New map : Nightmare

[Wezelkrozum]

Wow. Nice screenshots. Really good atmosphere there.

[Blowfish]

What are the things you can do to improve FPS ? Besides totally redoing map. I tried to minimize brushes, long far views, small textures and manual clipping models instead of spawnflags 6. Does it help to combine terrain brushes ?

[Blowfish]

Since I dont want to bump the other Stealths post, I will ask it here. I am using the following basic skies :

textures/skies/sd_wurzburgsky
{
	nocompress
	qer_editorimage textures/skies/sky_8.tga
	q3map_lightimage textures/skies/n_blue2.tga
	q3map_nofog
	q3map_globaltexture
	q3map_lightsubdivide 256 
	q3map_sun 0.130 0.080 0.020 20 165 5
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 80 35 40
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 15 215 60
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 35 50
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 35 45
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 35 35
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 35 30
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 40 40
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 45 40
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 30 40
	q3map_sun 0.281 0.288 0.370 10 25 40
	q3map_surfacelight 30

	surfaceparm noimpact
	surfaceparm nolightmap
	surfaceparm sky

	skyparms - 512 -
	sunshader textures/skies_sd/small_moon

	{
		map textures/skies_sd/wurzburg_clouds.tga
		tcMod scale 2.5 2.5
		tcMod scroll 0.003 -0.0015
		rgbGen identityLighting
	}
	{
		map textures/skies_sd/ydnar_lightning.tga
		blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE
		rgbGen wave triangle -8 9 0 0.137
		alphaGen wave noise -3 4 0 2.37
		tcMod scale 3 3
		tcMod scroll 0.003 -0.0015
	}
	{
		clampmap textures/skies_sd/wurzburg_fogmask.tga
		blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
		tcMod scale 0.956 0.956
		tcMod transform 1 0 0 1 -1 -1
		rgbGen identitylighting
	}
}

Made the fog shader :

textures/nightmare/nightfog
{
	fogParms ( 0.5 0.5 0.5 ) 8800	//Normalized RGB, distance to opaque

	surfaceparm fog		//Must be used
	surfaceparm nolightmap
	surfaceparm nonsolid
	surfaceparm trans
	qer_trans 0.4
}

To activate the foghull feature, the _foghull and _farplanedist worldspawn entity key/value pairs must be set in the Entity Inspector (in Radiant, select any non-entity brush and press “N”).

The _foghull key’s value works similar to that of terrain entities. It must point to the name of the skybox shader, minus the standard “textures/” prefix. For the skybox shader example above with the shader name “textures/skies/foghullsky”, you would use a _foghull value of “skies/foghullsky”.

The _farplanedist value is simply the distance at which polygons will begin to get culled. One important note is that the _farplanedist value must be greater than the distance to opaque value set in the fog shader. In the above fog shader, the distance to opaque value was set to 1024 game units. The _farplanedist value must therefore be greater than 1024, otherwise the HOM effect will appear.

_foghull - skies/sd_wurzburgsky
_farplanedist - 2048 (no idea why i set this number)
_fog - textures/nightmare/nightfog (added this while reading posts)

What do I need to do more ? And will this help fps ?

The color of the fog used must match the color used in the skybox images. Any decent image editing software will give you the three RGB color values of your skybox images, which must be normalized by dividing by 255. As with any other fog shader, the fogParms and surfaceparm fog keywords must be present.

The grey must match the color of the skyboximages… do these images need to be unicolor ? Because the current skybox has more multicolors.

[Wezelkrozum]

A fog and farplanedist will improve the fps, yes. The farplanedist is the maximum distance (value in units in radiant) the trishes will be drawn.
So in your case there will be nothing drawn behind 2048 units.

What you could do more:

• vis-blocking. (use structural-, detailbrushes and hinttextures)
• using detail-textures. The user can define if he wants to draw them. So slow-pc users can play with lower graphics but with better fps.
  Example:

textures/path/texturename
{
        qer_editorimage textures/path/texturename.tga

	{
		map textures/path/texturename.tga	// Main texture
		rgbGen identity
	}

	{
		map $lightmap //the lightmapimage
		blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
		rgbGen identity
	}

	{
		map textures/detail/texturename.tga
		blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_SRC_COLOR
		detail
		tcMod scale 4 4 //draw the detail texture 4 times in the texture
	}
}

[Blowfish]

Thanks. And what is the difference between the number behind _farplanedist and the one in my shader (8800).

And I seem to have/had it working… Because of the hills its not nice to see them come and go. And I set it to 8800 in my shader, so I still have the foggie surroundings without the mountains disappearing …

I also removed qer_editorimage from shader, since its not used…

[Wezelkrozum]

Thanks. And what is the difference between the number behind _farplanedist and the one in my shader (8800).

The farplanedist is when the brushes dissapear.
The one in your shader is the distance when the fog is non-transparant anymore.

[Blowfish]

Ok. So the farplanedist should be greater than the one in the shader ? So when the fog is non-trans, its ok to not draw the brushes… In my case (with these numbers) the farplanedist is useless I gues…

EDIT: In my local ET version the fog works perfectly, but when I upload it to my etpro server… I dont see it. Maybe a setting I did to remove it ?

[Wezelkrozum]

I think you didn’t inclode your fog-shader into your pk3.

[Blowfish]

Yeh, it was…I checked :). But nevermind… I will find it.

Another question, do entire caulced brushes influence the fps ? Or are they just ignored ?

[shagileo]

[quote=Blowfish;202370]Yeh, it was…I checked :). But nevermind… I will find it.

Another question, do entire caulced brushes influence the fps ? Or are they just ignored ?[/quote]

Depends whether or not they are structural or detail.
If the caulk block is structural, it will not be ignored (like other structurals). This can be used as a -vis block actually in some places. I think they call that hull caulking, not sure.

If the caulk block is detail, well, it will be ignored during compile

[SSF-Sage]

[QUOTE=shagileo;202380]Depends whether or not they are structural or detail.
If the caulk block is structural, it will not be ignored (like other structurals). This can be used as a -vis block actually in some places. I think they call that hull caulking, not sure.

If the caulk block is detail, well, it will be ignored during compile[/QUOTE]

About structural, correct. But do remember when it is detail, it will be still solid in game. You only can’t see it, so it’s much like clipweap, even tho you should use clipweap where it is supposed to be used and caulk where it’s supposed to.

Caulk is not drawn, so it won’t add any extra tris, but the mesh is still there and adds to collision data (like every solid face does). So it does have minimal impact on fps due to that, but it’s nothing to be concerned of if not abused. And yes, it can be gold when used for vis blocking. Caulk is your friend.

[Blowfish]

Ok, thanks for info. Does anyone know of a Vampire/dracula model I can use ?

[shagileo]

Not really a vampire model, but looks creepy enough:
http://www.wemakemaps.com/mapmodels3.htm
(Goblin Gargoyle)

More models can be found on that website
(http://www.wemakemaps.com/mapmodeltext.htm)

Don’t forget to credit of course :stroggbanana:

[Pegazus]

Nice found there Shag !

[Blowfish]

Yeh I already used a few of those models in the new map :). There must be a vampire model somewhere :). Maybe I should have one made… payed ofc.

[shagileo]

Yeh I already used a few of those models in the new map :). There must be a vampire model somewhere :). Maybe I should have one made… payed ofc.

There are a lot of talented modellers around here.
I’m sure if you ask nicely, they are willing to help

[Blowfish]

Hello talented modellers… kiss kiss… anyone can make me a nice vampire which I can lay down in his chest ?

I wouldnt mind buying this one, but his arms and legs should be straight, so I can put him in a chest :

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-count-model/285321

Any 3ds experts who can do this ?

[Blowfish]

Ok, I bought the 3ds model, opened it in Milkshape, created a .qc file and exported it as md3. So I have a nice md3 model now. But since I am a model noob, I need to find out how to get those arms and legs more close to its body. Any Milkshape users here … since it has been a long time for me…

EDIT : I can of course also just put him on top of his castle…and we just blow up his chest … hehe…

[IndyJones]

if the model has groups of certain areas, then it will be quite easy to move the group… i could possibly take a look at the file, if u send it to me.

[Pegazus]

If you remember the hotkey to go into Edit Mode and then go into Vertex editing, it’s rather easy to adjust it then.
Just select the vertexes you want to move.

(Since i have not used milkshape, I don’t know the proper names)
Also if you want, you can send it to me too.