I light as I go, unless I have a mental image of where the lights are going to be anyway, in which case I just keep blocking out and light later.

Especially with the orange textures method, lighting would just keep one from laying the sma-- brushes down. Hence lighting is done later.

http://kneedeepinthedoomed.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/orange-mapping-part-2/

http://kneedeepinthedoomed.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/orange-mapping-part-3/

When doing stuff like base corridors that have light fixtures built in, like this:

http://kneedeepinthedoomed.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ofcourse.jpg

I use copy&paste&rotate with the actual lights selected as well, ie I move lights together with brushes.

Sometimes I use just sunlight or just torches, which I usually put in so I can get an idea of the "feeling" and tweak later.

So I guess it's dependant on situation. I don't think there is a "right way". 

I'm not worried about doing things the right way, just interested in how others do it and why they choose to do it that way.

I hadn't seen these posts you did, by the way - didn't you had tried the blocking method either. good read, thanks for posting it! 

So does 2nd TBH ;) 

Overall the orange mapping thing worked OK, it did allow me to build some new areas quickly.

I'm more happy with some other areas though; focusing entirely on blocking out/expanding playable space can result in slightly "faceless" parts of the map (requiring several refining passes later). The alternative is waiting months until you feel "really inspired" and stuff. That's not an option if there is a release deadline sadly.

Ability to rapidly increase physical map size is a good skill to have. Something that exists, even in rough form, >>> something that is only a plan.

Plans/ideas are worthless if not put into practice. Even if the putting into practice requires compromises, this still holds true. Compromises are better than nothing.

Stuff that is released on a deadline, anything that actually gets done, usually is imperfect compared to ideas. It's a trade off.

Worthless philosophy for today. 

 

;-) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WupdwrICr4 

...and finally I think getting the hang of this video business. Hopefully the resolution is good and it isn't too bloody dark :( 

that's pretty cool. 

maybe a particle spray (of sawdust) as he cuts through the wood would help enhance it a little. Or some smaller and more numerous splinters. Splinters could be colored to match the reddish wood color too. 

Ye given how adaptable Quoth's rubble and breakable entities are I've been very lazy and done very little tweaking with them. I just use presets and move on atm :P 

that's cool. :D 

Glad you like it guys. More to come :) 

I think I would have shit my pants if that had happened in the original 

that's pretty cool even as it is now 

 

now use it in a map, done at the right time, that could be an awesome wtf moment. 

Just make sure to briefly entrap the player somehow so they don't miss the scene. 

Ye given how adaptable Quoth's rubble and breakable entities are I've been very lazy and done very little tweaking with them. I just use presets and move on atm :P

The idea is that the templates are a good start and shouldn't require much customisation if the material is the same* - nobody wants to set 5 sound paths manually. However, you only need to add one key to the breakable entity to make the colour of the splinter match the colour of the door there:

"ritem" "5"


If you're using the fgd, then the field is called "Skin(rock/wood/glass/brick/metal)" and the option is "Grave/Red wiz/Ale/IKBlue/Compbrown". I would have liked to be able to list the skin description according to which template you had chosen. But there doesn't seem to be a way of doing that in a fgd, so instead you get 5 inadequate descriptions squeezed onto one line. All I can recommend is diving into the pak file and looking at the rubble models to identify the skins available - although the gallery map is good for demonstrating what rubble skins are available. 

Cheers for the tip :) 

The Necros Moldy Tower technique (tm) btw Ricky 

use the mapobject_custom entity and set it up with a model.

then, in the 'think' field, set that to 'old_idle1'
this is shub niggurath's idle animation.
the reason we can use it is because, afaik, it is the only animation sequence that does nothing else but advance frames.
you now have access to up to 46 frames of animation.

simply open up a model editor and copy/paste some frames in and you can make any animation you'd like. (within 46 frames).

one of the maps i lost had some hacked ogres sawing trees up.

you can set triggers up so that when you shoot them, they killtarget the mapobject_custom ogres and spawn in real ogres to chase you. 

you can use the hack with sprites too.

i was able to make a spark animation by setting 'use' to 'player_rocket1'

then i used the frames for the plasma projectile explosion and put in a bunch of empty frames as filler to that the explosion lined up with the frame number of the player shooting rockets.

when triggered, it would play the explosion graphic and make a muzzle flash dynamic light. 

Huh, okay... Would this involve creating a new mdl file with the specific animation frames you want in it then?

I've no idea how animation frames and stuff work. I just use qview to find the frame I want to freeze the model in :E

Would certainly be cool to animate say a Rocketeer firing, then use info_trap to fire a rocket and when it hits blow something up. A real problem for sequences like this though is that monsters have to be stationary. Oh for a Half-Life style 'run to this spot' entity :P 

Now, I'd really like to see a "Teaching old Quoth new tricks" thread, or at least an exhaustive mapping manual with all the features that are missing on Kell's website. Right now there are many tiny bits of information on this and that entity posted in various threads that no one will ever find.