This release features metl4 - "Mining Station", a brand-new map I built using Lunaran's recent Q4Power texture set. 

Screenshots of the above:

http://www.celephais.net/shite/metl41.jpg
http://www.celephais.net/shite/metl42.jpg 

looks ace 

was pretty cool - like the textures! ;)

Also, I rather like your little castle map.

Is it time consuming to make maps for sb? I notice you've made quite a few, and RPG has some HUGE maps in there, so I assume it isn't too difficult to do or nobody would bother. 

It has a slick in-game editor that is pretty fast once you're familiar with it. There are some geometric limitations on how you build things, but once you learn those it's not a big problem. Lightmaps are compiled inside the editor, and take about 10-15 seconds for a level the size of metl4. There's also a command to "patch" the lighting by only recalculating lightmaps on modified geometry. So overall, pretty fast. I made this level in about three weeks with only and hour a night 2 or 3 nights a week, which is fast for me, since I'm a slow mapper. :)

The biggest advantage to the in-game editor is that you can prototype fast -- I had hallways and rooms the right size very quickly becuase I could run around them and see how they felt and make instant adjustments.

If you want to play with the editor, just hit "E" while in the game. You'll start noclipping around and can select cubes and push/pull them with the mousewheel. To edit the texture on a selection, hold Y and use the wheel. Look in editing.html for the rest of the commands:

http://sauerbraten.org/docs/editing.html 

A lot of the maps look terribly dated, with the exception of metl's, of course, but the geometry is still highly simplistic. I don't doubt the engine can do great things but I also don't get the feeling anyone has really tried to do those things with it yet.

Has anyone yet attempted to really see how far they can take this engine visually? or are your goals more technical, aard? 

The engine is not limited much when it comes to geometry... metl4 could have 10x more detail than it does without any performance issues.

I am limited by what mappers make... so if maps look dated, go make something better! :) I don't have the luxury of a mapping community the size of the q1 or q3 community meaning less top of the line maps, but at the same time there are quite a lot of cool maps, all unique to this engine... that is pretty sweet I think.

I have all sorts of goals with this engine... and creating the prettiest possible visuals is just one of them. 

This keeps getting better with every release... I have a feeling, looking at where its at now, that the only thing stopping this from being something special is the lack of professional quality content (yes, I'm one of the ones that needs to stop complaining and start creating!)

I've been meaning to do some maps for ages, as soon as I stop working 12 hrs a day 6 days a week on my current project I'll have a look at it (yeah, excuses excuses :) 

Yeah, sauerbraten really rocks, great work Aard (and other people involved).
As frib said, what is most lacking is quality content, as it is now, there is pretty much no design at all (the weapons and monsters are quite a mess), but there are really starting to be some nice interesting maps.

Are you eventually aiming for there to be a coherent design? Or do you not want to get into that and just leave it completely open ended, for other people to eventually do whatever they want with it design-wise? 

I wish I could say I want to try and make a beautifully realistic map in this engine but I've got so many zillion other projects sitting and aging, some of which already involve obligations to others, I'm afraid I can promise nothing. :( 

I totally agree with what Aard said about details -- i really haven't ever pushed sauerbraten as far as it can go in the geometry department.

Regarding the comments by Bal and Frib, this is exactly the situation. We have great technology and some good textures, but the content problem is caused becuase all content is donated directly or free to use in general. Until some good artist(s) with free time get interested and decide to focus on making a coherent set of content, sauerbraten will pretty much look like it does. The only reason the textures are good is that there are a number of good third-party texture sets that we have been fortunate to be able to include. 

When you said "RPG has some HUGE maps in there", did you mean RPG as in me? I only recall doing one small map for Cube. If I've done more, please remind me because I've forgotten. :) 

the "RPG maps" which are made by other people, for the RPG game that Aard is planning. 

RPG? RPG! Oh! 

Really nice shots metl. Reminds me of ZTN's Crucible. Suddenly Sauerbraten is legit. I'm going to try to put a map together... we really need better gameplay though. No offense, of course, but we need a more solid game to be mapping for. 

Suddenly Sauerbraten is legit.

I think I see the problem now, aard. 

after reading the design notes on Eisenstern... i want it. i think when i get home from work and the gym today, i will dl the new Sauerbraten and poke around with it. already printed out the editing info pages, including the lighting info.

i am intrigued.