The hard drive that had all the maps I've been working on has died. All the known participants have told me they won't be able to finish their maps before the deadline. So it looks like we have a few options: 1) push the deadline back; 2) someone can announce that he'll have a map done by the deadline; 3) call the whole thing off.

Even though I setup the rules, I don't want to unilaterally change them. So does anyone have some feedback? 

My map is finished apart from the polish, which will be in place before the deadline. 

My friends are going back on Sunday, so I can prolly finish it. 

up 

I guess the contest will go on with the current deadline, unless there are objections. 

Does "The map must be compatible with the standard id1 progs.dat." mean no colored lights? I have several areas that would benefit from some hellish-basked coats of light. I don't know how to add colored lights yet, but I just thought I'd ask to be clear. 

This is achieved by generating a .lit file when compiling , which is then loaded by any engine that supports colored lighting along with the map.
It has nothing to do with qc, which is what the progs contains.
"compatible with id1 progs" simply means "no custom monsters, entites etc." 

Yes, exactly what Kell said. Colored lights are acceptable as long as you use a .lit file and don't compile it as .bsp version 30 (i.e. you don't have much to worry about since almost every compiler exports colored lights to .lit).

Note that I think Von has them always turned off though, so if he is the only one judging the maps then he won't notice them. If there are other judges who absolutely abhore colored lighting, then it might be a hinderance to you. One can never know.

But if you include colored lights and they look nice, that means the number of quality custom maps that use it will have doubled! 

I know about .lit files, the thing is I the actual "color" part. I assume I just add a Color tag to any lights I want to be colored then give them a RGB value, 256 max value for each? I would look through map help but that's a monster of an archive to sift through. 

You can download the source for RPGSP1 and look at the lights in the lava for an example if you want.

http://rpg.spawnpoint.org/files/maps/rpgsp1source.zip

But yeah, you have it basically right if my memory is correct; except that the value range is 0 to 255 (not 256). So for example, a bright yellow light would look like this:

"_color" "255 255 0"
"light" "500"

And a dim, muddy light-blue would be like this:

"_color" "127 127 255"
"light" "100" 

But if you include colored lights and they look nice, that means the number of quality custom maps that use it will have doubled!


I wonder if the palletted nature of Quake textures make colored lighting look less acceptable in Quake than in later games. Q3 maps can look rather plain sometimes without them. 

for me, one of the most beautiful q3 maps is Chiroptera, by Sock (also Nunuk, but sock did the visuals), and thats mainly due to the lighting. I wonder if it's even possible for quake to produce coloured lighting to anywhere near this standard.

http://www.planetquake.com/simland/pages/q3maps/chiroptera.htm

Most of nunuks maps are good examples of lighting actually, see platypus!

http://www.planetquake.com/nunuk/mapplatipus.htm 

I'm about maybe 65-70% done with my map. I've completed layout, etc, so I just have to implement details, lights, monsters and ammo. Half the lights are done already. So, if I work on it everyday through next Sunday I should be done with a reasonable piece of work, possibly lacking some polish.

I can't say I'm very happy with the way it's turning out though, so don't expect much. 

Just a little less than 6.5 days remaining before the deadline. 

I'm just about done. Some balancing is all that's left, everything else is go, cept for the .txt. So, if anyone would like to beta test for it, lemme know, I only need 1-2 more people to comment on it. Basically, it doesn't really matter cuz I'm not changing anything after this anyway (at least I don't think so), but I'd like to go through the motions. 

... I'm available... 

The link is sent to you, just to let you know in case you didn't get my mail or whatever. Am I first to submit a map?? :D 

Apparently you are, although I haven't received your e-mail yet. However, it seems you only sent it about 15 minutes ago. 

I sent it to rpg_6sp@hotmail.com, or at least I think I did. I can double check or I can just give it to you on irc if I see you. 

I have received one submission each from Mike Woodham and Zwiffle. They have both just been forwarded to Von. He should send the results back to me, I'll put together a final package, and then the results will be anounced along with a download link. 

See the news thread for a download link and info.

http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=28383