Ok.. so let's say I have a pipe running along a wall, and I want this pipe to always hug that wall. So the wall bends in its usual 90 degree fashion. How do I get the pipe to bend in that same fashion while always hugging the wall? It even possible?

I know how to bend cylinders, and have done so.. but this little bit has me stumped..


EDIT: After countless attempts trying to get this, hours before even making this initial post, I finally got it! A bit simpler than what I was expecting too, but.. I guess that's only nature. Sorry for wasting even more forum space. :/

The whole pipe thing was a big part of my DM5 remake from a couple years ago.. and I could never really figure it out. I've been stabbing at the map, even going so far as to delete everything but one room and start over again a few months ago. But I've been doing basic bits of geometry here and there over the last few days (it's really, really sad how many minutes I can spend on one simple and generic stairway).. but I still wanted to do something with pipes.

It was holding me back from doing anything major, because it was a core principal of my initial concept. Now that I know it can be done.. we shall see.

Sounds like your map editor or the compiler (I assume it's gtkradiant / q3map2) can't find the necessary shader files. Q3 can, so it renders the water shader making it look like water, but the BSP wasn't compiled with the shader, making it a solid.

If that's it, you have to make sure a complete shaderlist.txt is in the right place for radiant to find it.

I use 'nodraw non-solid' for liquids, so that wasn't the case. When I tried using a normal 'nodraw' for a lava pool in my one map a few years ago, it was pretty weird. The lava wasn't solid, so I'd still fall through it.. but I wouldn't swim either, and it also didn't hurt to be in it. It was like empty space, only with a fancy top.

Turns out Tab was right. I never really made water before, so this was bugging me to no end. I wanted to take a break from geometry to try and get a working water shader that I'll eventually need.. ended up confused and semi-annoyed for like 3 hours or so. Trying to search for the answer didn't really get me anywhere either (tho I'll admit I was probably searching wrong).

Thank you both for the help.

Well that's the beauty of doing this kind of shader
surfaceparm nodraw
surfaceparm nonsolid
surfaceparm water
surfaceparm trans
surfaceparm nomarks

never gonna get a solid water bugg by having this applied on 3 sides of the brush i've used them since the first time i made a map with water..always had 1 brush that went solid for some reason..

I think seeing your take on DM5 would be an awesome thing. Mine is just a remake of the old Quake map, put into a Q3 environment.. minimalistic curves, flat walls, etc. It's just a basic recreation like my DM4 remake was.. only with slightly less inspiration.

I had grand plans of having half of the map or so 'under water'.. with pipes running along the walls and pumping water into the reservoir located on the map.. and rooms you could see through windows but not actually get to run around in (TF2 inspiration). Yyyyyea.. after starting on the pipes after figuring out how to curve them around a corner, I came to the realization that I'm nowhere near skilled enough, or creative enough, to make that work, and I'd quickly lose interest in the map.. again. So yea, that idea got scrapped entirely for my return to form.

I managed to get the basic geometry done, and have the item placement in a decent layout that I'm happy with (mostly true to the original.. but with 3 minor tweaks). There's still a few things I have to figure out before I can consider it done.. or ready for testing.. or whatever (like proper lighting, for one). I added bot support just for laughs and it wasn't bad. They predictably get hung up on the door, but that was pretty much expected.

But yea.. seeing your take on the map would be nice, and probably turn out a lot better than mine. I might be underrating myself or putting myself down, but it's in my nature to.

And thank you for asking.. you really didn't have to.

I always liked water.. then again, I also love playing as Slipgate. Jumping into a pool party and sacrificing myself for the greater good was always fun for me, even if somewhat cheap. DM5 has the added bonus of a pentagram to aid in those ventures.. probably promoting the idea more than anything really.

MH/RL camping was always a problem with DM5. Just hide in the door and ambush people who press the button to open it. Not sure there's much that can be done. I suppose you could have the door stay open as long as someone is in the room, which would allow greande spam into it. In Q1, the respawn timer for MH was also an absurdly high 2 minutes.

As for the Q1 button texture, that was the first non-Q3 texture that I added to the map. Felt kinda good to finally make use of it, since it was made for me on request quite a long time ago for a map that was since abandoned and forgotten for numerous reasons. Other than that, I borrowed two Q1 Retexturing Project textures.. for the door and water (quite pleased with the dirty water, even if there is no density once under the surface).