Screenshots

[ix-ir]

"mimic HDR dome lighting"

How are you doing that exactly? I've been interested in faking HDR in Q3 for a while.

[Lunaran]

Well, there's HDR as High Dynamic Range, with floating-point lighting values that aren't bound to a particular exposure bracket or monitor brightness range, which quake3 simply doesn't do, and there's other lighting techniques that kind of get lumped in with it that aren't really dynamic or high range ... so, it's just dome lighting.

I basically fake a radiosity bounce off the skybox. Forget I ever said HDR.

I ran the python in maya 2008. I started by creating a fullerene (soccer ball, 60 verts) and poking a vert into the center of each face (32 more), which gave me a bunch of points all about evenly spaced. Coordinates of each vert + some trig = the angle and declination in q3map_sun terms, which I also convert to U/V and use to query a color ramp node that approximates the colors in the skybox (turquoise at the top, brown at the bottom, grey in the center). I just had it print all the values into the output window and I pasted them into the shader.

(hipshot's map is looking awesome too, as usual.)

[rgoer]

that's all well and good megabyte but damn those seams in your skybox look MAD FUCKIN RETARTED (with a "t")

[Castle]

Its not off topic, its a discussion.

Plus you work with this every day and yet you dont know the dangers of using alpha blended sprites?

Hey I just saw this.
I think its a common mistake to make it seem as though anyone who works on games for a living is automatically some kind of super scholar who knows everything and never makes mistakes or forgets a detail from time to time. its somewhat silly to entertain that concept don't you think?

Oh and Hipshot those screen shots are amazing!
Really good work man!

[Hipshot]

Thanks for your kind words people.

@ rgoer - The gameplay has not changed, I might change it, I don't know, if you have any idea this might be the time to tell...

@ Fjoggs - The top of the mountain blends into the clouds, looks pretty good when you see it in motion. The effect could be even more enhanced if making them actually align to the mesh of the top, but since it's such a small thing on this level, I probably wont spend the time doing this.

@ fKd - It's just a (one) moving layer of clouds, nothing more. It's a "better" version of the one I'm using in the History level.

@ Lunaran - I think that looks awesome, did a similar thing, with squares floating around, but in a backdrop for a test level. it's a cool art style! The light looks really superb too, but I guess it can only be archived in a void map with sky surrounding it... ?
(Get a non-skyline graphics card!)

[o'dium]

A few of the few hundred textures I've done for OD recently...

[Kaz]

that X panel was my favorite one from D3

[Lunaran]

I guess it works best in a space map but it could also be useful for partial sky exposure. Working on a different map, I could never force q3map2 to give me the right brightness vs falloff distance of sky surfacelights, but the dozens-o-suns thing is exactly the effect I wanted there too. One bright warm sun with a bunch of faint blue ones at all angles (brighter towards the vertical, dimmer and less saturated towards the horizon) would simulate sky light almost perfectly.

damnit, quake3 is the last engine that ever needed to be made. I'm turning into a luddite.

[jal_]

A few of the few hundred textures I've done for OD recently...

ah, you don't use y-axis inverted normalmaps. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and switch we using them. Not that it matters, but I have to invert them manually from some tools and I'm so bored of doing it... (useless reply, I know, just releasing some personal frustrations )

[o'dium]

I use the same standard that pretty much all modern games use in terms of normal RGB angles. Doom 3 uses this way, HL2, UE3, many others.

In all the tools I use, Crazy Bump, Photo Shop, 3DSMax, zBrush, xNormal, OverDose, Doom 3 to name a few, they either all use this method by default, or the rare chance they don't (xNormal I'm looking at you) its as easy as switching a tick box. No biggie.

EDIT: TBH I've gotten so used to it, I can easily tell if a normal map is the correct way around just by looking at it. I know straight away if an engine uses this way, or the inverted channel way just by looking at the media. Its not so much an issue really. In Photoshop if ever a normal map uses the other way, you just invert the channel. 1 second process.

[Hipshot]

Odium, are you really sure about all that parallax, It works good on brick walls, but again, that brick pile and now, that wall with the bars, is that also parallaxed?

I guess it works best in a space map but it could also be useful for partial sky exposure. Working on a different map, I could never force q3map2 to give me the right brightness vs falloff distance of sky surfacelights, but the dozens-o-suns thing is exactly the effect I wanted there too. One bright warm sun with a bunch of faint blue ones at all angles (brighter towards the vertical, dimmer and less saturated towards the horizon) would simulate sky light almost perfectly.

damnit, quake3 is the last engine that ever needed to be made. I'm turning into a luddite.

Ahh, yea, I can see the usage. I usually do this with light ents, maybe I should look into making a few "extra" calm suns to help the effect... a good idea. Thanks. And you're not the only one that think the Q3 engine should have been the last one ever made. I actually think that Q3 could have been the last game ever made. End, getting back with more pics soon...

[WHAT!!]

Hipshot I love you and I'm so glad you didn't give up mapping.

It's too bad that for the moment, I have . Shitty gaming communities that only want to play ONE map on your server are a pain in the ass to deal with. ugh.

[o'dium]

Odium, are you really sure about all that parallax, It works good on brick walls, but again, that brick pile and now, that wall with the bars, is that also parallaxed?

No. Bricks ingame are parallax, so is terrain, so are a few key other things, but not everything. On all the shots so far, parallax hasn't been shown because its being re-done.

[Castle]

Overdose is the Painkiller mod right?

I cannot remember atm exactly what overdose is but I know I have seen the name before.

[o'dium]

OverDose was made waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before Painkiller's mission pack chap. Nice bait try though, +10 EXP.

[MKJ]

the world's out to get you, gav. just fyi

[o'dium]

Please go back to GD where you belong.

[MKJ]

no +10 for me?

[Castle]

hmm apparently I stepped on a land mine of sorts.

You might want to have words with Google then because aside from a bunch of completely unrelated crap the only game related thing that pops up in the first 3 pages is the painkiller mod.

I checked your sig but nothing explained, as far as I was able to tell what overdose is either. No screenshots or anything. It has a marauder in it though! I know someone asked for a sketch!

The FAQ page is completely BLANK..

There IS a Quake 2 evolved thing on the bottom of the forum but that to me appears to be another project since its not "overdose"...

Oh wait there was another faq in the general discussion page that I had missed that explains some things.

* I heard OverDose is using the Quake 2 engine... is that true?
Quite. OverDose actually uses a heavily modified id Tech 2 / id Tech 3 hybrid. That is, a mix of the Quake 2 and Quake 3 engines with lots of changes and updates, to the point that very little original code remains.

However this only explains the ENGINE and not what Overdose actually is.... which places me squarely back at my original question. Believe me I am NOT trolling I actually do not know what Overdose actually is. I do not want to download the zip file for its GDD I would rather get a synopsis please.

[Plan B]

Might want to get over yourself a bit there, o'dium.
Not everyone is as fascinated with your project as you are.

[o'dium]

Erm...? What are you going on about...?

The link is to the forums. Anybody with a sane head would think of going to the main page, which is on the actual forums too, which is... TADA... http://www.teamblurgames.com

It then takes 2 clicks. TWO. To reach the actual OverDose project page:

http://www.teamblurgames.com/overdose/

Honestly, I thought the internet was basic enough to understand these things these days...?

[o'dium]

Can somebody please explain what I've done to get this hostility? I haven't said a word wrong.

Like I said, if all you guys are gonna do is act like GD nut jobs then fine. I'll just stop posting. LM is the last place on Q3W thats half decent because its not full of idiots who do nothing but bait and flame with no regard. Keep it that way.

I've actually changed my sig so it points to the SITE not the forums now. Dunno why it was set to the forums on here... But the main sites linked on the forums, and it doesnt take much brain power to figure out where it is.

[Plan B]

Relax o'dium.
The only 'hostility' that I see is coming from you, because someone had the audacity to be unaware of the project you're working on.

[Castle]

Well... even the link you just gave doesnt answer my question really.

this is the best i was able to find

Soon after, we all agree to drop the Quake 2 theme and work on our own designs, our own ideas... And so, OverDose was born again, a new game with a new engine, new ideas, and fresh multiplayer game play.

So from this I gather it can be anything from tetris to a WoW clone..
I'm going to stop raging on you now but yeah..
Just saying dude.

[o'dium]

How can the link to the company home page, which links to the GAMES home page, not tell you any information...? Did you not click any of the links dedicated to this stuff? The About page, with game story, system details, info and details? The screenshots page with media? The videos page...?

Oh I see...

I get the feeling your just trolling now for the hell of it. Nobody can be this dumb. In other words, I'm out'a this discussion.