Dynasty (Final)

[themuffinman]

I compiled Sock's terrain2_soc9.map as a test and a guide (since it is the last step besides the added decor), though when it compiles it doesn't look as smooth as on Sock's site. The "middle" strip looks just like grass and gravel rather than a combo of sand and grass. Which is strange, as I'm using q3map2. Maybe my version just doesn't support alpha brushes, but I`m not sure how to check what version I have. (My BSP menu gives q3map2 compile options, not q3map - so I`m a little confused)

Screenie:

(This is the terrain2_soc9.map)

That's not a case of not 'as smooth as on Sock's site', that's just plain unblended. Compile it with NetRadiant.

[Bliccer]

Are you sure you're using the latest q3map2? If you use Radiant 1.4 you'll definitely have to update q3map2 before you get the effect. You can see which version you use if you do a meta compile in radiant, press n tab to console scroll through the dialog. Or maybe the shaders aren't being read correctly?

[EmeraldTiger]

I use v2.5.11. q3a.ath.cx says it is the latest, but I could be wrong.

[obsidian]

That's old. 2.5.16 is the latest official version. Download is in my signature.

[EmeraldTiger]

Good news everyone!

Domain of Red Snakes is now available as Map of the Week on #uscpmpickup. If you would like to test it online with other people, add up for motw and have fun!

Also I should note that the map will be re-branded with a new name in the next release. From RC1 onwards it will be called "Dynasty". I made this change due to the suggestions of people here, and while the old name was nice and original, it agreeably had little to do with the map in question. This new name suits the "royal gold castle" theme more imo, and since many people use full names as opposed to filenames to refer to maps, this should be easier to remember.

[Eraser]

Played beta 2. I really like the map. You've done some interesting things with the geometry and made some pleasing set pieces. The hole in the wall with the tree behind the RA is especially cool.

There's two things that struck me as odd though. First, the shallow layer of water next to the MH will hurt you if you get into it. I think it's not clear enough that the water hurts you. In fact, I don't think it should hurt you at all. The water will slow down your movements, so you're an easier target. Having the water hurt you doesn't seem to have a real purpose.

The second thing is the creaking sound effect. Where does it originate from? I expected to find some heavy swinging object somewhere, but there wasn't. If it's supposed to be just atmospheric sound then you may want to lower the frequency with which it plays. Also, you could possibly take the original sound and reduce it's volume a bit in an audio editing program. Maybe use a pitch shift as well to create two or three variations on the sound at different pitches, which makes the complete effect far more natural.

[EmeraldTiger]

Thank you for your feedback.

I am not sure what you mean by "creaking sound", though. There is a "windy" sound that permeates almost the entire map, (wherever the sky can be seen) some water sounds for the slime, a choir at quad, screeching noises, and the flames near RG. If it is the windy sound that you`re referring to, then I will tone it down a bit in the next release.

There`s also an issue someone reported regarding a strange "hitbeep" sound that occurs sporadically in the map. It`s the kind of sound that would usually be associated with a missing sound file, although I can`t recall having any bad directories / paths. This will be looked into as well, though.

[Eraser]

yeah i heard the hit beep as well.
And with "creaking sound" I probably mean what you are refering to as "screeching noises"

[EmeraldTiger]

Well, I finally got the terrain blending to work. (albeit in an unexpected, accidental fashion) It looks pretty nice, thanks for the suggestion MuffinMan, and thanks for the help everyone.

I`m wanting to go back and put that Wrack statue in. In Radiant he looks like a Startrooper from Star Wars, with an all-white body but a black face. In-game he is all black. DaEngineer mentioned something about copying UV coordinates.

My main concern though is that doing UV unwrapping completely messes up the textures on the model, up to the point that you can`t even get it back to looking perfect. Is there a way to get my new skin to show up in-game without having to re-do all the texture mapping?

[themuffinman]

Don't know where you got your ranger model from, but here's one I just sorted out: ranger_statue.ase. Rename it to wrack_statue.ase, alter accordingly in your map, open it in a text editor and replace (Ctrl+H) the 2 map names with your own shaders and save. Like this:

*MAP_NAME "models/players/ranger/ranger_statue"
*MAP_NAME "models/players/ranger/wrack_statue"

*MAP_NAME "models/players/ranger/ranger_h_statue"
*MAP_NAME "models/players/ranger/wrack_h_statue"

See if that works for you.

Edit: ah damn, I just remembered that the mesh needs to be moved closer to the origin. You'll just need to move the misc_model accordingly.

I agree with Eraser on the screaching sound. That's meant for swinging pendulums (ie: in Demon Keep) and isn't really sensible to use for other things (yeah yeah, I know ShadoW had it in one of his maps, doesn't prevent it from being a strange sound to use anyway). I also heard the missing sound hit beep thing but I thought it was my mod going ape shit on me again. It seems to happen around the RL/shards by accel pad to Quad, but will only happen at random times it seems.

[EmeraldTiger]

Download Release Candidate 1: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1_rc1.zip

Changelog:

- Renamed map from "Domain of Red Snakes" to "Dynasty".

- Reworked the terrain at YA to use terrain blending.

- Some more clipping adjustments.

- Fixed some visible caulk areas, albeit only reachable by rocket jumping or
spectating.

- Slightly lightened the item spawn markers.

- Fixed (hopefully) possible shader conflict issues.

Note about the hitbeep noises:

I noticed that these hitbeep noises seem to originate from wherever a falling sound trigger is linked to a trigger_multiple, as with the case of fog of death. The falling sounds work correctly, but it seems they also have the side effect of making these hitbeep sounds for who knows what reason. I checked all of the target_speakers in the map and have not found any bad paths / directories. This issue seems to be a mystery, folks...

Note about the plant shaders:

When I was attempting to move some of Sock's shaders over to my snakes shader file to prevent conflicts, etc. I learned that apparently his shaders use "back" textures for double-sided plants for purposes like lighting, etc. and while they work fine in my main folder, when I copy over to the test folder I have, they wouldn't show up. So I made copies of the original images with _back added as a suffix, thinking this would solve the problem. Well, one side of the shader will show up correctly with transparency and all, but the other side is just a still image with no transparency at all. The only solution I had was to copy over the original shaders that powered them - plants_soc and terblend_soc. This solved the problem, but I fear there may be a possibility of conflicts happening nonetheless.

Right now those two shader files are renamed to plants_soc_snakes.shader and terblend_soc_snakes.shader. Will this be enough to solve shader conflicts or will I need to actually go inside the shader files and rename everything? Right now things are kind of a mess... hopefully I can get that sorted out.

Enjoy!

[Eraser]

Note about the hitbeep noises:

I noticed that these hitbeep noises seem to originate from wherever a falling sound trigger is linked to a trigger_multiple, as with the case of fog of death. The falling sounds work correctly, but it seems they also have the side effect of making these hitbeep sounds for who knows what reason. I checked all of the target_speakers in the map and have not found any bad paths / directories. This issue seems to be a mystery, folks...

Try setting the "activator" spawnflag for those target_speakers.
I expect the beep is played when a player falls into a void. It's probably caused by the use of the * in the noise key. Using the "activator" spawnflag makes sure that only the one triggering the target_speaker will hear the sound, and the game probably only properly resolves the * for the activator.

I think the activator spawnflag is also set for such target_speakers in the q3dm17sample map.


edit:
Just saw in the source code that the ACTIVATOR spawnflag is forced when * is the first character in your noise key. You could still try manually enabling the spawnflag but I'm starting to doubt if it'll work.

[EmeraldTiger]

Yup, the activator spawnflag was set when I created the target_speakers. I guess it will forever remain one of the many mysteries of life...

The final (hopefully hehe) version is now up:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1.zip

Not much changed from the RC, just an intermission camera and the dropping of the RC1 tag. Thank you very much everyone for helping me with the map and making it into what it is today. I plan on submitting it to the FragLove team as well as LvL. Maybe sometime we can get a match together.

[Bliccer]

Hm, I don't have Q3A on my pc atm but I really would like to see how the terrain blending turned out. Could you make a screenie of that?

[EmeraldTiger]

Hm, I don't have Q3A on my pc atm but I really would like to see how the terrain blending turned out. Could you make a screenie of that?

Here you go:

[lvlshot]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1_terblend.jpg[/lvlshot]

[Bliccer]

Looks sweet. Dunno if the lighting is too dark for playing. Maybe you can also add terrainblending on grass/trunk?

[EmeraldTiger]

Thanks man. The screenshot is a bit dark due to how the game messes with contrast / brightness when screenshots are taken... it is a bit brighter in-game.

[EmeraldTiger]

It has been submitted and approved on LvL. If you have the time please consider writing a review - I'd love to hear your input (good or bad)

[Eraser]

Did you fix the bleep sound issue? If not, then I'm afraid that it might prevent this map from becoming real successful, because it's quite annoying and even hinders gameplay. You'd be better off to remove the offending target_speakers then.

[EmeraldTiger]

Did you fix the bleep sound issue? If not, then I'm afraid that it might prevent this map from becoming real successful, because it's quite annoying and even hinders gameplay. You'd be better off to remove the offending target_speakers then.

Hmm... unfortunately they did make it into the final version, but I can remove them very quickly and re-send it to Tig. I was sort of stuck in between which was better: falling sounds and some bleep sound, or no bleep sound but no falling sounds. When I think about it now, though, having no falling sounds is a minor sacrifice and would probably be for the best.

Hopefully, in the future, though, I can figure out why they happened in the first place.

[EmeraldTiger]

Here is a fixed version, without the bleep sounds: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1.zip

[Eraser]

Yeah it's a shame but I think it's better to not have falling sounds if it causes the bleeps.

[Bliccer]

Woah... what a release. *hats off*
I don't have the beep sounds. Played it 5 minutes now. Or 10. Nothing. (Loaded it from lvl... if you changed it already). I don't know why a proper setup of the falling sound should cause any error.
Quickly played beta2. There is no beep, too... and you're talking about the echo, right? Awesome! xD (except that male ooowww... but the echo of the model is cool)
Looks really good.
But imo the buttons should be shootable. If I am at the red and see someone coming and jumping over, or if I'm coming from the jumppad I can time my weapon and shoot the "smashbutton" on the other side. That would've been awesome!
Between the LG and the MH room (near the SG): If you go through the door, there is this ornament. Don't know if you need it, since it is not lit, or barely. That was my thought when I came by =)