I'll start by saying that, as with every map ever made, the lighting is still work in progress, as is most everything in the map - in spite of it's size it's early, early days.
Having said that I'll explain my choices aesthetically:
- the map is going to be dark, I'm just not going to raise the min light level much more than it is; more on that to follow
- it is interesting that a couple of replies mentioned realism, I made an early design choice that, due to my skill levels, Quake restrictions and creative freedom, I wasn't going all out to make it "real" - it would have been an aspiration I would always be falling short of reaching. Therefore my goal was to make a familiar earth-based world, while allowing me creative freedom and licence to make it consistent with a feel and story rather than with 'real-life'
- an example would be street lights; it's been said that in the real world they overlap or that they cover a wider area, true but two points: 1) I could, if so motivated, take photos of streets in my town where the reality is similar to my map, indeed turn off house lights (more on that too) and at night there would be 50-75 metre gaps between 'pools of light'. 2) If I made a consistent swathe of light through the streets it may 'look' more real, but would hold little sense of dread or tension in-game, and 'darkness' is integral to the game. Additionally what might make you nervous in real life, e.g. walking down a deserted street at night (but a brighter one than my map) wouldn't translate as being that nervy in a game
- the context for the game, for why there are street lights on but no house lights, is, at least partly, explained in the background story I wrote for the mod (
http://www.ajaysquakesite.co.uk/earthQU ... nloads.htm)
- and I'll say again, when actually exploring the map in-game it doesn't feel as dark as screens/videos make it look, and "spot-the-monster-without-seeing-only-its-lightning-muzzleflash-just-before-it-wtfpwns-you" is far from the truth
- as for a new player orientating themselves as it looks similar: well there's a bit of that in all levels, but I think it is both untrue and broadly irrelevant for this mod
- "Look at a couple screenshots of L4D/Crysis/HL2 maps" I mean, really? I think, even with modern Quake engines, aspiring to the level of detail in more modern games, especially Crysis, would be foolhardy. I'm working from a framework perspective, getting the 'world' built and then filling it with detail to the extent it can take.
- the garage lights aren't actually that bright - the white texture is more at fault, to be honest if I raised the lights' brightness and "dulled" the texture, it would look better
- "I don't know exactly what the gameplay will be, but even in a thief-like game or something it should look more busy and varied." Busy I agree with, to some extent, and as I've said, that will happen over time, but more varied? More than houses, a pub, warehouses, a petrol station (garage), a raised railway line, a church, a shop, a school - plus 33% of the [horizontal] area of the map is still to do
- The Gate should most definitely look out of place; it is. When I first built that part of the level I included rubble, broken streetlights etc, but have taken them out while I fine tune a pathway that the enemies take when they emerge from the gate. What isn't shown in screens is that it, although 'mostly' inactive, has a slowly pulsing light effect. I wanted it to be disquieting, and (if you know what has happened before, what it's purpose is) scary. But it being partly dormant is important too; so that when the'firing' is triggered and the sound effects and lightning happen, followed by the subsequent emergence of the monsters, it is all the more effective. It hasn't come out of the ground, however, it's arrival isn't entirely visualised, but it's a combination of being lowered into the world and appearing in a similar way to the terminator's arrival in the first movie. Looking at the warehouse it's part destroyed and the shape of the gate has carved itself, downwards, through the building.
