Random Dev. Shots

[Plague Bringer]

I'M COMING OUT OF THE BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTH!

We will support, and not ridicule, you and your decision.

[Amanieu]

Name the map: A GPU's nightmare

[Kaleo]

Prepare to be sig-ed.

What an honor.

[Odin]

Name the map: A GPU's nightmare

Actually it runs quite fast according to Supertanker.

[Kaleo]

Name the map: A GPU's nightmare

Actually it runs quite fast according to Supertanker.

Hinting + under/perfect use of particle systems would contribute to that.

Also, a good texture set can eliminate the need for extensive geometry, which would also really help.

Name the map: A GPU's nightmare

What about "The Odin Tanker"

[Lava Croft]

@Odin: Are you using the normal maps provided with that texture set to make use of q3map2's 'bump-mapping' feature?
If not, give it a try and see what the effect is!

It would probably be unnoticeable due to how low-res lightmaps are. To get anything noticeable you need to put _lightmapscale 0.1 on everything.

And given Quake3's crappy 4MB(?) limit for lightmaps, that's impossible. Too bad :<

@all coders: I think you can safely quadruple the maximum size of the lightmap without breaking backwards compatibility. Maps using the bigger lightmap naturally would not run on a 'unmodified' ioQuake3. *WINK* *WINK*

Would quadrupling the limit be easy or would it mean to completely remake the handling of lightmaps?

From what I know with jdolan increasing Quake2World's maximum lightmap size to 16mb, it's a simple thing to do. It does create some huge fucking BSP files tho, obviously.

[gimhael]

@Odin: Are you using the normal maps provided with that texture set to make use of q3map2's 'bump-mapping' feature?
If not, give it a try and see what the effect is!

It would probably be unnoticeable due to how low-res lightmaps are. To get anything noticeable you need to put _lightmapscale 0.1 on everything.

And given Quake3's crappy 4MB(?) limit for lightmaps, that's impossible. Too bad :<

@all coders: I think you can safely quadruple the maximum size of the lightmap without breaking backwards compatibility. Maps using the bigger lightmap naturally would not run on a 'unmodified' ioQuake3. *WINK* *WINK*

Would quadrupling the limit be easy or would it mean to completely remake the handling of lightmaps?

From what I know with jdolan increasing Quake2World's maximum lightmap size to 16mb, it's a simple thing to do. It does create some huge fucking BSP files tho, obviously.

As I read the code the lightmap size is just a constant that could be changed easily. Problem is: the lightmap size is not stored in the bsp files, so when you change that constant and compile a new client (and server), you will no longer be able to play the maps created with the smaller sizes. 

But that map may be worth a separate client and server when it's finished. 

Of course I may be talking complete nonsense, so anybody having more insight in the engine correct me please.

[Lava Croft]

In Quake2(World), it's perfectly possible to increase the max lightmap size while still being able to play legacy maps created for an unmodified Quake2, with the old (I think) 2MB limit.

[Pete]

Image

Now that looks more like Trem. Still beautiful though.

Any release date yet?

[Lava Croft]

@Pete: Since this thread is already heavy on the images, please do not quote them.

[Plague Bringer]

[img width=960 height=768]http://supertanker.mercenariesguild.net/reactor2_dwc.jpg[img]

Break the image tag by removing any letter in the [img ] or [/img ] boxes.

[Pete]

@Pete: Since this thread is already heavy on the images, please do not quote them.

Fine. Fixxored.

[Odin]

@Odin: Are you using the normal maps provided with that texture set to make use of q3map2's 'bump-mapping' feature?
If not, give it a try and see what the effect is!

It would probably be unnoticeable due to how low-res lightmaps are. To get anything noticeable you need to put _lightmapscale 0.1 on everything.

And given Quake3's crappy 4MB(?) limit for lightmaps, that's impossible. Too bad :<

@all coders: I think you can safely quadruple the maximum size of the lightmap without breaking backwards compatibility. Maps using the bigger lightmap naturally would not run on a 'unmodified' ioQuake3. *WINK* *WINK*

Would quadrupling the limit be easy or would it mean to completely remake the handling of lightmaps?

From what I know with jdolan increasing Quake2World's maximum lightmap size to 16mb, it's a simple thing to do. It does create some huge fucking BSP files tho, obviously.

You could make trem load external lightmaps(XreaL does this) if they are available(and make q3map2 not save them in the BSP). That way, old maps would still work.

[Lava Croft]

@Odin: Are you using the normal maps provided with that texture set to make use of q3map2's 'bump-mapping' feature?
If not, give it a try and see what the effect is!

It would probably be unnoticeable due to how low-res lightmaps are. To get anything noticeable you need to put _lightmapscale 0.1 on everything.

And given Quake3's crappy 4MB(?) limit for lightmaps, that's impossible. Too bad :<

@all coders: I think you can safely quadruple the maximum size of the lightmap without breaking backwards compatibility. Maps using the bigger lightmap naturally would not run on a 'unmodified' ioQuake3. *WINK* *WINK*

Would quadrupling the limit be easy or would it mean to completely remake the handling of lightmaps?

From what I know with jdolan increasing Quake2World's maximum lightmap size to 16mb, it's a simple thing to do. It does create some huge fucking BSP files tho, obviously.

You could make trem load external lightmaps(XreaL does this) if they are available(and make q3map2 not save them in the BSP). That way, old maps would still work.

The point is that old maps will continue to work, since they will not interfere with the increased maximum size of the lightmap, and certainly not exceed it. Loading external stuff just for higher resolution lightmaps is not worth it in my view, unless you load external files like Darkplaces' .rtlights files, which contain 'static' realtime lights, to greatly improve performance when using realtime lighting and shadowing.

Again, do realize that all my experience on this subject is based on Quake2(World), but I have a hunch that it does not differ that much from Quake3. Maybe someone with some knowledge on this subject could chip in, but really only unless they have actual knowledge about it, since guessing is what we are already doing.

[Asvarox]

Reactor looks awesome, yes, but i luv to say what's bad in thingies for me
"Background" textures look quite realistic, i like it. Same with those screenies, they look like from Star Wars But Reactor itself looks um.. like made from plastic.

[Taiyo.uk]

Q3BSP file description: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~kekoa/q3/

The lightmaps are stored in a "lump" within the BSP file, and each lump has an offset and length that is specified in the file header. This appears to confirm Lava's hunch that it is possible to increase the maximum size without breaking backwards compatibility in a similar way to Q2W.

[gimhael]

There is just the problem that there is only 1 lump holding all the lightmaps, and it stores neither the size nor the count of lightmaps. In fact the number of lightmaps is computed by dividing the size of the lump by 128*128*3 (the size of a 128x128 lightmap in bytes). So if you put a 256x256 lightmap in that lump it will be read as 4 128x128 lightmaps.

[Odin]

q3map2 outputs 128x128 lightmaps so there is no worry for that situation.

[gimhael]

So you mean that you can get more detailed lightmaps within the current 128x128 limit as q3map2 will automatically split them into multiple smaller lightmaps ?

That would be great then you'd just have to increase MAX_LIGHTMAPS (currently 256, so it allows 4 megapixels as Lava said).

[your face]

moar conveyor belts ftw

[Taiyo.uk]

<3

Do they "work"?

[epsy]

as in..splat?

[your face]

<3

Do they "work"?

yes!  well, for some of them... not sure how I will have the one in the pic moving unless I somehow have a shader for it.  maybe I'll flatten it out and use multiple trains. 

[==Troy==]

Testbox for terrain and ambience creation

[fingered banana]

Increasing lightmap resolution is a fast solution. But, a real solution is the combination of proper uv mapping of lightmaps and adaptive lightmap resolution. (It works for manual lightmap creation in blender, I don't think it is applicable to quake 3 lightmaps )

[Syntac]

That discussion died a while ago.

[epsy]

at least it's more useful than

That discussion died a while ago.

[Syntac]

I sense an attempt to troll me. Begone!

[Plague Bringer]

I sense an attempt to troll me. Begone!

Iron fist!

[Syntac]

Heh! Hehehehehehehe. Dude, I love you now. Even more so than the first time you said that.

<3