(q4) Geit - Geit4dm1b16 - Beta 1

Post by **Geit** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:34 pm

So I decided to jump on the q4-wagon and start mapping for quake4. Anyway, to make a long story short, here's my first attempt at a quake4 map. It's also my first try at mapping in the doom3 engine so all comments are more than welcome.

Anyhoo, it's a Team Deathmatch map and you can grab it right here:
http://goat.gamepoint.net/files.php?act ... fileid=126

And of course, some screenshots
[lvlshot]http://goat.gamepoint.net/pics/geit4dm1b16-shot1.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://goat.gamepoint.net/pics/geit4dm1b16-shot2.jpg[/lvlshot]

Post by **jester!** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:53 pm

Just ran around it, has a great scale imo. Feels like there is room to breath and the open areas would make for some nice fights. Obviously didnt gameplay test it but would still recommend either clipping off the stairs until the problem with jumping up them is addressed or make them into ramps in a few areas. Ran smooth in q4max as well. :icon32:

Post by **spookmineer** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 12:10 am

\o/ map by Geit!

Like jester! said, clipping the stairs or turning them into ramps will keep players from getting annoyed by the stairbumps. For a FFA there maybe not enough weapons in the map, and RA-YA-MH-Quad are all on the same level?
Performance is great, and map looks interesting to play

Post by **pjw** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:29 am

Some stuff:

1. Cool, big map!

2. Overlapping skybrushes over YA.

3. Sparklie (t-junction error) in the sky over RA--it looks like your trisouped rock is splitting up the sky weird there; you might have to make some sort of caulk buffer between the rock and sky brushes or something, dunno.

4. Items are too low--the weapons/armor in particular are clipping into the floor on the down-bob. Standard is usually ~16 units with nodrop.

5. I always prefer that any jumppads that push me up and back be tilted slightly to give me the hint that I'll have to turn around...

6. Lighting is surprisingly okay, considering this is your first effort with this engine, but there's one major thing that I notice you haven't done. You need to pull out the centers on your lights. To do this, hit "J", then check the "Center" box--this will create a pink dot that acts as a point origin for light produced within that volume. You'll find that by moving that pink dot around (not the light volume, just the dot) you can get a much better look for your lighting, and you can also use fewer lights in a more efficient way which means less overlapping and better performance (even though performance isn't bad in this map).

7. The only other thing about lighting...I'm not sure that the yellow light from the sky looks all that great when contrasted with the less colorful light you're using for much of the interior. There are places where you transition from indoors to outdoors that feel kind of jarring to me--maybe desaturate your sky light a little?

8. The trisouped rock generally looks okay, but I notice it's oddly dark on top in places (near the RA is especially noticable). This will also be helped by pulling the centers on your light volumes out and moving them higher...also, the rock near the YA maybe looks a little too regular--perhaps more variation on the tri size there or something?

Looking forward to the next version of this.

Post by **Geit** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 5:28 pm

pjw wrote:Some stuff:
4. Items are too low--the weapons/armor in particular are clipping into the floor on the down-bob. Standard is usually ~16 units with nodrop.

Don't the items drop down to the floor like they did in Q3?

6. Lighting is surprisingly okay, considering this is your first effort with this engine, but there's one major thing that I notice you haven't done. You need to pull out the centers on your lights. To do this, hit "J", then check the "Center" box--this will create a pink dot that acts as a point origin for light produced within that volume. You'll find that by moving that pink dot around (not the light volume, just the dot) you can get a much better look for your lighting, and you can also use fewer lights in a more efficient way which means less overlapping and better performance (even though performance isn't bad in this map).

Ah cool, I didn't know that. I'll play around with that a bit, thanks

Post by **pjw** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 10:45 pm

Geit wrote:Don't the items drop down to the floor like they did in Q3?

Yep. Just add a key of "nodrop" with a value of 1 and they'll stay where you put them though.

Post by **Geit** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:50 pm

spookmineer wrote:Like jester! said, clipping the stairs or turning them into ramps will keep players from getting annoyed by the stairbumps.

I don't want the players to be able to rampjump off of every staircase though :/

Post by **Oeloe** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:11 pm

Geit wrote:I don't want the players to be able to rampjump off of every staircase though :/

Yeah it's still a dilemma. I don't know about q4max 0.71, but in the latest X-Battle release the stairs bug is fixed. We have to keep hoping for it to be fixed in a patch for VQ4 soon... I think it's not unwise to leave stairs unclipped to be prepared for the future (in which the stairs bug will be fixed).

Looking forward to try your map btw (next monday)!

Post by **Geit** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:48 am

Oeloe wrote:
Geit wrote:I don't want the players to be able to rampjump off of every staircase though :/
Yeah it's still a dilemma. I don't know about q4max 0.71, but in the latest X-Battle release the stairs bug is fixed. We have to keep hoping for it to be fixed in a patch for VQ4 soon... I think it's not unwise to leave stairs unclipped to be prepared for the future (in which the stairs bug will be fixed).

Yes, I agree and I think it would indeed propably be best to assume the bug will be fixed in the (near) future, or at least the competitive mods will have the bug fixed, because clipping off the stairs is far from ideal and in some situations can either break the flow of the map or just be down right annoying.

Post by **primaltheory** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:24 am

how does one rampjump?

Post by **jester!** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:31 am

primaltheory wrote:how does one rampjump?

Run up a ramp and while on the incline, jump.

Post by **primaltheory** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:46 am

oh, nevermind, thought it was somthing neat...

*feels really stupid*

Post by **jester!** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:25 am

Well it does allow for some interesting things, good jumps and such.

Post by **primaltheory** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:07 pm

wow, memmories of quake 2, all the crazy jumping shit people did...people got way too into that...i specifically remember getting railed several times in a row by this one guy who was shooting through a gap like 4 pixels wide and i couldnt do shit
him
//
me

and that was the point in time where I was just like man you gotta get a life then I left.

Post by **Lukin** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:58 pm

Nice level.
Three suggestions:
1) There is a corridor with four +25hp bubbles. Looks weird.
2) I'm not sure if it's good that you can jump on those little gaps between the rocks - I would clip them.
3) Some corridors seem to be too long. Maybe add another big hall somewhere between them (if it's possible).

Post by **primaltheory** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:01 pm

What is the item name for the +25 Hp bubbles? I can't find them!

Post by **Lukin** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:06 pm

pickup

item

item_health_small

Post by **Geit** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:38 pm

Lukin wrote:Nice level.
Three suggestions:
1) There is a corridor with four +25hp bubbles. Looks weird.

Yeah, they're supposed to be health shards, my bad

3) Some corridors seem to be too long. Maybe add another big hall somewhere between them (if it's possible).

Which corridors do you mean?

Post by **Lukin** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:13 pm

I mean the corridor from HB to Quad and another one from LG to RL.
Also, the MH is too close to quad. One more thing I've noticed is kinda strange. Sometimes I got stuck on the floor borders. I don't know if it happens only to me, but I've seen similar 'effects' on odq3dm6 and on galang - I think it's something with q4 physics and patches.
Screenshots:

Post by **Geit** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:23 pm

Lukin wrote:I mean the corridor from HB to Quad and another Sometimes I got stuck on the floor borders. I don't know if it happens only to me, but I've seen similar 'effects' on odq3dm6 and on galang - I think it's something with q4 physics and patches.

It get that a lot too on most other maps. I guess it's a q4 bug.

Post by **spookmineer** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:36 pm

Damn... I see you online but can't join because it's an updated version of the map :/

Post by **primaltheory** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:38 pm

see the beta 2 thread? ;-)

Post by **Geit** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:57 pm

spookmineer wrote:Damn... I see you online but can't join because it's an updated version of the map :/

hehe, lol :P
I was just testing the latest version, I'll post the second beta here soon.

Post by **corsair** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:59 am

Ive been waiting for that

I did run the first beta tho, just thought that if I'd bother to comment, it'd result into too much - hence I await what yer second beta is bringing, cause imo, you were abit rough on releasing the first ;o

Post by **Geit** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:08 am

corsair wrote:Ive been waiting for that

I did run the first beta tho, just thought that if I'd bother to comment, it'd result into too much - hence I await what yer second beta is bringing, cause imo, you were abit rough on releasing the first ;o

I just posted the second beta a or so minute ago, so fire away!

http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15367

Oh, and don't forget to target my CTF map as well :icon25: