Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Counter Strike Global Offensive Map Making

A few days ago at this point, or rather 3:30am Sunday morning I began compiling a map. There is a game called Counter Strike, there are a few versions of this game, the one I am playing is the latest version. I am playing Global Offensive. The whole thing is called CS:GO for short. So anyway, CS:GO you can make maps for the game using a software development kit. SDK in short. So with CS:GO SDK I have build my own map based on the idea of one force of counter terrorists against terrorists fighting in the grounds of a hospital. Now, with all these tools such as the SDK that I am using the computer needs to compile the program, rather build the environment that you have just created. So I might get a few squares and shape them in the shape of a wall, make 4 walls, have a door in one and windows in them all, I could then add a ceiling and have the whole thing sitting on a ground of grass. The I can give it a light source.

Now some program have real time editing. So the program can calculate the light of the sun shining through the window for example and if there is a table inside my little room it would create a shadow that might spill across the floor. Quite fantastic really I think. Some program do this same job but not in real time. You have to do a more overt compiling. The room you build is not ready to run around in in real time, you need to let the computer go away, do some work, and you will return some time later when the shadows and light and the texture of the object in the map have been compiled. This time, if you run a basic, quick build might be as little as 30 seconds to a minute even for a large complicated map.

So why I am writing all this? Well today is Wednesday. It is nearly 11:30am now. How many hours is that since Sunday morning at half three? The map is compiling for a few days now at this stage, I did not tell it to do a basic quick compile. I told it to build with all the bells and whistles. Problem is we are moving in a few days, to a whole new house! I don't want to turn the computer off, that would be disastrous. A few days again the electricity in the house suddenly flicked off for some reason, this happened a few times in a row, I think it is because I had put too many clothes in the washing machine and it was causing the machine to thrash around so much it was causing the power to short out. I am beginning to obsess about the build now. I am always looking at the screen, it is nearly there. Nearly... My god what the hell is taking to long!

How many days do I have to wait! I am beginning to get a knot in my stomach thinking about it. Waiting for it to compile! My goodness when it is finished, I am telling you, it better be worth it. I will keep you posted.

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