Screenshots

[T_Creutzenberg]

Hi, here are some screenshots of the map I'm still working on from time to time.
It's nearly finished.

Tower 1
[lvlshot]http://www.creutzenberg.de/thomasc/thomasc4_tower1.jpg[/lvlshot]

Moved to this topic including Beta version:
http://www.quake3forum.com/forum/viewto ... 603ce88454

[AEon]

T_Creutzenberg,
once you have a beta ready, open a new thread, and let us download/test the map ... the feedback you get might actually be useful .

[Pat Howard]

Hi, here are some screenshots of the map I'm still working on from time to time.
It's nearly finished.

Wow. That map looks absolutely incredible - like a Q4 map or something. Please finish it .

[sock]

More texture/lighting updates ...
[lvlshot]http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/moteof1dm1l_1024.jpg[/lvlshot]

[MKJ]

the only nitpick i have is the maptitle
srsly, its right up there with "the nameless place" and "the bouncy map" =/

[Zyte]

Haha agreed, except about the nameless place, that's just awesome bro ;p

@ T_Creutzenberg, looks nice from the shots, i might have to check it out.

[Tabun]

Hah. I actually found this name sounding rather "Myst"-esque. Which makes sense to me, seeing it's a puzzle-map...

[sock]

@MKJ, the title of the map is a play on words of a Star Trek episode City on the Edge of Forever. The map features the Guardian and is located in an isolated area with 'myst' like machines that have been forgotten about.

[MrLego]

isolated area with 'myst' like machines

As long as I don't have to swap CD's everytime I leave an area (like in Myst and Riven) then turn a valve handle and then swap CD's again to go back, it's all good.

[obsidian]

Rosy eyed glasses of nostalgia made me forget about all the CD swapping in those games (and I now recall beating my head on my desk and running around the entire world for the nth time trying to solve some of those puzzles).

[Pat Howard]

@Sock, I'm interested to see how you've scaled this thing. I'm putting together an alpha for a realistic map right now and I'm having serious problems getting the scale right since everything needs to be larger on the XY to let Q3A's movement breathe. Then again, players probably won't be doing too much movement in this map so I suppose you can get away with tight doors and windows. Still, it will be cool to see how you do that stuff.

-pat

[obsidian]

If you build anything 1:1 relative to the player size, everything will look 2x smaller than they should and with Q3's movement physics, about 4x smaller. This makes everything a little wonky to begin with if you're trying to make anything realistic. Most "realistic" Q3 engine games tone down the movement speed and height significantly from Q3's defaults.

Sock's map "looks" realistic but it is quite open. However, if you go into 3rd person mode, you'll see that all the control panels have switches and buttons that you can easily use with boxing gloves on.

You'll have to decide whether you want things to look right relative to the player model or look and feel right relative to the player's FoV. In most cases, I think you would want the latter.

[Hipshot]

Think about Soviet when building, then you'll get the right scale in Q3...

[lvlshot]http://www.peter-ould.net/wp-content/uploads/winter_palace_square_st_petersburg_russia.jpg[/lvlshot]

[sock]

@Pat, Q3 scale is always crazy large and making stuff looking real scale always ends badly. The problem with Q3 and scale is that the player movement is too fast, you can jump off buildings and survive, and bunny hop like a grasshopper on speed which completely breaks the illusion of reality environments.

My latest map has 192-256 wide hallways, 192 high door/archways and no ladders or jump pads. I would personally recommend you take all measurements and times then by 3 or better still, build soviet style! :P Giant structures with huge sweeping arches and support beams. Also remember to add small details, so it will give your soviet stuff a scale reference.

@Mrlego, there is only one load time, 5 puzzles, 10 secrets and 2 endings! Should be enough to keep you busy for a while. This map is really only for people who love finding stuff or trying out visual puzzles, everyone else will just get frustrated and hate it! ooops it seems my target audience is probably going to be 5 people!

[Pat Howard]

Haha thanks for the scale advice guys. I thought I was going crazy there for a while. I've basically been building things to about 3x scale. Movement isn't too cramped and things don't look way too big, so 3x seems to be the best compromise between those two things.

[sock]

Nearly finished with the new textures ...
[lvlshot]http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/moteof1dp1l_1024.jpg[/lvlshot]

[Kaz]

damn! those bricks are sweet!

[Kat]

Early stages of this years Unearthly Challenge entry. More info here.

[phantazm11]

@sock: Truly epic brushwork man.

@kat: Awesome terrain. You make the Quake 4 engine really shine. Good luck in the competition.

[Hipshot]

Unearthly challange, yes, cool stuff, my friend won that thing last year...
How advanced will you go?

I would love to enter, but I can't really do that using the Q3 engine, I need to wait for rage and also speed up my modeling, takes to long time now...

[jal_]

@Kat: Is that terrain using a single texture?

[sock]

The 'Unearthly challange' should be renamed 'Unearthly screenshot', I never get the impression that the competition is about making stuff that runs inside of a game engine but about creating something with a million polys and looks nice!

@kat, I think this is where you probably go wrong with the Quake engines for the competition, you seem to be trying to make something that runs good ingame as well, which IMHO is pointless. The other thing is the lighting on your screenshot looks really odd, very dark shadows next to full bright rocks. I am sure this is just a quick render/preview but it looks really odd. Also the textures on your rocks looks too low resolution for the size of them, it feels like to me the rock face is really small and low to the ground.

[Hipshot]

The 'Unearthly challange' should be renamed 'Unearthly screenshot', I never get the impression that the competition is about making stuff that runs inside of a game engine but about creating something with a million polys and looks nice!

@kat, I think this is where you probably go wrong with the Quake engines for the competition, you seem to be trying to make something that runs good ingame as well, which IMHO is pointless. The other thing is the lighting on your screenshot looks really odd, very dark shadows next to full bright rocks. I am sure this is just a quick render/preview but it looks really odd. Also the textures on your rocks looks too low resolution for the size of them, it feels like to me the rock face is really small and low to the ground.

I don't think the contest ever said that they aim to get things playable in-game really, isn't more about creating the "best you can" within a game engine or something similar?

[Kat]

The 'Unearthly challange' should be renamed 'Unearthly screenshot', I never get the impression that the competition is about making stuff that runs inside of a game engine but about creating something with a million polys and looks nice!

@kat, I think this is where you probably go wrong with the Quake engines for the competition, you seem to be trying to make something that runs good ingame as well, which IMHO is pointless. The other thing is the lighting on your screenshot looks really odd, very dark shadows next to full bright rocks. I am sure this is just a quick render/preview but it looks really odd. Also the textures on your rocks looks too low resolution for the size of them, it feels like to me the rock face is really small and low to the ground.

I agree with the general sentiment so everything I'm doing is being done from the point of view that it *can* be run in game, else, as you point out, what's the point, you might as well be rendering stills in Max, Maya et-al. I've never been one for following the rules ;o)

You are right about engine choice though as overall I think a good 90% of entries are using Unreal 3, the rest are probably using comparatively recent proprietary tech their own studios are using (a lot of entries are from studio based guys it seems, using the tech in a professional capacity); personally I'd rather use the time otherwise spent learning those tools doing something I know can be done... you can waste so much time simply trying to find out where the tools are never mind actually use them when looking at new tech (as you know ;o) ).

The scene is lit with the sun effectively top-left hence the over arching shadows from that side, it's done like that on purpose to make sure the 'entrance light' can be clearly seen (because it's then in shadow and not having to fight to be seen against fully lit surfaces). Textures hold up OK, it's just that shot that makes them look a little blurry. Still some ways to go on this though so will post some updates when I get a chance to.

@ jal_: no it's textured in the 'traditional' manner as there's a 4096 texture limit; the mesh itself is almost that size so creating any form of 'megatexture' of suitable resolution would pretty much use up the allotted max.

[dONKEY]

Damn Kat, I'm busy for a few weeks and you're posting stuff! I know this is early stages, but the terrain itself...phew, you really have become the rock and terrain king of idtech