@Daz, yes you are going fruitbat insane! it is meant to be an astronomy room based at the highest point of the map.
@negke, what prefabs? I made it myself, it is not from any other source.
@necros, it does not rotate because Q3 draws all rotating objects regardless of location in the map. 

but not according to that art forum.... 

I think lighting could make it stand out much better. Currently it does not look as impressive as it is (to me). 

In my defence...

Strip out the astronomy spinny thing(tm) and then compare to http://www.virulent.de/FLO/roster/ssd/images/bridge.jpg

:D

Looks great though, Ive been holding off deleting quake 3 so I can have a roam around in this map when its done. 

@negke, oh that place! don't worry I will be going back there with my new screenshots when I have finished my map and I am sure they will react exactly the same way again. :)

@Spirit, yep the lighting is the worst part of mapping for q3 and probably the most annoying thing about this map to me. Some people say it is too bright, too dark or too flat and it is impossible to get it right for everyone. Most of the issues with lighting is simply how everyone has their monitor set up and what type. I must of spent hours (probably days) tweaking the lighting and compiler options based on various feedback and I am still not 100% happy with it!

This room is suppose to be very bright, at least 75% of the walls are glass and the chance of high contrasting shadows is slim to none. I call this room the bird's nest and it certainly makes more sense when you can walk around it and see the whole view.

@Daz, yeah the design could be many things really, the inside of the top of a lighthouse, the top of a ship control center, the excessive glass is for viewing purposes. I am glad to hear you are keeping Q3 for a little longer to give this map a look. :) 

I fix my comp before this is out. which gives me what, 1 or 2 years sock?? 

@nitin, I have got a few things to polish (VO, clipping and more details) and that is it, no more, it is finished. I will send a link to some friends this weekend for testing and it should be ready in 1-2 weeks time. (if no major bugsTM) 

re q3w, I'd advise against a minimod or config fiddling. It would only annoy us, probably. 

Rest assure the map will work 100% with Vanilla Q3 and will not be shipped with any mod. One of the original guidelines I had was the map had to take the original Q3 and push it to its limits. If I had made a MOD, most of the impressive factor would be gone. A strange challenge

I admit limiting my work by the engine is unusual, but I wanted to see how much wow factor I could squeeze into the map just using the default settings. It may seem 'cheesey' wanting a wow factor but this is the impression I want the player to get when they enter this map.

The config idea I talking about at Q3W is a simple command line batch file which switches off most of the useless HUD stuff so the player gets the full screen view and lets the immersive sound effects work better. I spent a very long time trying to compliment the environment with sound and it seems a shame to have the dated Q3 HUD spoil it all. 

switching the hud off is a good idea. it's cartoony and designed to stand out which isn't a good thing for this type of map.
man, i really want to play this. ^_^ 

I wanted to see how much wow factor I could squeeze into the map

Already pointed this out... ;p 

Messing around in UT3, shaking the rust off my UnrealED skillz ;)

http://i45.tinypic.com/2v1ndqo.jpg 

That's cool! The fire is a little "video gamey" but the lighting and the fog look great! 

Not enough crates/pipes. 

looks very nice! Did you model the rocks yourself? 

Willem: Thanks! Yeah it's been hard to find good fire so far...

Starbuck: Those are are stock UT3 rocks.

It is really nice working with an engine where you can make nice looking scenes with just a couple of hours of work :) I know it's usually blasphemy to post such stuff here but eh... 

It looks good.

For here you just need to do the same in Q1. 

Those sort of scenes are very welcome to me at least. You've done better with the stock models than I have - I probably don't recognise those rocks because I've been using the limited assets from UDK.

I got a copy of UT3 with a huge Unreal Technology textbook I bought, though. Might install that just to look at all the eyecandy.


On the topic of showing things we haven't spent much time on...

Here's my first attempt making materials in UT3
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/screen_shots/wallpaper-material.jpg

I was attempting to recreate a desktop wallpaper I made previously:
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/5863/wallpaperwallpaper.jpg 

dunno about everyone else, but i love seeing shots of stuff from different games. 

I'd post shots of wip Duke / Thief stuff, but I don't know if anyone would want to see those. Don't have anything Quake related in progress afterall. 

I totally agree, seeing stuff from other engines is always good as it may inspire others to try out new stuff as well.

Blitz, I really like how the diffuse light works with the ground textures and background rock. What did you do in this scene? You say these are original assets, but what it is original and what is you? Did you model anything in this scene? Sorry for lots of questions, I am very curious as I plan to look at UED next.

starbuck, looking good, I have downloaded the UED as well. I am looking forward to playing around with it as soonly. Please remember to come back and post updates. :) 

sock:

All of the assets are from UT3, I made the ground terrain with the terrain tool. I still don't really know entirely what I'm doing in terms of getting stuff to look nice other than just tweaking it by sight.

I wish I had better tips for you but I don't really know the ins and outs of the Unreal engine :) I'm sure Willem does though! 

http://negke.quaddicted.com/images/butc1.jpg
http://negke.quaddicted.com/images/butc2.jpg
http://negke.quaddicted.com/images/butc4.jpg 

Questionable texture choices imo but it sure does have that Doom feel :) Cool shots. 

That's not Doom is it? :O