a doom3 compile

[von*ferret]

lacks color. Add a hint of some color in there to get rid of the monochrome feel.

[Section_Ei8ht]

Yet another connecting hallway

[RD]

BTW KungFU, we play Quake 3 daily at the office. I hope Quake 4 multiplayer is Quake 3 with visual upgrades. Like CS:S to CS. Please lead me to believe Raven understands the reason people love Quake 3.

Please lead me to believe Raven knows better than that.

[KungFuSquirrel]

Anything you need to know about Quake at this time is available in the recent PC Gamer article. I believe it has an answer to your question, DD.

Section_Eight: New shots looks good. Is the trim up top specifically angled that way, or is it a low subdivision bevel? It might be worth trying out a curvy top piece there? I think it'd look especially neato on the corner to keep that smoother style.

It'd be cool if you could get a few more lighting highlights in here and there - just little accent stuff with small enough dimensions to keep from giving too much overdraw. You'll see the normal maps really start to 'pop' when you get the lighting just right on them. You'll know what I mean when you see it, but I'll leave that discovery to you

[von*ferret]

I'd love to see some outdoor screens.

[Section_Ei8ht]

its specifically angled that way. Its more evident in the game. the bottom of the trim is a verticle brush, and the top is a patch mesh that curves up to the top in that kinda half U shape.

All of my patch meshes are only a 3x3 subdiv. I'm going to go through the map and bump them all up to 7x7 or higher if needed. I'm slowly starting to understand and utilize patches more and more.

I think I know what you mean on the normal maps. I'll see if I can use it effectivly in the next room.

After I'm done with the cinematic part, I'm going to add on to the map to make it a dm level. I'll be sure to work an outdoor area in there.

Thanks for the comments.

[KungFuSquirrel]

its specifically angled that way. Its more evident in the game. the bottom of the trim is a verticle brush, and the top is a patch mesh that curves up to the top in that kinda half U shape.

Hmm. Maybe just try taking the whole shape you have right now into a patch mesh, then, and get a little curve out of it. Might pull off well.

All of my patch meshes are only a 3x3 subdiv. I'm going to go through the map and bump them all up to 7x7 or higher if needed. I'm slowly starting to understand and utilize patches more and more.

Now, wait, you mean by creating a simple patch mesh and then using the 3x3 settings? You'll rarely need any more than a 3x3 simple patch mesh - if you're tweaking subdivisions, use the surface properties tab, click the checkbox for "subdivide surface" or whatever and then use the sliders there to adjust the vertical and horizontal subdivisions. This also opens up the possibility of doing some crazy cool stuff with details following curves (i.e. a simple 90 bevel curve combined with patch meshes at smaller subdivisions with some varied texture stacking). You can't always trust the automatic subdivision to get the desired results.

If this is what you're doing already, my apologies, but I just wanted to make sure - your phrasing confused me a tad Better safe than sorry.

[Section_Ei8ht]

er... i never thought of that.

That answers a few questions I had...

[JynxDaddy]

I'm confused.... You compile doom3 maps? It doesnt involve any light calculations does it? I thought they were all done in real time.

[von*ferret]

probablya slip up jinx

glad to see some good level design discussion in here

[KungFuSquirrel]

There's a BSP process that handles things like the basic player collision files as well as AI collision and navigation (the AAS files). Also, you can run a -ShadowOpt 2 compile which optimizes the shadows that are cast by lights (they're polgyons that add to your tri count; another reason why large overlapping lights can be bad), but the lights still function fully in real-time.

Larger maps can still take a while just due to the number of faces and volumes (AAS again) that have to be calculated, but it's still a very very quick process. Minutes at most.

[Section_Ei8ht]

yeah, the compile time for this map at most was 15 seconds. and I didn't want to say "render" or "build" so compile was the word of choice.

[von*ferret]

I know I'm going to regret asking this, because its yet another distraction on my plate of things to do, but whats teh command to get into the level editor?

[KungFuSquirrel]

editor.

You can create a shortcut to it pretty easily as well. Just make a normal D3 shortcut, then add "+editor +set r_fullscreen 0" to the command line. Be sure to add "+set r_fullscreen 1" to your game shortcut, though. Saves the hassle of alt+enter any time you want one after running the other.

[von*ferret]

congrats kfs, you've distracted me from NW jk