Looking good so far, Boots! Overall very slipgatish, just like it should.
I especially love the sections of brown piping -- looks like a great theme, as well as a true-to-QW-style improvement on the looks of the map. Basic usage of textures works fine for a Slipgate map, and really ads to the feeling of nostalgia here.
The map is rather dark on my system, in comparison with other Gens/Q3A maps. Looks like the brightness of the outdoor areas would be about right for indoors areas..
I've made a batch of screenshots to accompany the remarks below (screenshots are indicated by [####], referring to shot####.jpg, ofcourse).
You can find the screenshots here:
http://www.tabun.nl/tmp/gen/req1dm3v2_b1/a. [0000] The wall looks a bit thin here, not quite like it feels it should in this kind of building. I always pictured slipgate walls as being more on the massive/broad side. Texture above the window looks a bit repetitive.
b. [0001] This decorative effect, especially the gap, looks kind of weird. Walking around the room, I first got the feeling there were some brush errors, or you forgot to match up the brushes to the edges. Personally, I'm not a fan of it, especially in the areas where the walkway(s) meet up with solid floors (center of the screenshot). Also, note the texture misalignment -- textures are aligned on the higher level, not on the lower walkway (at water level).
c. [0002] This doorway's brushwork, as well as the gray texture chosen, looks out of place. It's a bit weird, but neat, but looks more like something you'd find in the more artsy kind of Vanilla Q3A level (I feel it would fit Q3DM10, for instance). It also stands out, not matching any of the other doorways on the map.
d. [0003] Shape, but mostly texturing, of this skylight is rather bland/boring. Texture used as an edge might look very good, but here it's just too repetitive.
e. [0004] Texture doesn't really match up. Same crit as (d.), since it is a bit repetitive here, too.
f. [0006] Missing teleport texture in VQ3A. Must admit not having checked this in Gens, and maybe this is a known issue -- or not an issue at all.
g. [0007] and [0008] Unclipped light fixtures, near the machinegun pickup.
h. [0009] Beautiful decorative floorwork. Alas, I don't think it works for the QW theme -- like the doorway mentioned above, it looks more like something that would appear in a techy vanilla Q3A map. I think it's especially the (too) bright green slime and reflective glasswork that makes me think it out of place here.
i. [0010] This walkway looks nice, but again, too techy for Quakeworld, at least to my tastes. It's also makes for a huge hit on framerates, but I'll get back on that. It also feels like the design is too elaborate/finnicky for such narrow walkways.
j. [0011] This doorway, as well as the walkway directly behind it, are rather narrow/cramped. Q3A needs a bit wider doorways for proper play. I remember the walkway in v1 of your remake of this map, and it was nice and roomy there.
k. [0012] I like the grating and the pipes here. The bright green slime, however, looks like it doesn't belong in this type of map, and clashes too much with the subdued brown/beige of the map/QW.
l. [0015] This doorway is also a bit narrow/cramped. Quite annoying when you need to get through it in a hurry, let alone in an explosive firefight.
m. [0016] Textures don't seem to match up on this hill. I also think it would look
a lot better if the hill were made from curve patches, rather than angled brushes..
n. [0019] This skeleton is floating, not properly touching the floor. Skeleton & skull are a very nice touch here, by the way.
o. [0020] Projectiles &cetera are not stopped by the glass. Needs some weaponclipping.
p. [0021] Goes for pretty much all plats: no mechanism visible or in place, no rails or support for the lift present. I assume this is part of the map's "beta" status, but better safe & overcomplete, than sorry.
q. [0022] The "warning stripes" texture looks very much out of place. A simple but stern desaturation in PS would help here, I think. The texture is also misaligned at all edges.
r. [0023] Texture looks a bit bland/repetitive here, behind the plat.
s. [0026] Comparatively big boo-boo, visually and for actual play: you can rocketjump up on the roof here, but there's no textures. It's also a bit too convenient to be able to secretly camp for the powerups, here.
x. The following screenshots show situations where clipping brushes are required (I assume this beta does not have (any) clipping done, but I've included this just to be safe): 0005 (goes for entire hallway), 0012, 0013 (this is in the tech-area beneath the plasmagun "crates" -- it doesn't look like there's anything to bump into, but you do, here), 0014 (entire hallway next to machinegun pickup/RA needs lots of clipping), 0017, 0018 (you can get stuck underneath the ramp near the Invul), 0024, 0025 (doorway near RL).
All these situations are "horizontal" clipping situations.
y. There are the usual "vertical" clipping problems too: you step on/off stuff (decorations, mostly) in an annoying way, just like in the first few versions of the ReQ2DM2 RL walkway. This happens at: 0009 and 0010.
z. Finally, there's one area in the map that's quite a bit too hard on the graphics processor. It's (around) the RA room that the amount of drawn verts/tris skyrocket: [0027] shows 13k verts from the hallway (still somewhat acceptable), [0028] shows similar, from one corner of the room, [0029] shows where it gets really rough, near the RA itself: nearly 17k verts and well over 12k tris.
I know why this room is so GPU-heavy, too: the walkways not only have plenty of brushes in their basic structure, but use transparant grating, too. Every transparant surface can double the amount of stuff to be drawn, and several layers of overlapping walkway is asking a bit too much.
I hope that wasn't too much / too detailed / too annoying for you. As a beta, this looks like it's going to be great. :]
