Map features for side-scrolling games

Discuss the construction of maps and the tools to create maps for 3D games.
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mankrip
Posts: 924
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:02 am

Map features for side-scrolling games

Post by mankrip »

What's the best approach for creating side-scrolling maps for FTEQW or DP?

Side-scrolling maps (e.g. the ones in Target Quake and in The Ascension of Vigil) usually consists of a huge open space in the foreground for the camera, with all the rest open in front of it, so the VIS data will never be optimal.
In Fightoon I actually got my maps running faster by making them fully open and not processing them through VIS. But for complex maps, that wouldn't work.

Also, in vanilla Quake unlit maps are not displayed with neutral brightness; they're fully displayed in overbright. Was this fixed in DP and in FTEQW?
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Spike
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Re: Map features for side-scrolling games

Post by Spike »

The PVS is only realistically used by the server for filtering entities. the client really only uses it to reduce overdraw (which doesn't really matter when there's only one far surface at any point of the map), the rest can be frustum culled efficiently enough.
You can use customiseentityforclient or the ssqc parts of csqc to filter entities based upon horizontal distance from the player, so that you don't clog the network, although this can put extra cpu load on the server (thus the csqc option is prefered as it does not have to check every frame, and happens after PVS checks).
With CSQC, there's some VF_USEPERSPECTIVE thing that can be set to 0. this will give an isometric view which can remove the need for the gap between character and viewpoint, although it will change the perspective+fov etc. generally this will give a more old-school feel, so you might still choose to not use it, but you will need to do the background some other way.

I've no idea about overbrights, test it if you want.
frag.machine
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Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:49 pm

Re: Map features for side-scrolling games

Post by frag.machine »

Unlit BSP models are rendered fullbright in DP, just like vanilla Quake.
I know FrikaC made a cgi-bin version of the quakec interpreter once and wrote part of his website in QuakeC :) (LordHavoc)
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