Quake 3 Character Creation

[Daveybird]

Hey guys! I've been playing a little Quake 3 here lately. My dad, Malpractice over here, got me started in Quake 3 Arena back in Holiday season 2002, but I have traditionally been more of a Sim Racing Modder. I'm planning on making some characters and levels. So far, I've successfully exported my MD3 using 3DS Max 2013, but it doesn't show the tags, except for the pivot tag. How do you make tags in 3DS Max 2013?

[CZghost]

I think it's in mapping guide that comes with GtkRadiant, how to make models in 3DS Max. But I'm not sure if it shows how to make player models. Try to google it. It definitely shows something and I'm sure you'll find your answer there.

Also, for mapping, I can only suggest you GtkRadiant. Download latest version (should work fine with Windows 7, 8 or 10), so you make sure you're using up to date and stable release. If you're using still Windows XP, then you may think about upgrade to higher version of Windows, as I experienced some troubles launching Radiant 1.6 in Win XP back in the days I've used to XP. Or you can give a try to any distribution of Linux, GtkRadiant works under Windows, Linux and Mac.

Before you jump to level editing and creation, read the mapping guide first (or go to watch some basics tutorials). I'm sure your first level will be acceptable enough for fun I can show you my first map ever made public It's not so much great like any other maps from other mappers, but as a first map, I think it's good Made it using these tutorials

[Daveybird]

Yeah, I figured out how to make tags using cube primitives, and it worked. Now onto positioning them correctly...

[Daveybird]

Okay, so now I've got some animation issues. My character uses incorrect animations. Like now, it uses the jump backwards animation for his idle animation. I'm using a default Doom animation.cfg.

EDIT: I managed to get it to work via swapping the frames.

[CZghost]

Don't simply reuse animation.cfg from another character, you must tweak it to correspond it with YOUR model. So you must look where certain animation fragment starts and where it ends. It's related to frames (not timestamps), so switch your timeline to display frames instead of time. Then select right framerate (30fps is good starting point for Quake3 player models) and convert your model to that framerate. The framerate should be consistent in entire model. If the idle action (do nothing) animation shows backward jumping animation instead, then you have incorrect settings in the animation.cfg. Edit it to reflect the model's animation fragments.

[Daveybird]

Don't simply reuse animation.cfg from another character, you must tweak it to correspond it with YOUR model. So you must look where certain animation fragment starts and where it ends. It's related to frames (not timestamps), so switch your timeline to display frames instead of time. Then select right framerate (30fps is good starting point for Quake3 player models) and convert your model to that framerate. The framerate should be consistent in entire model. If the idle action (do nothing) animation shows backward jumping animation instead, then you have incorrect settings in the animation.cfg. Edit it to reflect the model's animation fragments.

Yeah, mine displays frames. And thanks for the info! I'm working on a model for my Daveybird character, which will also be used for Falco and some other birbs. Just a few days and I'm already this far? This game is pretty fun, all the maps and characters you can use in it, even though it's low-graphics, it's high-excitement!!

And I usually play offline with a joystick. That's right, a joystick !! It doesn't matter, since I"m usually against bots, or possibly people in the same house. I don't use the stick online though; I'd get pwned by people using better equipment (mouse/keyboard, gamepad, etc). I just do it for the "gun" feel, similar to when you play those games at the arcades, lol! I have a blast playing that way, even though it's not technically the best.

And the low-poly thing was kind of a challenge for me. I had to make blocky spheres and stretch and sculpt them. Plus, UV mapping. I use this program called ZModeler for that part. ZModeler is used mainly for Sim Racing (so that's how I've heard about this program), and it's the one I'm the most familiar with as far as texture mapping.

As for level/stage mapping, I will give those tutorials a look. I'm planning to do some "modern-world competition-style" stages, kinda like how they have professional paintball with all of those obstacles, in a stadium. Of course, I'll read up on how to make the stages bot-friendly.

How I got started in Quake 3 Arena was when my dad (who's also on these forums) bought it around 1999-2000, when I was a kid. I wasn't allowed to play it back then, but watched, and liked what I saw. Then, around Christmas of 2002, Dad let me play it for the first time. It was exciting! But also, up until this year, my modding of it was side-tracked by the modding of Sim Racing and American Football games.

I'm not that into Quake Live. It looks like it plays good, and might possibly make more people interested in Quake 3, but due to limited customization, I'm not too interested. I might try it sometime, though, just for fun.

So yeah, I've been playing Q3 off and on for quite awhile, and I'm just now getting into modding it.

[CZghost]

Quake Live can be customised pretty well (now when it's a standalone paid for download from Steam), you just have to register in the game for a fixed nickname, which can't be changed then (only customised the colors of your nickname). But you can download and install new maps, models, assets, textures, new shaders, and of course you can also build your own assets, maps, models, textures, shaders, etc. And give it to Steam Workshop for download for other players. It's much easier than before, when Quake Live was played in browser and standalone with Launcher, when main headquarter was on game's websites http://www.quakelive.com (and where you had to login for play). If you did a map, you had to test it in WolfcamQL and submit it to id Sodftware to review and check. The map had to have advertisment boards in the geometry (working) and of course not all maps have been accepted. Now you can freely make maps and make them available for download in Workshop, they do not have to include advertisement boards (but as a design feature, it's great), and it does not need to be reviewed. So it's pretty much like original Quake 3, just with statistics and more competitive play

[Daveybird]

Quake Live can be customised pretty well (now when it's a standalone paid for download from Steam), you just have to register in the game for a fixed nickname, which can't be changed then (only customised the colors of your nickname). But you can download and install new maps, models, assets, textures, new shaders, and of course you can also build your own assets, maps, models, textures, shaders, etc. And give it to Steam Workshop for download for other players. It's much easier than before, when Quake Live was played in browser and standalone with Launcher, when main headquarter was on game's websites http://www.quakelive.com (and where you had to login for play). If you did a map, you had to test it in WolfcamQL and submit it to id Sodftware to review and check. The map had to have advertisment boards in the geometry (working) and of course not all maps have been accepted. Now you can freely make maps and make them available for download in Workshop, they do not have to include advertisement boards (but as a design feature, it's great), and it does not need to be reviewed. So it's pretty much like original Quake 3, just with statistics and more competitive play

Oh, I see. I remember when it was free like that, and now the only version is the Steam version. My dad told me something about that.

[CZghost]

I remember, too I used to play from the beginning of Quake Live, when it was still in browser and didn't have much new gametypes (just the ones from original Q3, TA and Clan Arena from CPMA), it had up to 50 maps and playing it in Firefox (only Firefox) it was laggy as hell When it moved to standalone Launcher (but still under id Software's maintanance), I used to play Infected a lot It was brand new and very funny game mode (Red Rover modification) Infected is in Quake Live even today I actually plan to make similar modification for Quake 3, but need to learn resources and understand the source code first