(Q4) acid4dm1 beta: "shamanix"

[[acid]]

a DM, tourney map based on my old layout "shaman&dragon" acid3dm3. besides some performance optimizations i call that one finished. nevertheless i won't kill you for some comments and critics

download: http://www.lunicorn.org/maps/beta_acid4dm1.zip (1.1MB)

screenshot

[ppp]

Had a quick hop around and I like it. Runs very fast everywhere. Minor points would be to change the texture of the door (didn't realise there was one till the wall opened up..). and entities seem to be placed quite high off the floor.
:icon14:

[Oeloe]

Ah, i loved acid3dm3r (which wasn't that different from the original, right?)! Gonna try this.

[[acid]]

the R version had just minor tweaks. you can consider this map as the final attempt

ppp: thanks for your comment. that's just the right neatpicky stuff i need for completion.

[pjw]

I like the layout a lot and your item placement seems quite good--it took me a while to realize that there were two YAs in there--I kept thinking I was losing my mind and forgetting where it was.

Two major things--First, get rid of the box around your map. That's bloating your file size and complicating things and making your map run worse than it could and there's no reason for it. I sealed your map in about five minutes without the box. Just patch up where the doors are (doors are entities and thus don't seal the hull), and put a caulk block encasing your ambient light (or reposition it so it's not in the void, either way). "Boxed" maps make Baby Jesus cry.

You also need to go through and portal your map. I don't see any vis portals in here at all, and performance will be better when you add portals.

A couple of more aesthetic things you could do if you want to take the time and you care: Lighting is...okay. In my opinion, a lot of your lighting--maybe too much--is coming from that one ambient light. If you were willing to take the time, I think you could make your lighting look a lot better with more lights and more light variation (e.g. playing around with different light shaders and a bit more color variation, and just more lights in general--note that I'm not saying add them all to one room ), and if you toned down the ambient things would look a bit less flat and boring.

Finally, there are a lot of texture misalignments in various places, especially on trims and angled bits. Again, if you're going to be playing this w. picmip 82 and flat-shaded everything, you may not care, but it would look better if you fixed them. "Fit" on the surface inspector usually makes it relatively easy...

Hope this helps.

[Oeloe]

The texturing doesn't look nearly as nice as in your Q3 version (which had COLOURS). :/

I agree the doors look a bit too much like a single plane. Tweak it a little so that they look more like doors.

I liked the changes you made in the remix btw, like the double jump 'block' at one of the tele areas...

Anyway, i hope to find your map at some servers soon (and a decent Q4 CPM mod with it ).

[[acid]]

i have read that hint portals are gone? area portals are being used just as in q3 then?

thanks a lot for your comments

[pjw]

i have read that hint portals are gone? area portals are being used just as in q3 then?

thanks a lot for your comments

You're welcome.

The hint texture is indeed gone, but Q4 visportals (textures/editor/visportal) are used in a very precise way to improve performance. You can find details at:
http://www.iddevnet.com/doom3/visportals.php
(it's a Doom3 tutorial, but is still valid).

This page:
http://www.iddevnet.com/quake4/LevelEditor_Performance
is an excellent resource on map performance. It has a few more visportal notes, and is very comprehensive on dealing with everything else (light count/detail level, draw calls, tris counts, all that good stuff).

[[acid]]

server with the map
http://www.quadrunner.de/server.htm