Approximate measurements?

Discussion for Level editing, modeling, programming, or any of the other technical aspects of Quake
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Psyence88
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Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:12 am

Approximate measurements?

Post by Psyence88 »

Hey there,

I've always enjoyed mapping for Quake 3 as a hobby and I have some friends that would like me to flesh out their interior design plans so they can see it in 3D space. I'm not looking for exact measurements, but what would 8 units(on Grid8) equal to?

Thanks!
obsidian
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Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2002 8:00 am

Re: Approximate measurements?

Post by obsidian »

Q3 is hardly accurate as far as measurements go, particularly since the player can jump twice as high and move 4x as fast as any real person.

The info_player_deathmatch is 56 units high, so that should give you a starting point. 1 unit can be thought of as roughly 1 inch, though things still look rather small if using those specifications due to the camera POV.
pjw
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Joined: Sun May 07, 2000 7:00 am

Re: Approximate measurements?

Post by pjw »

1:1 units/inches is a good place to start, but obsidian is right about stuff being weird because of camera POV and FOV. I've always had more luck making real-world-ish stuff feel closer to "right" by upping the scale a bit.

My advice would be for you to make something simple (e.g. a couple of rooms with a doorway in between, and a couple of bsp chairs and a table or couch or bed (or something equally simple and "normal") in both of them. Make it really simple and blocky, and then play around with size on the whole until it feels right, and use that as a template to reverse-engineer a good units:inches scale before you build out something more complicated.
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seremtan
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Re: Approximate measurements?

Post by seremtan »

i'd go for 2 units = 1 inch tbh

a 64 unit wide hallway would seem very narrow and constricted in Q3, but would be a little over 5 feet wide with 1:1 ratio

likewise stair risers are typically 8 units in Q3 (4 units in HL2), but the only people who have 8 inch risers in the real world are aztecs and mayans, and they're all dead, so there you go
Psyence88
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:12 am

Re: Approximate measurements?

Post by Psyence88 »

Thanks for the replies so far!

Moving around won't be a issue since it will be no_clipped anyways, it's not generally for moving around as a real person would. It's just for presentation in 3D space so people can get an idea of what it looks like.

Thanks!
obsidian
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Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2002 8:00 am

Re: Approximate measurements?

Post by obsidian »

seremtan wrote:likewise stair risers are typically 8 units in Q3 (4 units in HL2), but the only people who have 8 inch risers in the real world are aztecs and mayans, and they're all dead, so there you go
The stairs in my house all have 8 inch risers and I'm not an Aztec or Mayan, nor am I dead. You must be a midget. :p

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