Of course, being new to the whole Hammer shenanigans, it turns out that if you don’t start your map with a good idea of how you’re going to optimise it already formed then things can get quite tricky when you actually start throwing down the func_areaportals. In this instance I decided that the map needed to be split down the centre with an open area portal since the general design means that without one you can pretty much see the entire second half of the map further down the road from the start zone, coincidentally the same place where you’ll feel the huge framerate hit. Easier said than done. I may have known from the start how I was going to lay the level out but I certainly wasn’t clear on the area portal requirements until recently when I looked them up. As such a considerably amount of fiddling with base blocks and boxing in of underground displacements which were opened up to the free sky has been going on and even now the portals are being antsy as to whether they want to work or not. The one success I had was quickly followed by failure as I thought “Well I’ll tweak them a bit so that they don’t merge”, followed by inability to return the map to it’s previous state which was followed by an instant engine error when I compiled.

It really isn’t nice, I’ve certainly learnt my lesson and will be taking better care with future maps. As soon as these irritating errors are fixed I’ll be setting up the nav zones for the level and then closed beta testing will be taking place with a few previews and, camera skills withstanding, a trailer being released. When everything’s hunky dory with those work on the second map, which has already been planned out in its entirity and is currently undergoing closer scrutiny so that I don’t fall into the same despairing pits as this one, will begin whilst McDonald’s Plight is released.

What I’m aiming to do is create a fully fledged 5 map Left 4 Dead 2 campaign by the time summer rolls in. The problems I encountered along the way (see the old site) have all but been completely fixed and I’ve been motoring away for the last couple of weeks with the first map (currently dubbed McDonald’s Plight but all the names are still up in the air) to the extent where it’s almost ready to enter a closed beta testing period. As soon as myself and the little team of volunteers have identified big issues and I’ve amended them the first map will be formally christened and released to the public to tide them over and raise anticipation for Map 2. Until then, please do enjoy keeping track of this little feature blog either through the WordPress site I’ve set up for it or the Left Mouse Button features page.

http://back4more.wordpress.com/

http://www.leftmousebutton.net/features/back-4-more