when you put down that last brush that seals up the map and you realize you can now run from start to finish without having to noclip around or whatever.

For me its a combination of relief and anxiety. It's cool to have it all in place, but seeing how much is left to go over with the prettiness paint is kinda scary :P 

you have some Unreal mapping experience? what maps? 

I made a deathmatch map for the 3D Buzz mapping competition a couple of years back, was called Dogs of War. Some shots of it if yer interested:
http://www.zealousquakefan.com/2010/10/a-ut3-level/
It's not really finished, and was a remake of something I'd made in ut2k3. I also built it more like a ut2k3 map, so it has an excess of BSP that needs stripping out really. The competition was very interesting cause I saw how the winners actually built stuff :)

I plan to go back to it and finish it, but I wanted to create something single player. Only ever really built multiplayer stuff that I played with friends, single player is vastly different :E 

when you put down that last brush that seals up the map and you realize you can now run from start to finish without having to noclip around or whatever.

I can't wait until I reach that stage. As of now, it feels like there's an endless amount of brushwork left, I've already worked on the map for some time and I've only done about 15%!

At least I have specific ideas about most of the areas in terms of layout and setups from now on, though, coupled with a self-imposed deadline of the beginning of april, so hopefully that will help motivate me... 

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/misc/BMFN.png

My actual website this time. A bit gratuitous but it seems to be the done thing, and its for my course.

Need to finish it soon, deadline coming this summer, and there's an exam after the final website(s) 

Reviews? You're own, or referenced reviews of your maps? 

Probably base maps :) Although I may extend it to just whichever maps I think are worth a review. 

...you really do have a thing for base maps then :p 

Ive only made 2 maps that weren't (3rd on the way, alongside another base map :) 

Hi guys, I've made a dm map, and here's first beta of it. I would appreciate any feedback.

Download q1shw1_b1

Image1
Image2
Image4
Image4

Now, I also have 2 issues with that map:
Weird lighting
Vis issue

I need some help with getting around those, any ideas?

ShadoW 

Wicked style - I love it! Without the QRP, that is.

Layout seems very good, no item placement - would have to play it against opponents.

Some technical notes: there are a few empty spaces outside of the map (between brushes of adjacent rooms), noclip around to find them.
The steps at -592 -432 216 (near the RL) could use clips on the side so players don't get stuck.
The gears panel at 373 768 360 isn't clipped off.
The angled skull textures at -589 -583 303 isn't properly aligned.
The base trim in the main atrium (image1) looks a bit off with its lack of seams. I'd say either make a 32 unit trim with seams or use the 16 unit texture on those faces as well.
There are some unrealistic shadows, or basically black walls, in sky areas. Not a big deal, but you might want to put a little light there just for neatness.

I strongly recommend turning all of the torch holders into func_illusionaries (or delete them altogether and move the torches to the walls). This should lower the polycount a bit. Likewise, the same could be done to the weapon platforms. Check with r_showtris 1 to see what I mean.

The lighting issue, did you compile the map with -extra4? This might make it go away.

The "vis issue" is a portal error that occurs sometimes when QBSP doesn't like the architecture for some reason, or just feels like it. You can try to fix it by splitting the brush into two triangles and shift the texture on one of them slightly (so they aren't merged by QBSP). 

*no idea about the item placement 

Have you tried it in Darkplaces with all of the fluff turned on? I bet that would look cooler....

As for the vis error - yeah like Negke says, try splitting the brush. Or just try replacing the brushes in the affected area with slightly different ones.

Which light tool did you use?

If you ware using Worldcraft you might want to try "Check map for problems" - you often find some clangers at the bottom of that list ;) 

I see too many textures and clashes. Is it just me? 

The replacement textures highlight it too much. Without them, it works much better. Yes, they clash, but in a good way. IMO, anyway. Reminds me a bit of spirit's recent DM map which used a somewhat unorthodox style, too. 

Pictures were taken with DP+QRP.

For compilation I use Lordhavock's hmap2.exe (and Radiant 1.5 for building the stuff). 

To make Darkplaces textures look even more awesome use these two console commands:

r_glsl_offsetmapping 1 r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping 1

If you use this light tool:

http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=60480&start=10

You will probably find your lighting problem has gone.

And if you use this QBSP tool:

http://quaddicted.com/tools/txqbspbjp.zip

It might fix the vis error.

Please try it and report back here :) 

re QRP - not my fav, but looks very nice in game with regular textures! 

You have to take the replacement textures into account while you map.

You have to map for the QRP textures, ie use Quake textures whose QRP replacements look good together. If your vanilla textures are a jumbled mess, the QRP will highlight that.

Try using a more cohesive style, and test your map with QRP enabled so you can detect problems early, and it will look great with QRP.

e1m6rq was made for the QRP. The vanilla textures are just placeholders in the editor. Dev textures pretty much. 

I'm a sucker for texture combinations and this map looked ace (Not so much with QRP though as gb said). Tastefully done colored lighting too, I liked the sparse fulldark areas.

The pitch black 'dead end' opposite the NG seemed like a good place for a ROS maybe(?). Unless it was your intention to not use any powerups. 

I will add later second .bsp to archive, which will be ffa and include Quad (or sth else). Thanks guys for all feedback, I will take care of things you mentioned, and will post new version soon. 

Ok guys, second beta:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16372046/q1shw1_b2.rar

I've used that light compiler RickyT23 mentioned, it seems ligth issues are gone. Also I fixed some small things, all I could think about atm. I'm pretty content about the map right now, thanks once again for feedback. 

I highly suggest that you post about this on quakeworld.nu since that is where the multiplayer community sits (for quakeworld). There also is quakeone.com where netquake players from the US go. 

Yep, I know both, will do soon. 

Love it, awesome, very different, fresh...except This

The ledges blocking the arches just look wrong, really-really wrong. Or maybe, it's just me?