Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight
II
Snow in multiplayer Jedi Knight II
Yep, that's right. For the first time,
snow is coming to multiplayer Jedi Knight II. Below
is an interview with the man who makes it all possible,
along with never-before-seen screenshots of two of his
upcoming snow maps.
For those who don't know, DadMad already
released a popular multiplayer map for Jedi Knight II
by the name "Palace
Wars", and is currently working on a new multiplayer
map called "Bunker Wars", which is supposed
to revolutionize JK2 mapmaking (a video trailer was
released a couple of weeks ago on JediKnightII.net).
Since this is the first multiplayer map this far to
feature snow, we took the opportunity provided by our
RavenGames Xmas event to conduct an interview with DadMad
(check out his homepage at www.dadmad.de).
Col.J.P.:
I've seen your trailer about Bunker Wars and it seems
to be pretty impressive, but what exactly do you mean
by "the details are NOT painted, they are built"?
Can you elaborate, please?
DadMad:
This time I didn't want to draw the details with textures,
but build them in Radiant (editor). The detail should
roughly correspond to games like UT2003 or Doom3.
Col.J.P.:
The only thing that I did'nt like in Palace Wars was
the fact that it is a CTF only map, can we count with
other gametypes in Bunker Wars?
DadMad:
It's possible to play "Palace Wars" in FFA
- the map supports this mode (extra FFA spawnpoints
and items). The map just doesn't show up in the FFA
menu. If you want to play the map in FFA, just start
a FFA Server and change the map in the console. Use
the "/map ctf_palace" command.
Screenshots taken on latest development
version of Bunker Wars
Col.J.P.:
A lot of ppl out there are runing JK II on farely average
systems (less than 1GHz CPUs and a GeForce2), don't
you think that "more than 15.000 brushes"
will make your map impossible to play with a decent
framerate?
DadMad:
Hmm maybe... if you use a weaker system, you will have
to reduce your graphic options, thats true, but I will
try to achieve maximal performance. In addition I rely
on smaller hallways and rooms in "Bunkers Wars",
though they still contain a lot of detail.
Col.J.P.:
Why do you say that Bunker Wars will be a map that will
revolutionize JK II map making? Do you have anything
up your sleeve? Can you reveal it?
DadMad:
On one hand - as you can see in the trailer - the snow
is my big achievement. On the other hand there is the
large variety of detail, which hopefully will draw a
lot of attention.
I will certainly add some effects, which will be completely
new to JK2. Those will develop with time, depending
on how I can implement my ideas.
Screenshots taken on latest development
version of Bunker Wars
Col.J.P.:
Palace Wars is an amazing piece of work with very high
quality standards and rather huge environments, can
we count with the same complexity and level of detail
in Bunker Wars?
DadMad:
No, there will certainly be more details than "Palace
Wars". That was the goal with this project. "Palace
Wars" appears full of detail, but they were achieved
with appropriate textures and shaders. This time I really
want to build the details, if at all possible, that
is I want to implement them in the editor. Then I will
add the textures. As you can see in the trailer and
in some of the screenshots, I have used almost exclusively
this one grey texture. I built the detail itself. That's
what I wanted to express in my trailer.
Col.J.P.:
Are you going to use teleporters and parallel settings
too? As it was in Palace Wars?
DadMad:
I think, this time I will again add Teleporters, maybe
elevators and such as well. I am not quite clear about
the position they will take yet, but I am currently
playing around with the whole design of the map.
Col.J.P.:
When can we expect to play it?
DadMad:
I am afraid that I won't be able to meet the deadline
of the first quarter as I hoped to do. At this time
I am swamped with projects I couldn't foresee before.
Besides I had some problems with the snow and the size
of the displayed canyon, so that I have had to rebuild
completely some areas of the map. That's why I think
the second quarter of the year to be more realistic.
In any case I'll try to make "Bunker Wars"
my top priority.
Screenshots taken on latest development
version of Bunker Wars
Col.J.P.:
Since it's Xmas season, let's talk about the snow in
Bunker Wars. It's an awesome effect, how did you manage
to make it?
DadMad:
Hehe the snow effect... :)
I have received so many mails asking how this works...
Yet I haven't revealed much information because that
makes it all the more interesting. But you can all look
forward to a little Xmas-Map-Pack, including a few smaller
duel maps. They will all have the snow effect. I'm contemplating
to add a small tutorial, that will explain in detail
how the snow works. It's not easy to integrate snow
in a map, and the effect has to be created and adjusted
individually for each map.
Col.J.P.:
People out there are very demanding when it comes to
bot support. Palace Wars had fine bot support, will
we get a similar quality level in Bunker Wars too?
DadMad:
I thought the support for "Palace Wars" rather
shitty. ;)
There are hardly any possibilities to use it for your
own map. More complex maps with a lot of different levels
that are not combined by stairs or other means will
face a lot of problems. But to come back to your question:
yes, "Bunker Wars" will contain Bot Support.
Building the map I think about easy ways to include
a good Bot Support.
These screenshots were taken on Snow_1,
the first map of DadMad's new Xmas Duel Map Pack
Col.J.P.:
Tell us about yourself.
DadMad:
Oh dear, what can I tell you about me?
I'm 21 and have been mapping all my life, practically...
I first built maps for Doom, then Duke3D ... that was
quite a challenge, since I was quite young back then.
I also built maps for Jedi Knight, Quake 1-3 and tested
several other editors.
Well, and then
there was Jedi Knight2. I don't really know why I map
for this game in particular... maybe I want to erase
the prejudice that the Q3 engine is a dinosaur. When
I look at the rather unspectacular Standard Levels,
I know why people would be prejudiced so quickly.
That's why, I think, I try to include as many details
in my levels as possible and to build new things that
get a lot of attentions in games like Ut2003.. Maybe
I just want to show that somebody can do that with a
three-year-old engine. ;)
That's also my
motivation to continue, I think. And I assume that's
why I have never looked at the editor of UT2003, even
though I own the game :)
For those who want still more, here
are 2 wallpapers featuring Bunker Wars, exclusively
for our Xmas event. Each ZIP file contains a high-resolution
BMP file you can put on your desktop right away.
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| 1024x768, 1.30 MB |
1024x768, 1.58 MB |
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