my creation process usually involves a huge amount of procrastination. The problem is that my PC is my primary form of entertainment so it's easy to get distracted away to youtube or steam.
One of the biggest things I find about mapping is that you need to actually lay brushes down in order for something to get made. Mapping in front of an audience, like on twitch, kind of forces you into a frame of mind of "well I need to be doing *something*" so you just throw brushes down in the hope that something decent will come of it.

First thing I do is pick a theme and make some prefab areas, usually a test map, play with lighting a little bit and some specific shapes (long curved rooms, stair way ideas, door-ways and windows etc), think of it like creating a kind of "palette" in which you're going to paint your map. It also helps to keep the theme consistent.

For the main map I usually start out by making some shapes on a 64x64 grid just to get the ball rolling. Even if it's just the main atrium or a couple of rooms. I then see about how traversing the environment might be fun, so I make some raised platforms and stuff and think about how the encounters might play out. When it comes to detailing I have made my test map with prefabs already, so I see how they fit into the gameplay area I have made, sometimes it involves shuffling things about and making areas bigger or smaller.

The last part, but the most important, is to ensure you put at least 1 spawn in the map. Preferably in a small room that is hard to escape from if you find yourself in there. 

You mean a tarbaby? I thought you all hated this monster.

Anyway, I used to blockout the level completely and then start to make prefabs. For jam 6 that cost me about the time I took polishing the map after deadline.

So, now I'm starting with an overall concept and making prefabs. I got stuck because I don't know where to go after that room I showed above. I decided to just think and prefab other spots to connect them later.

But you're right: maybe I should prefab and map separately. Let's see how it goes. 

that looks spectacular. The first shot reminds me of UnrealED type architecture. 

One of my earliest forays into level design was for unreal... 

@mfx- model looks great, I like the way it has it roundings and carves it mouth. Maybe make it more vampire with hooked teeth.

I made one for the quake/doom mod Hangar, but mine is more smaller and I used a torch for flames. 

All kinds of new methods have been invented since I last played with qme (and did so amateurishly even then) but I'm wondering how easy it would be to convert models from other Quake-engine games (q2 engine, or even q3 engine), PURELY models for decorative items - no animations.

I find lack of decorative objects in Quake, very limiting. In Drake there's trees at least and the hexen 2 statue, so that helps. 

if you have a model that fits in qmle it is easy to export one frame out of it to a 3DS or DXF file.
Opening a new model from scratch and import the same frame back in Qmle you can save it as a mdl.
From there it can be used as a static entity that can be used in game as eyecandy.
As long the model excist on the extention 3ds or dxf and is under the 1000 verts / 2000 triangles it will do.

Just give it a qc code like:

$frame 0

void() squad_stand1 =[ 0, squad_stand2 ] {};
void() squad_stand2 =[ 1, squad_stand1 ] {};


void() model_squad =
{
precache_model ("progs/squad.mdl");

self.solid = SOLID_BBOX;
self.movetype = MOVETYPE_NONE;

setmodel (self, "progs/squad.mdl");

setsize (self, VEC_HULL2_MIN, VEC_HULL2_MAX);
self.think = squad_stand1;
self.nextthink = time + 0.1;
};


Of course you need to compile it in a new progs. dat. 

preach has a md3 to mdl converter so depending on what you need, it could be trivial to convert them! 

The model is done by Sock in the end. We just collect thoughts together... 

(it is awesome to hear from Madfox and Necros! If I won the lottery I would pay you guys to make a giant rotating mechanical quake episode).

I will write you guys later this month. I will see if I can rouse PM from his slumber. 

just playing around :)

https://twitter.com/GavinEdgington/status/645544081867841536 

Liking the stuff ur posting, hope it comes to fruition. 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3lw2g6/imgur_is_being_used_to_create_a_botnet_and_ddos/ 

Fuck that, and fuck anyone who targets 8chan in particular. 

https://de.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3lw2g6/imgur_is_being_used_to_create_a_botnet_and_ddos/cv9vm3s 

 

 

sure 

I'm really with czg on this. Meh. 

Aren't 8chan users mostly pedos?

I'm just going from things I've read, I've never visited that place. 

yep, and antisemitic. 

It's just shitheads fighting with other shitheads, who cares. 

the part about imgur being used in an XSS attack doesn't bother you? Don't you guys ever go to imgur?