mAlkAv

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

mAlkAv

Bl!tz · ...ǝp¡s ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ uo

looks like a nice job m8, i like the monocolor theme and the whole lighting: excellent contrastes and nice settings
where did u get all thoses textures & meshes from? are they imported, selfmade or just ue2 stock ones?
never played the original but from picts u nicely improved the map...gj & happy to see u back to mapping, i remember ur first trial map try...nitemare to climb it

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

They're stock ones Blitz ;)
You can find them in the Abaddon packages (yes, meanwhile I can tell you where to find what static meshes/textures in UT2004 and where to find what textures in UT99 lol).
@Malkav: The arch looks good! I can't recall a static mesh like that - apparently self-made. BSP right? The texture alignment on it is very good! The "shadow issue" on round objects is gone thanks to that alignment, you did a good job on that part!
I recommend to add a small little bit distance fog to it. It will help to create a better amtosphere!
If this is really your first map then you seem to be talented. Waiting for the first beta release!

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

Thanks for the responses mates :)

Bl!tz wrote:
where did u get all thoses textures & meshes from? are they imported, selfmade or just ue2 stock ones?

Like Sly said, they are all from Abbaddon texture pack. Some textures look a bit blurry because i had to enlarge them to fit the brushes - for example the single skull at the passages frame at the right.

Besides from that I have to say that many textures fit well for a quake map, of course not being identical, but they have the same style - and yes there are many skull borders on the original aww

The monocolor scheme(yellow-orange) is also very close to the original.

Sly wrote:

@Malkav: The arch looks good! I can't recall a static mesh like that - apparently self-made. BSP right? The texture alignment on it is very good! The "shadow issue" on round objects is gone thanks to that alignment, you did a good job on that part!
I recommend to add a small little bit distance fog to it. It will help to create a better amtosphere!
If this is really your first map then you seem to be talented. Waiting for the first beta release!

Yes you are right. There is only one static mesh used so far(apart from pickups ^^) and thats the wall torch.

I try using additional brushes(for borders and similar stuff) to let the walls and ceilings not look just flat, and they are also similar to the q3 map.

The arch you mentioned is also elevated which is just not clearly visible on the pic.

I also made another passage which is very quake like and has the typical shape.

When I know how to build such distance fog I will give it a try at the end, thanks for the idea :)

P.S. If anyone has quakelive installed and the original configs feel free to send me a copy biggrin

I did reduce my gfx settings to much on mine and can't remember the stock settings confuse

Would be nice for some real comparison screens, for now mines are without shadows and ambient lights...

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Monday 6th of June 2011 08:35:07 AM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

mAlkAv wrote:
When I know how to build such distance fog I will give it a try at the end, thanks for the idea :)

That's easy! You need either a volume or a zoneinfo (the latter one recommended since you want to see the fog everywhere and don't want it to pop up all of the sudden when standing in one specific place).

There you go to the properties and search in the first Zone part for an entry that's called bDistanceFog and set it to true. After this change you have to rebuild your geometry to be able to see the fog after placing the info.

Now go to ZoneLighting. There you should find the entries fog color (you can pick one, I recommend a red/orange color) and some other entries, like MinFogEnd. This is for the ingame fog-regulator in the settings. Most people forget about that. Since you want just decorative fog that doesn't hide and clip objects I recommend to set it to the same setting like your regular FogEnd setting which should be set about twice to three times as high as the default setting to get rid of the clipping and make sight over distances easier. Now you can set the FogStart setting. As the name already says it's the distance the fog starts from the sight of the player. I recommend something along 256 to 320. Should look good with these settings. If it doesn't you can play still around with it. After you rebuilt the first time after setting the bDistanceFog setting to true you can just change the fog distances as you please without having to rebuild (before you want to test your map you may want to do that though, just to be sure. Get used to use the RebuildAll option that most people like to call "quick rebuild" although it takes about the same amount of time - the optimization is more precise than when you rebuild separately and the BSP cuts get better!)

Hope I could help smile

PS: Refuse from using the ZoneBrightness! It makes static mesh appear about 4 units brighter than BSP which makes it look just odd (could name plenty of example maps that use this). If your architecture would be 100% BSP then it would be okay though. But if you insist on using the ZoneBrightness because you think the corners look too dark, I've discovered a simple trick that's also performance-friendly:

After setting the the ZoneBrightness, rebuild all and after that you should see what I mean. To get rid of that stupid side effect you can set your ZoneBrightness now lower by 4 units. This will only affect static meshes (and pickups) but not the BSP itself since you need to rebuild after that to apply the changes to your BSP (which you don't want since the BSP will become 4 units darker after rebuilding the lighting but the static mesh will stay as they are right now when you rebuild).

A simple trick - but very effective! You should do it at the end of your mapping process though. It's better since you won't have to change it after every lighting rebuild. Tbh, I'm proud that I discovered something useful for mappers (about half a year ago). A trick that nobody seemed to be aware of. I should write a tutorial about that soon to help other mappers. lol

Oh, and my standard tip: Stay on the grid (a mix of 8 and 16+ grids is always good), hehe wink

My map Deadlock (that one with Tron style) in my own map thread (btw, very close to be a release candidate, put much effort into it) has had 0 BSP holes so far - and the architecture is almost completely out of BSP and I check my maps very accurately (every corner has to be checked. It looks like simple BSP - but it isn't! It's a mess of coloured lines in top/front/side and perspective view biggrin )!

-- Edited by Sly on Monday 6th of June 2011 10:19:43 AM

-- Edited by Sly on Monday 6th of June 2011 10:22:58 AM

Foufoune_Rose · Unreal Old Friend

Impressive shot mAlkAv! UT2004 looks so good even in 2011.
This room is perfect. Perfectly lit, perfectly build (The walls are totally clean and planar) and a professional use of the game assets.
5 stars! and it's just a beta!

Maybe I could say that the health items would be better at the center of your picture, but hey, it isn't finished yet.
Give us a try as soon as you can!

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

NYAN, I see you have the NYAN cat as your avatar, Foufoune!
Translation:
NYAN, NYAN NYA NYAN NYA NYA NYAN NYAN NYA NYAN NYAN, NYAN!

Btw, I'm writing the tutorial about the ambient brightness trick (first in German, will translate later this day and post the translation here at UOF). Mappers should really know that (and then I can just link to my tutorial without having to explain mappers why they should avoid using it in maps with SMs and how to use that trick over and over again biggrin ).

-- Edited by Sly on Monday 6th of June 2011 11:38:01 AM

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

Sly, thanks alot for the very detailed description

I owe you a beer for this one :) And I will definitely give it a try.

Oh and don't forget to put a link to the german tutorial in that upcoming thread smile

Foufoune, thanks. But to be honest the wall textures aren't perfectly aligned yet because they are also used in adjacent rooms which are not yet finished.

For now the pickup placement is identically to the Quake 3 map. I might change such things later when the map is playable.

Can anyone tell me how to build more realistic fire for the wall torches? I followed a short tutorial but the basic shape of the fire is always rectangular. Would look better if it becomes more narrow upwards.

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Monday 6th of June 2011 01:02:26 PM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

Oh, just noticed when I talked about the AmbientBrightness in Zones:
Did I say 4 units brighter? I meant 4 times brighter than BSP environment! (exactly 4 times, don't know why though)

I'll post a link to my original tutorial, I'm about to translate it when I get some feedback on it ;)

EDIT: w00t! Already my 100th posts biggrin

-- Edited by Sly on Monday 6th of June 2011 02:33:01 PM

Bl!tz · ...ǝp¡s ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ uo

fyi malk is german 2

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

Ah, okay! Here it is! Very detailled with many pictures!

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

I did some progress during the last days. Espacially on the big hall which you can spot on the first screenshot. This is more or less the center of the map with many ways in all directions. Also there's located the red armor and railgun in quake 3, mega health is also just some steps away from the ground floor.

This room is not yet finished completely but at ~90%. Lighting is not final and some little details are still missing.

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

First impression: Awesome! Something I just have to download once it's done!

But I have noticed something: the infamous xNewWeaponBase-bug. Simply mark all xNewWeaponBases and clear all skins. Then it will look normal again. Epic forgot to replace the skins in this subclass with the real skin of the new UT2004 weapon base. Fyi, the parent class xWeaponBase is the UT2003 weapon base.

Bl!tz · ...ǝp¡s ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ uo

wow....+1
ut2004 looks simply better than ut3 under certain style

....nice job!

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

Now that you are mentioning it... :) I'm just wondering that I never had this bug before. Thanks again.

Bane the Zergling · crocodile dundee

Bl!tz wrote:
wow....+1
ut2004 looks simply better than ut3 under certain style ....nice job!

Yeah Blitz thats why I've been playing for the last 5 months. biggrin

Malkav great work I use play Quake 3 all the time being Sorlag.

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

I am a bit busy these days thats why I didn't make much progress. Mainly some detail work like new torch fire emitters. Also started with adjacent rooms to the big hall. The small one with teleporter to the top and the hallway with super health.

~400 brushes so far...

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Thursday 23rd of June 2011 10:40:25 PM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

The overall look is really nice! :D

I pointed out some things you could improve:

The subtracted cylinder with the Lightning Gun doesn't look that good when it's breaking the pattern of the floor tiles. I recommend to cut the cylinder, add a quadratic brush in the size of the cylinder with a simple texture without pattern (= no tiles) into the place where the circle is and paste this cylinder back into this cube. Will look much better!

Then the stairs. If you look from the front on them you see a repetitive pattern. Mark the textures on the side of the stairs and align them properly and if you like, move them around a bit. Will look better than now. That's how I do my stairs.

Last picture:
Make the "trims" on the ceiling texture 3D. This won't make this hallway appear so empty. ;)

I can't wait for the final result! Quake III maps are usually very good and competitive. A lot of fun to play them.
The one I enjoyed the most was Temple of Retribution, I even have made a remake for UT99 in the past (and created Lava Man on it out of boredom lol), but it got lost in an incident after a hacking attack (not directly the hackers fault. I blame this §$&)#(/$! and the technology though) :)

Bl!tz · ...ǝp¡s ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ uo

excellent job, thoses orange/yellow/brown tones are according nicely together

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

@Sly

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Another idea for the lightning gun cylinder would be to add some kind of a border on the floor side, similar to this one. There would be still a break but less abruptly.

For the two little stairs I have to say that I just haven't aligned the texture yet. They will look like the big one.

The hallway has definitely room for improvement. It will take some time to add neat brushes to the ceiling. Perhaps i will change the outer ceiling borders or skull borders on the walls first because of that ^^

Isn't there also a ut2k4 remake of q3dm7? Has this one been finished or stopped at beta?

Does anyone have an idea what static mesh I might use for the teleporters? I couldn't find one that's close to the original ones.

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Thursday 23rd of June 2011 11:56:52 PM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

Oh! That border looks "dangerous"! Seems like you were working on grid 1. Grid 16 is ideal for BSP (or not...? Thinking of Blitz right now, lol :P).

You should convert it into a static mesh.

I don't recall the teleporters. A screenshot of the original would make it easier to post a suggestion

-- Edited by Sly on Friday 24th of June 2011 12:32:28 AM

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

Grid 16 was way too rough/inaccurate for me. I'm most times on grid 4 and sometimes 2. This border is 4 uu high.

Teleporters: http://i39.tinypic.com/2vt16h4.jpg

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Friday 24th of June 2011 12:40:26 AM

Bl!tz · ...ǝp¡s ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ uo

16...32...64...128....256...512....640....hm???!....what?....640 is perfect to me!...640....1280....2560.....5120.....PILLS!!!!

more seriously there s no problem to use 2uu for bordering, i hope the ed can deal with that haha^^

it s recommended to build the "bases" of the layout in biggest units mesures (and it make sence) but hopefully u can subdivide that....or it ll be a lil "cubical" at the end

-- Edited by Bl!tz on Friday 24th of June 2011 01:13:03 AM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

Take the "U" static meshes you can see in DOM-ScorchedEarth as the "wings".
Take a cylinder static mesh and make a texture panner (myLevel), take a fitting one, create a shader and/or final blend to recreate the effect and apply this translucent (maybe brighten would fit the best) texture to the static mesh. For the bottom you will find a static mesh, it looks like a gear and is in one of the Mech static mesh packages. You'll just have to change the texture to fit the theme.

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

Sounds like a good idea, thanks. I already have created an emitter for the teleporter effects, looks different but imo good nevertheless ^^

Blitz, I never use such units for basic layout but for the little details like borders, passages, arches etc. BUT I have noticed low FPS on that map so thats probably something the engine can't deal with :p
I'll start to convert some brushed into static meshes.

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Friday 24th of June 2011 08:54:43 AM

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

I found another static mesh in abaddon hardware that fits even better :)

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Friday 24th of June 2011 01:28:11 PM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

Much better! Now just the stairs!

By the way, the original teleporter has a "bright cylinder" where the particles are in/on. Maybe you should add one?
Apart from that there are yellow blocks on the "wings". You could place some and use the shield shader texture. ;)

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

Ok I'm done with that teleporter area for now. Because of the wings shape I didn't add yellow blocks at the sides but brushes with yellow shader effects(just noticeable to some extent on the screens) in the holes.

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Saturday 25th of June 2011 10:02:05 PM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

Ah yes! That's what I meant with the "translucent cylinder".
Btw, you should have two teleporter floors, right? I hope it doesn't flicker since they're overlapping. You should check it!

mAlkAv!An · calculating Pi by hand

No they don't flicker. I reduced the size of the second one so that it is completely in the inside of the other one :)
And I removed those cornet like extensions from the front side which u can see at the back.

-- Edited by mAlkAv on Sunday 26th of June 2011 07:58:00 AM

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

Looks really neat in action!

Good job!

Lord_PorkSword · Connoisseur of Bourbon!

+1!