..with the amount of clipping you then have to do to 'open it up', you're probably no better off than had you laid it down brush by brush

i only use hollow for misc entity boxes out in the void (teleporting monsters, spikeshooters etc) 

... not to use Hollow makers: check #1461 and after.... since this time I never used again Hollow maker, believe me: it is safer !!!

Blasphemy !! Heresy !! You'll all burn in Hell !! 

Guys, he said he was hollowing out a cube. If you're using an editor that can't successfully hollow out an axis aligned cube, it's time to find a new editor. 

Guys, he said he was hollowing out a cube. If you're using an editor that can't successfully hollow out an axis aligned cube, it's time to find a new editor.

i'm not sure how you deduced that from what i wrote?

ron: to answer your question, if you hollow inwards (at least in WC) it should still align to the grid as it goes by the thickness of the walls, so it makes little difference. but it's generally better practice to construct rooms brush-by-brush in most cases, partly because it gives you more control but mainly because it helps discourage the old boxroom-corridor-boxroom syndrome :P ..although it is still useful for throwing testmaps together and the likes 

I don't see how you figured I was replying specifically to you. 

because it was only JPL and me who responded to the question, and 'guys' clearly indicates a plural? 

...it's generally better practice to construct rooms brush-by-brush in most cases, partly because it gives you more control but mainly because it helps discourage the old boxroom-corridor-boxroom syndrome :P

I fully concur with you ! Thqt is exactely the point... hats-off... 

Willem would have sent you a mail if the reply was for you only. Don't be so selfish and egocentric.


Ok, enough. :-P 

"because it was only JPL and me who responded to the question, and 'guys' clearly indicates a plural?"

FFS. 

you decide. 

..does anyone have any insight into why all switchable lights would fail when compiling a full map? they work fine when compiling each section individually (it's split into about 6-7 'areas' in the form of visgroups) but can only display at full brightness when the whole thing is done, whether the 'start off' spawnflag is on or off. no errors in the light log or anything..

it's a bit of a limitbusting map if that counts for anything, breaks just about all of them... 

have you checked if you're getting any 'too many lightstyles' errors?

also, i've accidentally ticked the 'not in xskill' box on a light and not have it toggle because it wasn't present in that particular skill level.

if it's 'limit busting', it's possible you have run out of lightstyles.

you get 64 total light styles, the first 10 (not including 0) are for flickering lights, and the compilers only assign 32-64 (or 32-63?). so in actuality, you only get 32 light styles; 32 seperate switchable lights. i'm not sure if light.exe will collapse multiple lights with the same targetname into the same lightstyle or not, although it should otherwise even stock quake maps would have 'too many lightstyles' errors. 

Some editors will, when "hollow" is used on a cube to create a square room, make a nice square room of six brushes...but the brushes will all still stretch to the extents of the original cube, and will overlap.

Will a decent compiler usually clean this up and toss out the overlapping bits? Yes, usually, but it will still be messy in the editor, and potentially confusing.

Nothing wrong with hollow as long as you do any necessary clean up the result afterward. 

"on" the result, rather... 

What I usually do (in Worldcraft) is
- make a cube the size of your room to be.
- make it hollow outwards
- ungroup the thing,so your left with 6 brushes
- copy and paste (special, to same location) a brush 4 times and then shape them to fit a door in, 1 for the door, 1 for the left of the door, and for the right and one for above the door.

It does work that way.
I don't know if it's smart or handy though.
The thing with mapping is that you basically have to learn how to do it yourself.
The tutorials only show you the basics.
I still find it very difficult to find efficient ways to achieve things.
That's why I love this website ... ;) 

You know that combat music in Star Trek when Captain Kirk is battling a Klingon in the arena (with pick axe, spear, and shovel), well that music was playing in my head a few posts up.

I was thinking, HollowMaker sounds like an excellent stand-alone program that could work this way. First you make a cube in any of the editors available. Next, export the cube. Now, import the cube into HollowMaker. It has just 1 button, Hollow_out ! Now export and import into your favorite map editor. Voila ! So easy, and you'll want to do it over and over again.

I feel so hollow... Hey wait! HollowMaker hollowed out my brain.

Where is it?

It's in Quark? But I use BSP...

Spock, help get my brain back!
...my next map title... 

 

have you checked if you're getting any 'too many lightstyles' errors?

hrm, i compiled again to check, and this time it worked okay.. bizarre.

it is something where just because it works correctly one time it doesn't mean it will work all the time? or can i assume that it either compiled correctly or it didn't? 

did you run a -onlyents? remember to run a -onlyents on both bsp and (aguire's) light to reconnect lightstyles with the entities.
-onlyents on bsp breaks that connection (probably cause it can change the order of entities). 

that would be the problem :)

didn't realise there was an onlyents light option.. thanks. will have to add it to your compiler gui 8) 

cool, glad it's been useful! ^_^ 

what's the deal with quake sounds?

I thought they had to be 11kHz 8bit mono, but i just made a 44kHz 16bit mono sound and it loaded in both fitzquake and winquake... so is that okay? Is dosquake the only quake that needs 11kHz 8bit sounds? 

The beta or qtest used 44khz so I think it was a size or performance decision. 

Your 44kHz sound will still be downsampled to 11kHz, though, unless you set -sndspeed 44100 in the commandline (which doesn't work in Fitz085 as far as I can tell). 

11kHz .wav files are much smaller, so yeah, that will have been the reason. Considering the download speeds of the mid-Nineties, small sound files = good sound files.

Decent engines support -sndspeed 44100, I'm pretty sure it works with FitzSDL / Quakespasm. Under Linux and for me at least.

Still, -sndspeed 44100 will not magically restore Quake's sounds to their original quality. Once downsampled, those ones and zeroes are gone forever.

All that -sndspeed 44100 does is play 44.1kHz .wav files at the correct quality. 11kHz files will be nominally upsampled for playback, but the lost information remains lost. As with dried fruit - you can't magically restore them by putting in water.

id ruined Quake's sounds to save space, which is understandable for the shareware part (download size), but idiotic when you have CDs (and the soundtrack is 44.1kHz anyway).

Also, yes, it is OK. Dunno about Dosquake, but I'd be willing to bet it is OK with that as well.

And just a notice: Mappers and modders who provide 11kHz sounds along with their products are shooting themselves in the foot. There is no benefit to that, only drawbacks.

If you provide 11 kHz 8 bit sounds with your map, and someone plays your (Quoth or otherwise) map under RemakeQuake with -sndspeed 44100, the quality of your sounds will be comparatively (and noticeably) bad, at least if the player has good ears and is wearing headphones. In short, 11kHz sounds are pretty dated and will become obsolete in the future, maybe not with RemakeQuake, but eventually it's inevitable.

Whereas when you don't downsample them, they'll be converted automatically at runtime and fit right in with Quoth etc. 11kHz sounds, so there is no problem at all AND your sounds are future proof.