Topic: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!

[YelseyKing]

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I guess there are some other smaller maps you didn't do as well. (Like Tears' Point, the Sorceress Memorial, and the Lunatic Pandora Lab, for instance.) I guess just figured you were sticking to larger areas, and the Centra Excavation Site was the only one of size I noticed was missing. As for the Triple Triad map... that'd be neat. It's always kind of a pain trying to remember who has what rare card, so a handy map would certainly help.

Also, I love the Wild Arms 2 world map. I never realized just how *weird* that game's world looked. That is some very... interesting... geography.

[VGCartography]

I am still alive.

There's a bunch of PS1 games waiting to be mapped, but I can't pick one to focus on. The epsxe emulator fork that can take 3D screenshots has been revolutionary - no more extracting and converting data to OBJs, instead can just rip them straight from gameplay. It isn't always easy or pretty (Syphon Filter for example comes out with stretched axis due to perspective that requires correction), and you will be collecting portions of the level mesh from multiple screenshots and must rotate and move them to recreate the whole thing, but for most games it isn't as bad as it sounds. I've done at least the first level in this fashion for:
- Ape Escape
- Syphon Filter
- Toy Story 2
- Armored Core
- Gex 2
- Legend of Legaia
- Tail Concerto
- Wild Arms 2
...however, Spyro 2 and some Crash levels are the only thing I've progressed much further on. With infinite time, it would be fun to grab them all.

I still haven't done disc 4 of FF9 or a bunch of Legend of Dragoon, need to get back in the mood for screenshot maps like that.

There's also a PCSX2 fork now that can do similar things with PS2 levels! https://github.com/scurest/pcsx2/releases/tag/latest-3d-screenshot
PS2 games have much higher poly counts obviously, more transparency and other lighting effects to remove and usually require culling polygons and scaling axes again to remove distortion, but I got workable level models from Devil May Cry 1, Tomb Raider 6 and Shadow of the Colossus without too much fuss. There's a lot of potentially cool maps for the PS2 library as well.

Otherwise, I drew some world maps for Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne and Sekiro that I'm pretty proud of. Here's the Sekiro one: https://www.deviantart.com/vgcartography/art/Sekiro-Illustrated-World-Map-1128031286
I'm working on improving my coloring skills, once again I have a long list of games I'd love to draw like this but precious little time to do it. I've been making videos for youtube with these maps basically drawing little arrows on them that show the basic route through the games, it would be fun to see other people try similar videos like this with VGMaps collection. I make them with powerpoint. @NESAtlas on youtube has some neat ones in a similar vein with a let's play of the game inlaid to a larger map of the level/world. It also functions to get more eyes on some of the maps.

Anyway, hopefully I can submit Spyro 2 in the next month or so.

[Cyartog959]

I am still alive.

There's a bunch of PS1 games waiting to be mapped, but I can't pick one to focus on. The epsxe emulator fork that can take 3D screenshots has been revolutionary - no more extracting and converting data to OBJs, instead can just rip them straight from gameplay. It isn't always easy or pretty (Syphon Filter for example comes out with stretched axis due to perspective that requires correction), and you will be collecting portions of the level mesh from multiple screenshots and must rotate and move them to recreate the whole thing, but for most games it isn't as bad as it sounds. I've done at least the first level in this fashion for:
- Ape Escape
- Syphon Filter
- Toy Story 2
- Armored Core
- Gex 2
- Legend of Legaia
- Tail Concerto
- Wild Arms 2
...however, Spyro 2 and some Crash levels are the only thing I've progressed much further on. With infinite time, it would be fun to grab them all.

I still haven't done disc 4 of FF9 or a bunch of Legend of Dragoon, need to get back in the mood for screenshot maps like that.

There's also a PCSX2 fork now that can do similar things with PS2 levels! https://github.com/scurest/pcsx2/releases/tag/latest-3d-screenshot
PS2 games have much higher poly counts obviously, more transparency and other lighting effects to remove and usually require culling polygons and scaling axes again to remove distortion, but I got workable level models from Devil May Cry 1, Tomb Raider 6 and Shadow of the Colossus without too much fuss. There's a lot of potentially cool maps for the PS2 library as well.

Good to hear from you after your silent absence around here. Kinda worried me a bit.

Your process with that emulator fork you spoke of sure sounds like it could streamline the process of mapping PS1 games... but by how much, I don't know.

Feeling a bit indecisive about which game to focus mapping? Well, I may provide a recommendation or two.

I feel "Toy Story 2" is a fine choice, for I've already beaten that PS1 version with everything collected. The N64, almost the same, but didn't think of having 100% there and then. I was only focusing on having my good time exploring the levels and trying to get to the end. The bosses were mostly original, save for few adapted from the movie, and I enjoyed beating each and every one.

Sure, its not in your list, but, my second recommendation is "SpongeBob SquarePants: Supersponge", a fine side-scroller for the world-famous sponge himself in his game and animation careers.

Though everything's made in 3D, the levels were fashioned in a 2D state. Had fun with it, but I honestly did struggle much to complete everything 100%, including having to keep all 100 Golden Spatulas before reaching the end of any level in Chapter 5 and collecting all the decorations with tokens obtained from all the bonus carnival levels to decorate for Patrick's birthday. Enjoyed some key nods from past episodes, alongside the voice cast reprising their roles as their characters... well, almost all.

Those are only my recommendations.

Liked seeing your well-made maps so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing some more soon.

[JonLeung]

There's a bunch of PS1 games waiting to be mapped, but I can't pick one to focus on. The epsxe emulator fork that can take 3D screenshots has been revolutionary - no more extracting and converting data to OBJs, instead can just rip them straight from gameplay. It isn't always easy or pretty (Syphon Filter for example comes out with stretched axis due to perspective that requires correction), and you will be collecting portions of the level mesh from multiple screenshots and must rotate and move them to recreate the whole thing, but for most games it isn't as bad as it sounds. I've done at least the first level in this fashion for:
- Ape Escape
- Syphon Filter
- Toy Story 2
- Armored Core
- Gex 2
- Legend of Legaia
- Tail Concerto
- Wild Arms 2
...however, Spyro 2 and some Crash levels are the only thing I've progressed much further on. With infinite time, it would be fun to grab them all.

I still haven't done disc 4 of FF9 or a bunch of Legend of Dragoon, need to get back in the mood for screenshot maps like that.

If not Final Fantasy IX or Legend Of Dragoon, then Legend Of Legaia and Wild Arms 2 are my votes, if you are polling.  I'm not sure I've ever heard of Tail Concerto, but that looks really cute and cool!

But honestly, I'd be super happy to publish anything you contribute to VGMaps, whether polygonal or hand-drawn, as you excel at both, which are less common skills around here, and result in unique maps.  While I definitely have a soft spot for 2D 8-bit and 16-bit games, one person's map would probably look a lot like any other's map of the same area, if done properly, other than arrangement of separate rooms, or additions like labels.  But with 3D games there's always the choice of perspective, and other decisions like how to handle the anti-aliasing of textures, etc.  The PlayStation atlas page could always use more maps in general, regardless of the number of dimensions.

Looking forward to whatever you submit!