So as teased, here is the button model:
http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/button/

It's a attempt to do the kinds of tricks seen on the monitor models, but in a way that non-base maps can use instead. I have a much more esoteric model which also satisfies that goal, I just need to resurrect it a bit... 

ohhh that's clever!!
maybe try using your normals randomizer on effect faces? 

It would have been great to add an extra layer, but changing normals don't have any effect on fullbright pixels as they don't have any shading you can change! A variant model which uses different colours on the Q would benefit though, and it would be pretty easy to script because the vertices you want to affect are easily located on the skin... 

Wow that is really nice, I am glad to see you do some medieval themed models. The only thing that bothers me is the light pattern on the buttons, I would prefer it to glow, the rotating feels odd because the button front lacks depth. 

The same method could be used for cracks with fire in them, for a trippy dimensional rip effect. 

Sock: Yeah, I was trying to go with two different animations to convey the different states - the back-and-forth pulsing animation is meant to be saying "I'm tapping my foot here - shoot me!", while the rotating animation says "I'm doing some work right now, try later". If you don't like the rotation then the pulsing animation should hold up by itself. If you do need a version which lets you switch between two different coloured pulsing effects, I could probably knock that up pretty quick... 

Ive once played a map/mod/game containing ogres with nail-shotguns + nice sprite-based animated explosions, any idea what mod is that? thanks 

The problem with your three state button is that players assume it works like a light switch, it is either on or off. Having a third state is just confusing because the buttons in quake are two state devices. I can certainly understand the frustration of wanting to show more visual information but the states really do have to be different. A glow or rotate effect are too similar and will be lost on most people.

I do like the design of the Q on the front panel, it look cool. :) I especially like the bottom two versions on your page where the Q is linked to seam edges across the front surface. 

probably bastion/marcher. 

would probably best be visualized with a lever, because you can immediately see that it has more than two states if touching it only moves it to the middle.

If you want to communicate that the button is unavailable for a certain time after it has been pressed, you should also keep it in the depressed state until it is available again. That is pretty clear I would think. 

Has three state buttons and Quake itself does as well 'while pressed' for both. 

Unpowered is a state that you don't get in standard quake, yeah. I think the tristates would be more understandable in practice though, because you'd see a reaction (or not). The unpowered button would be inert until some external force turns it on, it doesn't move when you press it (you might need a text message when they try to push it like "Looks like you need to activate this first...").

Once it's been switched on, the brighter colour and animation should attract your attention back to it, and now it just works like any other quake button. You'd learn what the final colour mean by using it, the colour at the same time that the button moves - in response to the player using it. It then returns to the middle colour once it has moved back out, which is a convention players already recognise.

If you were using it as a direct substitute for quake buttons you'd probably just choose two of the frames you like and swap between them, so you might go with unpowered and ready (a la "+1mtlsw" buttons) or ready and activated (a la "+1base" but in medieval). That stuff about the animations was more thought-process waffle than actual expectation of how the player would understand the visuals....

If you only need two colours, you can also use the combination of "unpowered" and "activated" - the interpolation between them will not pass through the colour inbetween. Then again at that point you might also just edit the skin, and get the more preferable pulse animation. 

the colour changes at the same time that the button moves 

I said I was going to make up for teasing with models I hadn't released in three parts. Here's part 3: get you guys to finish the model instead! Kinda...

I teased a model of a torn poster a while ago:
http://tomeofpreach.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/qme-pal.png

One of the reasons I haven't released this model is that I'd like to have a good selection of skins to go with it - it's a pretty flexible model with lots of scope, and once you've released it you've missed the chance to add more. Also, my skins aren't always the best part of the models.

So I thought I'd try an experiment today, see if I get a response. I'm gonna link the model here on func_ but not put it on the blog just yet. If you want to play around with the model and try making your own poster, dive in and grab it. If you make a skin you'd like to offer for the final release, then please e-mail it to me.
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/models/poster-prerelease.zip

Few quick notes: The model comes with two frames, the torn pose pictured above, and the plain poster below:
http://tomeofpreach.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/mutation.png
It is possible to create a skin which works for both poses, but don't feel obliged to, creating a dedicated clean/torn skin often works better.

The top 2/3 of the skin is taken up by the front of the poster, and the back of the poster takes up the remainder, rotated 90 degrees. The backside of the poster is there because this model is part of the window-kit pack, you can paste it on an invisible window to give it some presence, like in "tangerine dream".

The first skin on the model is a bit bright and weird, but there's a good reason. It's been painted with the colour of the player's trousers. This lets you use the trick from
http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/palette-swapping-with-qme/
to quickly create a base texture with the colours from any palette row.

Don't feel obliged to use my template though, in fact wildly different skins are what this is all about. Mine have a tech lab/base feel but if you can create some lovely medieval wanted posters, or elder runes on human skin, more power to you! 

I love that poster model. I was going to have a torn poster secret ala Duke 3D on my base map but I decided 7 secrets was enough (plus I will probably revisit the homage at some point) 

This some time today, leave it open for a bit longer? 

We're talking weeks here, don't hurry. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/925h5udfr0xxmvb/ijed_posters.zip

Lovecraft
Biohazard
Explosive
Tin Tin
Flat Earth
Prodigy
Quake

Each has a _torn version. It's possible that fullbrights will rear their ugly head on a couple since I haven't tried them out in engine yet - I tried to avoid this issue but it might have got past me.

I'd suggest including a 'on floor' frame and possibly a 'big' one as well. 

From the first moment I saw the wkey02 texture I wondered how it would look to have it animated. The latest models of Preach triggered the thought again so I gave it a try.

Got a bit lost texturing the thing while I wanted it to look like the original.
Here's the example

and here's the download 

Awesome man, just what I was after. I've added them to the build, and there weren't any problems shaking the last few fullbrights out. I've got a few more ideas for skins off the back of those, so I'll try not to take too long getting them together.

When you say a pose for on the floor, are you thinking one where the page doesn't curl off the floor? If it wasn't for that I'd see no problem with just rotating it to rest on the ground. Larger sizes would be fairly easy to do, and I also want to create a few more frames with variations on the torn poster. That way you could have two or three torn ones on the same wall and not make it too obvious.

While I get working on that, I've got another model coming out soon. Was about to post it but last minute fixes need doing, so hopefully tonight... 

Nice one madfox, that looks ace, didn't see it when I posted last. The more I check it out the more detail I find, like all the modeled rivets and the threading on the copper-coloured bit. 

That is very cool MadFox, I like how you got the rotation of the wheels working correctly. My only concern is the baked shadows on the wheels and the background not integrating with the wheel positions but that is a skin issue not animation. 

Glad you like them, they were quite fun to do as well.

Is there a way you could make the torn parts out of ploys instead of a modified skin? That would make it much quicker and cheaper to have more variation although it could get a bit more angular looking.

For the floor pose yeah I just meant rotated flat on the floor- I was actually thinking of dropped vox populi posters in bioshock (a poster that didn't make the cut actually, along with 'a man chooses, a slave obeys').

Madfox cogs - those are awesome. It's great linking buttons to their doors, it gives a level a physical presence and a visual clue to how it works. In base maps you can just put a cable in. But medieval maps are trickier since its always machinery. 

I printed the original tex on the wkey02 model, and in that way the shaded origin produces the odd behaviour.
I tried a slightly larger texture and kept on the vertice lines, but the skinfile needs a rather irratic treatment.
I'v spent some time on it but how more I try how more dazzeled I get.

For some reason I ain't have the patience for the texturing, while I know it can result in great outcome. 

Another weird model today. Like the buttons it's part of the "more medieval models" effort; in this case it takes a previous base-style model, the forcefield, and creates a mystical version.

http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/runic-barrier/

The screenshot doesn't really do the model justice, as it's all about the animation. However, the animation itself is too long to make a gif for...