Chalmuns Cantina

Description
Considering that it is such a famous location, I am surprised there haven’t been more maps featuring the famous cantina out of the original Star Wars film. There was one like it in the Mos Eisley Trap map made by Sssid LivingDeadJedi and Sith J Cull a long while back. But this is the first map I have seen in which the author has attempted to make the look and layout as close as possible to the film and other sources.

Most Star Wars fans are probably familiar with this location from the films, but how many of you knew that it was actually called [url=http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Chalmun%27s_Cantina]Chalmun’s Cantina[/url]? The cantina is run by a Wookiee called Chalmun, hence the name!

[b]Accuracy[/b]

As the author says in his readme, he used the “Incredible Locations” cross-section book for the Original Trilogy in the construction of this map, and you can certainly tell! Whilst the accuracy is not 100% spot on, most likely due to the problems with actually building such an odd shaped structure in Radiant, it is very accurate to both the film and the pictures in the cross-section book. Even one of the obscure little details, the basement featuring skeletons buried in some alcoves at the far end!

The layout of the interior of the cantina is very close to the diagrams, featuring even the correct placing of the stage from which the band plays. Particularly impressive though is the bar in the center, which features the best looking set of those crazy metal bottles and pipes that I have ever seen in any map! Im pretty sure these are models, since you cant get detail and shapes that good by using patches in Radiant. Either way, the center bar looks fantastic, especially when you have dynamic glow turned on. ;)

Since the ‘Incredible Locations’ book doesn’t really show much of the area surrounding the cantina, I cant really comment on the accuracy of the rest of the map, although I did spot a few features that are just about included on the edge of the picture in the book.

[b]Architecture[/b]

The architecture is also accurate, and very well made considering the difficulty of working with patches in Radiant. I especially liked the ceiling of the cantina, with the beams running across it. Outside features typical Tatooine architecture with plenty of domed buildings and some nice little dome houses as well as a couple of large towers.

Another enterable building besides the cantina is a small hanger which features a very accurate T-16 Skyhopper. Again the author used a book here, this time ‘The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels’ to get a very accurate look and dimensions for the ship. The ship is on a platform which you can raise up by pressing the console in the small control room, although don’t get stuck underneath the platform if it comes back down! Personally I think this little area under the platform would be a great place to have a small vent or hatch that you could open and crawl through to escape or take you to another part of the map, just for a bit extra fun!

[b]Graphics[/b]

The most fantastic part of this map though is the terrain, which I think utilises [url=http://szicovii.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1]Szico’s ‘Horizon Blending’ technique. The results are absolutely fantastic, just take a look at the screenshots below. It actually looks like there is an infinite horizon rather than just a square of terrain surrounded by a skybox, it looks like you could just walk out into the desert... Seeing this map has definitely inspired me to try out this technique too!

[b]Improvements[/b]

I do feel that there could be some improvements made to the map though, afterall no map is perfect, right? I definitely think that the outside architecture needs some improvement, since it is a little plain. Its not bad, I just think it needs a bit more detail, that’s all. Perhaps a few more crumbling walls, a blaster mark on the wall here and there, rougher edges, etc. I also think that the buildings would look better in more of a brown colour, as opposed to the base JKA white coloured stucco used here. Other than that I think that the shadows need to be improved, perhaps by adding an ‘ambient 15’ command to the worldspawn in Radiant to make them a little less black and using the –filter option when you compile the map to smooth out the shadows a little. The only other thing is that there is no music in the map! Except for the cantina band music playing in the cantina. Although I guess map music would play over the cantina band music and spoil it a bit, it is rather too quiet outside, perhaps adding some sound effects, like some talking people, or a whistling breeze would be good.

[b]Conclusion[/b]

All in all though, this is a good map, it’s pièce de résistance being the cantina interior and that fantastic terrain horizon blending! An interesting addition is that this file actually contains two maps, one with the cantina and the rest of the surroundings, and one with only the cantina interior. The difference is that the map which has [i]only[/i] the cantina interior also has a blue mist throughout the map. Personally I think this looks more atmospheric that the normal cantina interior. I put this down the patrons smoking too many death sticks! Don’t do it kids, its bad for your health!

Anyway, this map is definitely worth a download I think, and I look forward to seeing more of Krattle’s work! :D


[b]Bot Support:[/b] Yes
[b]New Textures:[/b] Yes
[b]New Sounds:[/b] Yes (Yes, its that famous cantina band music!)
[b]New Music:[/b] No
[b]Game Types:[/b] FFA, TFFA, Duel (for the interior only map)

~Nozyspy~