Edit 2009-10-28:
Final version: tabq1dm5.zip

New mapping project started.

Thomas Mink wrote:

And there are beautiful pictures of old cisterns from over the world to be googled. Obviously, id took the idea and turned it into an otherwordly, dark and nonsensical level. Which is fine.

Here's what I've been playing around with. Scale and layout are pretty much sorted out. It's a bit larger than the original, which makes sense, but still a bit slipgatishly claustrophobic.

tabq1dm5_pre01.jpg

I'm fairly happy with the brick/wood textures and overal theme. It's a bit warmer than the original due to the more reddish tone of the tiling, and I think I'll keep it that way. I must remember to play around with slightly orange lighting (from torches, if I can get those to look nice enough).

If anyone has pictures of particularly cool medieval-looking brick architecture, let me know! I've got some ideas for a catacomb-like lower/underwater area, but I'm still puzzled about getting an nice look to basic rooms.

Sigh. Wasted hours trying to find good textures, models and pictures online. Hardly any results. So I did what I should have done immediately, anyway: made some of it myself.

I don't know if you (or any other mapper reading this) still need a good torch, but here's something that should do any Slipgate map justice:



Download: q3mapobject_tab_torch.zip

You'll need to add a fire brush (I just use id's fire sprite in the fx shaders) and a light source, this is just a "dead" torch by default. I scale it to 0.5x, because it's rather large, too.

Yeah, sprites never look good from every side. It's actually a V, and you're seeing only the left part of it. I might try crossing two sprites like id does, but that looks bad in other ways.

Thanks!
Id's double intersecting sprite solution works better, so I've replaced my "V's".

Some screenies:
tabq1dm5_pre02.jpg

Still didn't get to actually working out the right kind of lighting, but this gives a very rough idea (should be much less dark eventually). I've also decided to replace much of the original cistern's metal to wooden structures (not that there is many, but still) -- it just fits better.

I'm quite unhappy with the greenish bricks in the ceiling cage, so I'll have to think of a way to improve that. I'm happy with the sky, though..

Black bit? When using surface lights or light entities? I find that nasty shadows usually disappear with enough radiosity bounces.

As a random side note, seeing you make progress on your version of the cistern has inspired me to no end with work on mine. I honestly can't say why that is.. but I do know that I spent like 5 hours or so tweaking my map. The walkways and stairs got graphical tweaks, I got the lights somewhat figured out, and I even started on an idea to make my walls less flat and bland in some places. All I need now is an idea for the underwater area, which I was never really pleased with in its current state.

I've been reluctant to post any screenshots because of the rate I've been tweaking. Nothing is set in stone yet, and anything has a possibility of changing.

Water exit
Long hall
Teleport room
Pillar room
Basic design
Tab's button
MH/RL room
Main underwater area
Pool

The water exit is dark, but the lighting in the area isn't done yet.. so it should end up brighter. The long hall, I wanted to break up the flat texturing a bit.. but I'm still scared that the method used might still be too repetative. The pillars were originally pipes, but after abandoning the idea I still wanted them round for some odd reason. All of the water areas are far from being completed.. the screenshots are there only to show the laughably crude design, as well as the old pipe setup that was in place at the time it was made.

After abandoning the ideas that were just asking too much of myself, reverting back to my DM4 remake's style seemed like the logical choice. So yea.. the brushwork is quite faithful to how it was in the original map, with only very minor differences.

The scale is bigger than the original map.. I can't exactly judge by how much, but it's bigger. I'd say the size increase here is roughly what it is when comparing my DM4 to the original there.

The layout works quite well.. but it's kind of hit and miss. Then again, it was kind of hit and miss in the original as well. You can see in the screenshots where I made some changes to it (red armor instead of yellow.. SG where the nailgun would be in the original.. some 5 health packs in a corner of the pillar area.. armor shards under water). I'll probably change some of the bullet spawns to plasma.. because right now there's only one plasma spawn, as per the original map only having one big nail box.

Armor on this map is very sparse.. and always was. It just feels odd to me.

Another update, but it's going slow now. Fullbright screenshots this time, I'll really put off lighting until I have the better part of the brushwork and theme worked out.

http://www.tabun.nl/tmp/gen/tabq1dm5_pre06.jpg

I think I've got some neat ideas for the lower area now. Color theme will probably work, but I hope I can pull off a sort of vaulted ceiling -- and without making the map too heavy on polygons..