Those outdoor shots looks great, and surprisingly similar to Turok:

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/405820/ss_c0e0ba567f600912f7d76bb76781ab9a15f81aac.1920x1080.jpg?t=1468857285

https://i.amz.mshcdn.com/BMFEwatk8YyYhcDwaAnS7Ca3U-Q=/950x534/filters:quality(90)/2015%2F08%2F27%2F14%2FTurok.e8245.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aDu0CTSR8Dw/maxresdefault.jpg 

"Those outdoor shots looks great, and surprisingly similar to Turok:
"
almost, but better :) 

Heh, that's indeed a nice visual coincidence - I think I'll try to sneak in a reference to Turok into the map. 

First: lay out all floors and walls as "quadsoup": http://i.imgur.com/FCD8kXi.png

Second: Start pushing vertices around until things look "organic": http://i.imgur.com/X1u4EUy.png

Overview after approx. three hours of messing in TrenchBroom: http://i.imgur.com/z5Tb1gS.png

The big sky brush marks the +/-4096 limit of unmodified Quake network protocol. I'm expect I'll have to switch to BSP2 before this map is done. 

Thanks for posting that, SavageX. I've been playing around with natural terrain recently, also mainly using the TB vertex tool, but I haven't settled into a method that works for me yet -- though broadly speaking, I try to do more or less what you have done here. In my experience so far, however, it's tempting to go overboard and end up with an unwieldy mess of overly complex brushwork (something which you seem to have avoided).

Every so often I see people recommending this terrain tutorial by Sock. As I recall, Adib used it when mapping for the Fire & Brimstone jam. The thing is, though, I can't really make much sense of it -- or perhaps I'm missing something?

To me it doesn't really look like a tutorial at all. Instead, it starts with what looks like some sort of historical overview of terrain in brush-based engines in general, and then it moves on to a fairly technical discussion of something called DotProduct2 and some stuff that seems specific to the Quake 3 engine and Radiant. I really have trouble picking out the parts that are relevant/helpful to Quake mapping in a different editor than the Radiant family. Or is there a tutorial buried in there somewhere, and have I just never found the right link to click? 

the dotproduct2 stuff is 'just' q3map2 autogenerating per-vertex alpha values based upon the similarity of the vertex normal and some specified unit vector. And then squaring it (hence the '2').
(dot(A,B) == cos(anglebetweenAandB)*length(A)*length(B)), or in other words, given unit vectors, dotproduct gives 1 when they are equal, 0 when perpendicular, and -1 when opposing, so its quite handy when doing geometry stuff. squaring it biases it towards 0 in a non-linear way, so you don't need such vertical cliffs)
combined with a shader that performs alpha blending according to said vertex alphas, this gives different textures appearing based upon how flat that part of the map is meant to be.
manually doing all that stuff would take excessive amounts of effort...

its worth noting that its all q3map2/q3bsp-specific and doesn't apply at all to q1bsp (which completely lacks vertex alpha values... and shaders). 

Yeah, Sock's tutorial is certainly covering a lot of things that only apply to Quake 3 (or compatible engines).

I cannot claim to be an authoritative source regarding Quake editing - I'm not a veteran mapper and have yet to properly release a single (!) Quake map (apart from the betas in this thread). I try to adhere to following rules:

- Most vertices I only displace on one axis. So if I want to push the rock surface in, I'll grab a vertex and just push that one in exactly according to one axis. I try to make sure my brushes keep quite some volume (no strangely flimsy brushes), which is why I start with 128x128x128 cubes. I can push those around without

- I try to keep all vertices on-grid. I certainly make sure all vertices are on integer positions.

- be gentle on the floor, don't go as crazy on vertex editing as on rock faces. A few hills and ramps usually work fine, but if you go overboard you can run into collision issues, like players getting stuck on random edges (for Quake 2 and 3 the collision system works quite differently and seems to be overall more robust).

I uploaded an example map with sources over at https://maikmerten.de/base1/start-wip.zip - perhaps that's useful for you. However, again, I might do things horribly wrong although they appear to be working fine for me for now ;-) 

I've been using FraQuake to generate fractal geometry for my Xmas Jam map. (cavewalls) You'll need to run it in a 16bit compatible OS. I'm probably going overboard with the number of polys but you can dial it in to your hearts content. It's a multi-step process. Create a map in the application and then copy and paste what you need from the output. (It adds monsters randomly FYI) I use TB2's CSG merge to weld faces together to create borders. Then add _phong 1 to make the lighting pretty. I'm having fun and I think it looks groovy

https://www.dropbox.com/s/plh6rsopnx3c863/fraquake.zip?dl=0

this is the only screenshot I have access to ATM but it illustrates the fractals well https://imgur.com/d2TGj5E 

lots of improvements.
I'd recommend some minor things... for the outdoor area, some upscaled textures set at like a 33 degree angle might prevent textures looking too 'gridlike'...
re indoor base shots, some trim along stair edges etc might be nice. Also, I think you could extend some of the ceilings upwards more dramatically for a nice effect. like the first shot where the pipes jutting out are, if they went up way far into darkness might be nice.
Just off the top of my head. But yeah looks pretty good! 

new intro area looks very cool. Wish you the best of luck with the rehaul - I'm sure it will be tricky but worthwhile as the comments regarding the actual gameplay are almost uniformly positive 

@Drew Thanks!

Finally done with a full artpass. In addition to that, I have also added two new skill levels to the map (easy/hard).
The only thing between this version and a full release is some clipping, some ambient sounds and a bit of testing.

Screens:
https://i.imgur.com/9Gkn9hf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xoWi1jM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3T0V4jO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6NUb9AG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/N9KIRxx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ADa5kj0.jpg

Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cdcpdluvjsofme4/movplan_b1.zip?dl=0

(Includes movplan_b1.bsp and .lit. Requires Qouth) 

Epic style, dark atmosphere! 

Some cool stuff there for sure. #2 and #4 especially nice. Hope it's a strong theme throughout - looking forward to playing it! 

This happened by accident:

https://imgur.com/a/WAXHv

Hmmm... keep or remove... 

 

Keep! 

the facial features were unplanned for, but I guess they're somewhat charming, albeit cheesy.

Reminds me of http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Vaal 

https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1303070823l/117859.jpg

I once wanted to make a Rune level like that, but could not get it to to work. Maybe one day in Rune 2. 

I assembled a new snapshot of dreadful things. The "Dreadful Dreadbase of Dread" (base1) always was intended to be part of a short campaign I call "Zernichter".

I zipped up the current state of a custom start map ("Paths aplenty") and base1.

https://maikmerten.de/zernichter/zernichter-20171226.zip

Changes:

- Start: All new start map for all four difficulties. Of course, the entryway for the hardest difficulty needs to be discovered first. Also includes a hidden reference to another video game franchise.

- Base1: Added another secret, put some gameplay into the existing secrets. Got rid of a boring elevator and replaced it with a more exciting arrangement of stairs. Made sure the first Shambler-fight doesn't derail due to monster infighting.

- Canyons: Not yet playable enough, so not included yet. When finishing base1 it's thus normal to have an error message that canyons.bsp cannot be found.


Screens:

https://imgur.com/a/7w49S 

 

https://twitter.com/warrenmarshallb/status/947871992644014080

Dipping my toes back in the water, as I do every xmas break, to see where things are at. The current state of Quake editing is so good, it's surreal. 

Love the light and atmosphere. Wooden struts seem a bit spindly but that might be deliberate and work well in context. 

I did a thing.

Ever imagined de_dust in Quake?

Probably not but I did it anyways.

https://twitter.com/muk0r/status/950108111208988672

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/de_dust.zip

Theres an included readme that attempts to explain the entity chain.

also dont ask me why i put it in demos :P i feel dumb 

and in case its not implied, feel free to use this set up in your maps. the readme explains how to expand upon it with some simple find/replace of the appropriate values.

Only want one bomb? Remove the extra sets of trigger_counter/relays and bombs.

This set up is actually really generic and could power more than just a bomb site :P