im going to take a stab at doing a small map test entirely modeled in blender
( if i can get the terrain blending to work that is ) and exported to ase in
various groups. here’s the start, i’ll update as i move along.
the idea being that every mesh will be modeled and no brushwork with the
exception of entities where needed.
Looks nice! Wtach the number of faces though 
If you’d like to get more information about Blender and Q3/D3/Q4 modeling, have a look at this site: http://katsbits.com/
A somehow related link in bani’s forum:
http://bani.anime.net/banimod/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6679
Looks nice so far…
But won’t you still have to clip all your models afterwards?
I suppose you could set the autoclip spawnflag but wouldn’t it get way too complicated? take the roof of this little building for example… why would you clip it exactly like it is, why not just make a large block for it… (supposing people are not supposed to be on there… :P)
thanks for the comments, i am keeping a watch on tris, im trying to make
each room a ‘scene’ with connecting area’s that will just act as a blind spot
to the portals from those larger ‘scene’ rooms… should work i think…
that link describes a different idea, at least as i understand it. this map is just
using ase models instead of making brushes with diffuse faces. there will be
a brushed and calked structural hull for the entire map where the portals
need to be defined to keep the r_speeds in check.
@flippy,
i will use auto clip for a majority of the meshes, but i will also be using
clip brushes. from the tests ive been doing so far autoclip works well on
the terrain and walls also where needed. the tunnel in oasis is an autoclipped
ase i believe, and even with the face count it clips not to bad.
Hey, those tunnels look like the ones from Siwa Oasis. In anycase everthing looks good. Hope to see the completed project.
Try a shader like this:
textures/t/grass_dirt_01
{
qer_editorimage textures/quarry/s_grass_dense1.tga
surfaceparm landmine
q3map_lightmapsamplesize 48
q3map_lightmapaxis z
q3map_tcGen ivector ( 256 0 0 ) ( 0 256 0 )
q3map_forcemeta
q3map_alphaMod dotproduct2 ( 0.0 0.0 0.75 )
q3map_nonplanar
q3map_shadeangle 180
{
map textures/egypt_floor_sd/sandy_dirt_01.tga
rgbGen identity
}
{
map textures/quarry/s_sandygrass_b.tga
blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
alphaFunc GE128
rgbGen identity
alphaGen vertex
}
{
map $lightmap
blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
rgbGen identity
}
}
thanks shaderman, but im stll debating on if im going to use dotproduct
or just simply paint the vertex’s directly in the mesh for the blending.
using googfo’s ase exporter which exports with vertex colors and q3map2 fs build, the blending comes out nice. im rebuilding the rock work on the mesh
to have a path, i’ll show a pic when i get it to the point of exporting.
small update, have reworked the model a bit.
this entire room was made in blender, the sky is done in radiant, but the rest
is an autoclipped ase. no lighting in the scene yet, except for the skylight.
im going to start the side and front entrances now, since they are not in this
mesh yet, but they will be used as ‘connectors’ to the other larger main
scenes to keep the fps in check.
noob question: how do you import ase files into radiant :S
i hate alphablending and i want to make my terrain on ase
same as importing an md3 or other model type that radiant supports,
just right click, select misc->misc_model then from the drop tab
of model types, select .ase
lol! i dont have those formats in my radiant i will download another version
i also dont have an autoclip spawnflag, i hear it’s a good idea to use shaders for clipping too, i’ll look into it
HI Ryaban
nice but your model has 8096 faces ( and it can means 8096 polygons or more )
Will not be problem with this ?
What you think that is advantage of making parts of map in format ase in modeler than in Radiant from brushes
i don’t believe there will be any problem from excess tris count due to it
being a model, and even though i intend to do the entire map this way, it
will be sections exported out to ase and not one entire mesh. basicly
chopped up into ‘scenes’.
as for any advantage, it has some, but also disadvantages also.
the main advantage i would say is that you have total control over the
amount of tris in the scene. knowing where you will have portals you can
actually count in your head how many faces ‘should’ be displayed at any
given point in the map. i say ‘should’ because you still have to take into
account the pvs.
this room is basicly done except for some doorways, alters and a few
hanging banners, but i can see it in my head how much more tris that
will cost me, and its way way under the suggested max tris for any
given point of view.
being modeled up, a scene can also seem more impressive than it isn’t
basicly because you have a better control of all the shapes. this particular
scene would be a pain to make in brushwork plus all the overhead of the
non displayed caulk faces, and thats if this scene could have been done
in brushwork at all.
the main advantage would be that you control where the triangles will be
placed and if it were done in brushwork, it might be chopped up into
many more triangles than you expected. this does take some more prep
work to layout and make shure light won’t bleed though any connecting
faces, but you would hopefully do that also if it were brushwork.
biggest disadvantage is of course… the… unwrapping.
you have to layout the uv’s for all the faces and it can be a pain and take
much of the time in doing it this way ( with a mesh ) but there is an
advantage in that also, because you can have dramatic detail in the mesh
afterwards. you dont have that control in radiant, and even if you did
manage to get it done with radiant ( the precise control over uv’s ) in
your brushwork… you’d be hairless in the end because the frustration of
tweaking the textures to the surfaces would have made you pull out your
hair half way through… =P
it takes longer to do a room like this in a modeling program but this is
just a test so far, to see how hard it is and if there is any real benifit from
it. so far its working ok for me so i’ll keep going for now.
personally i like the control over tris and just that benifit alone makes
me prefer the modeling route.
you mean blender doesnt use seams for texturing? i used to be uncapable of even trying it until max8 came out; world of diference when doing it with seams