CCP#25 - Manifold Island

CCP#25 - Manifold Island

You may or may not want to turn up the music volume while playing it.
2 quests are integrated in this map!
Check the 3 crystals, and the tree you'll see at the first tunnel entry.

No bloom issues this time, only lightmap ones!

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Showcase of the map (starting at 0:53):

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Inspiration

As soon as i saw the Island car, which is relatively recent, i knew i wanted to do something with it as i like fast paced futuristic racing games. I then thought Canyon would be the most fitting environment as the main mechanic of the Island car is to avoid sliding as much as possible. Even if it's only a 32x32 environment with no 64x64 base, blocks are 64x64 so it's similar in the end.
With that in mind, i wanted to do something a bit original and i was thinking about Inception and the upside-down city / city bending scene. And from this, i thought about a game i recently played, Manifold Garden (MG). Here you've it all.

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Design and building process

As i did with my previous map "CCP#11 - Twinster Helix", i did a testing room to find block combos that were fun to drive. Since i had no custom item in Canyon i checked Maniapark for some that could help me at some point. I drove the Island car for the first time at the same time. This is probably the process that took the most time, as i also started to mess with something i discovered how to use it: The deformation tool in the MeshModeler. The TitlePack stats page still show the Testing Room as the most played map in solo.
Once i had a good idea of what i could put in the map, i started building a bit but then i discovered some limitations to the selection tool. So i thought i should probably plan the complete routing. Here's the result. It's surprisingly close to the final result. No tunnel unfortunately, but it'd probably not fit anyway and the open view is probably better.

Directly at the first platform section, i discovered what you can do in stadium as an inclined to flat transition, it's "a bit" less possible with the island car as you fly out a lot more easily. But Nadeo knew i'd have this issue, so they added only 1 month before the possibility to embed materials in your map as long as the texture is an already existing in-game one! And in there, i found the fantastic TechSuperMagnetic physics id. The italic here is for the issue i'd have after, the first time i'd calculate the shadows. Maxi031 tried to help me by making the block with Blender but it didn't last long before new shadows issues occured on his block, less violent though. Some "radiation" also joined the party. No, i had 0 green light in the map for the first screenshot.

At the 600% scaled 3-7-3 block, i had issues aligning every block, they'd be at a different height. I asked for help on the creators' place discord and while it solved the issue a bit for 1 transition (thanks again), it didn't for the others. I solved it by finding the right Y offset for the items involved. And this offset trick helped me a lot for the lightmap issues i had as mentioned above with the shadows. I had to create special blocks that'd in fact be the top of the block only, with a normal material at an Y offset of 0.01. No z-fighting, and it fixed the heaviest lightmap issues.

The visual aspect of the map changed a bit with a good suggestion from Riolu to change the texture of the magnet items i used for the one used by the GeP items (pipes, bowls, ...) everywhere on the map. I feared it'd be an issue to not see what is magnetic and what isn't but it turned out not that much. The transition after the 373 scaled block has been made a bit smoother (you could do some big bump before), by modifying the edge in the MeshModeler, and adding TechSuperMagnetic physics surface on one more block length. Unfortunately for the 373 block, it couldn't be made smoother. Subdividing it wouldn't change the little bumps the Island car has. But it's only a visual problem as you don't lose speed.

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Scenery and beyond

Once i was confident enough with the routing, i could start the scenery. Technically i already did a part of it in the first place since it was the floor. Floor directly coming from Manifold Garden (MG). I was also able to somehow include the effect you've in MG where the world loops. By modifying a vanilla route block and removing the mesh, it created void. And from there i added a little infinite fall MT clip.
Cf. the previous link, you can see some buildings and i started to create one. I first had to create the blocks i'd need in the MeshModeler, and assemble them one by one, floor by floor. Two of these buildings can be found on the map, in opposite direction. It's when i made the first building like that i got the idea to do a big floor with something inside. And while i was doing it, the idea to do a quest emerged. I knew it was done in a few RPG maps, i wasn't sure it could be done in a non-RPG maps (it could be some TitlePack integrated stuff), but   qqlele answered me and the answer was a positive one for the project. The source files he initially gave me evolved quite a bit, and after numerous hours passed coding this tool, it's now available to anyone on GitHub (forum thread). So if you wanted to add quests in your map and didn't know how, now you probably can.

After that first quest implemented, and that building completed. I started placing some towers with stairs that references directly MG. And more stairs here and there as i found it'd give a nice effect. Then the 2nd building was made, not without difficulties as it was made from top to bottom, and as i didn't mention it yet, the top was outside the building area. In fact, several blocks of the map are placed outside of the building area. I had to put the right pivot positions, fly step, grid size, etc. to be able to do everything i needed to.
Added a few animated "ads" i had in mind in the very beginning already. The Redout launch trailer (on that note, music comes from Redout OST, Desert Druids, devs allowed me to do so), the intro of UT99, and a FEZ animation (originally made for the steam library grid view). Some sounds included in the map somewhere come directly from MG. Along the fact i was allowed to do it, they gave me the files .

You can see all this process previously detailed in this little video (1m40).

At this point, the map was mostly done. But then i decided one quest wasn't enough. Another one was added. I didn't even had to add anything in the map to do the quest in the first place, as the placement of what constitutes the quest was already good, especially the first one. The others though were a bit too accessible so i added a second non-free one.

Intro was made at the very end. For some reasons i couldn't see the ghost in the MediaTracker at first, but i think it was due to the fact you can't use a same ghost element with different offsets and you need to import the ghost several times to do this.
GPS, cam changes and signs were integrated along at some points, but not much to say on that.

Doing this map took me, in a bit less than 3 weeks, starting November 1st, above 100h. By taking everything in account: improving the tool for the quests, testing block arrengements, building, etc.

Hope you'll enjoy it!

Congrats to   dragonpntm who completed both quests. The only one in all the CCH duration. He won 1 000 planets, plus the 3 000 intended to the others players that would complete both quests. No bonus as there was globally no interest in the quests.

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Acknowledgements

•   -GeP-, for the release of his recent (1 month before i start this map) set of Pipes (Ramps & Bowls). These blocks are used a lot in the map. Thanks to many other authors for their blocks.
  
•   qqlele, for the initial sources to do quests in your map. And anyone who helped me in my process to improve the ManiaScript in it.
  
•   eFFecT, for the showcase of the map. You can check all the CCP 2019 showcases in this playlist.
  
•   Miss <3 and any contributor, for OpenPlanet. The map wouldn't exist without it due to size limit.
  
• All the authors involved in the X-Mas mod (canyon). CryoMoontain version is used in this track.
  
•   riolu!, for his feedback.
  
•   Akiliyh, for hosting the event.
  
• You, if you played the map. Feel free to leave a comment, either you liked the map or you didn't and/or found issues on it. I may fix it later.

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Useless trivia: I, for some reasons, forgot again to check the map in higher graphics settings. This leads to the grass being unexpected and some different textures. It's still okay overall though thanks to the low draw distance even in ultra for the grass. Along this, i spotted a damn place with z-fighting despite trying hard to avoid any of these. Filthy z-fighting, thankfully it's not too visible.
If wanted, i can share the blocks i created via a resource on ManiaPark for instance. Not sure it's worth anything though. That was the second time i did it and they're not optimized at all as well as far from perfects. You can't really optimize complicated items in the MeshModeler.
The map is protected by a password but i can give it to you if wanted, though you may not need me for that anyway...

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Changelog

• 2019-12-26 01:02 GMT : Fixed a wrong cue in the first quest, sorry for that .

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Regarding these 2 quests, i'll offer some symbolic planets to those who complete both quests:

• 1 000 planets for the 1st one, 800 for the 2nd, 600 for the 3rd and 400 for the 4th.
  
• 300 planets for 4 randomly picked players (excluding 1st to 4th of course)

Depending on the interest, i may give a total bonus of 4 000 planets to the best cumulated time(s) of both quests. It'd require a replay though (or private video). Tip: You can do both quests at once. In that case only the time at which the 2nd quest is completed would be the time taken into account, instead of adding both times up since you'd have completed both quests during that time.