Dojo V2.1 - Progress Update

[Everon]

A long time ago I was part of a community called the MBU (Movie Battles Universe), something some may remember.
Part of my role there was to create maps for the community to use for events and training.

Back then I went by the name "Zeke Asakura" or just "Zeke".
To cut a long story short, one of these maps was ported to UM (thanks Frenz) with a few changes, I've seen this get a lot of use on the duel servers I frequent so I thought it was time to make a new version of it that takes advantage of duel mode.

The original map was called mbu_saber_training_v2 whilst Dojo is just V1, to save confusion I'll call it Dojo V2 here.
Duel mode didn't exist back when this was originally made (13 years ago!).

Goals for this new version:
- Have different rooms in good range of both Sith and Jedi spawns (no more running for ages if you are a sith).
- Make use of some of the assets I have made for my unreleased maps
- Cram as much in to the map as possible without affecting frames and maximising fun

I've been working on this for 3 days so far, it looks very similar to V1 but I will break the mould on it and tweak things as I go on.
Main differences so far is MORE ARCHES and night time.

Attaching progress as it stands, main courtyard has had some detailing done, lighting still needs work as it's overly bright.

Feedback welcome!

 

[OCD2]

Looks good

 

[Everon]

Quick build update.

Courtyard has had the majority if not all the brush detailing completed now and has had a few passes done for the lighting.
It's still not quite right for my liking with the torches being overly bright but is getting closer.
Aiming to add more contrast between the light and dark areas.

A new outside area for pit style fighting has been added, this still has a long way to go and needs more lighting work doing.

The old Dojo pit room will be added from the original map but with some more updates for game play, it is the most fun room from the old map and my aim is to make sure that doesn't change but is even more fun for those epic base JKA like FFAs.

Looking at the screenshots from in game, the gamma from my settings is really throwing things off a bit so I will have to redo a lot of this to ensure it doesn't become "too dark".

 

[Minoda]

Looks great man, nice job! Loving seeing this map being used again!

 

[SeV]

MBU... that was so long ago. Good times. Looking forward to the completion of this map. It's become quite popular among duelists.

 

[Everon]

New update, took longer to polish some areas off, still need some decent lighting work to be done but getting closer, happy to show some new progress!

This time around I've focused on the second function room, the pit room.
Pit has stayed true to the original but I have turned up the amount of detail brushing I do as this room is very high traffic next to the court yard.

I have also made a start on the third function room, like an events room for tournaments with a depressed dueling area with a gallery above it, too early show this room as it has just started but the entry way is looking nice.

To save on time I've decided to re-use the hallways for to each function room but may swap these out later. Due to their structure it is very easy to extend or shrink their size when needed.

I will soon be looking for people to test the map out in places and check things over.
You will need some experience in dueling/FFA and have played the original Dojo some what so that it can be compared to it as a base line.
If you are interested please drop me a message on Discord, I am on the main MB2 discord and a few others.

I am also open to feedback from any established mappers, however I won't be sharing the map source file.

That's all for now!

 

[Minoda]

SeV was part of MBU Were you using a different name?

Steelie mentioned about the demo @Everon, sorry I missed it. Might catch you another night!

 

[SeV]

SeV was part of MBU Were you using a different name?

Steelie mentioned about the demo @Everon, sorry I missed it. Might catch you another night!

Yeah. I don't think I was super involved, but I was there. That was like 12 years ago, so forgive me for not remembering the details lol. Around 2008 in b18 when dueling had sort of died (what little exited in b17. Died because of broken system and slap + OP vanilla saberthrow chunking hp) I was playing open mode and also into some RP with the Defenders of Peace guys from Murica that did these sick custom FA characters and maps. I remember agent had an old dueling guide on the MBU website, right? In any case, I probably lost interest in b19 because that was a shit build that caused me to take a break from the game, but I honestly don't remember many details from such a long time ago.

 

[Hexodious]

Nice, I always like playing on the current version on duel servers.

 

[Everon]

It's been a while but have been stupidly busy with passing an exam for work but have had time to work on this again.

I am a bit torn on whether to continue with the darker night theme or if a day time or dusk/sunset (middle ground) would be the better option.
Input welcome!

I have restored the event/dueling room from the original Dojo and reworked the lighting and textures. This was originally part of the old saber training map and was not used in the original Dojo.

 

[Noob]

id kill for a duel map with the JK2 SP Yavin layout

 

[Everon]

And we're done, more or less.

The final build has been completed and will be packaged up with the next UM release (when ever that is).
There are still known issues with the skybox quality but after a lot of work with Frenzy and Mace it is clear this is just down to the now ancient Q3 engine.

The skybox has been custom made in Vue 3D, there noticeable banding issues around the "moon" due to texture compression in JKA.
To see the skyboxes (and all other textures) in all their glory this can be disabled in the console.

// Disable Texture Compression

r_ext_compress_textures 0
vid_restart

// Re-enable Texture Compression
r_ext_compress_textures 1
vid_restart

This will increase VRAM usage and may introduce a performance penalty.

The final screenshots were taken with S3TC turned off with this flag and I will be running my game like this from now on as it gives a nice visual improvement overall.

I will update the map with any feedback I get and add more areas for future releases - I am open to ideas for this .

 

[spineh]

Nice one mate

 

[agentoo8]

pls remove rancor

 

[The Unguided]

It looks super cozy. Nice work!

 

[Shady]

Loving that night sky

 

[Storm]

Really good looking map, nice work.

 

[Everon]

Hey all,

A few people have been asking about Dojo V3 lately.

Thought I would drop a few teaser screenshots here for people to see some of the changes/improvements made to the new version of the map.

The new version will not be V3 but will be an overhaul to V2 with many fun new additions for people to explore, the existing V2 version will be replaced by this one but retain the same um_dojo_v2 map name.


I have purposefully kept the new areas out of the screenshots, you will see them when you boot the map up when this is released (whenever the new patch comes out I guess).

The lighting of the map has been completely overhauled to bring in more contrast between light and dark areas, all existing rooms have been gone over and improved lighting wise. It is a lot more vibrant and contrasting as opposed to the current version which feels a bit flat now.

This is definitely an upgrade.

 

[Hessu]

Great work

 

[.biggs]

Hey all,

A few people have been asking about Dojo V3 lately.

Thought I would drop a few teaser screenshots here for people to see some of the changes/improvements made to the new version of the map.

The new version will not be V3 but will be an overhaul to V2 with many fun new additions for people to explore, the existing V2 version will be replaced by this one but retain the same um_dojo_v2 map name.


I have purposefully kept the new areas out of the screenshots, you will see them when you boot the map up when this is released (whenever the new patch comes out I guess).

The lighting of the map has been completely overhauled to bring in more contrast between light and dark areas, all existing rooms have been gone over and improved lighting wise. It is a lot more vibrant and contrasting as opposed to the current version which feels a bit flat now.

This is definitely an upgrade.

I dunno why you feel like you need to expand this but I'm with ya on it.
Loving the screenshots.