 News | Forum | People | FAQ | Links | Search | Register |
Log in |
|
|
The trick is to pitch the level 45 degrees so that you cover the most of each axis. That way you have plenty of verticality and horizontality.
which is 1) probably terrible and 2) probably already been implemented at some point and proven to be terrible.
the idea: an fps with normal player movement with the addition of being able to rotate the entire level. can't get to a switch beyond your reach? rotate! trying to get to a hole in the ceiling? rotate! is that wall just a skoshe too high? rotate! Sounds like a migraine inducing pukefest. I hate myself for even thinking of this. and you should get to making it before some numbnuts steals the idea and turns it into the next Portal and makes a ton of money.
I imagined the same thing for a game based on Escher's drawings. Hipnotic and AD do rotations. Would it be possible to rotate an entire map? That would probably be a mapping nightmare.
While not being rotation per se, Cube had the possibility of shifting gravitational direction so you could walk on walls and ceilings to a similar effect. Funny that you mentioned Portal because I remember playing a puzzle game (not first person, though) on the PS1, I think, where you had to escape a series of cubic rooms which you needed to rotate to reach the exit. The name eludes me.
Of course the best implementation would be to "fake" it by simply rotating gravity and camera orientation - the level would actually be (mostly) static - no need to make it literally rotate.
Dynamic entities in the level would need to react to the shifting gravity though - that's where all the work would go. Not sure if you're implying I was only talking about vertical because I wasn't - the gravity vector can be any orientation.
I can see this being an aesthetic but not a functioning mechanic. His art works because it's a fixed perspective in which he manipulates the perception of depth. In a 3d game you have a variable perspective and actual depth. I remember seeing a 2d escher game on steam that looked pretty nifty.
simply rotating gravity
Quake supports this? I can see this being an aesthetic but not a functioning mechanic. His art works because it's a fixed perspective in which he manipulates the perception of depth. Yeah, I should have mentioned this idea was mostly inspired by his maze-of-staircases stuff. I realize that his optical illusions would be harder if not impossible to pull off. Makes me think of an old map from "the jedi returns". There was this spacecrft that hung diagonally, where the player hangs downunder.
A strange experience, for all elevators work arcangle. I created hc2 a couple days ago and this is the beginning part of it with some ceiling detail. Map still in development.
Screenshot download: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/hc2withceiling.jpg Cool man hexcalk, this is how you do it! Displaying WIPs and collecting feedback.
Looks like some spiky ceilings, a medieval map in the works? Keep it up! This level that I recently took a screenshot of was named "hc2" because a map titled "hc1" was created prior to the release of Peripheral. Both are still in development. hc2 is generally E1M2 influenced, while hc1 will have Japanese themes and textures from Daikatana.
Then again there is nothing wrong with boxy rooms or areas if those are intented to be that way. With extra details boxy-like areas, can look like they're not, even though they are. Maybe in details there is something they care so much that they doesn't care about the actual shape of area and are more focused on purpose than anything else. Hopefully this makes sense, when making more areas in the future.
Last area...
http://i.imgur.com/SBUK8jV.jpg Hi there, total newbie quake mapper here. we're putting together a mapping project for newbies, hoping to get together 5 or 6 maps. If anyone is interested, we have a google doc here, just add yourself in:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zlfb2U2VCeS70uS6Klc2ZEOC9KtnYyCyBXEmeetjh0c/edit?usp=sharing We're kind of running this through /vr/ s doom/retro FPS threads so you can head there, or questions in the google doc. A screenshot of my first quake map ever: http://imgur.com/ln2wqrI HexenMapper, you can add my map to the collection once its complete! I'm also a newbie mapper and im building my first map!
Map Name
Shadows of our forgotten ancestors Builder Naitelveni Description? Castle cortyard in they skies difficulty: medium/hard Lenght/size: 5-15 minute (small) Status Almost finished my first build, and after that I will make an check up for fixes and bugs and fix those and then I'll be ready. Link - Cool, I added you in Naitelveni. The deadline will probably be April 1 so plenty of time. I have a lot to learn and my map is only just started.
It's good to see a project that aims to get complete beginners to release a first map. I completely understand that even though this is partly what map jams are also for (the requirements of a map jam are basically just an info_player_start and an exit trigger), newcomers can find the quality of most jam maps intimidating. Likewise, I understand the lax deadline: a couple of weeks may be plenty of time for a seasoned mapper, but when you still need to learn the basics, that's a very tight deadline. So basically what I'm trying to say is: sounds like a great idea, HexenMapper, and I fully support it...
No offense intended to HexenMapper! Anyone is welcome, the aim to give noobs an excuse to try to build something, but if you want to build a map and include it you're more than welcome!
@Total_newbie All good man, cheers for the support. No one is tied to this thing, its just for fun, not going to be released anywhere important, probably post a link on the /vr/ retro FPS thread and thats about it :) Thanks alot! I'll be giving you guys another version of my map within 10 minutes. um going to post it in the mapping help topic.
I want do something very simple for this, since I am kind of working "too seriously" one bigger fantasy map, this could be a good opportunity for me to relax and be noob myself. Bloughburgh you're gonna Join too? ;)
Nope,
I agree that although there is no barrier to entry, the jam entries usually would intimidate me if I was a brand new mapper. Having the project be exclusive to completely fresh mappers seems to be the best direction. Yeah, maybe it is better leave space for the actual new-comers, I was just wondering how many would be interested. Also in jams, even in retro jams there seems to be quite high expectations about the entries, I was just wondering whether or not this might be good opportunity to try out something without those expectations.
Well its all pretty casual at this stage, I dont know what kind of quality us newbies will be able to produce, we'll try our best and we have a bunch of time so hopefully something alright.
You're all more than welcome to put something together, I dont mind. Some casual maps by seasoned mappers will help keep the quality up. What we need mostly is help with things like linking maps together and answering questions about how things work. I have a grasp on basic triggers, and was able to set the music for my map, but I've yet to attempt to make a working door... Thats about my level of knowledge. I've done a bunch of mapping for doom engine games, and made a 15 map wad for Hexen at the start of this year. I'll need help organizing the maps into a file that people can run, I dont really know how to do that - how to combine a bunch of maps into an episode and link them together, and what format to save them in so people can run them with quakespasm or their chosen port Oops, didn't read the last paragraph. Making an episode out of maps by various authors would require a fair amount of coordination between mappers. Maybe it would be best to keep it AD style and make an episode when entrants are more seasoned?
...but just to clarify, an episode requires to decide the map order and when to give a new weapon. This implies balancing combat in each map according to which weapons are available.
count me in
i will release at minimum a bad but playable map with no leaks and vised. Map Name Don't know yet. Maybe Wizard Tower. Or Scrag Tower. How all of you call that monster? scrag or wizard? i don't like wizard, i think hexen wizards, robes, etc. Builder Topher Description Medieval tower, partially submerged. Inspired in E1M4. Old-School. Smallish. Around 50 monsters in hard. Maybe some AD monsters and breakables, if it's ok for a newbie map pack. I think 1-APR is enough time to put some breakables, even if they not affect the gameplay. i want to use those crossbow knights Status Nothing yet... total newbie. regarding names topher
there is ambiguity between the death messages in quake and the entity names scrag - wizard vore - shalrath demon - fiend tarbaby - spawn if you want to dig into the code and have a look for yourself, the death messages are in client.qc Maybe some AD monsters and breakables
AD content requires to use the AD I call them:
scrag vore fiend spawn death knight I think those are the coolest names and that's my reasoning. Your map overview sounds promising! I wonder if it would be play if I threw in my first map? It's very short (2ish minutes) but it's also by a person who was a noob at the time :)
Good point about the balance, a hub might be the best way to go, is it possible to have each map as pistol-start when entering from a hub? that way everyone can balance from scratch.
As for Breakables, I'd probably try to avoid them, keep it vanilla. Perhaps a more experienced mapper could do the hub map, or someone can claim it. Topher I added you in, Pritchard your early map is welcome too! You should create your own thread for this project, in order to avoid cluttering this thread with off-topic.
BTW, you can count me in too. I think 3 months are enough for me to make something. Most probably a runic/metal map. is it possible to have each map as pistol-start when entering from a hub? Yes. I don't remember how exactly but it has been discussed recently, most probably in the Mapping Help thread. Go there and do a search for "shotgun start" or "strip weapons". Thanks mugwump, I made a new thread, and I'll look into those shotgun start posts. Also added you in :)
Hello everyone. I make my first map for Quake and I am looking for critism.
Screenshots: http://imgur.com/gallery/55Fyq You might wanna join the QUMP project here: http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61385
Judging by your screenshots, your map looks very 1997: blocky and undetailed. You might want to refrain from using riveted metal textures on large surfaces, it doesn't look very good. Welcome to Quake mapping! It appears you know your way around the editor. I enjoy the sewer screenshots the most.
From glancing at the screenshots I find the lighting to be overly too bright and flat. Try adjusting light values to create a bit of darkness in the rooms. When I said riveted metal textures don't look good on large surfaces, I was talking especially about this one (metal2_6, I think) and met5_1. They're more suited to small details. A texture like wizmet1_2 looks much better, as evidenced by id's start map.
And yeah, forgot to mention the lighting. Good to see a new mapper! Thanks for posting screenshots.
I agree with everything Bloughsburgh said. It looks like a project with potential, but a couple more suggestions: The proportions of the map seem a bit too large in a few places. Examples include the raised Quake sign on the floor in the third picture, the wall-mounted lights in the first, fifth and last picture, and the stained-glass windows in the first and fourth picture. The raised Quake sign will probably make movement around that room a bit more annoying than it needs to be. It's not high enough to block line of sight, so it's bound to just impede player movement. If you lower it so it's just a couple of units high (and maybe turn it into a func_illusionary), it will probably look and play better. This goes for intricate floor details in general. As for the stained glass windows in pictures 1 and 4: I would suggest letting the textures lead your brushwork a bit more. It looks like you've scaled up and stretched that texture to match your brushwork. Instead, maybe try creating brushes that match the scale of the textures. That way you'll end up with slightly better visual proportions. Also think about what the textures represent. A raised stained-glass window that casts a shadow (picture 4) doesn't really make sense -- so either use a different texture for that kind of object, or make the stained-glass window flush with the wall, or recessed (sunk into the wall). A related point: in pictures 2, 3 and 5, you've used a door texture that is rounded on top, yet you've placed the door brushes inside a rectangular opening. Here, again: let the textures lead your brushwork: if your door texture is rounded, turn the doorway into a corresponding arch. Or else, use a different texture for the door. Also related to texturing: pay attention to all sides of brushes. The ceiling lights in pictures 3 and 5 have the same texture (the light texture) on all sides. That texture should only be on the bottom face of the brush; the sides should have a different metal texture. The rooms themselves seem a little too large for the sparse detail they have: the ceilings are high, and the walls are pretty uniform from floor to ceiling. This tutorial might be helpful in learning to avoid that sort of thing: http://isoterra.co.uk/quake/tut1/ I look forward to seeing the map develop further. :) There are two things I don't agree with in that tutorial, namely the recommendation not to use stock textures, and the suggestion towards the end of using minlight: stock textures are fine, especially the runic/wizard textures you're using; it's how you use them that counts. And DON'T use minlight.
But the basic ideas about using non-rectangular shapes, height variation and texture variation to give more character to a room are all sound, I think. I don't have critism,
I only see "for the joy of the game"! Go on! And let the good advice help you. Dude this is dope as fuck! every new mapper should read this!
this will instantly remove all these awkward flat ceilings, floors anw walls. It's a fucking sexy tutorial and I love it.
I'd lost it, thanks for finding the link for me again ^_^ I made this in a couple hours today:
http://imgur.com/a/IBKNq The map is tentatively titled Aaa, which is the hawaiian word for "lava tube" (seemed appropriate). I shall strive to keep the same creativity standards for the rest of the map. I hope I won't disappoint. I wanted something reminiscent of E1M6 and the start map's entrance to episode 3, but different. I think I succeeded. What do you (and the others) think of the title?
I would advise against keeping an "intricate" look like that for too long. Certainly use it in sections, as it is quite nice and it has its effect, but it's quite "dense" and aside from probably not playing well with monster movement, I think it's too visually distracting. I would personally tend towards a solid face for the endcap to the "tunnel" shown here, but in general I would reserve it for interconnecting segments and keep it away from combat areas.
Perhaps it could work as an upper-wall/ceiling detail as well, I don't know. You'll have to see what works, but be wary of creating anything too visually dense. Maybe the tubes could be used as hallways or transitions to rooms...still way too early to make any assumptions but I like the initial idea of it.
The name is cool and pretty original...I can always appreciate it when a map title has relation to the map's theme. It also has the benefit of being almost at the top of a lot of lists, if it were to ever be released seperately.
Although, has anyone tried releasing something that starts with 0? Releases that start with 1 currently sit at the top of Quaddicted by default. Don't worry, I won't keep this level of intricacy for the whole map. In fact, I was already planning on making this starting tunnel lead into a more solid room. I just wanted an opener with a bit of a wow factor.
Glad you like the name. So it's settled, then. I initially found it funny but it's growing on me beyond that. It can be viewed as a cry of panic or pain, plus the original meaning is aptly fitting to the architecture I want to build. Funny thing is, I stumbled upon it completely by accident. I've just remade the main arena. Hope it looks better.
Screenshots: http://imgur.com/6Fqxmao http://imgur.com/v50gh5n Nice screen, lots of detail going on in there.
2 things: The rivets texture looks a bit skewed maybe due to texture scale increase? This looks worse on the slopes sections up above. If that center blue section is meant to be a pool of water, then consider lowering it by 8 units to give it a bit of a lip. This make it appear more realistic rather than directly aligned with the floor. Keep going! Yeah, what Bloughsburgh said. And maybe add a border to the pool. Also, you could try to make the vertical girders protrude more from the wall with the Christ, like they do from the other walls.
That looks pretty decent, but my only complaint so far is that the room looks a bit too bright. I'd suggest toning down the brightness and it will look much better.
The water texture just sitting on the floor looks a bit strange to me. You may want to make it more of a fountain with a perimeter.
http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/placesinthesun/photos/today/places_fountain.jpg Your lighting is pretty bright and flat as others have said. Windows in Quake are usually set into the walls like this: http://pirat.snotboble.net/quake/pics/hip2m65.jpg There are a lot of great touches too - keep going - you are well on your way to a good looking map. Hail hail the gang's all here!
What if you could pick any enemy from Quake ever for your map? What if there was a mod that provided every feature under the sun? What if there was a mod that said the mapper is always right? Many have created awesome content in numerous mods. AD is the closest to combining the most goodness in one package...and still...sometimes you just want a gug to beat up some poor crossbow knights. Sometimes you want a scragmother alongside mummies. Sometimes you want a vermis with lost souls. What if...? Now, if only I can get permission from all the mod authors to upload this someday. (Please note that content shown in picture above is actually coded and fully functional except where certain bosses are only visible when angered in which place I have used a misc_model to show them as non-angered.) I don't know about everything... Where's my X-Men total conversion monsters??????? or weird 1997 porn mod reskins?
/s What if you could pick any enemy from Quake ever for your map?
What if there was a mod that provided every feature under the sun? I've been wishing for something like that. I don't think you need permission for AD content but good luck for Quoth content. Sock had to basically harass the Quoth team for months and was only able to get permission granted for some monster models, for which he had to rebuild the code from scratch. The beauty of including everyone and their mother is that the mapper gets to decide which are "the shit ones", since this is highly subjective.
Just what I was thinking. If only there was a recent, highly polished mod which also did this but included just the good ones. Hmmmm.....
Said recent highly polished mod was used as the basis for including new content and the older enemies now had AD features?
Perhaps it would have been better to go rogue with this one and anonymously release without permission. Chances are that's the only way it'd see the light of day. Which is a shame, since doing that would probably piss a lot of people off at the same time you made quite a few happy.
Oh well, too late now! With all of the cool powerups from Quoth and AD?
Locked and Loaded! You mean like Ken's map there.
You see, Quake is so versatile that anything can be made in it. I'm of the opinion that the mapper is responsible for the new and different. The mod is there so that the mapper's vision isn't hindered. AD did this the best, I only want to continue to improve and build on what has gone before, to continue what has been started. everything... mmm... i don't know about that...
part of the appeal of AD is high quality. not quantity. but... there are some things that i like, in any case: a) seven SMC and improved quake 1.5 style of monster AI only in nightmare skill. a real nightmare to win. i check those two mods a few weeks before the release of ad1.5 and i like most of the AI features in the old monster. and nails that bounce! awesome. the only bad things is that it can break the gampeplay in some maps, and make others very very hard. b) extend the particle system. optionally, it may involve too much heavy processing. examples: blood, when you hit a wall with a shotgun, lava, slime, explosions. the idea is: dots with different sizes and colors, instead of dots with same size and color. there are other things. but they're very hard to implement. moving liquids. changing gravity (prey 2006). ...at least the Uber-scrag from Travail would've made it into that group shot. Lun's enforcers are pretty cool too IMHO. Mind you, if I ever fire up an editor again, I'll be using AD for sure.
Looks ace biscuits but I think the phong shading is making the lighting look too flat where the columnar uprights meet the flat parts of the wall above the arches.
Yeah, it's nice and possibly a slight Sen's Fortress vibe. But I must admit I got a bit of a Honey/Sockstyle fatigue over the last couple of months.
Looking good, not sure I agree with Kinn though - assuming I'm talking about the same place, I don't think phong is really making a difference. I think it looks fine, but if the goal was to spruce it up I'd go for a bit more brush detail (perhaps an insert or something sticking out slightly. Just to break up the texture a bit.
But personally I don't think it's necessary to do anything like that, I think it looks fine
Yes it's a minor quibble at best - a quiblet, if you will. To put it in perspective, a quiblet (in Standard Pedantry Units) is roughly equivalent to about two-thirds of a nitpick. Sock Has Spoken, No uber mod for you. Oh well. GO MAP WITH AD!
I did not say no to your uber mod!?! I said - Please stop patching AD, create your own mod and use the devkit! This means creating your own uber mod in your own "uber" directory! I did clearly stated this fact in the readme file Line 34 -Do not use the AD (Arcane Dimension) name for your own mod Are you sure you got the Drake monsters in that screenshot? :P I'm planning on calling it the Keep mod anyway. Because you keep what you kill (and kill with).
In that case sure. And yes it is only a start. I haven't got quite everything just yet. All must be subsumed into the continuum. The collector's Keep must be filled. Any mod differences must be accounted for and easily accessible by the mapper. For instance, the zombie has umpteen different abilities that have to be included such as crucifix dismounting, laying, necrosprinting, etc. Better to do something like an easily accessible (and compilable) bestiary like Realm667 has for Doom like suggested some time (years?) ago - where people can create their own collection of enemies from a database to include with their map.
I can see how someone who only wants to add a few new enemies would want to be able to add just those new features to minimize map download size.
However, devkits aim to provide one dowlnoad for the kit. Then maps don't need to include their own mod in the downliad at all. People download the kit/mod. Then download maps for it. I may do Preach's idea of making the Keep mod inside the base ID1 directory where the only requirement is for people to add pak0 and pak1. This way any maps that want to add something not included in the base devkit can have an extended mod with their features. If only there was an engine that had support for multiple progs.dat where any added progs were simply to include extra functions.
FTE_MULTIPROGS... Its basically FTE's oldest extension :)
that said, you generally have to tread very carefully around the base progs because very few mods are clean enough/designed for it, which makes simple things like eg changing the obituary (when some new monster kills you) really painful. Its also kinda too much of a pain to set up on a per-map basis, but meh... And yeah, its still fte only, and not enough people around here are hip enough to use it. Reading thru recent discusion in the AD thread has me thinking I should just stick to the tried and true method of putting it all together in one package as a standard mod. Full multiengine support (though QSS is recommended), no muss, no fuss, best support for the mapper.
Obituary should rely on a specific Systems. Better systems allow for flexibility and the best power for the mapper. That is why I use AD as a base for any added content. All the enemies you see above use AD code structure. I really should create my own dev thread rather than clutter up the screenshots thread. :) I had some free time the afternoon and, once again, found myself admiring Doom3's art. I loaded up some assets in darkplaces as I've never experimented with anything other than diffuse layers.
I also generated some normal maps for my 2D pixel art using nvidia's texture tools for photoshop. The results were pretty bad, though I didn't have high expectations. Using higher rez assets yielded some pretty good results but the art was of organic stuff (stone, wood, etc) and the plasticy look of the normal maps is pretty lame. It really takes a bit of fiddling to get it to look good. On that note, it occurs to me that the design of Doom3 is perfect for showing off the tech it used. It seems all these nifty shaders and texture maps work best with hard surfaces and dramatic lighting. Doom3 texture set is really easy to map with as well. That's some good designing! My player scale is different though. Mine being 128u and Quakeguy is less then half that, IIRC. Also his eyes are in his chest, making him feel even shorter.
Does anyone here know of a tool that will invert the z of existing normal maps? If you notice in the video, they're inverted (shadow where light should be and vice versa). turns out each image channel (RGB/XYZ) is actually grayscale, making it simple as pie to invert. Neat!
trying out bump/specular maps on low res assets. i'm happy with the bioshock inspired water, looks good for a first draft. the splash/puddle are placeholders. there are specular map on the blood and both bump and spec on the metal trim of the chest.
i played with giving everything a specular map but most surfaces had to be toned down so much that they may as well not have one. i think having select glossy surfaces, namely liquids, is a nice touch though. they stand out against the otherwise matte world without having to be overdone. i think it's pretty neat too. the hard part is figuring out an aesthetic that isn't bricks or tech panels :/ still looking for that "eureka!" moment...
@khreathor - custom stuff currently running in quake/darkplaces.
@Barnak - Not that I know of. I'm not associated with the QS team, I don't even program :P Water sheet looks awesome, I wish we had something that good looking for waterfalls in Quake, to complement DP Pretty Water.
I have been working on and off on a map for AD since the middle of October. I originally planned to release it by the end of the year but RetroJam 6 got in the way (and totally fine with that!)
In order to keep the mojo going, here is a random WIP shot from the map. It is entitled Ruiner (ad_ruiner) I really have no idea on the release date, but I hope to get beta testing going soonish! http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/ruiner.jpg *Taken from not my desktop at home so the resolution is lower but meh!* this is the last one for a while, i promise. waterfall, now with refraction. and something that's been on my to-do list for a long time, dp_water. i prefer this over my previous water test.
I wish we had something that good looking for waterfalls in Quake, to complement DP Pretty Water. well, you can. this is basically quake in darkplaces. if you or someone else wants to use it for quake i'll upload the source files for the tests i've shown. i recommend making your own, though, as you'll probably get better results. these assets were made hastily for the sole purpose of getting it working. the waterfall is just noise with a directional blur and some squiggly lines to break up the uniformity. the normal map used for the dp_water was generated from an image created with the "render clouds" filter in photoshop. technical question, probably for the engine folks you may have noticed the bright seam along the edges of the dp_water caused by the reflection distortion revealing reflections that should be obscured by geometry. this is just plain awful with fog and/or skyboxes. can anyone point me in the direction of a reasonable "fix"? I have some pretty hacky ideas map-side, but they're just a band-aid. another strange thing, that's not something that needs "fixed", but worth noting. when reducing r_water_resolutionmultiplier value, you have to increase the offset of decals else their reflection will z-fight. you could try stretching the water texture a few units out on each side. I've used this cheap method to hide texture seams in other engines. Unsure if it will work here as shaders are involved but worth a thought?
are you talking about the weird artifacts seen in this screenshot?
http://quakeone.com/~files/water_dm3_9NC.jpg The reflected image has weird cracks along the waterline? setting r_water_reflectdistort to 0 will solve the problem (aside from a hairline seam, which is made more obvious by linear texture filtering and AA) but at the cost of no reflection distortion.
I thought about using cubemaps instead of realtime reflections but AFAIK you can only have one cumbemap per level and you can't link specific cubemaps to specific water brushes. You would still need realtime entity reflections too... and light styles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgDPSnZPGMA
in this example, by knowing the depth of the water you can find the edges and alphablend the reflection/refraction distortion. this is similar to my janky map-side solution which is to use water "trim", i.e. water brushes without distortion to run along the edges of geometry. yeah, the only reliable solution is to compare the depth values from the refraction fbo to the water surface.
if you're trying to do nice sandy beaches, that distance in depth can also be used to determine how much surf to include (which is even better for obscuring any boundary issues). of course, that gets a bit fancy. the other option is to just copy the current framebuffer and use that as the refraction image, then any seams are much less obvious, but the refraction can still show parts that are not from the water areas. the only reliable solution is to compare the depth values from the refraction fbo to the water surface.
interesting. thanks for confirming that. I'll look more into this. I have a question, though: the other option is to just copy the current framebuffer and use that as the refraction image, then any seams are much less obvious, but the refraction can still show parts that are not from the water areas. could that be enlarged slightly so as not to reveal any unwanted areas? that might look pretty bad though. Maybe a parallel frame rendered at a slightly higher rez/aspect ratio so the scale and pixel density is the same but you have "extra" image on all sides preventing unwanted reflections. this is probably pretty resource heavy :/ using the current backbuffer as the refraction image is generally sufficient to hide the glitches that you're referring to thanks to them normally only being a few pixels anyway. the 'new' glitches appear from the viewmodel etc overlapping water, giving a sort of halo. Copying the backbuffer like that is actually more efficient than re-rendering half the scene, so if it wasn't for the viewmodel and opaque water vising this would probably be the preferred option.
another possibility is to try nudging the refraction image up by a few pixels, you might get some boundary clamping at the bottom of the screen (or you could extend the size of the refraction texture offscreen, assuming you're in to engine modifications), but it should help hide the cracks a little better. if you or someone else wants to use it for quake i'll upload the source files for the tests i've shown. i recommend making your own, though, as you'll probably get better results.
I wouldn't know what to do! If no-one else is up to the task, having the source files would be a first step towards learning the know-how. setting r_water_reflectdistort to 0 will solve the problem but at the cost of no reflection distortion. I talked about that with Seven once, his answer was not to set this cvar to 0 but instead to lower both this one and r_water_refractdistort. But... Found A Solution If you've really found a way to fix it without modifying the cvars, once you implement it in your game it would be super mega awesome if you'd be so kind as to update DP-water with your fix for all us quakers to enjoy. @spike - hrm, interesting ideas. it seems using depth values is the most correct way to do it.
@mugwump - here's the source. You'll probably have to tweak the shader for q1, or at least the texture paths. Looks at existing shaders created for q1, like pretty water, to get an idea. Here's the q3 shader manual for reference if you get stuck on something. update DP-water with your fix for all us quakers to enjoy. This is on the to-do list, but not the top, so it's a ways out. But, when it's done the source will be publicly available. Ok, I'm done spamming the fuck outta this thread for a while :P And some of the background designs look a bit bland in that E4 corridor sort of way. But it still looks well built and some of the ideas look very cool and promising - the floating rune things especially. Keep it going dude.
It's too early to give you an estimation since because it really depends on how much free time I have and right now it's not all that much :)
I'd say the map is about 30% completed. Two info_player_starts?
BTW, you know you can make albums in imgur, right? You don't have to post one link per screenshot. If you're using tyrutils-ericw compilers, you should check Surface lights. Might be useful in this case.
Surface lights.
Does this mean what I think it means? What I think is: compiler deciding light value (and color) automatically from the light textures without the need to add light entities. Surface lights are just a "Hack" (not to put a dampner on the awesome stuff ericw achieves) as far as I understand it. What happens is that you set up a light entity with a key that has the name of a texture in it, and at compile time that entity is duplicated repeatedly over all surfaces with that texture. It's the sort of thing you could do yourself, if you had the patience of a robot. It's pretty effective though with the caveat that if you wanted some of those textures to be lit and others not to be you'd have to have two of the same texture with different names in your map.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about how it works, it's been a while. In case I didn't make it clear, the light that's emitted depends on the values given to that original entity, so there's nothing picked out from a texture or anything like that. (For picking colours from a texture, I like to use shareX's screen colour picker, it can give you the numbers in a format that you can just paste into an entity.)
Yes, it just duplicates one light entity over faces with specified texture name. Saves time when you have to edit lots of duplicated lights.
you set up a light entity with a key that has the name of a texture in it, and at compile time that entity is duplicated repeatedly over all surfaces with that texture.
Wow, good to know, this is gonna save me heaps of time! One thing though: would it still allow lightstyles on specific lights, like a neon blinking while others don't? I tried surface lighting on lava but found it to be very erratic, I think because of how the surfaces are chopped up. Some lava looked fine, while in other places didn't seem to emit any light at all.
What it's really best at is light emitting textures that have an obvious source in the center. You save having to place many lights, and they are all consistent throughout the map for color, brightness, etc. I'm pretty sure light styles work, switching the light on and off definitely does. Targetnames are retained by every duplicated light.
If you want some of them to do one thing and others to do another, then you'll either have to do ugly things with your brushes/textures or handle the lights manually. As far as I know there's no way to edit the individual lights that get created, they're only added when you compile. (Maybe if you decompile your own map... but seriously?) "−surflight_dump" command line option for light.exe saves all of the generated lights to a file "mapname-surflights.map", so you can then paste the copies into your map and edit them individually.
http://imgur.com/a/p6jZt
From this screenshot you can see how i light my maps, hundreds or thousands of low emission lights that i tweek after i have vised my map, i move them change the values, and its difficult. How do the Pro's create lighting in maps? compile often. take your time and compare diff setups.
in the end you will get a feel for it. I am not a pro but try this out:
Place a point light near a light source texture with: light: 400 wait: 3 After that, test your map and you should notice that the light sources appear to be the source of light. Now add some fill lighting around dark sections of your map (Darkness and shadows are important so don't go crazy!) Light: 100 - 200 Delay: 5 *Keep in mind these are just numbers, you'd have to adjust and play around to get to where you want to be* That should give you a good start. There are many different advanced techniques and better ways to do things depending on the situation but try that out! Like MFX said, you'll just get a feel for it after testing things. Enlightning Techniques for the masses.
I found this Sock mail i think it is helpful for you: * Never place symmetrical light sources in a room * Never use global ambient light, learn to light maps properly * Place strong light source first before placing additive fill lights * If a room lacks strong shadows, tone down fill lights * Consider shadow area contrast when placing source lights * Understand the advanced features of wait/delay * Try to keep light/wait values consistent for light source types * Always sync light entities to actual light sources * Always Illuminate the primary path * Light Flicker (style 1) can be useful for focus in a room * Play with up lights for ceiling detail focus * Lights can use mangle/angle parameters for directional spotlights * Lights should always create interesting shadows * Place strong lights for large shadows, fill lights to soften the edges * Switchable lights are perfect for creating dynamic detail * Place identical light sources at the top and bottom of platforms so that when the platform is in both positions it looks right for the light source Got it? Good. I gather they have something to do with how far the light reaches and its intensity at the source, but I need to learn how they work.
Yes, I already had this pic, but it's not as clear regarding which param does what as Skacky's link. Plus, it doesn't showcase all scenarios. It's still a good immediate reference, though.
If there is a way to edit the first post in a thread, this kind of useful stuff should be "stickied" in the mapping help OP.
Yes, it could be better, but the top two rows were all I actually made it for.
Notice how the appearance changes with light constant and only delay changed. Then below that the delay is the same but light value is changed. It allowed me to see what those parameters did. I would actually urge mappers to build a similar map for themselves. Some things are more easily seen if viewed in game, such as just how ridiculously far one light can extend using delay 1. this is good stuff, i've been playing around with the "wait" value and it makes things alot simpler, i no longer place a million lights.
That light test game screenshot, is it using white textures? I want to create own and test different sized room etc.
About this fill lighting, it is not intended to come from "real" light sources (like lamps, flares, fire etc.) But doesn't it look weird if there is bright random ball shaped lights in every corner. How do you blend fill lights professional? Don't know is it possible to give certain areas minlights (well func_wall, maybe it is possible to give the other funcs too). Then again, what is good minlight value even, 25,50,75,100? Seems like this requires a lot or trying. But doesn't it look weird if there is bright random ball shaped lights in every corner.
That's not what "fill lights" are. Fill lights are low brightness and designed to lighten shadows, simulating ambient or bounce light. Before ericw implemented procedural bounce, they were used liberally. So it seems like answer is.. never use fill lights if possible? Never use minlight if possible. Minlight is ugly and flat. Fill lights are good. Although now with the bounce functionality, they might not need to be used so much, I haven't really tested the new bounce stuff out though. Newhouse,
Those are not textures in the screenshot. That is the actual lightmap. You switch it on and off in game using the console command r_lightmap as seen in the picture. You can also bind a key to toggle it on and off in your autoexec.cfg @Kinn
Thank you, so fill lights are okay.. I assume I need to start using them in a darker areas. I know they aren't as bright as main light if set to be weaker, what I tried to ask was "how to make it blend well together with main lights / be smooth) what delay is good for fill lights? @Rick Thank you. Really didn't notice that it was just the lightmap (I must be blind). It's not like there'd be any difference between lightmapped white textures and displaying the lightmap directly.
Maybe it's too late to complain, but where are the screenshots? This is becoming another mapping help thread.
http://i.imgur.com/uSLqXZD.jpg
playing around with lights, color blends, wait values shadows and highlights... It looks good just the way it is, just keep playing around with lights and it will turn out great*
(It's been a while)
Lighting has been an issue for me as I haven't really experimented at all. Having read https://shoresofnis.wordpress.com/guides/lighting-basics/ & https://spawnhost.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/quake-1-lighting/ I found I kinda get the basics but pages like the abovementioned http://quaketastic.com/files/LightTest.jpg and especially the images on http://ericwa.github.io/tyrutils-ericw/ are exactly the kind of things that I've been looking for to better understand what to do where. its a skybox from AD, i had a difficult time on thinking about the surroundings, its still a working progress, i was thinking about building structures in the background... we shall see...
Especially since this is evolving a bit as compilers add features like phong etc.
Also re: #14455 ericw that's a very cool feature. I've used surface lights a lot, being able to tweak them is going to be great moving forward. How is the lighting looking? These are going to be default lights, then depending on situation there will be lights from other sources too. But making sure that if I create darker places, there is still enough light to navigate without problems.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855MVpBU25EVHVvRzQ/view?usp=sharing Looks really good man, I admire the amount of pre-planning you do for your creations.
The light in the glass looks really nice. Everything else looks good too. Thank you! These are elements that should have that consistency, especially moving platforms. I don't want to make peoples life harder than what it already is. My retro jam 8 map was a mistake in that sense.
Thanks to dumptruck_ds for helping me with door lights. I'm planning using them for doors that has lights attached (larger doors). I want to give different doors different purpose when to use them in a scene. Larger doors are like the biggest goal (depending on the scene), and also has this wow light effect. Giving a little reward for the player in a mental state. Then every larger door also opens slower than smaller ones, but I really need to play with timing, since players don't want to wait too long (yeah, it is a big deal, just come on open already). Glowing window(s) is kind of.. focus point(s), where player immediately looks at, because it has the strongest contrast in brightness compared to other elements. Naitelveni since you're already nailing it, I would go further and dare more contrast. Backup your work and light up this lava, make it look hotter. You could try a little stronger and darker sky light as well. And I would choose a skybox that matches the color you chose for the sky light.
Newhouse, it looks great, but don't you think the doors should have light fixtures? Maybe the doorway could have a texture like this one you used on the open door. Sorry I'm still noob with these lighting techniques, what is light fixture? I just placed on back and front these delay 0 lights to high-light them a bit.. also I tried that surface lighting, I put on sides of doors surface light textures and they worked tbh. If light fixtures will look better, then I gladly would like to try them out.
Also that glowing window used surface lighting. A light fixture is a lamp, for example. What I mean is: your light is more believable if it looks like coming from a source. The surface lights you made are perfect: it's lamp textures "emitting" those lights. That metal plate full of little spots make perfect sense. But when I look at the doorways, where is this light coming from?
I wanted to do a lighting thread for a while now, I have an idea for it but I'll have time in a month or so.
Yes, indeed I didn't use this door light logic yet in that scene. But basically I will turn on lights when door opens. It will not be as pretty as in modern sci-fi bases, but at least something. I have couple ideas how to make it look natural yet cool (we will see).
Also I added couple lights inside those slots where doors goes in when opened, I wanted them not to be pitch black.. maybe I just need to turn down values a bit. Of course for some doors I will add extra lamps in front and back. But it really depends on the scene I will set up. So finally, I just have this map almost complete. It has Daikatana textures and is Japanese-themed.
Here is the Quaketastic download link: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/hc1beta.bsp hc1beta screenshot at Quaketastic: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/hc1beta.png
Map is super bright and textures have fullbright pixels. You should fix this.
Map need some balancing for sure and exit portal :D Other than this it feels like Shadow Warrior :D I have a demo if you want. http://khreathor.xyz/tmp/demos/hc1beta.zip
btw, try removing fullbrights with this: http://quaketastic.com/files/tools/windows/wad_editors/defullbright-v0.1.zip Please redownload this demo zip. I'm an idiot and I packed bsp instead of a demo... but link is fixed now.
Please relight your map. It is very bright :(
And add some ammo and item_healt in the area around the "pyramid". Please some light rays now reveal teleport destination
@Bloughsburgh - thanks! I wasn't happy with my previous portal tests and I've been meaning to tinker with some particular shader stuff, so this was a good way to kill a few birds with one stone. Thanks for showing us how "modern" effects can blend nicely with a "retro" feel.
what you're doing shits all over modern effects on classic maps. see: https://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/screenshots.html Thanks man, looking forward to whatever you end up releasing with this engine / mod. This is where I'd like to see indie games go in the next few years. The kind of tasteful fidelity that is offered by modern effects, blended with the aesthetic of "crunchy pixel art" and low polygon counts.
If I ever made a game, that's how I'd make it look. also, that light inscriptions in the walls looks like the gates of moria (LOTR).
cool stuff with those light rays i want to see something like this too. but that looks really hard to do. http://www.psychicsuniverse.com/sites/default/files/styles/250x250/public/stained%20glass.jpg Well said! I agree completely.
This aesthetic is so appealing. The low-fidelity abstracts things to the point where your brain is forced to read between the lines a bit. When things are crystal clear, it's almost impossible to suspend disbelief... I've spent 20 or more years playing games, and like most of us, i know what particle effects and skyboxes look like, and can spot the polygons in the highest polycount models. But reduce the resolution and render fancy effects in software, and it's so much harder to figure out how the scene is created. I can't see behind the curtain so easily with this, and that subtle haze, that slight mystery makes the world so much more engaging. So great work so far! Really excited by this project. @khreathor - thanks!
@Shamblernaut - I appreciate that. Those shots are a good example of what I'm trying to avoid. Funny, it's the same engine, same code, same tech. It really isn't about the tools, but how you use them. @Pritchard - I agree, I'd like to see more stuff like this. @topher - The doors of Durin were certainly an inspiration. That and Wayne Barlowe's work is what I drew from when designing those. I was slightly annoyed when a Doom4 gameplay trailer released and revealed the keyed hell doors that look very similar. Oh, well. Regarding the light rays: it can be done. I did some stained glass tests a year or two ago and it looked pretty good. Rays are easier if they're right angles. In half-life ep.2 they did angled rays like the ones you linked and they looked pretty darn good. @starbuck - I think you hit the nail on the head. I liken the pixelated look to reading a book: a book gives you key information and a general outline but allows your imagination to do the rest. This makes the world so much more rich and interesting and gives the reader (or player) a certain authorship of the world they're in. It seems that the closer we get to the uncanny valley the less immersive and engaging the world becomes. What you described is a core concept of this project. "every brick is at least one brush" is the new "every brick is a brush"
No but seriously otp, what makes you think it's unplayable? Looks fine to me. with that cruel stories about metal caches and corpses that were moleshed with rasping flesh cutters and fired daggers and examples of foto's of cathedrals after making them first in quake scaring the hell out of me.
you are the bigger fuckface, can we agree?
Didn't want to twiddle your knobs that bad, your screenie looks rather nice. I once played around with those textures myself, maybe i send you my extended textures of stone1_7 one day ;) No beef here dude. I love you and you know it. Hey guys. I've been messing with my retrojam5 map lately, trying to make it into something more playable.
I still need to make the lighting better (removing leaks too) and tweak the encounters and ammunition. I also need to do some detail geometry in the "outside" area to cover the ugly rooms below. I need some opinions of the gameplay thusfar. I also need some suggestions with what to do with the "blue room" in terms of encounters and the starting area in terms of aesthetics. dropbox link to zip file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/108695968/rj5_shamblernaut.zip Thanks in advance :) -Snaut Hello everyone, newbie here.
I've almost finished my first map (www.quaketastic.com/files/libraryA_almostcomplete.zip) and wanted to share it. It uses knave textures and needs Quoth 2.2. It also has the custom sky (is it called like that?) from ericw "etacarinae". It's compiled with vis fast and light extra, tested on Fitzquake 0.85 and I believe all of the bugs are fixed. Suggestions, critics and opinions welcome. Sorry, here they are: http://imgur.com/a/agvPt
Looking at the shots, good structures and design, perhaps an over-reliance on book textures tho. Keep it going man!
Hi Redmisao, had a playthrough, and some suggestions followed by the bits I really liked.
First, try running your map with developer 1 to get the debugging messages. There are a few items which fell out of the level. There's also a Quoth specific message "X has spawnawake flag without teleport flag" which I should explain so that you won't worry about it. When you make a teleporting monster using the spawnflags, you lose the ability to trigger it to wake it up. The spawnawake flag fixes that, it really means "wake up when you are teleported". So it does nothing if the monster isn't teleported in. Does no harm either though. Where you have the nailgun right now, it's too easy to miss. Not having it makes the double shambler fight nasty, and eventually you run out of shells and need to find it to progress. If you can put something else down there as a reward for exploration (a bunch of early rockets?), and put the nailgun somewhere unavoidable, I think that would be best. I found two secrets, and one was the yellow armour. My trouble with that secret was that you can't discover it until right after you just picked up a fresh green armour, so that goes to waste too easily. Perhaps the green armour could be on a different floor in the area? In that same areas, on the ground floor where the 45 degree wall meets the floor, there's a gap between the floor tiles and the trim where you can see the skybox (If you can't find it I'll post a screenshot of where) Did you mean to have a trigger_drolejump for the first drole? I was seriously expecting one! He just stayed up on his sniper balcony, even when he was enraged. Maybe it could be skill setting controlled? While I didn't actually miss either of them, I worry that both the silver and gold doors are very well obscured by the rooms containing them. Is it possible to open up the obstructing geometry a bit so they are really obvious to a player exploring the map first time? They are the most important landmarks for progression so you can't afford anyone to not see them. Around about the point I was opening the silver key door, I found myself wishing I could turn health packs into shell crates. A few more of the latter and few less of the former! The ending was quite abrupt, I was admiring the view from your last screenshot and suddenly I was whipped away to the scoreboard. I thought that there was a nice 45 degree angle motif going through the map, the vore-filled room being the best example of that. Any place you can add a bit more of that to would be great. I thought this map did a good job of showing you spaces you'd like to go to before you can access them. You could see the second floor atrium of the lava-ogre-ambush room, before you could get there you saw through the grates into the vore-pillar room, then when you get to the former you unlock the latter. My favourite combat in the map had to be the arena below the gold key door. What I thought worked really well was the way that naturally you had less and less cover to work with, and less and less armour and ammo (but never too little) - kept it ramping up nicely. Cool stuff, look forward to the final version! Cool, I'd only suggest adding a trigger with a message saying something along the lines of "Enter the long room to complete the level". That way, people who like to go back at the end of a map to find the secrets they missed know that now's the time.
I have (since the release of hc1extndagain) been working on a new Quake map. It is called hc3, and it will use sock's tp-industrial.wad. Guaranteed quality assurance there will be curved walls and a unique aethestic.
Screenshot (Quaketastic): http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/hc3devlop.png Tony Hawk Pro Skater?
Holy shit. I never saw that texture wad used before so that's something to consider. Thanks for your assurance on quality curves...we all love them curves. I did play the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video games back in the 2000s, they were fun. The Warehouse level in the first 1999 installment bears similarities to this custom one for Quake (hc3). For example, the industrial light fixtures of the room shown in the hc3devlop screenshot here look close to the metal columns from the walls of Warehouse.
Looks great Sock! As you know I particularly love maps which feature both the inside and outside of a large medieval structure. I'm hoping in a couple of months I'll be able to sink a lot more time into Quake and catch up on all the amazing maps I've been missing out on (haven't played AD or RRP yet, and those are just the start).
haven't played AD or RRP yet, and those are just the start
Wow, that is a crazy amount of new content to play, especially if you love hunting for secrets. It should also including the countless jam events that have happened since as well, as there are plenty of new mappers and styles to check out. @Shambler, sorry that map was rubbish so I deleted it! I've made enough Quake content, don't need to release anymore! :P I have to lit up main areas well then, the town center itself is going to be a bit stylished and dark, but then again I will set up areas where actual fights are going to be.
I took the balrog from the Ring trilogy and converted it for quake.
I'm just such a bad skinpainter, and I thought to use the lavaball for its faceless void. I was searching for a way to transpose it to a statue, like in the hipnotic mod.
After changing the pauze code of the hellknight and adding a grey skin, the model didn't appear in game. It looks as if the code is only awarded to the knight and hellknight. Now I end up with a weird model I'm not sure the animated skin was possible. I started this as a speed map, but then thought that I should actually finish this. So far I have play tested it with my friend, but I would like to know what you guys think about it.
It is on beta state, starting path about 50% percent done. http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/newhouse_runic1_beta1.zip I need to add music to the next beta then, what would be a good track for these runic/maya type maps?
I played your map. Everything works well. My crittics :
1. Map too small. Not long enough. Need more exploration and discoveries. 2. Not enough geometrical details and architecture. The map feels too retro old-school to my taste. 3. Ambiance/atmosphere is weak. 4. I don't like the bones piles. They look fake. Thank you for your feedback. It is indeed made to feel like old maps without too much details.
1. It is second half of the start path. It is first beta, like I mentioned. I wanted to see is the beginning working before I start extending it more. 2. I can always add there more, but it has to follow some rules how I made these areas. It has to feel retro as much as possible. 3. I need to select good ambient track, adding possible ambient sounds, maybe considering using fog. For lighting I purely used delay 0 mostly, in couple parts I added delay 5 but I tried to prefer vanilla quake lighting as much as possible. I'm not experienced with that lighting style yet. 4. Bones indeed looks a bit fake, but personally I don't think it should look too real, always I could shape it differently. Did you accidentally make a skin group?
There's a functionality in the Quake engine to continuously animate the model texture. Much like the frame groups work, except with skins. I meant by beta actually short alpha. I haven't been using these terms that much. Sorry I confused them.
Nice work, looks like an E3 map with some unique details. I especially like the broken walls with the bones, but I have to agree that the texture looks odd used to stop up the doorways near the beginning. I would at least put a little more work into the shape of those blocks.
Gameplay seems fine, hard to judge based on the beginning of a map though. The traps I could go either way on, though I like how you used the crumbling pathway over the lava to signal to the player what would happen when they pushed the buttons. All I'll add is that I hope you expand the map vertically as well as horizontally! id1 may not be filled with towering monstrosities but they worked with the z-axis for sure. Demo: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/nh_runic1_beta1_lp.dem Thank you*
Yeah, I just quickly sealed map for "alpha" testing, those bone walls aren't going to be there, instead there will be other passage ways (possible non-lineary) and surely more stuff in layers in z-axis too. Thanks for the demo as well! I think this iteration of hc3 is complete now. The full version will be available soon.
Quaketastic download link: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/hc3test.bsp I didn't play the map, just noclipped around.
Pleased to see it's sealed for a change! Don't really like the textures, but nevermind that. Picking up on my earlier Tony Hawk joke: much like a skate park is a playground for skaters, this map seems like a playground where you try different styles and architecture, which is good. Some interesting bits like the curved walls and the girders. Although the latter are used somewhat excessively in certain areas, you might want to break it up with other stuff for more varied visuals. The lava texture is broken, you can see the tiles. Just use the standard Quake one, or better yet, something more in line with the (base-ish) setting like slime or water. I think you should primarily focus on improving two things here: - Lighting. It's very bright/flat and makes the textures look even more washed-out than they already do after the conversion. There are many (possibly too many) light sources next to each other -> experiment with lower light values or modify their attenuation (by adding "wait" key >1, provided more recent compilers are used; e.g. "wait" "2" halfs their range). Try to create contrast. Also, be sure to run light.exe with -extra or even -extra4, at least when doing the final compile, in order to get smoother shadows. Currently, in some areas there are shadows with ugly jagged edges. -Random monster setups. Like in your previous levels, there are rooms where you just threw in a random bunch of monsters and items, simply to fill the space it seems. While this can work in certain circumstances, more often than not it feels weird and doesn't play into a map's atmosphere. Try to create interesting encounters. For example, don't let the monsters appear all at once (standing around next to each other waiting for the player) rather than making them appear in waves, killing the ones in the lower part of the room makes some more rise up from a pit in the upper half, and when those are dead, the vore appears. Or something along those lines -> variation. http://imgur.com/a/tkRX5
I'm a total lightweight, by the way. It's easy to get me off-balance. If the screenshots in the album look really fucking dark, click on them to make them bigger. Even after the expanded view is shrunk back down they look a lot better. If the screenshots in the album look really fucking dark, click on them to make them bigger. Even after the expanded view is shrunk back down they look a lot better.
Weird, that actually works. Looks promising, good theme and the rocks in the last shot are real nice. Looks good but I really think you need to use some brighter lights. I'm not saying make everything brighter but use spotlights or something.
I see you expanded on the rock stuff since the alpha :)
I agree with Fifth and it was an issue when I ran through the prototype, the source lights need to be more obvious...not brighter but more intensity. Otherwise this is shaping up really nicely! Screenshot:
http://imgur.com/a/Aao5Z Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/26rl2cg4bnlr9xu/LuLz.zip Buildtime: 1h 30min vistime: 60 sec monster count: about 150 Type: ID1 map Influenced by Hexcalk I didnt want to post this as news because this map is really stupid and ugly, but its fun. There is a demo in the folder if you are having difficulty with the map. I've been working on a map for AD
here are some screenshots: http://imgur.com/gLoUo3w http://imgur.com/JeRpnmx http://imgur.com/AT7AOtY http://imgur.com/UtbjGZ5 That is shaping up great. The tech-castle combo is still a bit weird but the designs look very impressive. Nice one.
Screenshot:
http://imgur.com/a/yjPPM Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/u8y08daj9vudp22/LuLz2.zip Whos got the record for map releases within 24h? Sock zero naitelveni two! ;-) Another trollish map, with about 200 enemies. about 5 minutes worth of gameplay with filthy quad runs that will make you drown in gibs. buildtime: about 6 hours Type: ID1 vistime: 2 minutes i didnt get any crashes, what is stack overflow?
I'd like to see some demos people playing these crazy maps. http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/lulz2_lp3.dem
Gave it a few more runs. That particular error hasn't repeated itself, but I got other bugs while playing it. Note the fiend that glitches out in the demo! I think you may be running against some engine limits or something. Anyway, I actually unironically like this map, and mean to record a full demo (can't promise 100% kills). It reminds me of Doom II slaughtermaps in a way. Savescumming your way through it would be a grind, but to play it through without saving you have to really think about the best route to take, the most efficient use of available powerups, etc. The demo I uploaded was the best of 6 runs, and my main problem was that I was hoarding rockets and should have used the quads on the lower level shamblers. If you make more of these you should release them as a pack. No weird glitches. Missed one kill somehow. Fun stuff!
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/lulz2_lp4.zip http://hrimfaxi.dk/Basepics/sm73DLC.html
It started with a speedmap in 2005 so 12 years old! Maybe it will be done in 6 to 7 years. Maybe! i unironically liked lulz1, more than lulz2
a quake slaughteramp! and it's fun! now i want to make one too It is fitting that LuLz expresses the feelings I have for Peripheral Fundament (considering it's a joke map series "influenced by Hexcalk"). When I look back into hc0, I laugh at how insane and awful it is, which is what LuLz is trying to recapture. I've moved on to distancing myself away from problems in my Quake maps.
Your maps are great, by the way. I like HC0 because it was fast, short and brutal.
and thats where LuLz series gets its inspiration from. ofc HC0 was unpolished but i dont really mind it. HC3 had a much better level of polish and consistency in style. Where's LuLz 3? I enjoyed your LuLz maps positively, but you said you would release LuLz 3 one day after LuLz 2. Delays?
Screenshot:
http://imgur.com/a/CKT8u Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/cl1kda6w453d2w6/LuLz3.zip Buildtime: on and off 3 days maybe real work done is 7-10h vistime: 10 minutes monster count: 300+ Type: ID1 map background story: It could be said that the subject is contextualised into a postdialectic capitalist theory that includes consciousness as a paradox. If cultural nationalism holds, we have to choose between postdialectic rationalism and premodernist dialectic theory. P.s. Mapping in 2k17, shoutout to baker! LOLMAO THIS IS PURE QUAKE MADNESS, TEXAN STYLE !
What a wind of fresh air (and pure monster ass smell) ! You should also put some love on the geometry itself. Better, modern style, architecture (sock style ?). Awesome geometry with a pile of 2000 monsters could be incredible,with full quad on and ligthning gun ! (was awesome in the zombie cave!) thanks dude! :D
I did put alot more effort into the geometry in this map, i should do a polished map with 300 monsters because the gameplay is alot of fun. Heya, cross-posting this here from quaddicted. This is my first "complete" map meaning some challenge and an exit portal. It's really short, just a couple of fights and three weapons.
http://i.imgur.com/TWVNbzt.png http://i.imgur.com/OWHXa1e.png I realize my understanding of texturing is pretty off, still learning what they all mean out of context. Block.bsp: https://www.dropbox.com/s/axu3dw8way541yg/block.bsp?dl=0 ...better than anything hexcalk will ever achieve. So that's something. Themes and designs look promising in both shots, keep at it man!
Well, I've had a mixed reception overall with my maps, but "block.bsp" looks beyond what I could achieve so far.
I'm sure that anyone who's tried to use it before will agree that the idbase texture set is an utter pain to use accurately. id themselves didn't set a superb standard at first.
However, the two step program is 1. Admit you have a problem 2. Sort it out And you're half way there! The bit that sticks out to me in that second shot is the big platform in the lower right, the textures are getting completely cut off around the edge. The thing that will make your life a lot simpler is having an appropriate texture in mind before you build a brush, and set your grid to multiples of the texture size. That doesn't help sort out existing problems though... So what you need to be prepared to do is make modifications to the geometry in order to get the textures right. Try and find a more suitable floor texture. I suspect that no single texture will perfectly fit that space, in which case you may need to carve up the brush into more pieces. If you carved the inside rectangle where the texture tiles nicely into a separate brush, you could probably texture the leftover edges with a trim texture like tech04_3. Im taking a small break from mapping my tech castle, i want to get some distance so i have fresh eyes to see it with.
Now im working on a ID1 map. Screenshots http://imgur.com/a/pUjhN You are a mapping machine lately! This all looks really awesome man! Keep that up will ya please.
I love those yellow light columns and the wood and iron trim you have there. Looking good. I want to jump in there now!
shipshot1
shipshot2_flat shipshot3 Quaketastic seems to to have a hickup because of some outdated certificates and shit. IDC. I'm not sure how to put it in my map atm, but only as misc_model or sth. We'll see, right?
i know of the waypoints (path_corners) to change direction and movement. I need to talk to eric. But my ship has interiour to move in. So...
I plan to to have the player inside of it, which restricts me to linear movemovent, as in a func_train/door. Or i do some magic with moving skip func_walls. IDK yet. The animation in tfuma was pretty easy to setup, just a bit of trial and error to get the right angles on the waypoints. The two func_rotate_trains (one for the solid and one for the glass parts) can share the same set of waypoints which is nice.
If the player can be inside while it's moving, I guess you could try func_movewall's (I've never tried them, not sure if they work with func_rotate_train?), or just make it a linear func_train.. I thought it just was someone calling out Shambler for being a massive jong. Rightfully so, one might add.
Thanks to Preach's help with the blood splattering code, I'm happy to announce my first mod release.
It's called NewHell, and it's a single player mod with the goal in mind to make single player vanilla Quake gameplay more interesting. http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/mods/newhell.zip This is a small, 3mb download. It features basically tons of blood/gore improvements, along with additional weapon/monster animations. I hope you don't mind that I've uploaded it to Quaketastic. If this is a problem please let me know. Thank you. Pretty neat, I found myself getting tired of the shell sound pretty quickly though. Also noticed that I could fire the nailgun while drawing it. Certainly interesting playing through a few levels with more "doom-like" guns.
I had to use 999 protocol because I quickly got visedicts > 512.
While testing on my map, when I shot the dog I got error: ADD_F 1039(?) 1027(mid_bouyancy) 1.2 1040(?) gyro_physics.qc : Gyro_RunPhysics_Bouyancy gyro_physics.qc : Gyro_RunPhysics gyro_main.qc : Gyro_R The error isn't regular: I killed about 20 dogs before get it. Hope this will help you to find bugs and glitches. If you had to kill a certain amount before getting it, I wonder if it is an overflow error.
Is your map available for me to test on quakespasm? Not my cup of tea (particularly not a fan of the changes to the weapons) but I appreciate the work you put into this.
In case you're interested: Tested it briefly on some id1 maps (using Quakespasm 0.92.0 on Linux), and encountered missing textures on the following models: The hurt/dead Ogre The hurt/dead Rotfish The gibbed heads of the Enforcer, Death Knight, Rottweiler, Fiend, Vore and Shambler -- basically all monsters except Zombies and Grunts (and Rotfish and Spawns, obviously, since they have no head models). Examples of what I mean: Fiend and Death Knight heads Dead Ogre When I activate noclipping, my forward key (mapped to "w") is stuck until I press jump (spacebar); then I can move around normally. Not an issue during normal play, but odd and somewhat annoying nonetheless. Also, any reason why you included a config.cgf in the download? It messed up my video settings. Most of my other settings were the same as in the config file anyway -- but they could have been different, which would have made it even more annoying. I mean, it's not hard for me just to delete it, but it seems like a good way to scare off potential players of your mod (e.g. people who don't know what a config file is or does, and will just see their settings changed and decide not to bother anymore with the mod). Several other errors:
- The weapon models don't show on Winquake. Not that it would be very playable anyway due to excessive packet overflow. - The weapons generate "NAN velocity on edict #, muzz, progs/s_explod.spr" warnings on every shot. - When switching weapons, there are "No such frame 13 ('shot1', 13 frames)" warnings. - Most of the head gib models reference the wrong skin number as total_newbie says. The default skin is 0, not 1. I need to obviously do testing on more engines. Quakespasm and Fitzquake seem to be the most popular.
Right now, I'm using Darkplaces (I know I know) which seems to be a very forgiving engine as it didn't list any of the errors that are mentioned in your comments. So not ideal for bug testing. What I've worked on since the initial release is cutting the amount of blood splats, and adding more splats to the model itself. This should help eliminate a lot of the packet overflow errors. I was aware of the missing skins on Quakespasm, but kind of at a loss on how to fix it. I'm not a very good coder. I've known releasing a mod with a cfg is a big no-no, I just forgot to delete the automatically generated one. So yeah, like I said, I will definitely need to test on other engines. Hello all, been a while. I've been going through old files and found the bits of my Quake projects that survived my harddrive crash years ago (which stopped me mapping because I had most of an episode blocked out and playable and lost 90% of it because backups are for sensible people).
http://i.imgur.com/8BODDCt.png http://i.imgur.com/uHYsQV3.png http://i.imgur.com/aK9o69N.png http://i.imgur.com/xpGuzmh.png http://i.imgur.com/qW5cHOd.png http://i.imgur.com/xUfzoNx.png http://i.imgur.com/0hNvIIH.png http://i.imgur.com/Iakz4nj.png Gameplay is a little different from normal Quake. Bits of it are a little Half-Life inspired with scripted silliness and a linear layout, and it's got a fair number of arena fights too. It is playable from start to finish, if you want to try it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fdpeclsqdowij7m/ZqfLostColony.zip?dl=0 Start on zqfarrivalintro Monsters: 247/291/490 Secrets: 11 Notes: > Requires Quoth 2 and limit removing engine blah blah blah > There's a bit early on where some geometry doesn't have any collision for some reason. You need to jump/noclip onto a ladder. > Lighting is awful, sorry. Feel free to throw the lit file in a bin and set it on fire. > Hard difficult is brutal and assumes you know Quoth monsters already. Easy/medium introduces them more slowly, and gates you less aggressively. > Map will auto save to 'zqfcheckpoint'. Probably something to ditch. > It's full of little filler moments where two monsters attack you when a door opens. Somehow I didn't notice just how many times it does that. > Negke, you've played this version already so feel free to ignore it :p Now I'm going to see if I can get Worldcraft working again. Do I remember correctly that the map source was lost? Crazy idea if it's the case: plug the missing bits and polish the barren/unfinished parts by (ab)using Quoth's external brush models feature; it works with -onlyents.
Do any map editors support the viewing of
Thankfully I have the source for the two maps I've shared here. It's right at the vertex limit and I was having difficult with external brush models (hense the no collision bug early on) but if bsp2 is a thing now that shouldn't be a problem and gives me a lot more freedom to rebuild some dodgy parts. If anyone feels like giving me a hand with the lighting sometime that would be cool.
Quark can open BSP29 and you can copy some stuff from it into a fresh
Like Stupid QuArK features.. (runs for cover...) https://imgur.com/gallery/AQkfi
It's obviously unlit. The greatest achievement is that I finally found some textures I feel comfortable with. And I wasted my life constructing a circular staircase. It could take months until I release it. Looking good brassbite! Lots of fun having ogres bounce grenades down a staircase like that! ;)
Looks like you'd constantly bump your head when running down the stairs. Be sure to leave enough vertical space for players and monsters to move.
If a Shambler doesn't fit then neither will an Ogre or a Fiend, they share the same bounding box size.
There are two bounding box sizes in Quake: 32*32*64 and 64*64*96 - there needs to be enough room for the whole box to fit plus a couple of units leeway. So in order for a monster to be able to walk the stairs, there must be enough room above and in front of it. To examplify, make a brush of the same size and try to move it down the stairs without it touching or intersecting anything.
Try r_showbboxes 1 to get an idea how it looks in game. Giftmacher in da house:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8Wql_dXkAAZOFT.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8WqqdJXgAAT04t.jpg Hi, this is my first map, looking for at least 1 person to look for bugs before an "official" release. The map is Id1 with a skybox, the readme has instructions, a story and more.
Map Beta file: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/redfield1_beta.zip Some screenies: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/redfieldscreen001.jpg http://www.quaketastic.com/files/redfieldscreen002.jpg http://www.quaketastic.com/files/redfiedlscreen003.jpg http://www.quaketastic.com/files/redfieldscreen004.jpg http://www.quaketastic.com/files/redfieldscreen005.jpg Thank you everyone, I look forward to feedback anyone can give. My email is in the readme for bug reporting. Congrats on almost getting ready for a release!
Nighttime terracotta with some lava is a nice mix! Thank you all for the comments and especially the demo Daz. I'll be making whatever changes I can according to feedback before I post the map up officially.
Thanks again! Before releasing, if you're using ericw's light compiler, won't you try to apply some Phong shading in these columns? Check this out: https://ericwa.github.io/tyrutils-ericw/
Anyways, I love when people dare on brushwork. Looking forward to play! I made some statues as details/fillers. The sphinx-like ones are cute; as for the other ones, however, they kind of look like penguins or pidgeons wearing ties?! Maybe if they carried crates on their heads....
...it turns out that they worshipped penguins. Who would've thought it?
I made a Quake Team Fortress map using Trenchbroom. I thought I might add a SS.
http://imgur.com/OZEspcg It's hosted over at tastyspleen.net::MegaTF Classics (74.86.171.201:27502) Tip: make the top of the mountains a large rectangle, all back edges running in a straight line, in order to have only five sky brushes with smooth surfaces. Saves some polys.
Sorry SS = screenshot.
Your best bet on finding a TF game happens on Fridays. I made the sky that way so to give the towers the honor of being the tallest object in the map. The mountains are shorter so the sky had to be extended to accommodate the towers. Kinda makes them look bigger or maybe helps to focus the eye on them a bit more. I've been practicing some mapping.
screenshot I've noticed the seam, and the texture alignment hasn't been worked on yet. Also, I've raised the brightness a lot for this shot; in-game it's darker, which makes the grainyness less pronounced. Yes, but the cave's brushes aren't triangulated yet, so there's some vertex inaccuracies affecting the smoothing.
Also, so far I'm concluding that there's still a number of texture alignment tools that could be created to ease map development. Manually editing the texture coordinates for all brushes in the map takes an astronomical amount of time. World vs Face:
World causes stretching on angled surfaces but allows for perfect alignment of, for instance, brick grout across bevelled corners. Face allows for perfect representation of the texture on any angle of surface but makes alignment difficult. JACK/WC allow for Alt+RightClick to carry alignment across from selected face...tedious and still affected by... NPO2 divisible face distances cause textures to end in the middle where edges on textures fail to line up with edges of faces in many cases. The right-click in Jack doesn't really align the textures, it just copies the projection. This helps in some cases, but it's completely useless for wrapping a texture around a cube, for instance.
There really isn't any tool that properly wraps textures around brushes. To properly wrap textures without changing their projection, the rotation, scaling and scrolling offset must all work together to make the edges of textures with different projections match around a single axis in 3D space - of course, this doesn't apply to textures whose projection has a normal that matches the aforementioned 3D space axis. Such a tool would be a complex task to develop, but it's sorely needed. From the experience I'm having with mapping, proper texture alignment alone takes days to do manually. With a properly semi-automated tool, all textures in a whole map could be aligned in minutes. And another tool that needs to be developed is to automatically rotate a texture to match the angle of a user-specified edge in the brush. By the way, this should be implemented in the QuArK has a "wrap around" feature. Right-click a face, select "tag face". Then right click on an adjacent face, and choose "wrap texture around pillar" (or something similar). I think it does what you're describing.
TB has an alt+right-click shortcut which also copies the projection, but it's not wrapping around a shared edge between the selected face and target face. That could be useful. Hmm... that looks really useful! The "Fit texture Across tagged" tool seems to work exactly as I described, I may try it later.
But this sounds bad: Select tagged list [...]. This can be useful if you want to make a multi-selection of faces from different brushes, since [...] (if you have a face selected, to select one from another brush you have to select that brush, which looses your face selection). So, the FTAT feature in QuArK may be not helpful enough after all. All I want is a way to make textures smoothly wrap around cylinders in 220 format. Something that can re-align every face on a brush would be a godsend...
QuArK is unbearably slow and counter-intuitive. Using it for texture alignment won't make mapping easier.
align a texture the way you want it to tile across the cylinder, select that face in texture application mode and then alt+right click the next face along and it will align perfectly to it. Repeat the process as many times as needed. This works in Hammer and JACK.
In JACK/Hammer, select face adjacent to the edge, use Alt+RightClick on face you need aligned.
This: http://www.interlopers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20367 Trenchbroom users you are so screwed. You can follow the alt+rightclick with a leftalign, topalign etc. To get the texture positioned quickly after getting the angle right, though this isn't necessary if you already did this to the touching edge.
Thanks, that helps a lot.
It isn't perfect, because very often a texture needs to be scaled to properly do a full wraparound, but it already helps on a number of cases. A good implementation would be to select all faces that the texture should wrap around, and alt-right click on the selection. The tool would calculate the full distance that the texture should cover, and scale the texture to make it fit. I think my biggest wishlist items for texture work would be:
1. Click on the texture name when a face/brush is selected to find it in the viewer 2. A better way to wrap textures around complex geometry such as cylinders 3. Being able to completely hide textures with conflicting names that have been overridden I should probably be posting this in the TB thread... I posted some screenshots of this a while back. I set it aside due to work and real life. Hoping to jump back in very soon. Started in TB1 and will continue in TB2 RC4 as soon as possible. Work is slowing down for a few months - finally. Some screens.
http://imgur.com/a/YxGs8 Looking great! I like the use of blood as the liquid here.
I can definitely see e1m3 here! thats exactly what a vehicle like that should look like in the Quake universe. Spot on, great work!
func_train, the wheels don't rotate and when it "turns" on its path, it doesn't rotate at all.
seriously though that's some amazing work mfx, it's epic watching you continue to push the envelope. ...And Failed
The greater the number of assignments that are due in my course, the more progress I make on my map. Procrastinating is easier when you can tell yourself you're working. Telling a small story there.
Quake mapping can be finished at any time but your projects have a due date. Get em done! Can we go inside, even if it's stationary ?
Could be cool to get ammo and weapons from inside... And a vista where the player approaches it from a slightly distant and elevated position to be able to appreciate the whole thing, because from it looks really huge in game when being close.
my plan is to start from the vehicle, reaching a far out outpost which has gone silent after finding that evil stuff....
Notice mfx is still leaving us wondering what the inside looks like. Dirty rascal...now we must play it.
tire.map
check it out https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz_-bxPhC7gtY2RJZHBndDRNbzA you need to rotate it yourself. A Deadly Drainage Pit
Despite all the mapping I've been doing, I'm actually still (mostly) on top of my coursework. I think they call this a "work/work balance". Awesome man, keep sharing the progress...love seeing these!
And extra points for staying on top of your coursework...yeah buddy. Pritchard: Holy crap, that's jawdropping. Great texture choices.
At first I thought it was a corridor, though; didn't pay attention to the link name. mfx: Amazing work, that vehicle looks like something out of the Alien movies. First, here's how the vanilla slime looks in Retroquad's 8-bit color software renderer, with translucency and lighting enabled:
screenshot Now I've also implemented support for HD textures on liquids, including luma textures, mipmaps, and properly scaled turbulence: screenshot The slime's QRP HD texture in this screenshot was manually edited by me to make the luma texture more subtle, because by default all QRP lumas on liquids are too uniformly bright. Will Retroquad support bsp2, protocol 999, and enhanced limits?
Or is that too "modern" for Retro? BSP2 and enhanced limits would be nice.
Specific protocols from other engines will likely not happen, and I'll probably develop a custom protocol tailored to Retroquad's specific features. Also, hardware-accelerated engines will always be a better choice for multiplayer. The only part of the BSP renderer still missing HD texture support is the scrolling sky renderer. There's also a bunch of usability improvements and some other stuff to do in the texture code, and the texture format still needs some changes & additions. The palette management subsystem needs some big changes that will allow the implementation of a new color selection algorithm which should be more accurate in some cases, and also allow for colored lighting. Decal support?
Also I was thinking that the tech that you've got in retroquad would make for a great 8 bit paint. Not very many programs let you paint with a palette with opacity. Proper decals would take a lot of work to implement, and would slow down the renderer even more.
A more possible alternative would be to implement stainmaps similar to the ones in Darkplaces, but it's not in my plans yet. Hmm, I didn't think about using it for 8-bit painting before. Nice idea. The closest I had thought about was to create a modified version of the texture compiling algorithm as an alternative dithering method for quantizating standard 2D images (converting TGAs to PCX, etc.). It would be interesting to compare against usual 2D dithering methods such as Floyd-Steinberg. if you're still using a surface cache, you could try painting your decals into that. That should make them free other than for adding/removing them(or when dlights are around).
I believe this is the way halflife did them. (stainmaps suck) regarding 8-bit painting, increase the lightmap resolution and just megatexture the entire map! Retroquad's surface cache only contains light levels, not texture data, and because of this there's no way to paint a decal texture into them. Lighting & textures are combined in realtime, per-pixel.
Also, decals aren't strictly necessary to achieve a cohesive visual style - they're an addition, not an improvement per se. Part of my main focus is on making the engine easier to produce content for, not on raising the amount of content to work on. But it will always be possible to use sprite-based decals like the ones in Scourge of Armagon. that's a clever use of soft depth effect, i've usually only seen it for liquids/smoke.
question, does it look good in motion or does the parallax give it away? Mankrip I mean, will you be able to see that the sand is either floating over the floor or sunken beneath it, due to parallax?
Are here any worthy screenshots:
http://i.imgur.com/90sPB7K.png http://i.imgur.com/bW9vqW2.png http://i.imgur.com/cXuLMWp.png http://i.imgur.com/kHITt10.png http://i.imgur.com/CTVbjrE.png ? Looks very interesting. Unique geometry and feel to these. That rotunda in the first few screens reminds me of a roulette wheel.
That is some crazy central cylinder thing you got going there. I also like that sewer shot with an apparent gold key door. Nice work, keep us updated!
Yes, it looks a bit floating over. But if you look from an angle parallel to the floor, the sand will look fully opaque, because there won't be any surface near it from behind. The depth is calculated from the view plane.
I have an idea for properly multitextured surface blending, which would be way faster to render, but it's also too complicated to try at this moment. drow: It looks good, but you could use different texture themes for each side (medieval/metal/etc.), instead of changing the colors only.
Kres: Really bloody good. Water in Quake doesn't look good enough in pitch black areas, though. It may look better if you try to align your rivet textures in the floor grid in the first shot: they should follow the angle of the metal pieces that make up the shape (dodecagon?).
Other than that, it is looking good. I'd be more inclined to use a more basic texture to avoid filtering seams and sliced rivets. There's a metal texture that's the same background but without rivets that might work better. Or is that one I made myself?
I've got no time to finish this at the moment, but I'd really like some opinions:
download screenshots The floor on the exit to Shub-Niggurath's Pit is crap, I was doing an experiment that turned out bad and scrapped it. Also, the lava texture is wrong because there was a custom texture wad in the BSP compiler path. Two obvious things:
1. the painted-on doorway trim in shot two does not look good (and Shambler hates painted-on trim), and the trim itself doesn't fit the width of the brickwork 2. in shot four, the brickwork of the transom is wrong on the left - the last brick on the left should overlap the pier below it (as it does on the right) otherwise it has no bearing strength 2: I agree, but I didn't want to change the proportions of the geometry too much to fix that.
Those columns are connected to the iron bars of the ceiling, and the fireplaces are centered between both columns, so to fix that I'd have to move the fireplaces and change the relative proportions of the wooden areas of the ceiling. But I'll play around with the proportions to see which looks better: extending the transom, or shortening it. 1: The thing is, the design of the original doorway from the main hall to the episode 2 corridor is almost impossible to salvage: screenshot. It was likely supposed to represent a toroidal arch, but Quake's BSP format doesn't support the kind of texture projection that would be needed to perfectly align the texture on all edges of such a thing. So, I decided to reshape it using a mix of curves and square angles, keeping the textures continuous along the curves, and changing them along the square angled edges. With that in mind, I've also shaped it in a way that allowed most of the doorway to retain the original texture. I'm not sure what you mean by the trim not fitting the width of the brickwork, but its proportions are exactly the same of the original doorway. In the original, the tiles in the lower steps were also cut in half by the doorway. There's no way to fix that without making the tile alignment change across steps, and I don't have a better idea. There's a great challenge in trying to figure out what exactly some of the geometry in the original maps are supposed to represent. Trying to achieve a clear representation without deviating too much from the original design is a really interesting exercise. The area where I took the greatest liberty was the path to Shub-Niggurath's Pit. The original was just a bland underground corridor with the same texture everywhere, but I thought that turning it into a proper underground cave would be more fitting. I've added wooden beams to make the steps of the staircase more noticeable, used a darker texture in the inside of the cave to give it a heavier atmosphere, emphasizing its "hidden underground" nature, and made the shape of the cave start wide and short, and end thin and tall, to emphasize the transition from the realm of humans to the realm of an elder goddess. I've also raised the ceiling of the room with the portal to Shub-Niggurath's Pit to put it in pitch black darkness, thus matching the ceiling of Shub-Niggurath's room in the end map. I did not remember how bad the original texture alignments were until I looked again just now. Oh, my word, they're bad.
The bit about the texture not fitting the brickwork is that the texture is based on circles and the circle is offset on the column. It just grates the eye; neither the circle, nor the enclosed diamond shape is centred on the brickwork. I guess the brushes were created without reference to the texture that would be used, and then the textures applied later at the default alignments. Also, now I look at it again, it is a totally inappropriate texture for a doorway anyway. If I had decided to rebuild (not that I would) , then I would automatically correct those types of errors. ('error' is my choice of word as no builder worth his salt would choose to use an eighth of a brick with seven-eighths; they would use two four-eighths or one whole brick. Although Quake is a fantasy world, the architecture must still make sense.) Nevertheless, good luck with the rebuild. Although Quake is a fantasy world, the architecture must still make sense
No. Maybe it's more believable to some but not necessary at all and limiting to have to create "realistic" architecture. Think about void maps like HipDM1 or the space maps of Quake 3 Arena. Those really defy all logic but they are fun. I only play Q1SP.
When I say it needs to make sense, I mean that an ogre who can make a chainsaw capable of slicing your head clean off your shoulders, would not be so naïve as to not lay his bricks in proper, off-set, courses to ensure good bonding and load bearing strength ;) But I suspect that we may have to disagree on one point: I don't think that 'making sense' is necessarily the same as 'realistic'. The best maps (imo) have fantastical architecture that, nevertheless, makes sense i.e it won't all fall apart with the first grenade explosion. I see you've been reading "Better Caves & Crypts" magazine for those Orge bricklaying tips and tricks. Cheers!
Because I stumbled into this awesome conversation I would like to say the following:
In one of the levels I've been working on, and maybe this is just a form of narcicissm as my theoretical builders suck at modern (Quake) design techniques, I think the builders, even if they were Ogres, did such a good job building, that it is kind of a shame to kill them. Alas, that's what the level is there for. Maybe I'll try to incorporate a merciful "no kill" alternative gameplay where a Ring of Shadows is always available within proper timing, if you can find it based on hints. But I swear at least some of those Ogres really can do infrastructure right... I just watched the Daz stream of your Zerstorer Jam entry the other day. WTF was that level?
Amazing... that's what. I digress... I think we should refrain from culling the Ogre herd until we can be sure there will be enough for the species to survive. I've read at least one theory that those chainsaws were originally designed to cut bricks. Makes sense to me. Grenade launchers were originally "mortar" guns that spewed uh... mortar. In a bureaucratic mix up, the term mortar was confused and explosives suddenly were introduced into their construction routine, to catastrophic results. The rest, as they say is history. You're right about Better Caves & Crypts, I was given a subscription as a retirement present a few years back, and it has had a bad influenced me over me ever since
And I love the ogre chainsaw theory - mortar/mortar - brilliant. Tronyn: having used some (plenty) of your mapwork in some of my released maps - A Roaming Wildebeest in Spain comes to mind - I would describe your maps as great examples of fantastical architecture that always makes sense. Please keep mapping. Sliced rivets always look very wrong to me. I've never seen less than a full rivet in real life.
Any time a texture with rivets spans across two surfaces and rivets fall on the seam, then it should align perfectly. If the texture ends at a seam, it shouldn't end in the middle of a rivet. This is not always possible to avoid, but should never be allowed in an obvious location. Hidden in darkness or where a player is not likely to see is okay. I'm using a ton of the rivet texture in my current map. Trying to avoid "splitting rivets" is challenging. I've been tempted to fire up photoshop and make a rivet-less version of the texture to use as a clean-up for those edges. With content aware scale - this might be possible to do without too much pain.
It doesn't remind me of E1M3, but that's fine.
I'd put some stone faces in the walls. Well, inspired is the key word there. ;) There are tons of stone faces. One directly behind the player in this shot. I still have a few weeks to go but looking forward to wrapping this one up. Almost finished with the first pass at gameplay. This will be my second SP map for Quake - I've learned a lot. How did you recreate your start map BTW? Did you do it by eye? If so, very nice. Well, I've just opened the GPL version released by Romero and started overlapping the original brushwork with my own to get the proportions and the positions right, deleting the original brushes afterwards. There's also a lot of brushes where all I did was adjust the position & scaling of the textures to align them. It's not a full remake.
Oh, I have the map sources. I thought GPL meant something special about the file he has, but I guess it's just referring to the GPL license?
Alright so here's a beta of my second proper map, for Arcane Dimensions. Some info:
- Metal/tech theme with some otherworldly bits. - Coagula style, with horde- and vertical arena combat. - Skill 2 is meant to be pretty chaotic and hard. For warning... if I did my job right, anyway. - Final area could probably most use some additional balance and tuning, I think. Link: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/lpspad-beta.zip Couple of screenies: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/lpqsp2b1.png http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/lpqsp2b2.png Any comments, advice, aesthetic insights, and pointing out of dumb shit I overlooked are appreciated. Hi, I sent you an email with a 1st run on hard. Good looking runic oldschool feel to the map. Difficulty is very very very hard, could not complete even the first room after a dozen attempts. I suggest deleting a few monsters, or giving them a delayed, staggered spawn. Or create more line of sight blockers to hide them from all aggroing instantly.
Couldn't complete the map because I got stuck in a room after the plinth floated up when I pressed it... Looks very promising overall. Thanks for the demo!
One thing I want to make clear is that skill 2 is meant to be very hard, for people who normally find skill 2 too easy--I will make this clear in the readme. Obviously knowing the map inside and out it's hard to judge myself what's fair, so I'll keep that in mind. Ideally, if people could try skill 0 or 1, that would be great--if *those* are too hard, that's bad. In any case, I already noticed some important mistakes--you are *not* supposed to jump straight into the gold key elevator! Also, the I realized part of my last comment might make me look like a dick.
To clarify, I WANT skill 2 to be harder than most maps on skill 2. But I also want it to playable. Not trying to make a map that only speedrunners and Ubermensch can play on skill 2. I get what you're saying. You can make it really hard as long as there is some way to beat it I suppose. I did find normal much more manageable. I would definitely include a warning about hard mode.
The map does look really good though, I guess I should have said "coagula" as opposed to Episode 3. I would consider making the sky pure black as in coagula because the stars warp at the horizon. Or use a skybox in space/nebula maybe, because it is Arcane Dimensions and skyboxes are the thing to do. I suggest you check out Kells Signs of Koth page for some great space skyboxes. Also check out that second teleport I mentioned, I should have recorded it because I was trapped in that area... Nice work:) Pretty cool map. We need Qoth to play this map ?
Played in nightmare with God more on. Found a few bugs : once a button activated in that funky floating space (after a teleport), I returned there to see again and wasn't able to return back. Had to noclip. That floating place in space is ugly. It's really weird to be able to walk on a space full of stars. For the last button (below a crucified zombie), I got teleported back into (inside !) a zombie crucified on a wall. Was stuck there, inside that zombie, and had to noclip again. Got several cool monsters from Qoth as a surprise. I love those weird looking tentacles monster. They're so hilarious ! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Post A Reply: |
|
| Website copyright © 2002-2017 John Fitzgibbons. All posts are copyright their respective authors. |