in your skybox, speedy. it distracts me, you should make a tga version. 

I'm nowhere near finishing the Turtle Map as of yet, but I have put some time into it this weekend. Here are a few shots from my upcoming map, 'A Shrine to Hatred.'

http://img318.imageshack.us/img318/491/joequake0080qm.jpg

http://img318.imageshack.us/img318/5305/joequake0119vt.jpg

http://img318.imageshack.us/img318/8284/joequake0095ca.jpg

http://img318.imageshack.us/img318/858/joequake0131cd.jpg 

of any asian architecture, particularly in the quake engine. 2nd shot in particular looks tibetan. and i like the roofs in the 1st and 4th shots; maybe indic or nepali inspired? the lighting could use a little less contrast all around. (going from fullbright straight to fulldark does not seem to look too good in quake).

not sure how much i should critique lighting/texturing/layout... if you're "nowhere near finishing it". 

for the double layered roof adjoinment in the first pic(which I copied from a Bangcock coutyard pic) all of it is based on Tibetan motifs. However, I've worked the designs over so much they bare scant resemblance to their source inspirations. I just hope it becomes more cohesive as I work on it.

Yeap, the lighting is just one spotlight at this point (so it is all maximum drama in every direction). When I add some sourced lights near ground level it should look more natural. 

Well my only complaint is that if it's outside then the lighting in some of the shots is very very harsh. I don't know if any of it takes place inside, you may want to add sunlight 2 or just put in a low minlight, cuz that makes my eyes bleed. No, seriously. Ok, I really doesn't. It looks cool, so I'm waiting for that sourced ground lighting to even things up. 

it to be a bit easier to work a sunlight 2 in after doing source lights instead of working source lights in around the sunlight 2. It may be just a personal oddity of mine, but sunlight 2 always reminded me of using gradiants in Photoshop. 

Right now I think this lighting looks pretty crappy, and the texturing isn't final either but I'm looking for suggestions to improve the lighting:

- http://www.phait-accompli.com/q/s4/pre/tower5.jpg
- http://www.phait-accompli.com/q/s4/pre/tower4.jpg
- http://www.phait-accompli.com/q/s4/pre/tower3.jpg

My other idea I'd rather go with was this:
- http://www.phait-accompli.com/q/s4/pre/tower1.jpg
- http://www.phait-accompli.com/q/s4/pre/tower2.jpg

But it looks sloppy. 

For the lightning improvement of the first spiral stairs style: you should remove the "flying" lights, and use 2 small lights on the stair sides (like there are already on external side of the spiral stairs)

In anyway, I really prefer the second, which ease to have good lightning effects without too much work... 

The 'floating' lights are going to be connected to the ceiling or the tower (that the stairs wrap around).

I could put spotlights on the tower (inside of stairs) but it looks bad, as some of the spotlights cover more than 1 face, and thus are wider than they normally would be. 

What light, wait and delay field values are you using ?

I guess using some "low" light value (around 50), delay value 2 (1/x� attenuation) and wait value 1 could do it properly... Did you made different tries in this zone ? 

I never use any of that stuff... confusing. 

What do you mean by confusing ? The field names I used instead of angle, mangle, etc... ? 

I recompiled almost all maps fom the abandon with new compilers and Quark 61.
They do look better now, but I'm a little concerned.
After finally recompiling untill all leaks were vanished, I'm confronted with a new HOM error. Arg...

Strange, because some HOM effects disappear with a vis level 2, although I can't get rid of the regret they aren't vised level 4. 

This is kind of what I've settle on texture wise, looks better - but I'm still open to suggestions:

- http://www.phait-accompli.com/q/s4/pre/tower6.jpg 

the curved walls are too flat. inset the brown rivets so the blue blocks stand out (like the strip lights are), or make some structural girders that connect the outer wall to the inner cylinder, or both. Curves look nice, but they often look even better when you break up and modify the curviness a little.

I'm also not sure about that long thin light brush that comes all the way down from the ceiling. looks odd to me. maybe it could angle off the wall at a lower height?

you asked for suggestions, you got 'em.

most importantly, trust your instincts, you needn't ask us if something looks good every time you make a change. 

Grahf yeah maybe, but maybe not 

as well, but imagined what a nightmare it might turn out for BSP (or at least semi-nightmare) as theres alot of tall brushwork there that makes up the outer wall. I just made a 128x64 custom texture of the blue metal-block + brown rivet tex so I didn't have to split up the wall any further.

I like your suggestion of connecting the tower to the outer wall... I'll see how I can work that in. Thanks! 

Got some Myrmidon screenies up at my spawnpoint site, at http://biff.spawnpoint.org/gallery . Nothing new, really -- but I thought I'd better get some game-related content up in case scampie was looking for fat to trim ;D 

And mapping, great :D Whats new? 

Great stuff! Go idbase! 

Wow, what a beautiful base ! Very interesting ! I like all these "technics details", and the use of the ID base testures is really good !! Even if I think lightning effects could be improved just adding a little bit more contrast (i.e light too 'flat', not enough shadow here and there,... but it's my humble opinion of rookie mapper .. ;)...), this level screenshots are very good, and I'm sure this level will be fun to play ! When is it planned for release ? Keep it up, and go map ! 

Pretty nice stuff biff0r! 

cool base biff! 

Your base maps are enviably sexy as always, but weren't the last two maps from you the very same style?

I'll still play it when it's done, but I would kill to see you experiment. 

Biff: its great, nice to see some strong style and originality in the era of SPOG/CZG ripoffs and 'old skool'... except the ID base - could you use any other textures?