Rockwall tutorial

(sock) #21

I would prefer links to the index of the LDR, but I dont see any problems with direct links.

Sock
:moo:

(kat) #22

oki dooky

(Ubiquitous) #23

Amazing tutorial, sock. Thanks for all the work.

(BigBadWolf) #24

learn lots of stuff around here heh heh. ill keep that in mind, thanks.

(ZoSo) #25

In the How To, you mention clipping.
“At the very end of the exercise you can clip all of the brushes so they are flush with the floor.”
My question is, how do you go about clipping the formations flush to an uneven floor?

Thanks and great work!!!
ZoSo

(sock) #26

The best way to do this is use the floor of the cave/tunnel as a cutting guide. (like a ruler) Organize your 2D window so that you are facing the wall. Select the bottom brush of the wall and clip the bottom section using the floor as a guide for where to put the clipping points. (blue dots).

Do this for each wall section using the relevant section of floor as a guide. Remember the floor is uneven, so the floor clipping will be different for each section of the wall.

On second thought I should have done an extra screenshot showing what to do, but after 20+ images I was getting a bit tired. Plus the tutorial was getting very heavy on images.

Sock
:moo:

(kat) #27

or to add an alternative/additional method… what you could do as you were building is take this issue into account and ‘avoid it’ by marking out the floor sections so they lined up with the walls, that way you wouldn’t need to do any funny cuts if you had used larger floor sections relative to those used on the walls.

The prefab could actually be built with a ‘floor’ section in it if you wanted so you wouldn’t need to worry about ‘connecting the dots’…!, it’d be a relatively painless thing to block fill the remaining space on the floor between each prefab side then, left - right… fill the gap in the middle

(sock) #28

The only problem with the floor being part of the template is the floor would end up dictating the up/down wall height distortions. Generally the floor needs to be fairly flat but slightly bumpy. Having the two independant of each other gives more freedom for rapid squashing and stretching of the wall surfaces.

While creating the rock in the map Fueldump I found using uneven wall widths (wall segments) not keeping to 64 units (like in the example) and using severe up/down distortions. It can give a very cool random look.

There is always different types of rock formations to choose from. The best thing to do is get some pictures of rockfaces and study the fault lines and gradiants of the edges. Best source for this stuff is either outdoors or rock climbing websites.

Sock
:moo:

(G0-Gerbil) #29

Yeah go into fueldump tunnels in devmap mode and type /r_showtris 1 - it’s much easier to see than to be explained too (especially when I use english like that :confused: ).

(sock) #30

Try this link for some good rock wall stuff.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=rock+climbing&sa=N&tab=wi

I know Kat will not say it, but check out this RTCW SP mod for some lovely rock wall. :smiley:

http://www.cpdt.com/rtcw/index.htm

Sock
:moo:

(kat) #31

(ZoSo) #32

Thanks sock :wink:

ZoSo

(G0-Gerbil) #33

As a quick point out to the tutorial, I am using this method, but slightly tweaked, and as a result it goes much quicker because you don’t have to edit individual brushes.

EG: http://www.planetquake.com/simland/pages/articles/rockwall1_2.htm - step 4 onwards (yet another twist). If you create your outline like Sock suggests, then you have to do it his way (each brush individually). However, you don’t have to do so. See this pic:


The outline on the left is how Sock says to set up your outline. On the right is how I’ve been doing it. First off, it uses less unique planes, so hopefully should result in a smaller BSP file. More importantly, it means if set up as a group, you can skew it all in one go:


With the group selected (I keep each set of outlines as a group), you can skew. The initial mouse position is VERY important - you must select near the ‘back’ edge of the group (IE the flat edge) before you move - if you get the wrong end then your brushes will bork. In the picture above, you’d click where the green blob is, and then drag to your heart’s content. Note the 3D pic is in there so you can get the reference of where I’m talking about (it gives orientation to the otherwise obscure top-down 2D view).

You can’t necessarily do it all in one go for skewing on the other axis, but you can certainly do it in 2 lots, assuming your outline is concave.
Here, I’m fortunate enough to be able to skew all in one go:


You MUST start your click drag where the green blob is, IE in the middle block, near it’s back edge. Up and down is now simple.
If this goes wrong, you can probably do it in two lots still, rather than brush by brush. First select the middle brush and all the ones below it. Start your click and drag in the bottom brush, near it’s back edge, and drag away. Then for the second lot, select the remaining brushes and start your click / drag on the top brush. near it’s back edge.

Put it this way - my outline has 6 brushes. So I’ve gone from 12 manipulations, to 2. Saves times, especially with extensive caves!

(G0-Gerbil) #34

So for the middle pic’s skewing, I skew in the4 2D top-down view - for the bottom pic I skew in the 3D one.

(chavo_one) #35

I agree the method on the right is MUCH faster since you can skew from top view in one move. It’s funny, I started doing the “right” method after reading sock’s tutorial because I mistakenly thought sock was doing it that way. Only after Gerbil’s post, did I realize my folly. :blah:

(sock) #36

The simple method is just to clip the back plane of the brushwork after you have finished with them. The actual saving of bytes on the BSP is not amazing unless you are actually pushing the limits already. But while the brushwork is still in progress its easier to leave it alone as the brushes shear better when being maintained as a square like shape.

Yeah someone said this to me a while ago but I dont thinks its very newbie friendly because you have to get the mouse pointer in the right place for it to work. But there is also another reason for individual twisting because you can add more detail as you go. I really need to write the second part of the tutorial which would explain this.

Sock
:moo:

(G0-Gerbil) #37

I admit it’s not user friendly, and even now I still occasionally click the wrong location.
But it’s tons faster - I would not have had the patience to do it the way in your original tutorial, my caves are just too complicated and big:


Like Chavo, I only noticed by accident that I wasn’t doing it like your tutorial :slight_smile:

(TFate) #38

Suh-weet tutorial! :clap: I always had problems creating caves without brushwork cracks. And this way is extremely fast!

(chavo_one) #39

:eek: That radiant shot is awesome work Gerb! You beat me to the punch. Even so, I am still determined to make a cave map before I die! :slight_smile:

(sock) #40

Well I’m glad you found the original tutorial useful in helping you to produce better cave designs. Once I get some more time I will finish off the next cave tutorials.

Sock
:moo: