WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Ack... obviously.

    Those totally stick out of the roof... hah, it's amazing how one can overlook blatant errors when staring at a scenery for too long.

    Thanks : ))

    Didn't have much time this week to work on this area, but I added cables on the floor, created a different rubble texture and decal that blend in with it. Take a look at the steps on the right side. Also the brown wall no longer tiles. The area is around 40,000 polys.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.methodonline.com/temp/meth_test9a.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.methodonline.com/temp/meth_test9b.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.methodonline.com/temp/meth_test9c.jpg]

    Feedback on how to improve this is welcome. Also if you don't like something in the following shots, please comment on what makes you feel that way. Same goes if you like something.

    Thank you,

    -Method

    the contrast between the right angled walls and all the beautiful curved rails and whatever that cylinder thing is a bit jarring, i do however love it anyway because its so damn awesome. I'd be interested in pics of how stuff in that engine is made (eg the rails, cables) as ive had no experience with it yet.

    Thanks Zeta. As requested the following shots show how the rails and bended surfaces (patches) are created. Basically it's a plane with vertices that you can manipulate. Notice that one of the screenshots features Surface Inspector, that can be used to optimize patchess.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.methodonline.com/temp/editor1.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.methodonline.com/temp/editor2.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.methodonline.com/temp/editor3.jpg]

    -Method

    Quote from dux

    Ugh, Radiant looks so all over the place compared to Hammer.

    It's actually just Method's layout. You can change it to a 4 window view, like Hammer has.

    You guys really need to tell me how you work with brushes. Seriously, I'm also f*cking up things with them. That's why I mostly models... (not in Q4 though)

    you gotta love radiant. patches is what hammer really lacks. like in cod-radiant i could make ten times better terrain. And you dont need props for every little nonsense.

    Valve could've easily implemented patches. Displacements are basically half way there -- all they'd need to do is add the relevant controls in Hammer and then implement the detail stuff in the engine (so the patch can be subdivided the appropriate number of times). The main difference is that displacements are subdivided planes with explicit vertex positions whereas patches are defined by control points. Even then, they could've easily added quadratic or cubic bezier patch controls to Hammer for convenience (so you could edit the displacement as if it were a patch to get curved surfaces, then just bake out the explicit vertex positions and let the engine use them as is).

    The latter compromise would've greatly aided level designers in making some complicated geometry without having to resort to loads of triangular brushes, displacement vertex nudging or props. If you look at just how integral patches are when it comes to making really cool architecture, I think it was a missed opportunity for Source. The valve guys possibly just felt that Half-life2 and their other planned source engine games wouldn't benefit from having patches, but it would've been cool for 3rd party level designers & modders

    I plan on making a displacement editor with patch functionality using C# after I graduate to help me learn the basics of C#. If I can figure out the .vmf & displacement format it shouldn't be too hard as I already have a good handle on bezier curves, and a patch is further step beyond curves.

    Quote from Steppenwolf

    you gotta love radiant. patches is what hammer really lacks. like in cod-radiant i could make ten times better terrain. And you dont need props for every little nonsense.

    I love patches, but oof do I hate them for terrain I actually prefer Valve's displacements for terrain over using patches (though modeling stuff by hand in d3 has its advantages)... But Unreal wins the terrain category, of course

    It's horses for courses, really. Displacement editing is better for terrain and patches are better for smoothish geometry Developers could merge both into one tool in the editor though. Displacement functionality by default with a checkbox for patch style editing (or vice versa) would be of great use.

    Really all they'd have to add would be vertex control of the original brush face(s)... otherwise the editor already supports displacements on all axes; imagine being able to set up your terrain's initial roll with vert tweaking before painting the rest, or being able to add a damaged feel to a rounded wall (which you can do already, but getting the rounded wall is a bit of a chore )

    actualy in cod-radiant you got two different kinds of patches a) terrain meshes. they are like displacements in hammer except you got more and better options to manipulate them. and b) patch meshes. you use them to build tubes, tunels, fancy geometry and that stuff

    Dont know if its the same in doom 3 radiant.

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