Map 01 is about done!
http://i.imgur.com/JboYARn.jpg 

Here is what Quake looks like megatextured. It's uniquely textured (well, 95%) but it's not one physical texture, rather, nineteen of them (not including the door texture and accompanying shader). Shader? Oh yeah, this isn't BSP29 either, it's FBSP (q3map2/qfusion). "Megatexturing" for vanilla quake is pretty laborious, which caused me to abandon my first megatexturing project. However, I did get some useful graybox textures out of the deal.

The most notable benefits of switching map formats are:
1. No palette!
2. No WAD repacking and map recompile to update them in-game.
3. Textures must only be divisible by 2 rather than 16.

The room took me about three solid evenings to make, quite a bit of that time was spent fiddling around and getting the hang of things. One who is experienced could do a better job in less time. I say this because it pertains to my initial question: is megatexturing Quake, or a derivative, viable? Based upon my findings, my answer is ABSOLUTLEY.

Of course, certain variables alter it's 'viability'. For instance, opting for textures with a greater pixel density than Quake will result in much more texture data. My test, KP14, has exactly 3mb of textures. If I were to make a map 100x larger and megatexture it, it would only use approximately 300mb in textures, which is nothing.

This is the workflow and benefits of texturing this way that I imagine:

Concept art is the anchor, the unifying element that both the level designer and level artist will use. This is key. The level designer lays out a map focusing almost exclusively on gameplay, the level designer does not texture the map, he only grayboxes it. The map is continually refined until it plays great, I mean beautifully, as this is the designers main focus. Now that we have a great playing map, the artist goes in and draws all over it, focusing only on making it look great. The end result is a map that looks AND plays great.

I feel that by narrowing the focus on these two elements, the end result is of much higher quality. Both the level designer and artist have a much higher level of freedom than they would if using traditional texture sets.

There are other details, but this is the gist. It sounds good on paper, at least.

Anyway, here are some pics of KP14 being assembled.

bam and boom 

That is a shitload of commendable effort! I like the direction you went, it reminds me of both Rage and Warsow at once, somehow.

To be honest, though... I think I'm siding with sock and Lunaran on the matter, in that while the difference between regular textures and unique textures is obvious on paper, the average player won't really notice it in game. And especially not in the heat of Quake combat.

No palette!

But you can already have that with normal BSP and external textures. 

Is that you seem to give everything a fairly thick outline. Which is okay on its own but you'll notice Quake hardly ever does that.

Place a couple Enforcers and ammo crates inside that corridor and they will stick out considerably (and not in a good way). 

@onetruepurple

Sadly, I went down the wrong road in the art direction (I was going by the seat of my pants anyway), as this effect could be pretty easily achieved with tiling textures.

When I say "Megatexturing Quake" I really mean megatexturing a game that is a Quake derivative. In other words, a unique IP built on the tech.

Agree, if you're looking to simply map for Quake, this method is overkill and the result is very un-Quake. However, it's doable if that tickles your fancy.

"the average player won't really notice it in game. And especially not in the heat of Quake combat"

The reason many games suck today is because the are made for the average player. They're not my target :) 

O_o

Are you sure that is Doom? Maybe i played a different game. Too awesome to be true.

If you don't release that we will loath you forever. 

I have no idea how to download that file. I dont want to download an .exe 

The Mayhem wad?

At the top where it says:

Download: MAYhem2048.wad

just click on the file name. 

try this link: http://www.speedyshare.com/aYEEb/MAYhem2048.wad

and click on the underlined message that says mayhem2048.wad. it will download the wad file. drag and drop the .wad file into your doom 2 directory. 

I must have been doing something wrong badly here. Got it this time though. 

Too many insta-death situations for me... the chaingun ambush was overpowered IMO 

Fuck, that's awesome. 

Just keep doing your thing KP, I dig. 

very cool. 

 

"the average player won't really notice it in game. And especially not in the heat of Quake combat"

The reason many games suck today is because the are made for the average player. They're not my target :)

my head hurts 

Mine too.

otp is right, this is overkill for Quake. I wasn't responding to the statement itself, rather, the underlying philosophy (however, in the context of Quake mapping, is appropriate).

If you only do things the average player will notice or appreciate your games will be just that: average.

That's all I'm saying. 

@RickyT23, Spiney, nitin & mfx

Hopefully this is just the first baby step of something awesome.

time will teeeeelllllllll..... 

if you compress an mp3 so that the average listener can't tell, does it become average music? 

 

Also, as someone with a background in music and audio production, my answer to your question is this:

The artistic merits of the music are not lessened. However, the overall impact of the expression could be compromised because of the technical limitations of the medium.

To put my point in question into simpler terms: Developers who make games as shitty as their target demographic allows will end up with shitty games.

The "average player", in terms of the largest generators of income for the devs, set the bar pretty low. Going above and beyond that bar, even though it doesn't positively impact your bottom line, is not a bad thing. 

Been Playing this game called

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem:_Avenging_Angel

It's like a cross between Quake II and Undying and it's pretty good.

It's on Isozone, and it runs on Win 7 using wndmode.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Requiem:_Avenging_Angel 

 

hiring masses of artists to uniquely texture your entire game world isn't "going above and beyond the bar" for just the discerning environment art geeks in your audience, it's a captain-goes-down-with-the-ship style decision made purely on the principle that unique is automatically better, and that tiling a texture is "shitty" and only worthy of these fabled unwashed masses who are ruining everything with their F2Ps and their QTEs.

and you've spent how much time on just that one room? honestly assess just how much value is added by slightly different faded paint, slightly different scratches on the corners, and having a different big number on each wall, and tell me you're excited about the possibilities that it opens for doing a whole map that way. 

You made several points, I'll address them one by one:

I must have been unclear in my wording. I'm not saying games with tiling textures are shitty, nor am I saying that games with unique textures are superior. My previous points aren't about a specific practice (in this case, texturing), rather, the idea that doing enough to get by, or generate profit, is sufficient.

Also, my conclusion that uniquely texturing a game on this level of tech, at this pixel density is a viable route is not based on the "principle that unique is automatically better", as you assert.

In my eyes, unique textures makes it possible to create very rich environmental art, that is, if the devs have the capacity wherewithal to do so.

To quote you:

"honestly assess just how much value is added by slightly different faded paint, slightly different scratches on the corners, and having a different big number on each wall, and tell me you're excited about the possibilities that it opens for doing a whole map that way."

To quote what I said to otp a few posts up:

"Sadly, I went down the wrong road in the art direction (I was going by the seat of my pants anyway), as this effect could be pretty easily achieved with tiling textures. "

Clearly, I understand I didn't have the wherewithal to utilize the freedom of unique textures.

And of course, not being a moron, I have "honestly assessed" the logistics of doing things this way. That was the whole point of doing this in the first place ;)

This room took me a solid 10 hours to texture over the course of three evenings. That is a long time.

To quote my initial post:

"One who is experienced could do a better job in less time"

Some dirty math:

Say I want a level 30x times that size, that's roughly 300 hours of work. At a 40 hour work week, one artist could finish it in 2 months. for ONE artist, working full time, they could theoretically pump out 6 levels a year.

Say you want a 16 level game done in 1.5 years. A team of three artists would be sufficient. That's basically 2 levels per 6 six months for each artist. I'm talking artists, there would be a separate team of level designers.

To me, this isn't "hiring masses of artists".

If uniquely texturing games wasn't viable studios wouldn't be doing it.

Bleh, maybe I'm nieve (I'm sure I am), on the flip side, maybe you're jaded. These are just my findings and my opinions, if you disagree with them I understand. I should be more clear when simultaneously discussing separate issue that have both stemmed from one subject...