Wirehead Studios

Hey guys, figured I'd post this here.

A while back I had attempted to remake dead simple more faithfully for generations arena. I had been using QuArK (which is not a good choice for Q3 apparently) so i ran into some issues, and I'd registered to post about it which I guess was during the registration issues the site was having, so was never able to.

Since then I've kind of given up on it because of the mapping issues with Quark, and I couldn't get AAS to compile either there or when i switched to radiant. Now I'm pretty busy with another project but I figured I'd post screens anyway to get opinions on it.

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578136465713/9A682AB3588E556A24088CF55BE5FA5225ED1506/)

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578136469080/033BC0CA6629576154A28EA22BA11F98501FA599/)

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578136470300/F634093DF71774AFED9DDF1613243C3091806C06/)

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578136467492/DE08303499BDBB422A01856C7871C3DFABB4D42F/)

It's fairly faithful aside from more detailed architecture, and some additions such as a basic second level for the structure

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578136473861/2771D7C6EF38C01246F7CCED5B48DDB5B469E40F/)

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578136471514/351080C65C9429C50C016509CDCCA03807AC7F93/)

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578136472728/7D8C1F2578BDBB0D36680ACF1A9029669D0408A2/)

Testing it with a friend made me decide to change the bfg room to be a hallway with crushers leading to it which actually turned out to be a pretty fun change (though not sure how well it would work when considering actual balance) since now you either have to properly time it to get through, or rocket jump and take the teleporter from the top which puts you at a slight disadvantage.

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578148727751/03E30ED45D0B26393B69278AC311240D737FBCF0/)

The exit switch has a jump pad inside now which you can use to get the Quad Damage

The slipgater's air control makes them the only class that can reach the top level without needing to teleport/rocket jump if they use the quad jump pad

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578148802297/23883E079803467B7042E0B2BD87A65E2CEBB927/)

Want. To. Play. That. Map.  :biggun::bfg:

I've seen other Dead Simple remakes on LvL beyond the one Angs7 made for us, and I'd have to say this is the only one that looks like I'd really want to give it a play.  The texturing, lighting, and overall geometry look pretty spot-on, and I love the high-res Doomy textures in use.  The change to the BFG room sounds rather intriguing.  Any chance of getting a copy to test drive?

I could dig the map up, It's not packaged but I'll see what I can do

I started an e1m1 remake too though that one never made it past the first areas

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578180649361/6EF3CF60CE1F48668A312BF20ADCA0FB3F50BC5F/)

(http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/47603578180651683/D0AAE786CB30529564B33735D2EBDE74D0CFAB08/)

I got hung up on wanting to have those cool Q3 lightbeams but QuArK doesn't handle shaders correctly (couldn't get the texture that makes brushes have no collision to work) and I got busy at the time so I never went back to it


I might still have the source for dead simple, I could upload that too if anybody can compile AAS for it properly


EDIT:

Dead Simple download (http://www.mediafire.com/download/8r5n0aixy2yi511/BloodDSimple.pk3)

Again, sorry bout lack of bot support

Tried the map.  It flows well, though the smashers make it very hard to get the BFG without using the roof.  Still... getting through and onto the roof yields some nice ammo so the reward is right up there with the risk.

I was able to use the bounce pad and air control to get on the roof with some difficulty using Doom, very easily with Slipgate, and not at all with Earth and Strogg.  It looks just possible with Arena, but I'm not that good a trickjumper.  I'm sure Fourier could do it, but the average player is going to have to RJ or use the smashers.  It is possible to jump onto the platforms without using the switches if you have com_maxfps 125 set with all classes except for Strogg since his jump height is slightly lower, but the switches are easy to hit and easy to get to the plats.  I love that you have to drop into the center to hit the bounce pad.  Makes it risky to get the Quad since you're a potential air frag. Texturing looks fantastic.  I noticed the use of some of Tabby's Doom textures in there.  Good stuff.  8)

There's only a few places I can criticize.  One is that the roof teleporter and destination use the same symbol.  It would make more sense to have one be a pentagram or the V-shaped symbol and the other be the partial pentagram symbol instead of both being the partial pentagram.  It's hard to tell which one is source to the BFG room and which one is the destination from the BFG room.  I also noticed the skybox does not have SURF_NOIMPACT applied to it.  Rockets explode on it, and you can grapple to it if grappling hooks are enabled.  The last nitpick is the outer wall.  It's possible to jump onto the protrusions.  Those should be player clipped to prevent that, and the wall itself has no depth, so if you're above you can see right down into the skybox bottom.  Basically all pretty minor stuff.

It's rather impressive considering you had difficulties with Radiant and were doing this initially in QUARK.  I'm not a mapper myself, but if you want to make the .map file available to the team I might be able to convince someone to tweak it in Radiant and see if they can get the .aas to compile.  Send me a private message if you'd like us to try that.  I'd love to see how this runs with bots.  :doom_thumb:

Wow, thanks!

I was expecting a lot more issues with it. Unfortunately the lack of clip brushes is because with QuArK they just don't work, they show up as some sort of missing texture in Q3. (similar issue with light beams, the ones in the map are solid because otherwise they wouldn't be transparent) I wanted to switch to radiant to fix these but I was also busy with college at the time so it kinda just faded away for me.

It's also my first Q3 map but I've made a lot of Quake 1 maps in the past (never released, mind you)

I'll shoot you a PM with the .map once i dig it up

Looks like one I'd try as well. The E1M1 map is looking really good as well  :doom_love: . Just one thing I noticed myself. The eye in the 3rd and 4th screen shot, for the switch. That was hand drawn right? I just don't want to see you have an issue with these maps. I haven't had time to check the latter out because of time issues with work. Again, just don't want you to run into any problems.  :doom_thumb:

Hit me up if you'd like some help with mapping, or cutting your teeth on radiant. I should be able to find some means to be available.