beta of spirit2dm1 - awaiting resurrection

[spirit]

Hi everyone,

I've done some stuff for q3 and other games in the past but am rather new to the q2 community. I decided to give q2 mapping a try like 4 weeks ago and have come up with a beta of spirit2dm1.

It's a DM-map designed for 3 players. One atrium, lots of vertical action. Some may have read the announcement on planetquake or read my post at mc/q3w, but it seems to fit here much better.

The map is available from my website or via this > download link < .


Shot 1:


Shot 2:


Shot 3:


Shot 4:


Known issues:
*small but strange sparkle effect on a brush above MH. looks like z-fighting but there's no overlapping brushes there, double-checked it.

Hints on the error named above would come in *very* handy, same goes for feedback on anything else of course.

Thanks for your time and hf!

[Wixen1 [Q2C]]

Hi Spirit and welcome to the Café.

Did tjec it out some hours ago and I think its a very cool map.
You should had entered our contest, would had been great.
Maybe next time..

W1

[Paril]

Hmm, kinda dark screenshots, looks nice though. Fits in with the Q2 atmosphere. Ewww, no high quality models or textures

-Paril

[grieve[Q2C]]

spirit, you might maybe find a brightness adjustment alias like this handy. just add it to the autoexec.bat in your baseq2 or other game/mod folder you want it in.
to use it press "n" to increase general brightness 1 level , after 4 it goes back to 0.


alias vidbright1 "gl_modulate 2; vid_restart; bind n vidbright2"
alias vidbright2 "gl_modulate 3; vid_restart; bind n vidbright3"
alias vidbright3 "gl_modulate 4; vid_restart; bind n vidnorm"
alias vidnorm "gl_modulate 1; vid_restart; bind n vidbright1"
bind n vidbright1


about the map I gotta say it has the common r_speed problem. this is, the amount of worldpolies seen at the same time. this shouldn't go much higher in Q2 than 1000 to maintain reasonable playability on low-end systems and for netplay. basically Q2 has the same limitations here as original Quakeworld.

you map reaches 2000+, without the detailing work even done yet.
I assume you made a full vis and not a fast-vis ?

[SkiesOfBordom]

r_speeds are fine as long as its under 4000. r_speeds dont mean crap under 4000 unless you've got a computer thats 6+yrs old. which most gamers DONT. even if they have DSL, their computer should keep up with it.

I have nvr been able to keep my r_speeds low because i make such detailed maps. its the q2 engine's network protocols and BSP handling that are limiting me. i dont like to make bland maps. however, beware of texture scaling! it increases the r_speeds rapidly!

anyway great map spirit and welcome to the the cafe

[Wixen1 [Q2C]]

skiesofbordom said:

r_speeds are fine as long as its under 4000. r_speeds dont mean crap under 4000 unless you've got a computer thats 6+yrs old. which most gamers DONT. even if they have DSL, their computer should keep up with it.

I have nvr been able to keep my r_speeds low because i make such detailed maps. its the q2 engine's network protocols and BSP handling that are limiting me. i dont like to make bland maps. however, beware of texture scaling! it increases the r_speeds rapidly!

anyway great map spirit and welcome to the the cafe

I agree mostly...with you SOB...those r_speeds are kinda oldies talk. If you have a computer THAT old you cant have an objective mind of what the world looks like today., well it must been severel years since you had a even talk with ppl. at the same level pc-standart, right.? (if you r at that level) ?
Even thou, I think Grieve has a point in the matter of lightning, in the map. Or even if it works fine with me playing the map, it could be a problem to other players.

W1

[Wixen1 [Q2C]]

Bye the way..very nice screenshoots of the map Grieve, as it look like when played...

W1

[Wixen1 [Q2C]]

Have to say this...I like your map very much Spirit...well done..

W1

[Mart[1001]]

Aargh....the dreaded r_speeds debate. I do wish you people would take an interest....Grieve is correct in what he says(almost). r_Speeds of 1000 are ok...but only in one or two places. Speeds of 1000 throughout a map will simply kill it's online gameplay...which is what q2 mapping is all about surely ?
Offline, r_speeds are limited only by your hardware....online, r_speeds are limited by the netplay programming of quake2.
Even in the most recent games, proffessional mappers don't just 'do what they like' and say 'it's ok...it'll run good 2 years from now'....they have to stick to the rules at the time. And it don't matter how much you spend, or how many years pass....quake2 can still only do, what it's programmer told it to.
Great map btw dude...can't believe it's your first q2 map.

[AAAGGHHH!!]

Cool looking map spirit! Good to see another Q2 mapper from out of the fog!

[spirit]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

I didn't know about the contest when I was builiding the map, maybe I'll sign up for the next one if I find the time.

Thanks for brightness adjustment lines for the config, Grieve. I didn't even have a real config for q2 4 weeks ago and it's still very simple atm.

I'll most likely try to read up on the r_speeds issues some of you guys were mentioning and setup a quake2 server over at airrocket.net to test the map in real netplay (any suggestions on which q2 server to use on a linux system, btw?).
Just gave it a few tries so far with friends of mine who happened to drop in when I was working on it.


Having to keep r_speeds < 1000 sounds like a harsh q2 limitation, but I'll try to adjust the portals for beta3 and see what I can do. Doubt this will be possible on the map though.

[Panzer]

The 1000 r_speeds figure is really just a guide line and really more for the netplay as opposed to the game engine's limitations. Once you go over 1000, the latency gets worse and can really wreak havoc on a networked match.

If it's any consolation, since you said you checked out the maps on Jester's site, some of the r_speeds of the Neal&Bob maps have r_speeds well over 1000. Even LeRay has put out some maps with r_speeds of over 2000, but keeping it simple really is the best way to go for Q2 unless someone re-writes the net code

[SkiesOfBordom]

dude, i can never keep my r_speeds less than 1000, no matter what i do. i make complex maps, end of story.

I would map for q3 but i dont know alot of ppl to play it on cuz they say q3 sux or w/e.

[Le Ray [Q2C]]

Spirit, I just noticed your post. I wanted to welcome you to the Cafe' !

Thanks for letting us test out your map, I hope we've helped you out.

The screenshots look great!

Even LeRay has put out some maps with r_speeds of over 2000

lol...yeah, I remember some of those...sometimes you just can't avoid it.

[Whirlingdervish]

Nice lookin map!

I found the architecure very interesting, and quite refreshing!
The atmosphere is very q2, and it's trimmed out pretty smoothly.

I won't gripe about r_speeds unless they majorly affect my framerate,and under 2000 isn't bad at all for someone who's used to mapping for Q3 and didn't previously know about the limitations..

as long as my crap old vid card can maintain over 30 FPS, I don't get too uppity..
(I prefer 72 though..