I've seen lights that are long rectangles ...

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Are they making a ton of individual lights? What technique are they using?

Or is there an easy way to take a brush and make it illuminate? 

Unless you're using surface lighting, you just need to place one or a few lights. Sometimes I go with one, but sometimes two. 

If the texture is one of those 32x128 dimension light textures, i recommend making 4-8 light entities along the length of it. that gives a nice and even illumination. Copy / paste is your friend. 

Tyrann said he stopped using his skip program cause it causes visual glitches sometimes, I've been using it quite a bit and haven't come across any problems though...
But yeah, a real skip pass during qbsp would be awesome, one of my maps keeps going a bit over markedsurface engine limit, and being able to skip some stuff could probably help. =D 

Marius was so nice to post this list on quaddicted.com

The following mirrors are all functioning as of Friday, May 27, 2005:

ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames2/levels/
http://www.au.horde.org/pub/idgames2/levels/
http://www.gamers.org/pub/idgames2/levels/
http://ftp.se.kde.org/pub/pc/games/idgames2/levels/
http://download.au.kde.org/pub/idgames2/levels/

Planetmirror Mirrors
http://curl.planetmirror.com/pub/idgames2/levels/
http://python.planetmirror.com/ftp/idgames2/levels/
http://mrtg.planetmirror.com/pub/idgames2/levels/
http://horde.planetmirror.com/pub/idgames2/levels/
http://public.kde.planetmirror.com/pub/idgames2/levels/

The icky, incomplete mirror over at Absolute Gamer
http://www.fileaholic.com/idgames.d/quake/levels/

(All the links points to the /levels dir)
http://www.quaddicted.com/content/view/130/2/ 

I have 31499 marksurfaces in my map already. But I still need to make a large hall for final battle. I need to reduce their number. Any ideas? 

no, it doesn't remove them, sadly. 

I have the same problem with my current project: marksurfaces value is around 35000...o_O...and unfortunatly I was not able to solve it :(... and I have to let it as is....
AFAIK, it's not a problem for FitzQuake engine (either equivalent, or better) to manage this too high value: you would only have choppy visual effect ingame with "old PC". And unfortunatly, WinQuake and standard engine should abort during map load.
It seems to be a recurent issue for big maps.. :( ..
Hrimfaxi also has this issue with his last map (tris), and he told me he was able to solve it... We also had interesting discussion about this issue (concerning my map).. so maybe you could contact him directly.. though.. 

make episodes of normal maps, not huge-ass maps. It's nicer to play that way too!
Well sorry, I haven't seen what you're working on...

Is this all because of kinn? Some penis measuring contest? 

If you exceed the marksurfaces limit of 32k, I'd suggest not to worry too much unless you experience obvious problems (typically map crashes).

There seems to be some kind of margin before real problems appear and there are several big maps released (e.g. Menkalinan) that exceed the limit without having any apparent issues.

Inside normal engines, bad things will happen immediately when passing 32k, but it might still not cause any harm. 

Is this all because of kinn? Some penis measuring contest?

*teeheehee* ^_~ 

a good theme for event =) 

Actually, as soon as my map went over the limit (by a few hundred markedsurface), fitzquake became unable to load it (crashes)... That normal? Runs fine now that I'm under again (had to move a part of the map for later use =\ ). 

Actually you could try to go on mapping on the map as it is.
While working on my last map Tris, I several times went over the max marksurface count.
I found that even if the map chrashed the engine, putting more brushes into the map made the number of marksurfaced drop well below the max again.
Sometimes I had to map in two seperate areas of the map to achieve this but it worked!
I mapped for 5 weeks where the number raised and dropped all the time.
But of course there must be a point where it wont drop anymore, and it may not work in all maps. 

they're like ants-- you don't know where they come from, but there's a shit load of them. 

How come they go up and down? I'd imagine more areas = more markedsurfaces... no?
I guess I'll be the one to ask the obvious question, what exactly are markedsurfaces? 

There are posts earlier in this thread starting here: http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=4&start=1727

including an explanation from metl and several empirical observations that might help. 

Thanks. ;)
Well, guess I'll just finish the map for now, and put the area I removed back in once it's done, see if the markedsurface still jump over 32k. 

they're like ants-- you don't know where they come from, but there's a shit load of them. - these words are golden.

I got an idea: I'll save my map as it is atm, and if it starts to crash in progress, i'll make the final battle in a sepapated map. 

I have seen this technique achieved in some maps but haven't been able to do so myself.

Is there any way to teleport items (keys...perhaps) in Quake?

Thanks in advance :) 

when I try to run my map in worldcraft I get an error message saying that the bsp wasn't built, and asking if I want to continue anyways.
Why does this kind of thing happen?
Any idea how I should go about fixing it?
Thanks. 

Check out the last few entities/triggers you created/changed and make sure there isn't anything funky with their settings. Remove them and recompile the map as necessary. The QBSP_LOG file may be of further assistance.

Good luck! 

Ok, I have taken a short detour from my small SP dealy. I have been playing about with a simple DM map and I have an area that is very campable. I would like to have a shoot-able switch that resets every 30 seconds or so and makes that campable area a deadly place to hang out. I'd like the damage to be inflicted for only a second or so and the resest until the switch is reset. In Q2 maps I have used func_explosion with a multiple fire switch. Also complicating things, I have a tele-destination in / at the area I want to target...

Suggestions on the best way to accomplish this? 

you can just make a big door that's hidden in the ceiling and has a very high speed (2000+) and whatever damage you want.

have it targetted by a button with a high wait (30 seconds like you said)

or, you can make the door visible and build a crusher thing and make it a prominent part of the map, whatever works. 

i don't think teleporting items are possible in vanilla quake.
the workaround would be to have a small closet with a door (and an optional func_illusionary) on the ceiling which opens at a certain event, lets the items drop out and then closes to make the surface seem solid again; or let items rise from a hidden hole in the floor.