20 Brush 2012 Discussion Thread

[obsidian]

Hi. Post your questions, work-in-progress stuff, contest discussions, etc. here.

[obsidian]

BTW, if anyone has any other places to promote this contest, please do so. I already posted on the QuakeLive forum and at MapCore.

[EmeraldTiger]

Contest seems interesting.

Still not sure if I will be participating just yet, but I do have a question: Is stuff like level-covering fog (ala Fatal Instinct / q3tourney5) allowed, and if so does it contribute to the brush count?

[Eraser]

Cool. Will flex those muscles

[dervish]

how do liquids count?

[obsidian]

Volumetric brushes like liquids and fog count towards your total. In most cases, that's only one brush out of 20 (level wide fog or a pool of water), so it's not the end of the world.

[DaEngineer]

Probably the first time ever I noticed a contest the day it was announced. Cool thing. I'll see what I can do in two weeks

[obsidian]

Just 6 skybox brushes are free. Sky portals are not allowed at all as stated in the rules.

[nick lol]

I'll give it a shot

[fKd]

im gonna jump out of this one. sorry for messing up this thread.

[obsidian]

That's too bad, your test shots looked pretty interesting. You could probably have tossed in a few items and just submitted that as your entry.

[cityy]

fkd, are you shitting me? Your level looked almost done! You better finish this off and hand it in.

Edit:
I'm not sure if I'll enter this one, depends on how well I proceed with studying for exams.

[extone]

Custom textures are allowed, however you must make them yourself exclusively for this map

heh, first made simple ctf map and only then noticed it =)
map is here
http://www.gamefront.com/files/21565706/xttower.pk3
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0nqr9r
though it's out of contest

[nick lol]

Probably should have asked this before I went and pretty much finished my level, but are mirrors ok? (please say yes)

[dervish]

If i cap a cylinder, do the caps count as one including the corresponding cylinder? or is it tallied individually?

[dONKEY]

Do projected decals count as patches?
//edit...doh...re read the rules

[cityy]

If i cap a cylinder, do the caps count as one including the corresponding cylinder? or is it tallied individually?

A patch cap is another seperate patch. A cylinder and it's cap don't count as one patch.

[dervish]

ok thanks

[dervish]

Custom textures are allowed, however you must make them yourself exclusively for this map

heh, first made simple ctf map and only then noticed it =)
map is here
http://www.gamefront.com/files/21565706/xttower.pk3
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0nqr9r
though it's out of contest

couldn't find a spawn point

[Eraser]

I am kind of hampered by the texture rules I'm afraid. I think using custom textures is pretty much a requirement to have your map stand out visually, especially because of the 20 brush limit.

However, I'm no texture artist by any means and other than going for a cel shaded look, I'm kind of out of options if I have to create my own textures from scratch.

[dONKEY]

@Eraser...same. I spent the last couple of days making some textures and writing some shaders (neither still are finished) and have at present drawn one brush.

[cityy]

Obligatory "I told you so, Obsidian." statement

[cityy]

Started doodling around; though I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it.

[lvlshot]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15072710/QL/20brush_2/20brush_01.jpg[/lvlshot]

[obsidian]

Probably should have asked this before I went and pretty much finished my level, but are mirrors ok? (please say yes)

Mirrors as in with shaders and portals? Sure, I don't see why not. You can use them for teleporters or something else.




I think just about every year, the winner for the 20b contest tend to have really minimal textures. There used to be a 5 texture rule as well which I forgot to put into the rules this year (and I'll leave it out to see what people come up with). Lunaran's entry into the MapCore contest won using essentially one texture of plain white with some noise, and a couple of hand drawn, pencil on paper lines. Corsair won the LD contest using NO textures and just a lightmap with coloured lights! PJW's Crate Efficiency from a much older 20b contest used just stock id Software textures under the 5 texture limit.

You also get twice the time as previous contests, so you can spend a whole week on textures and another on level design. We're only on day 4. This contest isn't supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be a challenge to test your abilities to make a map with brush and time limitations. The idea is to force people who don't usually make textures or shaders to try and do something creative. As evident from previous contest winners, you don't have to be the best texture artist, just the most creative one.

Furthermore, depending on the number of entries, there may be different categories - best visuals, best gameplay, best use of brushes, etc... so you can still win a category even if you have worst textures. If you need help or suggestions on textures/shaders, post them here (or a new thread) and someone will help you.

So quit your yappin' and start your mappin'!

[obsidian]

FYI, I currently have only one texture that I applied to maybe 5% of surfaces, and the rest of my map is still caulk. Layout isn't nearly done, just doodles of I think 7 or 8 brushes.