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de_spezia_pro

Spezia Pro - Bomb/Defuse
By Will2k

de_spezia_pro (pronounced Spetsia[en.wikipedia.org]) is a bomb/defuse map based on several old and historical towns in the province of La Spezia in Liguria, northern Italy. The map is not an accurate recreation but rather an inspiration from the towns of La Spezia, Porto Venere and the five towns that constitute the marvelous Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso al Mare). I took the creative freedom to merge several elements from real life counterparts into one old town in the map; reference photos were used to help recreate streets' layouts, buildings architecture and colors, historical landmarks, decorations and vegetation and so on.

This map is a remastered, rebuilt from scratch rendition of my CSS map de_spezia (http://css.gamebanana.com/maps/160119), created some 2 years ago in 2011. I have rebuilt more than 90% of this map from scratch using optimized brushwork lastly used in my latest CSS map de_cortona (http://css.gamebanana.com/maps/169403): new paths/areas were added, existing routes were modified/widened for smoother gameplay, overall layout was changed, several art passes were carried on to completely overhaul the visuals (textures, models, details...). Even if some of the buildings might look familiar to the folks who played the CSS version, they're not the same since different brushwork and sizes were used to recreate them, and the only aspect that remained the same and transferred from the CSS version is the displacement work on the beach near CT spawn, with only minor sculpting/smoothing and texture change.

The map is highly detailed and realistic to mimic the visuals of an old town in the 'Cinque Terre' region of Italy. I kept tweaking the lighting to nail that perfect sunny, summer day feeling with warm colors and plenty of sunlight. A subtle props coloring was extensively used to add visual variety to an already colorful map.

The layout is quite simple, easy to remember and navigate through while offering plenty of tactical options for both sides.

The optimization was fully revised since this map has a different layout and brushwork from the CSS version and to accommodate for the more demanding Source engine version in CSGO. The optimization process took me roughly around 4-5 days to finalize. The high FPS is consistent around the map and provides smooth & fluid gameplay for players. Additional optimization was done to the gameplay flow by heavily implementing clip brushes to ensure a smooth and hassle-free motion for players.

The map has:

- 64 spawn points (32 vs 32)
- 3D Skybox (Actual landscapes from the towns of Manarola and Vernazza)
- Custom textures (specific of the towns mentioned above to add to the map's realism)
- Radar (2) and loading screen (1 greyscale radar for actual gameplay and 1 colored for spectating)
- Kv file (GIGN vs Separatists)
- Soundscapes
- Particles
- HDR with tonemap control and color correction
- Manually-tuned nav file with place names


This project took 3 months of my time since I practically rebuilt the whole thing from the grounds up, and didn't settle for a simple port; I really hope you enjoy this map as much as I did creating and testing it.

The map can also be found on Gamebanana (http://csgo.gamebanana.com/maps/172542).

My website and portfolio since 1999: http://will8k.tripod.com

Comments and constructive feedback are always welcome.

Will2k

February 19, 2013