Hey, what’s up y’all? I got a couple things to show y’all today in my blog. I updated the bots with better context over the past two days, and while the improvements are almost intangible to express, they do occur – they’re real improvements. The bots now know how much time has passed since the last conversation, which items are currently playing, and I’ve improved their computer vision so they can see both screenshots of the actual world plus screen caps of playing media simultaneously. They can see where you’re at in the game and your position in a barricade at the same time.
But moving on from that, here’s the movie theater map that I started today in Hammer++:
It’s got red floors and beige walls, a snack bar, some hallways, brick walls, and an entrance with a glass wall. I also started making this asset art pack today – basically prefabs of different walls with light fixtures. After setting up these presets like brick walls, regular plaster walls with trim and wood panels, and storeroom brick walls, you can build the whole map efficiently.
Wall Design and Details
You’ve got your standard 2-tone walls with brown wallpaper on the bottom and tan wallpaper on the top, separated by a wood 3D strip that also serves as a leaning rail. On the bottom we have dark rubberish base trim going along the floor borders. When running with Reshade and ambient occlusion, those 3D geometry seams really pop. The light fixtures include disc lights in the ceiling and wall sconces – there’s another sconce that points out rather than up that I haven’t used in the prefab yet.
The Snack Bar Area
In the snack bar area we have beverage dispensing cabinets, fountain drinks, and lots of popcorn machines. There’s a menu up there, ordering kiosks facing the customer area, plus an ATM, drinking fountain, and movie posters. The tile flooring makes it easy for janitors to clean up when people drop their popcorn after buying it fresh.
Employee Section View
When you’re standing in the employee section looking out, it looks good from multiple angles. Each little kiosk is different thanks to the skins from GTA5 ports available on the Gmod workshop. You can even see outside from certain angles.
Exterior and Entrance
On the outside, it’s got this strip mall vibe so far. I’m not sure if it’s going to be nighttime or daytime yet, but here’s the entrance with the big glass wall where you can see the promotional posters and the main entrance.
The Storage/Development Room
As I was arranging props and getting textures and scaling correct, I spawned a bunch of items that I later needed to move out of the way. Instead of deleting them, I built this theater-sized room behind the concession stand to store unused props like couches, tables, and that other sconce I mentioned. The grid wall helps me align light fixtures precisely – each grid square is exactly 32 in-game units. Eventually this will become a stash room for random stuff when playing in the arcade, but for now it’s storing important prefabs that maintain consistent feel throughout the map.
And that wraps it up for today’s bantha fodder. I’m SM Sith Lord, and Merry Christmas everybody! I’ll be getting into some saving the world from the rat apocalypse in Warhammer coming up soon on my stream, and also playing some GTA5 since it’s gonna start snowing soon because it’s almost Christmas. All right, peace out, y’all.