The Canal DM

Map name -

dm/canal

Game -

MOHAA

Map file(downloads)

canal.pk3 (396)

Map RCON command -

Map feature modes

Theme

Map screen shot

Map type

Death Match

Map Status

Fully working no errors

Map Info external

External Review

Extra Files

Map Creator

W.S & M.S

.Map Included for edit

Extra Credits

// Patched by: MPowell1944

MD5

EC72C99A0A57826615E381BE5A67C654

Map Description / install info

Review by: jv_map

The Canal

The Canal is a beautiful map of a Mediterranean town with a canal running through. The sky and lighting suggest a sunny afternoon. The author has used 6.4 MB of custom textures which fit the theme very well. It all looks like a marvellous, splendid, old fashioned city that only lacks citizens for an inhabited look

Presentation / Technical

I loved this map from the moment I saw a first screenshot. When I set my first feet in game, it was amazed by the size of the map, the complexity of the architecture and the wonderful textures. This is the first user made map where I had that feeling of really being there in those streets, rather than sitting behind my computer monitor.

In general, the brushwork is excellent, except for quite a lot of instances of Z-fighting. I found a couple of brushes that didn't exactly match their neighbours and I found some T-junction cracking. The inside of the buildings has an obviously lower level of detail than the outside and is on some places plain ugly. However, the architecture in total is so very nice that I don't really care about these minor flaws.

Textures are very close to perfect. Every face has an appropriate texture that has been aligned properly. The less good things are the excessive use of glass textures and the scale of the roof tiles, which are too big. These are just small things that don't really let down the score, the texturing in total is just extremely well done.

The lighting looks realistic, although this map is rather dark. At the dark places I find the map not very enjoyable and it's hard to navigate. A bit of ambient light would have done quite some good. Another silly detail is that the sun is situated in the north-west, which seems pretty unlikely, although the readme file doesn't mention the location where this map is set.

Finally the framerate is an important issue to point out, because it's rather poor. On the worst places, my Mtex counter peeked just below 30 (1024 x 768, highest detail), which is much more than any of the original maps requires. The average framerate is a bit better, but the map doesn't play smoothly anywhere. The vis design is very poor and that's what's causing these low framerates. A revision of the layout of structural brushes in this map would have been able to get it running like the original maps, or even better.

Playability / Game Flaws

I was amazed that I found a server playing this map yet on its release date. I played the map with about 7 other players. After a while it turned into a sniper frenzy, but I think that's because we were with so few. On most places it's easy to move around and there are lots of places to hide. There are cobblestone roads all over the map which guarantee varied gameplay. A very small flaw is a non-solid piano in one of the buildings, but that's of no importance. All in all I can't say otherwise than that The Canal is excellent on this aspect too.

Conclusion

I guess it's rather clear that I frankly love this map, although its framerate stops me from enjoying it really much. This is the only thing that pulls the score of this map down, and it's the only reason I can think of to not download this map. However, even that shouldn't stop you from fetching it, because its beauty makes this map even pleasing if it were a slide show. My compliments to the author and I hope he's going to release more maps in the future.

Map video