[Amnesia] Screenshot criticism thread

[Ghieri]

MY FIRST ROOM

Spoiler below!

AM I COOL YET

[WALP]

MY FIRST ROOM

Spoiler below!

AM I COOL YET

Well I have seen far worse for a first, the fact alone that you used a boxlight makes me happy.
as for how to improve id say you need to darken that boxlight a lot more(change the color to a darker one).
it also seems the room is a bit wrecked, but theres a lack of smaller debris and decals, so give us some of those mate.
finally put those tinderboxes elsewhere, it does not make sence for them to randomly be lying on the floor like that.

[Adny]

AM I COOL YET

3.43/10. Almost.

[Ghieri]

Finally put those tinderboxes elsewhere, it does not make sense for them to randomly be lying on the floor like that.

Oppsies, I forgot to take those out. XD

[No Author]

MY FIRST ROOM

Spoiler below!

AM I COOL YET

Room is too bright. For me.

[DeAngelo]

I'm just starting to learn this stuff. Here's some screens of a map I just released a somewhat finished version of. I get that the screens look awful, but for someone feeling overwhelmed by the many things HPL has to offer, what should I focus on getting good at first? I was thinking I should dive into figuring out particle effects, how to properly use those box light things, but what else?

[Ghieri]

I'm just starting to learn this stuff. Here's some screens of a map I just released a somewhat finished version of. I get that the screens look awful, but for someone feeling overwhelmed by the many things HPL has to offer, what should I focus on getting good at first? I was thinking I should dive into figuring out particle effects, how to properly use those box light things, but what else?

In my opinion, lighting is the most important thing when setting a mood. Particles can add candy to the ice cream, but you have to have a good mood set before worrying about stuff like that.

EDIT: Added some mood light and some junk:

Spoiler below!

[Kman]

The candes in that shot cut off way too abruptly Ald, use pointlights to help the light spread and look more natural

[DeAngelo]

I'm just starting to learn this stuff. Here's some screens of a map I just released a somewhat finished version of. I get that the screens look awful, but for someone feeling overwhelmed by the many things HPL has to offer, what should I focus on getting good at first? I was thinking I should dive into figuring out particle effects, how to properly use those box light things, but what else?

In my opinion, lighting is the most important thing when setting a mood. Particles can add candy to the ice cream, but you have to have a good mood set before worrying about stuff like that.

EDIT: Added some mood light and some junk:

I'm starting to get it. While working on my map, I didn't bother with lighting because I thought "Well, you're gonna have a lamp and you're in a cellar so it should be dark" but I'm starting to understand that it's more for atmosphere than gameplay. OK, I have a question. I have a light coming in through a window upstairs, it's still casting light onto the ground below it, even though I have all the floors as well as walls set with "cast shadows" turned on. What am I doing wrong? Also, when I use box lights it just looks artificial regardless of which settings I use. What are some good numbers to set the colors to? Or is it more of a "Just find the sweet spot for the mod you want to set" thing?

[CarnivorousJelly]

With regards to your comments:
EDIT: I should probably warn you that the spoilers contain a lot of text.

Spoiler below!

I'm starting to get it. While working on my map, I didn't bother with lighting because I thought "Well, you're gonna have a lamp and you're in a cellar so it should be dark"

Well let's start with this: even if it's dark, you need light. There's not a single map in TDD that doesn't have a minimum ambient light. Even if it's something ridiculously low, like 0.005, 0.015, 0.044, 0.000 (Red Green Blue Alpha), there should be some sort of light. If there isn't, everything outside of the lantern's range will be pitch-black, the player will end up missing a bajillion things (tinderboxes, doors, monsters, all the hard work and effort you put into detailing a scary environment). This bring me to my second point: players get sick of pure blackness really quickly because they either waste all their oil trying to navigate and just find the next part of the game or they go insane because all their oil is gone and lose control of Daniel.

but I'm starting to understand that it's more for atmosphere than gameplay.

It's both, but I've already said that.

OK, I have a question. I have a light coming in through a window upstairs, it's still casting light onto the ground below it, even though I have all the floors as well as walls set with "cast shadows" turned on. What am I doing wrong?

Make the radius of your spotlight smaller. Planes don't cast shadows for some reason (it's really irritating). Boxlights and pointlights don't cast shadows, so you'll have to place them strategically.

Also, when I use box lights it just looks artificial regardless of which settings I use. What are some good numbers to set the colors to? Or is it more of a "Just find the sweet spot for the mood you want to set" thing?

Depends on the atmosphere of the room. The one I'm used in the recent screenshots I put on here is supposed to be dusty and yellow-grey in colour to match the light source and make the whole room feel abandoned. The colours I'm using are: 0.198, 0.182, 0.141, 0.000 (RGBA). For a room that's supposed to look like night-time with a lot of windows, I used 0.105, 0.116, 0.150, 0.000 (RGBA), which looks grey-blue. For a sunset, I used 0.201, 0.102, 0.000, 0.000 (RGBA)which is really, really saturated red-orange.
The reason yours might look artificial is because boxlights don't enhance the specular maps. In English: boxlights don't make it look 3D, they make it look flat. Pointlights (with alpha >0) will make it look "3D" and textured.

TL;DR you need pointlights and boxlights, lighting is important, boxlights will have "sweet spots" depending on the atmosphere of the room.

And now comments on your screen shots:

Spoiler below!

Screenshot1: Interesting idea for a promo screenshot; there's not really much to comment on though.
Screenshot2: NICE! The view is really narrow but, from what I can see, the area looks like a cluttered storage space. Hopefully that's what you were aiming for. It needs light (box light, pointlights, some source of light). The floor tiles are really tiny, try changing the tile amount to something < 1. I usually set mine between 0.3 and 0.75 depending on the area. Make sure all of your floor planes match though. Add some decals - dirt, hay_mat_small, or moist_wall wouldn't hurt; depends on what kind of atmosphere you're trying to create. Add some particles too, dust in a colour similar, but darker than, your ambient light (this is why you need an ambient light in the first place). Maybe a few spilled bottles or knocked over objects on the floor wouldn't hurt either?
Screenshot3: Make the tile amounts smaller. If you go under the "Plane" tab of the primitive, the first option is "Tile amount". Try putting in 0.5 for the first and last box (your x and z tile amounts) and 1 for the middle (your y tile amount). With small patterns on large areas, it's easy to find repetitions, which ruins the immersion. Same as last one here: fog or dust or some sort of particles, add decals to the ceilings if you're going to bring attention to them.
Screenshot4: This is another reason you need a boxlight. All I (or the player) can see is a small light in an otherwise pitch-black room. At first, I wasn't even sure there was a room on the other side of that door frame. There isn't much that I can see in this screenshot, so I can't say much about it. As for the immediate hallway lit up by your lantern, it's very empty. Try adding some torches or light (unlit) to the walls/ceiling, welders in between the wall segments, and items/decals/particles scattered everywhere else.
Lighting Example: Unless the sun is shining straight through that window, try lowering the angle of your spotlight so it points towards the ground. On the "General" tab of your spotlight, there's a blank field labelled "Gobo". Try changing yours to castlebase_window_02.dds (the one with diamond-grids) to cast a more realistic shadow. Also, make the radius smaller so it doesn't pass through the ground.
As your ladder area is currently, you will be unable to climb it. Change the stretches to: 1, 4, 1.25 (x, y, z) and place the area in front of the actual ladder with the mini blue arrow (the one that rotates when you rotate the area) so that it is facing away from the ladder.
It looks to me as though you're going to spawn a bajillion monsters into the upstairs room once the player has entered it. Unless it is your intent for the player to be incapable of escaping, delete all but one and give the player time to get to a hiding spot or run.
The downstairs area: I like your use of the dividing walls and large barrels, but some of your objects look a little bit too neatly stacked. Try rotating a few of those wooden platforms or shifting them slightly so they don't look cloned. Considering the piles of stuff you have along the walls of your cellar, I would scatter a few more things around the middle to make it more cluttered or make the rooms smaller. Again, decals and particles can do wonders. With darker rooms, you can get away with adding fewer items and still have the very crowded feeling, but yours could still use a few items.

With all that said, your maps look a lot better than my first map did, so don't give up or let anything discourage you.