Inferno
By Jedi_Mediator
Date: 04-16-2009
Screenshots
Readme
===========================
INFERNO
-----------
An Arena-Style FFA Map
for Jedi Academy
===========================
--------------
Title: Inferno
Author: Jedi_Mediator
E-Mail: klope3@msn.com
Website: www.jedimediator.110mb.com
--------------
--------------
Filename: Inferno.pk3
Mapfile name: inferno
Filesize: Less than 36 MB
Date Released: March 21, 2009
--------------
--------------
Build Time: At least 1 year (these things can be hard to estimate)
Compile Time: Less than 10 minutes (MaceCrusher's system)
Brush Count: 4165, give or take a few
Light Count: 136, give or take a few
--------------
---------
TABLE OF CONTENTS
---------
1) Comments
2) Description
3) Installation Instructions
4) Known "Bugs"
5) Notes from the Creator
--notice-- "Using My Materials"
6) Special Thanks
-------------------------------
(1) COMMENTS
- RELEASE OF THIS MAP FOR JEDI OUTCAST IS EASY AND ENTIRELY POSSIBLE. I remember
not owning Jedi Academy and seeing all sorts of great material be released that
I couldn't enjoy just because all I owned was Outcast. Give me feedback! If I
get enough responses, I WILL release a JKO-compatible version of the map.
- It may appear at first glance that this map has lots of bugs. Don't pass
it off as worthless right away; I mentioned all the bugs I could find, some
of which might not be rightfully categorized as "bugs" in the first place.
I just feel that those who want to know about such things should have the
right to.
- Interestingly, this map evolved over the period of at least one year, and
all that time it has undergone numerous overhauls in my attempts to perfect
it. Through all that, though, I don't believe I have made one attempt at
making it planned-out and organized. The map started with the enclosure, then
expanded to include the double-tower walk-through structure, and finally
branched out with the development of the tall, imposing mesa and rugged blast
crater. Inferno began, evolved, and was completed entirely through my momentary
whims and desires. Upon looking at the layout critically, one can see that
there was probably less "literal mapping" (pre-planned, pencil-and paper skecthes)
than there was "virtual mapping" (opening up Radiant and seeing where it got me).
-------------------------------
(2) DESCRIPTION
This map depicts a post-apocalypse factory/refinery facility. It has been
bombed only once, but multiple quadrants have gone up in flames since, due
to the flammable nature of the primary mineral processed by virtually all
the equipment throughout the refinery complex. Consequently, explosions
will still erupt intermittently from areas that lead directly to the
underground machinery, such as smokestacks and exhaust ports.
The shipping quadrant is the playable quadrant, and is the outermost segment
of the facility. It functions as a loading/unloading zone for the materials
generated by the refinery work, but the landing pad was the target of the
first bombing and in its place is a huge crater in the ground. This quadrant
of the facility, then, has been abandoned and is basically unusable for
anything besides storage. The extensive damage in the area has since been
quarantined and disregarded. In fact, if you listen very closely, you can
hear the machinery still autonomously straining into disrepair, just below
the surface...
In terms of visuals, this is a very dark environment with a moody, nighttime,
stormy setting. The night is misty and smoke drifts by overhead from other
parts of the burning facility; the high-powered spotlights illuminating the
playable quadrant can be seen lighting up the shifting clouds of dust and fog.
I've been able to use the great material from CGTextures to make very realistic
surfaces and scenes, including the concrete enclosure, all the concrete walls,
various grunge and detail maps, and, of course, that big beautiful crater.
-------------------------------
(3) INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS: If you're very new to the Jedi Knight
community, you may not know how to install mods or maps. Just follow these
simple steps:
-- Navigate to the following direcotory: C:/Program Files/LucasArts/
Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy/Gamedata/base
-- Use WinZip or WinRAR or a similar program to unzip the .zip file
you downloaded for this mod.
-- Place the enclosed .pk3 in the base folder you have navigated to.
-------------------------------
(4) KNOWN "BUGS"
- At least one area in the map where you can seem to walk on thin air,
just slightly. I won't tell you where it is. :)
- The sounds of either the burning smokestack or the huge exhaust inferno may
not loop completely smoothly. You won't notice this one unless you pay REALLY
close attention.
- To be honest, the exhaut port inferno may not play any sound AT ALL. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I've given up on this one.
- Maybe a few texture seam issues (including at least one really big
"texture"). Most of them will be pretty hard to notice, so they shouldn't
detract from any active gameplay.
- While testing the map I have experienced some odd artifacts such as rapidly
spinning flames, excessive smoke, and lightning in the sky (which isn't
supposed to happen). These things usually occur right when you start the map;
they shouldn't be a problem while playing.
- There are just so many tiny places in this map that it's really hard
to find and repair every single texture bug that might exist. If you work
very, very hard, you may be able to find your way to some unknown region of
my map where you will find odd/misplaced textures.
- The huge fire in the exterior of the map has a tendency to kill you
instantly, regardless of where you enter it. This was an unanticipated bug.
- The botroutes aren't perfect. Bots in this map tend to like getting stuck
under ramps and perhaps other places.
- You can stand in the smokestacks. Not realistic, but if you don't want to
experience this "bug," just...don't try it. Using Force jump will get you
up into the seemingly endless interiors of the stacks, but nevertheless you
will seem to be on solid ground. This bug is avodable!
- The lightmaps aren't perfect. You may experience some strange or unrealistic-
looking lighting here and there. It should be easy to ignore.
- Since there were so many apparently irreparable lighting bugs around the
base of the mountain, I didn't bother to go to the trouble of texture blending.
- The ambient sounds may skip. I can't predict how this bug will play out
on systems other than my own, but it's possible that because it's such a
long sound track the game has to spend about a sixth of a second loading it
back to the beginning. Endure this bug. It's a minor one. ;)
- There's no such thing as perfect clipping in a map this complex. If
you try to exploit some advantages (like unintended higher ground or
places others can't get to) in the map, you will either succeed or find
yourself blocked/"slipping away" from your objective. But just to preserve
the "good ol' fun-factor" of bug-exploitation, I've set up this map's
boundaries so that such things are discouraged, but not made impossible.
-------------------------------
(5) NOTES FROM THE CREATOR:
- .JPG COMPRESSION WAS A SAVIOR FOR THIS MAP. Late in the design process I
discovered that it can work wonders for image filesize; if you save a texture
at 80% quality, there will be little visual impact, but doing so can knock off
as much as 1.5 MB from the filesize. I decided I needed to do this to a great
deal of my textures when I found that the composite filesize of my used textures
had grown to a grand total of 47.7 MB. I needed to shrink that filesize, since
it accounted for a ridiculous 80% of the ENTIRE MOD'S FILESIZE. After I did a
batch convert with DDS Converter 2, the total texture memory usage had gone from
47.7 MB to 29.3 MB. That's an approximate 20 MB SHRINKAGE.
----------* * * *USING MY MATERIALS* * * *------------
I grant permission for anyone to use the things I made for this map. In
fact, I encourage the general modding community to take them and use them
however they wish. You don't even need to contact me beforehand; the thing
is, I'll know just by looking/listening/whatever that you've used my content.
I'm proud of the work I've done for this project, and would be very excited
if others liked it so much that they did me the honor of including it in
projects of their own.
So if you want, go ahead and use my stuff! By all means.
-------------------------------
(6) SPECIAL THANKS GOES TO:
- Raven and LucasArts, by default
- The crew at Map-Craft Forums, for their help with critiquing and beta-testing
- CGTextures, the world's largest free texture site
- MaceCrusherMadunusus, for graciously saving me the hassle of the final compile
- MaceCrusherMadunusus's quad-core system, just for being awesome ;)
- Any other texture sites or people I may have neglected to mention.
-------------------------------
******* PRIVACY POLICY *******
THIS MODIFICATION IS NOT MADE, DISTRIBUTED, OR SUPPORTED BY ACTIVISION, RAVEN, OR LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LLC. ELEMENTS TM & © LUCASARTS
ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LLC AND/OR ITS LICENSORS.
******************************