Mekworx

Vivat Acedia

Some updates

May 1st, 2011 Posted in Design, Updates
May, 01 2011
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Hey everyone! Looks like I’ve been neglecting this place a bit. Well that’s not entirely true, as you can see. There’s a new theme! I did a bit of hunting a while back for a new theme since the old one was starting to get a little stale looking (to me, that is…I doubt anyone else truly cares). I found a few candidates but I finally settled on this one. I had to make a few alterations but I’m more or less happy with it. Except for the logo placement at the top…I wanted it to be centered but I wasn’t able to figure out how to do that in the stylesheet. But it’s fine for now :P . Oh and some older posts with large images might be broken because the width on this theme is narrower, but it’s really no big deal.

So let’s see, there’s the new theme. WordPress has been updated a few times and Mekworx is now running version 3.1.2. Lots of content on the Design page has been updated. I still need to update the Info and Resources pages at some point, but those aren’t really a priority.

Hey, what about some project news? About a month ago I finished up MAP01 of Vela Pax and released a public test candidate! Since then I’ve received a ton of great feedback and bug reports. The general reception has been very positive, although many people are finding it really hard to digest and navigate such gigantic maps (especially without saving). I knew that might be the case given the goals I had for the maps; it’s just the nature of the beast. But all of that aside, people seem to have genuinely enjoyed my work so far. And that really makes me happy :)

In case you missed the test release, you can grab it below. There are also two time-lapse Doom Builder recordings of me working on MAP01 available for download:

Vela Pax Beta 1 [18 MB]
Time Lapse Doom Builder video #1
Time Lapse Doom Builder video #2

If you have any feedback or bug reports or anything, please don’t hesitate to send them to me!

Continuing on with the project escapades, I’m currently working full-time on my other Doom project, Supplice. I decided to take a break from Vela Pax and mapping after that test release to then focus my efforts on Supplice. It has been over a year since the project was officially started and things have been going relatively slow. Since starting my break I have been working on making textures…lots and lots of textures. So far it’s been quite the learning process, but I have made a nice chunk of textures that I’m happy with. The challenge thus far is trying to make details. I am able to put together base textures and then some really minor details like bricks or bars. When it comes to adding details like fancy indents/extrusions, tech bits, computer panels…all stuff similar to that, I fall flat on my face. But I’m still trying and I’ve also scoped out some possible help too. We’re also looking for a dedicated sprite artist to help finish and polish off some of the work Jimmy and I have started. So far that hunt has been really difficult…but we’re still looking to get someone interested on board. If you are interested, please contact me :nod:

Well that’s all I got for now! I’ll be sure to post some more about Supplice as I continue working. Perhaps sometime soon we’ll have something worth showing off :]

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Sails Peace…

February 4th, 2011 Posted in Design
Feb, 04 2011
2 Comments »

Time for a map related post!

Time sure has been flying by recently. I’m working diligently on Vela Pax and it’s hard to say if I’ll be able to meet my goal of finishing MAP01 before the Winter season ends. Right now I’m over halfway finished with the map after a good solid month of working on it. What usually happens when I reach this point is I’ll start to slow down and have a harder and harder time coming up with ideas. So while I’m over halfway finished, that doesn’t mean it will take the same amount of time to complete the map as it did to reach this point. But I guess most of you knew that already.

But let’s back up a little bit. I realize that I haven’t posted much about Vela Pax’s progress here so there’s a lot to fill in. MAP05, now entitled “Apollyon”, has been finished for quite some time now. Shortly after that I started work on MAP01, entitled “Excella”. On top of all of that, I have pretty much finalized my music selections for each map, finished the statusbar/statnumbers, made the CWILVs graphics, fixed and added a few new textures from the Doom Alphas, and I even attempted to record some Doom Builder time-lapse footage of me working on MAP01. Things have been coming together rather well and all that really remains is to finish the maps, add a couple other graphics, and do final testing. The biggie, obviously, is finishing the maps :P

So back to MAP01. As I said, the map is over halfway finished (probably 60% if I had to pull out a number) and I’ve been working on it for close to a month I’d guess. Nothing is entirely certain about the gameplay other than it will be the easiest map in the pack and it’s a garden-variety techbase. Originally I was going to keep the flow linear, but those plans tend to fly out the window when I’m working on the map; we’ll see how it comes out in the end. So far it’s been a real joy to work on and I’m hoping it will wrap up with little grief on my end. Here are some shots although there’s nothing new here; they are the same shots that I last posted in the project’s threads:

MAP05 is the product of my horrid, horrid obsession with Doom mapping. It took me nearly half of a year to finish this map (working on and off, of course). It is the main reason why Vela Pax is taking so long to finish. At the time of this writing, it is the absolute largest map I have ever created, and I hope it is the last. My initial concept for this map was to “make an epic, hellish, abstract fortress with some linear and non-linear gameplay”. I took that concept and ran rampant, my sanity becoming an innocent bystander in the carnage :P . Some stats for any interested parties: Vertices – 49004, Linedefs – 63834 [!], Sidedefs (compressed) – 110785, Sectors – 10030. PRBoom+ recently obtained support for ZDoom’s extended node format, otherwise my compatibility for that port would have flown completely out of the window before the map was even halfway finished. If you didn’t notice, I came pretty close to breaching the linedef limit. I breached the sidedef limit many, many times actually and I had to cut out some of the more useless detailing in the map to get everything to fit; sidedef compression saved me, big time. So was all of that work worth it? If your playing the map for the first time on UV, it could potentially take you close to 4 or 5 hours to finish in it’s entirety. Gameplay stayed similar to my initial concept; there are linear and non-linear sections. Difficulty is pretty high but a lot of that comes from the immense size and complexity of the map and layout. Personally, even though it was a pain to work on, I think the map came out very well. Obviously it’s not going to cater to everyone but I think it will be pretty enjoyable to those who like gigantic, adventure-style maps. In truth that’s sort of what Vela Pax as a whole is turning into; a set of very large, complex, non-linear maps which make for a sort of Doom “adventure”. Here are some screenshots!


A word of advice – if you want to keep your sanity and love of mapping, never, ever make a map this big. Sure, it looks like fun…but trust me, the fun doesn’t last. Any perceived bragging rights really aren’t worth the anguish you’ll put yourself through :shake: . But I hope you guys enjoy the map anyways!

So where will I go from here? Well at the moment I’m taking a short break from mapping (although today I did work on MAP01 some…shh, don’t tell anyone!). After that I’m planning on finishing MAP01 as quickly as I can without degrading the quality of the work. I’m thinking the next map I’ll tackle is MAP04, entitled “Faxanadu”. I’d detail what plans I have for it here, but instead go and check out the soon-to-be-edited Vela Pax page. I’m going to update it with some new screenshots and information; I’ll be detailing my plans for the rest of the maps there. If your interested in more info, be sure to check my various project threads: Doomworld, ZDoom, Skulltag, and Wads in Progress.

(By the way, if your wondering what’s up with the title of this post, Google around for the latin translation of “Vela Pax”. I didn’t realize what it meant until someone told me. No, the project has nothing to do with sailing peacefully :P ).

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Resolving to make Resolutions

January 1st, 2011 Posted in Design, Mekablog, Updates
Jan, 01 2011
1 Comment »

And also a happy 2011 to everyone! WordPress has been updated to 3.0.4 by the way :sun:

I don’t normally make New Year’s resolutions. Just never really bothered with them. That’s not to say I have perfect years or something. I guess I’ve always been too lazy to really care :P . I thought I might change that this year though. So I guess you could say my 2011 resolution is to make resolutions! Ba-zing!

2010 was a pretty good year I think. Well it wasn’t a spectacular year but it wasn’t bad. I finally got myself back in school and, so far, I’m doing very well! There’s was the Project Vega fallout which really had me a bit depressed for a while. But that was a fleeting worry seeing as how the project is back on track and doing very well, even if it’s minus one Mechadon now :P . There’s been a whole lot of drama and crap going on in my personal life (well, not with me but with my family) and that’s been a downer. I hope all of that will be in the past soon. I’ve learned a lot this year but I’m sure I’ll learn even more in 2011. Be it good or bad, I’m looking forward to it.

There’s hasn’t been a whole lot of work released by me in 2010. I would have liked to put out some more content but things have been really busy with me these days. As far as I can recall, I’ve had 4 DM maps released in 32in24 #10 and that’s about it. Even with the little output though, I’ve been working on a bunch of different things. I’m steadily working on Vela Pax and Supplice, I’ve still got some contributions to make for Vaporware and SpaceDM9 (sorry essel, I know I’m slow) and I’ve made contributions to Joshy’s Plutonia Revisited project. And although it pains me to say it, there still hasn’t been a release of the Toke It Up! project ;_; . So I don’t have a whole lot to show for it, but I have been busily working through some things this year.

I’m not going to bore all zero of my readers with any personal resolutions I may or may not have made. Instead I’ve made some mapping and design related resolutions which I will bore you with instead.

  • 1. Finish Vela Pax. This project wasn’t meant to take this long. But as with everything I do, it inevitably turned into something grander and more complex than what I intended. But it will be finished this year given school and/or work doesn’t eat away at my free time.
  • 2. Start mapping for Supplice. Unfortunately I’ve been having a really hard time getting the resources in place. I’ve even contemplated moving the entire project over to a different port to try and get the ball rolling a bit faster. But seeing as how I’ve been working on Vela Pax, it’s just taking a really long time. However in recent weeks I’ve made a concerted effort to try and get started on some textures and other minor things. And so far it seems to be working out pretty well. I’m really in need of a sprite artist as our one candidate seems to be too busy :( . But I want to be in a position sometime this year where the majority of the resources are done so mapping can begin.
  • 3. Start on a map for Vaporware and SpaceDM9. I know esselfortium is probably super irritated that I haven’t started on something for Vapor yet even though I’ve promised him I would. What I need to do is try and develop some sort of talent for multitasking. But I’m going to try and get something started in this area soon. As far as SpaceDM9 is concerned, I’ve technically already contributed some layouts to it, one of which has been expertly detailed by esselfortium. I really want to detail a map myself too though. So that’s something to add to the list.
  • 4. Look more into the Doom64EX engine. I love Doom64 and there’s even been some great looking things made for it even though it’s not exactly editing-ready yet. I don’t know that I’ll start on anything for it but I’m always looking in that direction. I even had serious thoughts of moving Supplice to the Doom64EX engine. Although at this point in time it’s looking like I probably won’t be doing that, I hope the option will still be there in the future.
  • 5. Learn to compose music. Of the non-physical variety, I mean…with computers :P . This one is probably a stretch seeing as how my musical background amounts to ziltch. But ever since my introduction to artists like Boards of Canada, Autechre, Loscil, etc…it has become a bit of a dream of mine. Mapping is a great creative outlet but I’d love to add music to that list some day.
  • 6. Finish up my design document. I guess I haven’t really brought this one up before. Well I’m working on a game design document which I’m hoping will have some sort of future. In the last month this project has actually been demanding a lot of my free time and I’ve made some pretty good progress with a couple of behind-the-scenes guys. The goal for this design document is to detail everything I can for the game it’s about. Which I will then pass out to possible contributors to try and get some of them interested in joining the team. It’s sort of my dream here so I hope it works out :D .

Who knows how many of these resolutions will actually pan out. That’s probably why I never bothered to make resolutions in the past. No one ever really follows through with them…at least no one that I know. But there’s a sense of positivity that you get when you make resolutions, and that’s probably the point. Even though you may not follow through with them, at least it sets you in the mood at the beginning of the year and gives you a glimmer of hope that perhaps this will be the year that something great will be done. Sounds kinda mushy to me, but we’ll see how this year works out :wink:

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