I don't really see how that could cause a marksurface increase like that, but it may not result in a reduction if the polygons aren't that large to start with. I agree that rocks/grass do tend to look better with a higher scale when there's a lot of it - I'm currently using a 1.5 scale on mine. 

If anyone is using this plugin to manage Q1 PAK files, you might be interested in some improvements I've been working on lately.

I'm currently not considering a public release, so if you're interested, just email me. 

http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=4&start=1736&end=1737

P.S. Yes, this means I finally coded a way to specify a range of posts. Thread paging is a little bit closer. 

About texture scale in relation to marksurfaces is very useful, upping the scale of sky textures, and trigger texture (I have lots of very large trigger_hurt brushes in my map) can lower the marksurface count considerably.

I still fail to understand why these limits still exist, but that's probably just because I'm stupid.

Oh, and metl, I luv you. 

Had a bash at this, think I've got a good fix, at the least there are some interesting ideas that result from it. It's not possible to make the actual nailgun model stop rotating without modifying the model file, the rotate flag can't even be overridden in QC. So what this map does is creates a bsp model that approximates the nailgun, and has that in the map. You'll want ogro's texture wad if you want to see it in all it's glory.

http://www.btinternet.com/~chapterhonour/weptest.map

Ok, so I'll explain what all the entities do. The func_wall in the second room is just there to make the compiler compile the brush entity we need, so that it has modelindex 2. After the map is compiled you could safely remove this entity with adquedit or something. One thing to notice is that it's been very carefully placed near the origin. This is so its easy to place in the map with the next entity.

The next entity is the one that makes it visible but non solid, the point entity info_notnull. This uses the SUB_regen hack to load a model by it's modelindex. The modelindex is set to 2, so it loads the nailgun model we just made. The model and mdl fields are necessary dummy fields, as long as they have some model in then it works. Why didn't we just use a func_illusionary? Because this way, the entity isn't static, so we can killtarget it. The standard trigger_once kills it when we touch it.

At the same time the player touches the trigger_once, they will also touch the brush info_notnull. This uses the good old trigger hack, so we can make a brush trigger with an arbitary touch function(look at the think and nextthink to see how it works). This time we set the touch function to BackpackTouch, and then the rest of the fields are set to match a backpack that only contains a nailgun(items 4, netname nailgun, ammo_nails 30).

The BackpackTouch function can be used as a trigger in more general situations. You could give it a netname of "weapons" and then set the items field to some sum of weaponflags to give all those items at once. Be warned though, if the player already has any of those weapons the message will skip straight to the ammo summary. A good way perhaps of giving the player weapons on startup would be to use this trigger with no ammo, and netname "\n\n\n\n"(enough backslashes to push the "you got" message offscreen).

You can also set any of the other itemflags, but most of them won't do anything. The powerups flags will tint the screen, but won't actually give the player anything. Similarly the armour flags will only make a cosmetic change. The keys, however, do work as you expect, so you can give those out by trigger. Potentially you could try removing items this way as well, but I haven't got it to work...Anyway, have fun with that. 

 

there are so many holes in quakec, you wouldn't even be able to contain molasses in it! :o

good job on figuring that out, dude! 

P.S. Yes, this means I finally coded a way to specify a range of posts. Thread paging is a little bit closer.


thank you! :D this will make searching through the larger threads a lot easier, as mozilla kept crashing when loading more than 1k posts at a time. (too much quake goodness in the same page? :P )

cheers, dude ^_^ 

I have been given a monster in .mdl format, 1400 tris and no skin. It has potential to be a good monster Quake style but I don't know if I have the potential to make it one.

I have access to 3DMAX and/or Maya7 for several hours per week. I don't use them and know nothing much about them. Which should I try to learn, and I don't have time to learn both and make an informed decision, to a) reduce the tris, b) animate the monster.

Also, what should I use when it comes to skin the monster.

Mmmm..., am I expecting too much? 

Qmle should get you on your way, but I think you knew that already.

http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2000/cs4455_spring/planetquake/modediting.html 

it's really hard to make a decision between max and maya as they are both excellent modelling programs.

however, if you're just doing this for quake, i'd say max might be your best bet.

i found it was slightly easier to learn than maya. the only real reason to pick maya over max would be if you were going into the industry, maya is more widely used.

but max has excellent tools for modifying meshes to reduce polycount, and it has fully developed bones/animation system.

as an example, all the animation for the quoth monsters was done in max.

but i won't lie to you... it will take you a long time to learn all the tools. there are just so many. but once you do, pretty much anything is possible. 

Alias was recently aquired by Discreet (the company that makes Max), so perhaps the two will become more and more alike. I doubt either will be phased out, however, as they both provide Discreet with a nice revenue stream at the moment.

I find Max a lot easier to learn, less buggy (we are talking recent versions here) and with a generally better interface. Maya has a lot of nice features that Max doesn't have (last time I checked), but some of the basic modelling features of Max just shit on those of Maya - the interface for using them is generally loads better too.

I've heard that Maya is better for texturing and animation, and whilst the animation side seems really good (not that I have done anything complex, but it is very easy to set up a skelton, weight a skin and get animating). The texturing features of both programs are not too different, but I find Max a little easier, perhaps because I was already used to the rest of the program when I tried actually skinning something with it (I used to use in-house tools at my previous job for level texturing, which were better than both Max and Maya :)

I find Maya requires the user to do a lot of extra selection and deselection that Max does not require, making Max slightly easier to work with and more time-efficient. 

AguirRe, do you ever make maps? 

Madfox: thanks for that link, it was very informative although most of the links on that page were down.

necros/than: OK, I guess Max it is. I've already had a first look at the program with a one hour session last night. Gulp! I have a very tatty copy of 3DSMAX Bible so on my next session I am going to try to make the Three Fingered Gaaboot and we'll see what transpires.

Thanks chaps. 

I haven't actually created any maps of my own, but I've been extensively through most of the paces to build/repair maps.

I believe that without that experience or the source map contributions and suggestions from many mappers, it would've been very difficult to improve on the tools/engines. 

I was just wondering if you had your leakproof, fully vised first map sitting around somewhere. 

I can give you my last HOM maps that were so leakfull they couldn't sit anywhere without wondering around...

and I'm gratefull to get some good advice to make them playable before they got lost in Quake's void.

Like to beta test Drew? 

I've a memory live a sieve so can you just play along here?

Does Fitzquake change liquids to always be fullbright? I have the texture 'brimstone' and it has no fullbrights. I simply add an * to the front of the name, and although I get my warping liquid effect, I also get fullbright.

But I really do want non-fullbright liquid. Am I missing something? I want all other fullbrights to remain, I just don't want this one liquid to be fullbright.

I've done the usual things with TexMex and the same texture without the '*' is definitely not fullbright. Put the '*' in and it lights up like... well like something pretty damn bright. 

That's quake. Liquids do not get lightmaps, so they are always uniformly bright. Darkplaces is the only engine I'm aware of that breaks this functionality. 

Double bugger, twice!

But thanks for the info anyway. 

Baker,

I'm having some problems with Quark! All my maps gives this message when I try to connect to a server running it: "map model file does not match"

[url=http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ezquake0009gu.jpg][img]http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/7492/ezquake0009gu.th.jpg[/img][/url]

If I run the map directly into the client, there's no problem and it works fine!

This happens with any map I compile! Even with the basic map created by Quark (a square with a spawnpoint).

I already tried all kinds of Qbsp, VIS and Light utilities. A friend of mine, who is also trying to make some maps, has the same problems. Plus, he tried other tools too (worldcraft, qoole) and he always get the same erros.

I asked Trinca about it and he said to me he does exactly the same as I do, but unlike my case, there's no error.

I would appreciate any help, thanks! 

The "Baker" in the last message is there because I copied this message from a thread at quakeone.com.

And here is the link to the image of the error message.

http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ezquake0009gu.jpg

TKS! 

that message before (it's QW specific), but looking at the Fuh source, have you tried disabling cvar sv_mapcheck? 

the server has a different version than you have, i have had friends getting this when trying to connect to a server with a map and another version of the map is on the client
OR
you have 2 version of the same map 1 in id1/maps 1 in qw/maps then the same happens 

I'd beta for you, but I can't right now. no computer, no quake.