Introducing myself and Thanking You

Blackstar1000 · Post by **Blackstar1000** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:47 pm

What is up Quakers? I have not posted on a forum in 6 years. I'm 25 and natively a flash Actionscript programmer. I have been a graphic designer for a large clothing store. I currently Build and test Toughbooks for Panasonic for a living... Several months ago I decided to test out many 3D engines for an unknown game project and settled on the Darkplaces Engine. I am very pleased with my decision so far.

I would also like to say that the community here is great. I have read every conversation and tutorial on this sight many times picking at them for information on Quake C and Quake in general. I really love the way you guys interact; very nice helpful people. Very knowledgeable. I feel like I already know some of you. So I have to break my silence and say "Hey." And once again thank many of you.

MY PROJECT:
I am not sure what will come of it. I tend to aim high and work diligently for years. Thus far it is a framework of a Third-Person Sci-Fi RPG-like game. I am still learning quake's code so much of it is subject to change. Much of the visual aspect of the game I have down though. I have created many hundreds of textures and am a Whiz at Worldcraft. I just love what Darkplaces does for lighting. On a high-end computer it is really a sight to see. The bump mapping is epic, and it's free free! Go Quake community!

frag.machine · Post by **frag.machine** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:31 am

So... are you sure you're not a spambot ?

Welcome!

Blackstar1000 · Post by **Blackstar1000** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:11 am

Ha! I knew that was going to be the first reply. I am quite sure

Post by **Error** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:56 am

Glad to have you here. We're here to help and always enjoy seeing new people come aboard. Darkplaces truly is a great engine, created by many extremely talented people. I'm not sure if you've seen the "forever incomplete" Darkplaces wiki, but it should be a help to newer people. I hope to see something come out of your project soon, and don't be afraid to ask for any assistance. This forum was created to help, share, and gain knowledge of Quake and it's never-ending possibilities.

Enjoy your stay.

Blackstar1000 · Post by **Blackstar1000** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 3:29 am

Also, sorry I missed the "Introduce yourself" sticky.

Ha, I have so many questions. Though I have worked through so many of mine so far. The only problem that is really slowing my work down is when I compile my levels in worldcraft It stops taking the textures I have resized below ".36" x and y

When I go back to maps I had worked on a couple months ago they stop compiling and fail almost instantly because I have some textures that are resized smaller than that. I'm certain that the textures are the problem as I stated above. Perhaps it's my custom textures? But it is strange then that the problem is new. Also it happens even worse if I have copied and pasted many brushes, the textures on the pasted brushes will fail to compile in the map even if they are sized normally.

I understand worldcraft is not the ideal map editor. But I have used it for more years than I can count and have already finished a bunch for this project. NOTE that this is not progress stopping. Just a big annoyance.

ceriux · Post by **ceriux** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 3:53 am

did you scale them in the editor?

also how much do they repeat? next, question. why so small?

Nahuel · Post by **Nahuel** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:53 am

[quote="Blackstar1000"][/quote]
Welcome, i am new too, but this forum is great!
i Can´t help you

, i Use quark (the real "not ideal" editor, but i love it)

Post by **Dr. Shadowborg** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 3:17 pm

Blackstar1000 wrote:Ha, I have so many questions. Though I have worked through so many of mine so far. The only problem that is really slowing my work down is when I compile my levels in worldcraft It stops taking the textures I have resized below ".36" x and y

When I go back to maps I had worked on a couple months ago they stop compiling and fail almost instantly because I have some textures that are resized smaller than that. I'm certain that the textures are the problem as I stated above. Perhaps it's my custom textures? But it is strange then that the problem is new. Also it happens even worse if I have copied and pasted many brushes, the textures on the pasted brushes will fail to compile in the map even if they are sized normally.

Welcome!

What version of worldcraft and what are the sizes of the textures being used?

Blackstar1000 · Post by **Blackstar1000** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:20 am

So many good questions. I'm using Worldcraft build 1315. I also have patched it with some kind of quakeadapter. (forgive me it's been awhile.) Yes I resize my textures using worldcraft's built in texture manipulator as I had done habitually in half-life and half-life2.

To make my game as pretty as possible I based my textures off of a Quake High Definition pack. They are 512 x 512 tga. Also many include the norm/gloss for bumpmapping.
They are resized because they come out MASSIVE in worldcraft when and even a texture that is 256 x 256 comes out huge. If I left the 512x 512 ones at the normal size (1x1) The quality is terrible. 40% looks ideal. And it is difficult to make real looking objects because of the unusual scaling. (To make a door look good is very hard. My texture would have to be something sized to .16 x .16 in Worldcraft. That is a no-go anymore.

I will say that I rely heavily on worldcraft's ability to manipulate the textures on the brush faces. Also my mapping is a bit insane, lots of faces and brushes. Though I have to say that Darkplaces is doing a kickass job with them. And after some messing with so does worldcraft. But there is a lot of messing... :?

Post by **Dr. Shadowborg** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:24 am

Blackstar1000 wrote: To make my game as pretty as possible I based my textures off of a Quake High Definition pack. They are 512 x 512 tga. Also many include the norm/gloss for bumpmapping.
They are resized because they come out MASSIVE in worldcraft when and even a texture that is 256 x 256 comes out huge. If I left the 512x 512 ones at the normal size (1x1) The quality is terrible. 40% looks ideal. And it is difficult to make real looking objects because of the unusual scaling. (To make a door look good is very hard. My texture would have to be something sized to .16 x .16 in Worldcraft. That is a no-go anymore.

This is probably your problem, I don't think Worldcraft (and Q1BSP for that matter) is really meant to work with textures as massive as that. You'll have better luck if you make your textures to proper scales for the "built-in" wad textures and have your highres textures load externally. i.e. 1 pixel per unit in worldcraft. (so that a texture that is 32x32 pixels will work on all the faces of a box that is 32x32x32 and would fit without needing to be scaled.)

(IIRC, doesn't the QHD pack operate off of an external loading method anyway?)

Blackstar1000 · Post by **Blackstar1000** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 8:29 pm

Ah, so what you are saying is that in my wad I have a 32 X 32 version of a texture that in my quake directory will be 512 x 512. So the problem is not with how quake is handling my textures but how worldcraft is recognizing the big files? I'll give this a shot.

Blackstar1000 · Post by **Blackstar1000** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:21 pm

Tested it out. It worked wonderfully! Thanks again. The translation works good between the editor and the game now, everything lines up and the bumpmapping and texture quality looks great!

Post by **Dr. Shadowborg** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 3:07 am

Blackstar1000 wrote:Tested it out. It worked wonderfully! Thanks again. The translation works good between the editor and the game now, everything lines up and the bumpmapping and texture quality looks great!

Glad to be of assistance.

A quick google search also revealed this handy page:
http://www.celephais.net/stuff/texturefaq.htm

Avoid doing oddball textures like and or larger than the 320x192 one and just stick with more normal dimensioned textures for your lowres builtin textures and worldcraft shouldn't complain.

Blackstar1000 · Post by **Blackstar1000** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 3:28 am

Thanks Dr. Shadowborg. I have indeed seen that website, though it was nearly a year ago. I do so much goolgeing between home and work on the subject of quake it is insane. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of all the information. I must let you know that I do all the Mapping, Modeling, Programming, Writing, and texturing/bumpmapping for the project I am working on.

When I found the site I was not sure weather these limitations still applied to the Darkplaces-updated quake clean version that I was running. I also did not realize that the problem I was encountering during the compile lay almost exclusively on Worldcraft.

Thanks for the link again, it has been bookmarked : )
And my new stand in textures work wonders.

Nahuel · Post by **Nahuel** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:09 pm

josephcush39 wrote:
Blackstar1000 wrote:Ha! I knew that was going to be the first reply. I am quite sure

hahahahaha so manny spams I guess?

_____________________________
Joseph

and you?