GtkRadiant and QL [ How to make a window? ]

[KillerFox]

Hi Anybody!
Recently I'm interested in creating maps for Quake Live.
Since I have a big experience in 3D modeling and 2D Art I managed very easy to learn the tutorials about GTKradiant.
I took a sheet of paper and I drew some sketches. Huh, I've got an idea, but I don't know how to apply in GTKradiant.
Here I am referring to some special things. Such as: windows, rays of light and the light blur effect.
Let's cut to the chase. I want to create a lighted map, not a darkened map. For example, a map like Asylum.
I wonder how can I make with GTKradiant what is in this picture:

The window and the rays of light.
It would be a wonderful idea If someone can explain in text or video how to make a window.
A tiny tutorial about how to make a window (like in Asylum or others maps) and the rays of light.
What do you say, Can you help me?

[D-Meat]

[I never did maps for quake Live, but I did a lot for quake 3 vanilla]

To do these rays, you first should prepare a "ray" or "beam" texture, with an alpha channel, and prepare a shader for it that specifies the blendmode and alpha transparency (no lightmap nor lightmap stage !). You should also enable 2 side culling in the shader. Check how are written the shaders of the original quake 3 or quake live, if they are available.

Then, you should just "draw" a brush (or a patch) from your window and align the texture on it so everything looks right. The non-visible faces should have the "nodraw" shader on it.

To make it more bright, you can add a little light fog in the map.

I hope this is useful

[Eraser]

Don't think you'll need an alpha channel for that. There's a bunch of shaders in (I think) the sfx folder that do something similar with rays coming out of light fixtures (I think it's used in q3dm12 under water. Or here's an example in a map I made. You can see it in the lower left of the screenshot). I think the shader for the effect in Asylum is similar or even identical to that, but the texture is more subtle.

[obsidian]

FYI, certain effects like light bloom are hard coded into Quake Live.

The windows and rays are just textures and shaders on brushes or patches.

[KillerFox]

Thanks a lot! Now I understand better what should I do. But wait, Something is wrong here. I loaded sfx folder and I chose the shader called "white".
I want to view code of this shader. On link: http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewto ... 10&t=42049 I found:

When you open the Textures window (via T-key) you can then Shift+LMB click any of the white bordered images to open up the shader file's code. This is helpful to quickly look up what the shader actually does.

I tried but not working - I get the following message: "Couldn't get a full path to the shader file: scripts/sfx.shader" - How can I fix this error?

[D-Meat]

if the shader isn't unpacked in your scripts directory, it might be in pak0.pk3. Well, I don't know how are the files managed in quakeLive, so, maybe not

[Despair]

yea, the shift-click to open the .shader file doesn't work for ql files because the pk3's are still encrypted. i've requested that that gets fixed, but no word on when/if that will happen. until then, you have to manually decrypt the pk3 and extract the .shaders yourself. bit of a pain, but no other option unfortunately.

[KillerFox]

Last days, I've lost a lot of time in trying to make this window and those rays of light. And I have not succeeded.
I don't want to exaggerate, but I need to know how to do these things.
So, please, who wants to make a tutorial about this window and those rays of light.
I really needed to know this.
Waiting for a positive response!

[D-Meat]

Can you post screenshots of the state of your work ? simple cropped print screen images from radiant are ok:)

As for the rays, since it seems complicated to add new shaders, you should try to find the ones allready used in QL and use these

[cityy]

I wasn't able to post a useful reply until now, hope it's not too late.

The shader for those beams used in the screenshot is proto2/dust_flat. You put it on a simple patch mesh which forms the shape of your light beam. For the pure white behind the windows, create a brush behind the window and cover the front surface with ct_cure/white (I did not find whatever shader Asylum uses and made my own).
Also note that Asylum uses a very subtil fog brush all over the map, unfortunately I don't know which shader it is exactly.

[KillerFox]

Thanks to all again and specially to cityy - Finally I'm able to make the window.
Here is a screenshot - It's not a serious project map, it's only for learn, so, Don't Laugh At Me!



The other one issue has not been solved yet. Rays of light!
If I'll be able to realize the rays of light I can start the working.

[themuffinman]

< this >

[KillerFox]

WOW! It's amazing! themuffinman Thank you! My problem have been solved.
But, One thing has remained: How to extract / copy the shader with the rays of light and then import it into my map?

[cityy]

Not exactly sure what you mean, you do not have to export any shader - you can simply use the one I mentioned above (proto2/dust_flat).

[KillerFox]

cityy - I was tangled up - But Now It's Done!
Here is a screenshot:



Thanks again to all! This case can be closed.

[D-Meat]

congrats

[Plan B]

I love it when a plan comes together

[dONKEY]

low res lightmaps FTW

[themuffinman]

Those rays look properly fucked but glad you're happy.

[KillerFox]

themuffinman - This is my first contact with GtkRadiant (3 days of learn). This map is proposed only for learning. I can do much more.
dONKEY - You're right! I have to make more experiments with lights.
I have experience in 3D rendering. I'm using Octane Render Software with Cuda.
The thing about lights is more complicated. Here the lights react differently. Poor quality and too much work to get a good image.

[cityy]

Keep it up dude!

[KillerFox]

Guys, I was hit by a strange problem and I don't want to post a new topic.
Don't worry! I learn by myself about GtkRadiant using some tuts from net and from Official Manual. But this problem is more special.
It's about rain ... Let me tell you how I tried to make this effect.
1. I created a brush inside of a room
2. Then I loaded the folder sfx with textures and shaders
3. And finally I chose the shader called rain and I applied this to the brush
Rain works, but not correctly. Raindrops are seen only on the edges of the brush.
When I walk inside the brush here is no rain, but rain can be seen only on the edges of the brush.
I think that the brush can not be used here, maybe a different type of element.
How can I fix this error with the rain?

[obsidian]

Rain is not volumetric, it is surface based. You will only see the texture on the surface of the brush you apply it to. I suggest you skip using rain, particularly if you're new to Q3 editing, not even most veterans use rain because it is difficult to do and is a huge framerate killer. There are ninety-billion ways to do it wrong, all of which results in a huge framerate drops.

[KillerFox]

I did it! I did a little trick and the rain is more realistic.
Rain is inside the brush, more exactly, seems to be inside the brush.
Here's how I did:
1. I created a brush inside of a room
2. Then I loaded the folder sfx with textures and shaders
3. And finally I chose the shader called rain and I applied this to the brush
Here comes the trick:
4. I duplicated this brush and I reduced the size and I placed this into the first brush and so on.
Here's a screenshot:

By the way, now I'm working to make a gold effect (some gold bars).
I want to make some small bars of gold as decoration.
obsidian - This effect runs okay on my computer. I own a Core™2 Quad with 4 cores.

[D-Meat]

if Quake Live runs on the same rendering tech as Quake 3, watch out for severe framerate drops when you go over 60 000 tris - I think I read that somewhere. Severe framerate drops even on modern hardware ! This is a problem of the engine.

But don't worry, Even without rain, many interresting things can be done with 60 000 triangles