Radiant units vs. lilfesize, what are the conversions?

([AE]HawkeyE) #1

Heyy guys, I wanted to make a building to it’s real life scale but I need to know the conversion like one unit = x ft or one unit = x metres. Also, when people say “one unit” in refernce to radiant, what is it’s size? there’s 9 different unit sizes with the numpad, which one is the one you guys refer to as one unit?

(Mark.C) #2

i just use one of the entities as a scale…ie

info_player_deathmatch, if you make a doorway just higher than this entity you wont go far wrong as it represnts the actual size of the player, when in-game.

(nUllSkillZ) #3

It’s in the help files that came with the radiant:
Appendix C: Bot Navigation Files: Useful map informations:

Useful Map Information
The following information is given as a reference for bot capabilities. The area file information is used by bots. It tells them when and where they can make jumps. Human players don’t have this information readily available to them, so you may want to be more forgiving when designing tricky jumps.

Map Boundaries
Currently all the contained area of a Quake III Arena map should fall within the bounds (8192, 8192, 8192) - (-8192, -8192, -8192) for the bspc tool to compile. These are the same bounds as the Q3Map compilers.

Game Physics
Player Dimensions
Model size: The player model’s actual size is a bounding box 30 units by 30 units square with a height of 56 units. In the game world, eight units roughly equal one foot (30.5 cm). From this, we deduce that the characters are a heroic 7 feet tall (2.13 meters).
Step Heights
For scale purposes, “normal” steps should be no higher than 8 units. However, the maximum value that a player may step up is 18 units (just keep steps 16 units or lower).

Normal Jumps
The maximum height for barriers the bots will jump on is 32 units.

Water Jump Heights (or “Everyone, out of the pool!”)
The maximum distance that a bot may jump to exit water is 18 units. This is the height difference between the water surface and the adjacent floor that the bot is jumping onto. If the water jump height is made higher, human players will have a hard time getting out of the water.

Rocket Jumps
With normal gravity and without the quad, the maximum rocket jump height is around 280 units (you can sometimes jump a few units higher but this is a safe value for reference). In practice, except for especially tricky jumps, this value should be substantially lower. Test rocket jumps repeatedly before settling on a final height.

Math for Map Makers
Here’s some math to calculate some other values of interest:

Gravity = 800;
Jump velocity = 270;
Max vertical rocketjump velocity = 670;
Max run velocity = 320;
Max step height = 18;
Max jump height = 0.5 * gravity * (jumpvelocity/gravity)*(jumpvelocity/gravity);
Max normal jump height = 45 units
NOTE: even though this is the mathematical maximum jump height always keep the the 32 units maximum barrier height for bots in mind when building maps.
Maximum horizontal jump distance over a gap from one spot to another when both are at the same height:

t = sqrt((maxjumpheight + maxstep) / (0.5 * gravity));
t = 0.3986 seconds;
dist = maxrunvelocity * (t + jumpvelocity / gravity);
dist = 235 units;
Because players use a bounding box we can jump a full bounding box width further in the ideal case. (15 units at the jump starting position and 15 at the landing place).

235 + 15 + 15 = 265 units.
Again, remember that this is the mathematical maximum which players can only reach under ideal circumstances.

Thanks to ASW who has given me this information some times ago.

(TFate) #4

I always figured 16 units was closer to a foot. It certainly seemed that way, the 8 unit steps always seemed too small.

([AE]HawkeyE) #5

so then what is a unit exactly?

there’s 9 different sizes radiant uses when you play with the numbers on the numpad, so which one is a unit?

(BXpress) #6

well wasnt it like 120units=180cm ?

well, one player spawn is as high as the player!

(SCDS_reyalP) #7

nUllSkillZ, that information is for q3, not ET and RTCW. They are different, so that page is misleading.

ET players are 72 units tall, which would make 1 unit = 1 inch, assuming players are 6’ tall players. However, making things to scale will not work right in many cases, because players are fixed rectangular box rather than a flexible,non-rectangular human.

[AE]HawkeyE, units are the actual numbers that are displayed in various places. grid size 1 is a one unit grid.

There are a number of older threads on this topic.

([AE]HawkeyE) #8

ah ok, thanks for the help guys :). Especially the last post and ildon jamming it into my brain on the IRC chat heh

(Chruker) #9

I have done some testing to find some of these measurements. This is what I got so far:


What                               Height    Width    Depth    Comment
=============================      ======    =====    =====    =======
Radiant player box                 72        36       36

Minimum sizes:
Opening - For walk                 80        40
Opening - Proned                   56        40
Opening - Crawling                 48        40
Opening - Spectator fly-through    96        40

Natural sizes:
Door opening                       96        56       4        When the door is open remember to subtract its thickness from the opening size.
(SCDS_reyalP) #10

another point is that normal ceilings (and even doorways) should be high enough that a player can jump without bumping their head, since many players habitually strafe jump. Doorways should be wide enough for two players unless you specifically want to create a narrow choke point. 128 is just tall enough to jump in, if I remember correctly.