Mekworx

Hey guys! I know no one bothers to read this blog anymore, which begs the question – why am I bothering to post here? Probably because I’m bored or something. Who knows

I’ve got a few updates on different fronts. Firstly, I finally got my new computer all buttoned up and running like a champ! The new memory did just the trick and I’ve been using my new computer successfully for almost a month now. It’s a solid machine and does what I want it to do very well. I posted the part specs a few posts ago and I know I promised to take some shots of it and it’s innards at some point. I may still make a post about it…just depends on my mood. All in all though, I’m very happy with the end result of building my own machine . Props to Super Jamie for all the excellent help he provided!

Mekworx’s 2nd birthday is coming up pretty fast – October 29th! I don’t have anything planned though. There are numerous updates that need to be made at some point, so I may possibly use that day to do that. I would actually like to have a new theme made for the site at some point. I’m not going to do it though. The last time I attempted that, it didn’t turn out too well (though it was a fun learning exercise). Suffice to say that there may be a new theme for the site in the future.

School has been going pretty well and I think I may actually come out the other end of this semester with respectable grades and my sanity intact! My free time hasn’t been as limited as I previously thought it would be, mostly due to the types of classes I’m taking. As such I’ve made some respectable progress on my various Doom-related projects. What, you want proof? No way I don’t owe you anything!

Incidentally I did take some screenshots recently, which I promptly and shamelessly plastered all over the Doom community circuit . I guess I may as well post them here too since I did promise screenshots in my previous posts.

First up we’ve got my contribution to Joshy’s Plutonia Revisited Project.

While I was restricted to my ancient back-up computer a while back, I decided I wanted to do some mapping. Working on Vela Pax or pretty much any of my other projects were out of the question though because the computer just couldn’t handle the huge size and complexity of the maps (both when editing and playing them). I recalled Joshy’s project and saw that it was Vanilla Doom compatible, so I jumped on it. The vanilla compatibility meant that my map would have to be restricted as far as line count went, thus meaning that it couldn’t be very visually complex.

The map is meant for to be played in the latter episode of the project. At the moment it’s sitting on the MAP29 slot and that’s where it may end up once the project is released. I just recently finished making some fixes and tweaks to the map and it was just sent off to testers. If all goes well it will be included in the final map set. Be sure to keep your eyes on this project! There’s going to be some great work released in it

My main focus however has been Vela Pax MAP05. I just recently posted an update in my project thread at Doomworld actually. Here are some shots of the latest areas (be aware that no lighting is done):

I’ll spare everyone my boring and lengthy descriptions as I’ve done beat them into the ground as it is. Right now the map is about 75%~ish complete and it’s sidedef count is right around 64000. The map is and will be a beast and will probably be one of the largest maps ever made to date. I didn’t really plan for it to be this huge in the beginning but that’s how it’s turning out. Somehow with my goals of “make it huge and epic”, I haven’t ran out of ideas…so it just kept going and going! The end is in sight now though, and I’m hoping to keep it working in PRBoom+ without any issues. Sidedef compression is saving my ass right now and I might be able to get away with 80000+; beyond that’s it’s a crap shoot and problems might arise.

Vela Pax as a whole is turning out to be a bigger venture than I previously intended. With the first two maps I’ve worked on being behemoths, it’s taking up quite a big chunk of time to complete. I’m not unhappy about this, but it does slow down progress on other projects (eg. Supplice) and contributions I’m supposed to be making. The remaining 4 maps won’t be as ridiculously huge though. I’m hoping to be over halfway or more finished with Vela Pax by the end of Winter. The feedback and comments on the project have all been very positive and I just hope that I can live up to those expectations. Expect to see some more progress on MAP05 and Vela Pax as a whole in the near future!

And hey, I might actually have some news related to Supplice to report soon! Now that would be awesome

So Monday was my first day of my new semester, and the first time I’ve taken classes since 3 or 4 semesters ago. So far……….so good, I think . All of my classes are DE (Distance Education) meaning I stay at home and do all of the work on my own. Then I just submit assignments via email or on Blackboard. I’m taking College Composition I (basically English since I didn’t take college-level english in High School), Concepts of Personal and Community Health, Introduction to Network Concepts, and Microcomputer Operating Systems. I should mention that I decided to change my major to Computer Graphics and Web Design Specialization; previous to my return to school I was working towards a Game Design Specialization. The two degree only differ by 3 or 4 classes, so what I may end up doing is just take an extra semester and see if I can’t get both specializations.

I’ve had some problems dealing with these classes in the past and I didn’t do so well as far as grades were concerned. Not so much that the classes were hard…just that I’m not a school-type of person. For some reason I just don’t get that much out of the type of teaching atmospheres that schools around here use. Not to mention there’s a lot of social stresses that I have to deal with, which makes it that much harder. But I’m really gonna try and buckle down this time around. I’m pretty sure I’ll regret it later on if I don’t go through with it.

So the question has to be asked – how will classes affect my mapping and projects? The list of priorities has definitely changed, that’s for sure. But that shouldn’t be a surprise. I won’t say that they bring me to an utter grinding halt; I will almost certainly still have some free time. I’ll just have less of it, that’s all . Progress will probably be slowed down and you may not see much of or from me. But rest assured, they won’t be canceled or anything drastic like that…unless something drastic happens. And it also depends on how demanding these classes turn out to be; right now I can’t give a definite answer on that. The tl;dr is this – I got important, grown-up school stuff to do so I may not map as often, but I’ll still be around and I’ll never, ever stop mapping completely.

So…*sigh*…I tried to make that post sound as positive as possible. I just hope I can follow through with it. Wish me luck guys!