curve manipulation is done via the curve surface tool (Shift+S), not the normal brush surface window (S).
You can also use Ctrl+Shift+N to cycle capping of the texture, which can be useful. Finally, you can place or shape a curve in such a way that the texture can look right, then bend it into shape, and the texture will stick to the surface of the patch -- I've used that trick to prevent stretching on my ceiling.

Oh. I had hoped to get some time to give comments sooner, and now I'm too late it seems. Been away from home all weekend, so I'd planned to tackle it today or tomorrow. Oh well, you weren't that keen on my input, so I take it that's no serious problem. I'll download the new version now.

I do have one suggestion: you might rename the map from the generic q1dm5 to something that shows it's your map (like the way I prepend most of my work with "tab"). That seems the way to go to keep things neat and easy to find.

The trim near the ceiling was changed many times, but the one used is the one that I felt looked the best out of all the ones I tried. I'm sure I missed at least a couple.

And I gave in and changed the name. I wasn't going to.. but, doing so also gave me a reason to want to fix the teleports.. which I was also going to let alone. If you shot a rocket at them, the teleport would absorb the rocket.. kinda like the sky. That was fixed. They now pass through as they should.

minkdm5

And yes.. I opted for the cheesier name, but for some reason it sounds better. To me anyway.

EDIT: Bah.. forgot to edit the text file with the new name. URL removed for a couple minutes.
EDIT2: Fixed. URL restored.

Hmm. Well, here are some comments from my end, anyway. Just ignore if unwelcome or too late. :]

Screenshots in this folder, numbers referenced [####] like so.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~zia/tmp/minkdm5/

[0000]
The teleporter texture looks blurry and is a bit simple. It would look much nicer if it was sharper and perhaps had more of a "starscape"-ish look. If you want, I can send you my slipgate teleporter shader, which is a three-layered combination of tcmod turb'd textures.

[0001]
All of these doorways are a bit too low for Q3. It can too easily happen that you bump your head in the frame while trying to jump through it. It also looks a bit simplistic -- but then it is almost an exact copy of the original's brushwork, so that should probably be no real problem.

[0002]
Step heights are a bit too large here, and with every other staircase in the map. It would look nicer (to me) if the steps would be about half as high as these (and it would play a bit smoother aswell).

[0003]
All of these wall-lights are unclipped. You can walk right through them. Usually they're high up enough for this to go unnoticed most of the time, but here between the pillars you can get ugly effects such as pictured here..

[0004]
This is a very low ceiling, allowing for hardly any jump at all. It's always been that way in Quake, but it bothered me and I had to work at it to get it a little roomier without breaking the design. One thing that you may consider is to embed the light brushes into the roof, rather than let them sit on its surface, so that at least they won't make it lower. If not, then they could at least be clipped (with angled brushes) so that you won't bump into them.

[0005]
These light fixtures look a bit too massive. There are quite a few of them, and they look a bit too heavy/blobby to make much sense. I also think the texture could be closer to the overall tone of the map (more brownish or reddish, perhaps).

[0006]
Water is nice (shader could perhaps use another layer for a more realistic wavey effect), especially the color looks good and murky. The floor, however, contrasts too much with that. It looks clean and shiny, whereas the water surface would suggest something tarnished and stained.

[0007]
I like the way you cut up the tiles here - a nice detail that the map could do with in more places, perhaps. What is odd to me here, is the placement of the GL and the health so close to eachother, especially since the GL is sitting neatly in the middle of the hole in the floor, while the health is off center.

[0008]
Looks a little weird to me, the way the light overlaps with the inset. Looks like it could work physically, so maybe not a problem at all.

[0009]
This texture (wooden underside) could be rotated to match the orientation of the brush. That'd make it look more natural.

[0010]
Why not build these insets with curves? You can get a really nice rounded arch (or half-arch) without having to worry about r_speeds at all in this map.

[0011]
I found this a little odd. The teleporter frame is very thick here, whereas the other teleporter is a bit thinner even than the originals in q1dm5. Looks to me like the two teleporters should be pretty much the same. Moving the teleporter a bit closer to the wall can also prevent people from sneaking behind it.

[0012]
The door texture is very Quaky. The contrast between it and the very smooth texture of the frame looks odd, however. In both color and grit, the difference between the textures makes it look unmatched, like a door was put in a place intended for a star-trek-type door.. ;]

[0013]
I like these kinds of details. The only thing that detracts from the attempt, is that all the tiles are still "on the grid". If one or two would be shifted a fraction and rotated, it would look more realistically like a bunch of tiles loosely sitting on the ground.

[0014]
This, like the area between the RA-room and the GL-area, is very low. Jumping into it happens almost every time you try to make speed. With this scale, I don't see how it could be fixed without make serious alterations to the design, however.

[0015]
Finally, these pillars look very massive. They look like they need to support a huge weight, but nothing else in the design suggests that there is something to be supported. Looks a little odd to me. If you don't expect the map to make any sense (and as a cistern, the original made little to no sense, anyway) that's not really a problem.

No pressure intended. I did try to avoid useless feedback, keeping it within bounds of your goals/limitations for the map.


Here you go: tmp_minkdm5.zip.
Should be easy enough to install and look at. No worries about "stealing" of any kind -- I wrote this myself and it's free for anyone to use or edit. That includes this map, no worries about "sharing the flair".


I only mind them not being clipped in places where it results in the stuff that you see in the screenshot..


As long as you can accept potential annoyance with jumping, it should be ok. One other downside is that most models will have their heads clip the ceiling in such areas. No effect on gameplay, but that will look odd/ugly -- but can't be helped.


You can always try adding some layers from id's water shaders to add nice ripples and such. I'd only take the time if you don't actually hate toying with shaders, though..


Hmm. Texturing problems should play no part in the decision here -- it's fairly easy to make curves obey once you get to grips with them. I don't see how going purist on something like that works, but you've obviously thought it through. No problem then.


I haven't actually played the map (vs. bots) yet. So little time and I prefer tinkering over playing. Will probably give it a go soon. Though you're probably better served by Phoenix's insights when it comes to gameplay, anyway.

Thanks for the heads up on that. I was too mesmerized by watching the shader each time, that I forgot to actually test it.

Anyway, I updated the map.. mostly small, minute changes that were suggested. Water, teleports, pillars, a few texturing changes.. etc etc etc.

Get it here:
minkdm5

Yea.. sorry for using the same filenames. Guess I kinda pigeon-holed myself into that situation.

Not sure if I jumped the gun again here or not.. but, I felt that there was nothing else to change. That said, I sent the map along to LvL. So those who prefer getting it that way, instead of skydrive, can do so. It's currently on the map queue here as minkdm5.