details and to let you aim properly. The layout is great. You have plenty of ambush-worthy corners. There is enough hallway space to make a DM-Rankin player cry tears of joy, and the hallways provide a great challenge when you're surrounded and trying to avoid enemy fire. I only had one problem, and that was a major FPS drop in one of the hallways. The paticular hallway is the one with the stairs behind the Small Shield Pack. It has 4 Adrenaline Pills, 1 Shock Core, 1 Link Charge, 1 Bio Cartridge, and 1 Lightning Ammo. It reduced my FPS down to about half. Other than the FPS drop, no combat, audio, or visual problems. It's an amazing map, and I recommend it all the way. Edit: Chavez, birds sing during the rain at times as well. Lok 01-10-2005 04:39 PM MST Rating: 9   All is awesome really all Fuzzy Logic 01-10-2005 06:15 PM MST Rating: 9   Screenshots don't do this map justice. You have to get in there and play to see how awesome it is: excellent visuals, plenty of flow and fast action. This map is ownage material. Great job :) Deathbliss 01-11-2005 11:02 PM MST Rating: 8   Darth my MAN - you made another map! Awesome dude - keep it up! Expect a full review from me later ;) A bit later... OK, here we go... Bots need some help man! They don't even try to get the Damage Amplifier and I didn't see them trying to snipe or do anything special. Do you have that advanced pathing tut? Your theme is pretty good - but not for some lost South American temple. Your description makes it sound like this is an old place, but there are vents and too much metal. These things cause a schizm in your design, and make your level a little less believable. You also need some more "WOW factor" specifically in your architecture, which is good but not amazing. I think you're on the right track, and perhaps more maps will help you develope your style, but you might still want to study maps like DM-CPB2-Achilles to see what I mean. Your sky is OK, but you need some reason for it to be raining up there. If it's just from the ground then you gotta figure out a way to make it look like that is what's happening. I'd say the proper texturing of some kind of growith along the edges and the drops only falling around the edges of an opening. If it is rain then you need some clouds, or a fog, or something. I think you got the lighting and texturing about right - the level suffers from a small amount of whitelightidus but it's really not that bad. If you wanted to address that just make the flames various shades of orange, and mix some other applicable color in there to emulate whatever light might be coming from the sky. But I'd just focus on the bots at this point, and maybe revise your description to remove any illusions that this is some old temple (which is the first thing that popped into my head). If it's a new old temple, then throw a date at us so we can place the map in its relevant time withing our mind's eye. The next day... PLEASE LISTEN UP! I looked in the editor and you don't have any Antiportals! Unless you had them hidden away somewhere... But if I'm right then we have to address this right now! I'm only learning about these, but so far as I understand it you place them anywhere in your map where the player can't go, where if the player was standing in the level looking out in the direction it is blocking the game will not render anything that lies beyond the players view. If you went into I believe wireframe view in-game you'd see that the editor is rending all of your level, meshes, terrain - the whole kit n' kaboodle all at once! So you want to block what the game renders for the players. Stick Antiportals in the SUBTRACTED SPACES where a player can't go, in every area where they will block the rendering beyond. Fit it to the spaces you have. You can also place SMALL, TIGHT FITTING antiportals around every chain. Keep them square and basic, just fill up the empty places between each room where the player can't go. Use one large one instead of multiple small ones for the bigger spaces. They don't have to be a perfect fit - they don't have to seal. They just have to keep the game engine from saying to itself, "Well the player is looking over there, so I have to render that." When in actuality the player is looking at a wall, and unless they have X-Ray vision they can't see it anyway. Also don't forget to add Zone Portals in your doorways - didn't check to see if you did that. UT rules apply here, and it is an additional optomization which should help get your level up to around 60 FPS once you're all finished with these additions. If I didin't explain any of this well enough send me an e-mail - - Deathbliss Kantham 01-10-2005 11:36 PM MST   /ME DL souldividersjosz 01-11-2005 02:18 AM MST Rating: 6.5   Another DarthWeasel map? wasn't he the one that made Neivm? so I d/l'ed... One of the worst optimized maps I've seen, usually with Epic maps I have GREEN FPS only but on this one, red, yellow, purple, this map really needs optimizing. And this was without bots. Sorry, this map may look VERY nice, but the performance is nowhere to be found. Please fix this Chavez 01-11-2005 11:04 AM MST Rating: 7.5   As others mentioned, the floor plan is great. Nice custom Statics. I had no problems with fps (I think its not necessary to have only green, at least it should not be red, and here it´s all right). What I dislike is the birds sound, I mean there is not much outdoor (only some parts you cann see the sky and trees in the distance, it is dark and raining, but the birds are singing like on a sunny spring day. The fireflames are moving too slow, but this is a problem which I have observed in lots of other maps, too. Nillian 01-11-2005 12:00 PM MST Rating: 7.5   Really liked this map, nice layout, plenty of opportunity to surprise people, and those rain emitters....*sigh* I'm so jealous of your skills. Big thumbs up! And keep 'em coming! EDIT: FPS was a small issue, I'm running a 6800 GT and noticed some drops below 40fps! On the Epic maps (except IceTomb or whatever its called) I hit above 100fps pretty much constantly. Oh well, still didn't pose a problem for me! G.Lecter 01-11-2005 01:36 PM MST Rating: 8   Good: - Great visuals & Ambience. - Very good use of the rain. - Great architecture. - Both terrain and classic action. - Some nice z-axis. - Good framerates. Not so good: - I feel the wall textures a little large. Maybe they could have been better scaled down... - BSP zones are so BSP-ish... I miss a few more meshes there. - I also miss the posibility of lift-jumping. - Bots are not interested in the DoubleDamage. A great map, definitely a keeper. Recomended download. Torn_Agressor 01-11-2005 03:52 PM MST Rating: 8   "the performance is nowhere to be found. Please fix this" your graphics card is nowhere to be found, onboard graphics arent best for playing games, yeah....fix that nice map, map runs perfectly fine for me gameplay is nice, good layout, and some nice visuals to match :) capone 01-12-2005 10:18 AM MST Rating: 7   Well, the map is nice, BUT I often had framerate below 30 on R9800. It's even lower then on Nirvana2. It looks like too much fog. Everything is too gray and pale. Could be a bit more saturated. Bots don't take DD. JuggaloKyle 01-14-2005 10:49 PM MST Rating: 7   great map, looks amazing, but yet like everybody said, shitty optimization. got in the 30s. although i did get in the 50s at one point, but thats in a cave looking at a wall. but this map looks amazing and has amazing layout. cUnNiNg_StUnTs 01-16-2005 10:48 AM MST Rating: 8   This is a really cool map, it's deceivingly large. Game play is pretty good and it looks great, like some kind of Aztec ruins with an Indiana Jones flair to it. T0mbr41d3r 02-02-2005 11:35 AM MST Rating: 9   A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! Desp#2/Rog 02-02-2005 02:09 PM MST Rating: 7.5   This map is pretty damn cool I dig it though some things need work but those have been said... I want to comment on the antiportal thing that DeathBliss said. He has some points but if you were to follow what he said you would have a lot of them in level that does not need them all that much. Thing is antiportals are used when all else fails to stop from rendering areas your really not meant to be seen. Putting antiportals everywhere does not help one bit. In closed room levels like this your best friend is using traditional zoning and breaking up the areas in good chunks. If done right in a level like this you might not even need any or just around 2 antiportals. Antiportals are more of a pain when used excessively and those can slow down your map more than not even having them in your map. Now other tools that help for optimization are cull distance. Putting cull distance on statics so you can not see an object unless you are in an indicated units near it. An other thing you can do is make one zone disappear completely by adding it in cull zone ( I forgot what it is called) you tag the zone you are in with the one you do not want to see. For example it can be a room connected to another room by a hallway. All separated by three zones. The hallways has a door. Lets call the room A the one you will be in and room B that is passed the hallway with the door the one you do not want to see. Room A is tagged when you’re inside that room B will not exist or be rendered at all. But once you enter the hallway that tag is not active so now it renders all the room passed the door. But from room to room you will not see one another entirely. Sure you can do this with an antiportal right on the door… but here is the deal the antiportal has to be pretty damn big to cover both rooms height and width that is if you have grid space also. Point is you have different more clean options to take instead of antiportals. In fact antiportals could be called a level designers crutch. Though Antiportals in very specific situations are great. It took me a long time to learn this again… I should have stayed with the old way of optimization from UT mapping days instead of trying to rely on the new amazing antiportal. KaMi 02-16-2005 02:56 PM MST Rating: 8   Very nice map, cool custom stuff and ligthing. Layout is great too, overall good work!. Manticore 02-17-2005 02:26 AM MST Rating: 8   Atmospheric map. Good gameplay pathing. Worth the download..... AMmayhem 02-17-2005 01:19 PM MST Rating: 8.5   This had to be one of my favorite reviews to type. :D Xzen-Aran 02-24-2005 04:20 PM MST Rating: 9   Fantastic Map! Movement through it is fluint, gameplay is amazing, and graphically beautiful. Couldn't ask for more. darth_weasel 04-04-2005 09:11 AM MDT   Alright, thanks for the review and comments everyone Yeah, it has the issues mentioned, though in general my fps only dropped around 5fps or so from the retail maps, so it's strange some people are having such problems and others not so much. For the problem only in the one specific stair-hallway, it seems to be 2 zones haven't been seperated properly that i didn't notice before release. Thanks for the points deathbliss, but as Desp mentioned, anti-portals wouldn't have occluded much since the map seperates into room sections with narrow doorways pretty well, for zoning off. LordZaros 03-28-2005 09:45 PM MST Rating: 8   woof (I like it) Anyway, as others mentioned, this map MIGHT run bad on old machines, i have R9200 and 720 Mhz processor... It was KIND OF slow for me at some points, especially on the open areas. After a few minutes, my comp couldn't take it and crashed : As for the visuals and everything, guess what... ALL MAH 5 ARE BELONG TO U!!! Visuals own! It really shows that you put a lot of time in it. Final verdict: Good map, worth DL'ing :)