-
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
Good Quake maps
- Thread starter skacky
- Start date
RetroJam 6 is already here. Theme was Egypt. The pack contains the insane amount of 17 maps, including one by yours truly.
http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61391
http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61391
Drog Black Tooth
Self-Ejected
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2008
- Messages
- 2,636
Hexen II textures?
Naraya
Arcane
Watched a playthrough yesterday on Twitch. Maps looked pretty good and I love the theme!
Astral Rag
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 7,771
Last edited:
Astral Rag
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 7,771
Last edited:
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/06/trent-reznor-releasing-quake-soundtrack-on-vinyl/
Store page link: https://store.nin.com/collections/music/products/quake-ost-1xlp-1
Trent Reznor blows dust off the 'Quake' score for vinyl reissue
You won't need to dig up the game CD to listen to an official copy.
Quake was a groundbreaking game in a number of ways, and that included its soundtrack -- id Software scored a coup when it got Nine Inch Nails(technically, Trent Reznor) to score the grim first-person shooter. Until now, though, listening to that soundtrack has usually meant digging up your circa-1996 game CD or (let's be honest) finding a YouTube rip. Thankfully, you'll soon have an alternative if you own a turntable. As part of a larger wave of back catalog releases, Reznor is making the Quake soundtrack available on vinyl -- you too can listen to that memorable theme in your living room.
There's no date or price for pre-orders, but NIN's current pricing for single-record LPs suggests you'll be paying around $20. You might not have to wait long to get your copy after it ships, at least. NIN recently ran into serious delivery problems for other albums, but a recent change in fulfillment partners should have sorted that out.
If you haven't listened to the Quake soundtrack before, it's important to note that most of it is eerie ambient fare. You're not getting B-sides to The Downward Spiral, folks. It added to the game's sinister atmosphere, however, and the star power behind the soundtrack stood out at a time when many developers were just happy to have more than generic-sounding MIDI tunes. This work also led to Reznor being tapped to compose the score for Doom 3, though he ultimately left the project. Whatever you feel about Quake, consider this: while vinyl game soundtrack releases are relatively common nowadays, this is likely the only one you'll ever get from an Oscar-winning artist who works in the tech industry.
Store page link: https://store.nin.com/collections/music/products/quake-ost-1xlp-1
Last edited:
Jazz_
Arcane
If you buy Quake on Steam/GOG you don't even get the NIN soundtrack in game anymore, seems just lazy as fuck to me.
Last edited:
dunno lah
Arcane
Why so many screenie duplicates??
Astral Rag
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 7,771
Naraya
Arcane
Probably was already mentioned, but Arcane Dimensions is a fantastic map pack. Terror Fuma mini-campaign (2 maps) in itself is a masterpiece.
Jazz_
Arcane
I'm trying Arcane Dimensions with Quakespasm and Darkplaces, it's nice to see the subtle and not so subtle differences in the engines. In DarkPlaces some maps take quite a fps hit tho in places, while they work smoothly in Quakespasm. The fact that Darkplaces adds a bunch of visual effects that are missing in Quakespasm must be the culprit I guess.
Stunning work with the maps.
Stunning work with the maps.
Last edited:
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
John Romero explains why Quake Guy is slower than Doomguy: http://rome.ro/quakes-player-speed-1
Because of limitation of map file size (and limitation of map size from that).
Because of limitation of map file size (and limitation of map size from that).
Quake's Player Speed
IN 1996...
We were in crunch mode working to get Quake finished. We had to establish a few guidelines to make sure the levels were next-gen, fast, and not too big since people will be downloading the game back during the early internet days.
We decided that map BSP files can't be bigger than 1.4 megabytes. The final complied state of a map was called a BSP file. So we had to make sure we stayed under that value. If a map got too big we had to delete some brushes and try to get the BSP under that size.
To keep the game fast we put a red flickering screen up when the polygon count for world polygons went over 350. Yes, 350. This was at the beginning of using polygons in an FPS and 350 was not too bad of a number back then. If the screen flickered at any time during play we would find the offending view and then start blocking off visibility with new geometry to keep the poly count low and the framerate fast. Also making sure to keep the size under 1.4 megabytes.
The QuakeEd tool that I made was not the best 3D level editor at all – not by a long shot. We tried to keep it as simple as possible because smoothly flying around in 3D space like cameras do nowadays was never done back then. We were figuring it out as we went.
So, QuakeEd made making 3D levels actually painful. We used a primitive called a "brush" that was a 3D rectangle we could drag out into the world and move around. Maps were completely made out of brushes.
There were only three views: a top-down line view, a sideways line Z-view, and a small, fully-rendered 3D view so we could see what the brushes looked like with textures on them. We could see if they were in the right positions.
There was an X that we could drag around and any brushes that were under the X were displayed in the Z-view. That's how we moved brushes up and down in the Z plane.
NeXTSTEP Operating System & QuakeEd, 1995
To create diagonal surfaces from the rectangular brush we would place two points that could slice any geometry that the line between them intersected. Every angle in the game was made this way. For example, on E1M1 (the first level), you step off the slipgate and go down a ramp to the first hallway. To create that ramp I dragged a brush that was left-to-right the length of the ramp, and top-to-bottom the height of the ramp. Keep in mind, I'm working in a view that is looking straight down into the level from above, so I'm creating a ramp in a different rotation than it should be. Then I put one cutting point at the top-left corner and the other cutting point at the bottom-right corner and pressed a key to slice it. Then, I selected the brush and had to rotate it so it was facing the correct way in the world, then used the Z-view to drag it down into place. Finally, I could now drag the edge of the ramp brush to stretch it so it was the correct width of the hallway.
Now imagine doing that for every brush in a level. It took forever to make levels, but we got good at it. The problem was, however, that our levels were never very big. Our 1.4 megabyte size limit was capping the size of the levels.
John Carmack decided that we could get more gameplay out of the levels if he slowed down the player's running speed. In DOOM the player went at crazy-fast speeds and it was incredible. In DOOM we could make huge maps and player speed was not a problem. With Quake's maps, the hallways, rooms, and outdoor areas were all smaller because of the file size. So slowing down the player meant it took longer to finish a level, and longer to finish the game overall.
That's how it happened.
It's here!
http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61494
15 new maps for Quoth based on Kell's Contract Revoked as a tribute for its 15th anniversary, who unexpectedly came out of retirement to grace us with his mapping prowess once again. Features a map as well as a start map by yours truly. The overall quality of this pack is exceptional and this is a must play.
http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61494
15 new maps for Quoth based on Kell's Contract Revoked as a tribute for its 15th anniversary, who unexpectedly came out of retirement to grace us with his mapping prowess once again. Features a map as well as a start map by yours truly. The overall quality of this pack is exceptional and this is a must play.
Naraya
Arcane
It's here!
http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61494
15 new maps for Quoth based on Kell's Contract Revoked as a tribute for its 15th anniversary, who unexpectedly came out of retirement to grace us with his mapping prowess once again. Features a map as well as a start map by yours truly. The overall quality of this pack is exceptional and this is a must play.
Error (429)
This link is temporarily disabled. The person who shared it hit their daily limit of traffic or downloads. Learn about traffic limits.
Try this mirror: http://www.khreathor.xyz/quake_maps/releases/func_mapjam9.zip
The pack is now available on Quaddicted. It also received an update yesterday with heaps of bugfixes. The version on Quaddicted is the updated version.
https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/func_mapjam9_2.html
https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/func_mapjam9_2.html
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
Interview with the makers of ad_sepulcher, on the making of the map: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-most-ambitious-quake-map-ever-built-has-just-been-released-in-2017/
The most ambitious Quake map ever built has just been released in 2017
The Forgotten Sepulcher is about *60 times* more intricate than classic Quake maps.
When the game's good enough, the mod scene lives eternal, and there may be no better proof of that than Quake. The most ambitious Quake map ever completed was uploaded on Quake mod site Quaddicted in June, and it looks unbelievable for a game that's now more than 20 years old. Called The Forgotten Sepulcher, the map is a modern reinterpretation of the original Quake map E1M3: The Necropolis.
Built by two Quake level designers, Simon "Sock" O'Callaghan and Henrik "Giftmacher" Oresten, The Forgotten Sepulcher is a stunningly intricate and densely interconnected map that pushes Quake far beyond its natural limits. As the download page notes: "This release exceeds several limits and the only engines currently capable of running it are specially modified versions of Quakespasm and Quakespasm-spike."
Put it this way: while the original E1M3 is made up of around 1,000 brushes, which is the term for each individual shaped block that makes up a map, The Forgotten Sepulcher features 60,000. Thanks to id releasing Quake's source code online, modern updates to the engine have been able to push it further and further, doing things that would've been impossible in 1996.
But the Forgotten Sepulcher isn't just detailed—it's also huge compared to most Quake maps. There are 297 monsters to defeat and sub-bosses, if you can find the keys to their locked doors. Nearly 90 secrets are tucked away waiting to be uncovered. There's a multitude of destructive objects. Enemies burst from doorways. Also, there are fishing ogres.
It was initially designed by Oresten, a teacher from Sweden, who'd been following Simon O'Callaghan's work on creating a campaign and mod for Quake called Arcane Dimensions, and decided to make a level for it himself.
"My intention with the map was to rehash the original E1M3, a swampy green-brick monster," Oresten says. But he wanted to build on it, taking advantage of Arcane Dimensions' additional monsters and weapons, tools and engine tweaks.
"I really liked the organic look and feel of the original map Henrik made and asked him to join the team," O'Callaghan, who has worked on level design for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Crysis: Warhead, tells me. "We then worked together over last summer and developed the map further."
The main route winds around and through towering cathedrals, climbing to upper levels and crossing areas you've been through before, and then descends into broken chapels and flooded catacombs. Along the way, you'll open up shortcuts to previous areas, giving The Forgotten Sepulcher the feel of some kind of super-compressed Dark Souls. It's always a good idea to examine the environments for broken doors you can blow open and for places you can jump up broken masonry to reach walkways above.
In other words, it feels modern, even though it's written in Quake's super-blocky and monumental level architecture.
O'Callaghan and Oresten subdivided the first draft of the map into primary and secondary routes. You can access many areas in several different ways, often by climbing, but the primary route is lit with torches to make it visually obvious.
There are also all the little touches that remind you of its source material. There's explicit stuff, like the room early in E1M3 where there's an ogre behind bars, shooting grenades at you, and stairs that go down to the right and a great doorway to the left. This level is emblazoned on my memory from when it played at 15fps on my 486-66, but I'd forgotten how interconnected it is, just as The Forgotten Sepulcher is, too. E1M3 only had 47 monsters, though.
"I think a lot of the Quake style in [The Forgotten Sepulcher] comes from the consistent architecture and artwork," says O'Callaghan. "I really tried to keep the palette consistent and try to show progression with architecture. Like the place has been built over time and they re-used and upgraded things."
Look across the stonework of the opening space and you can see layers of geometry that show how it's been crumbling away. The harsh angles and lighting that Quake imposes make for powerful silhouettes. "Quake is very brutal with shapes, so the architecture has to look strong and stable, like it's stood the test of time."
The Forgotten Sepulcher is the newest addition to Arcane Dimensions, which is both a campaign of maps designed by various different Quake map designers and also a set of functional tweaks and features that are focused on making it easier to build complex maps.
A couple of months before release, though, The Forgotten Sepulcher hit even the limits of Arcane Dimensions and QuakeSpasm, the modern Quake engine on which it runs. Its 60,000 brushes are way in excess of even contemporary maps, which are usually 4,000-5,000.
Enter a third member of the team, Eric Wasylishen, who massively optimised the compiling process by transforming hand-placed elements such as vines and corpses into special entities to reduce the load on the engine, as well as shortening compiling into minutes, rather than the days to weeks that it used to take.
"Ha, there were horror stories of maps in the late 2000s and early 2010s when they were taking a month to compile," Wasylishen says. O'Callaghan says that his work on the compiler, which has allowed designers to design and playtest a lot more fluidly, has given new life to Quake's mapping community.
And the detail and scale it's lent to The Forgotten Sepulcher makes it a real joy to explore, and a perfect place to be reminded of Quake's super-smooth feel. The gib noises are perfect, even 20 years later.
Installation is fairly straightforward if you own Quake:
Download a specially adapted version Quakespasm and drop its files into your main Quake directory.
Make an "AD" folder in your Quake folder and drop Arcane Dimension's files into it.
Download ad_sepulcher and drop its files into your AD folder.
Run it from the Quakespasm shortcut, go to MODS in the main menu and navigate to the AD folder, and you're in Arcane Dimension.
To go directly to The Forgotten Sepulcher, take the portal to the left of where you start into the second level hub, and then it's directly to your right.
Seems like it. It's a very good article written by someone who obviously knows what they're talking about, so kudos to PCGamer for that. Still, a sentence or two about the very prolific output this year would've been appreciated. As great and as boundary-pushing sepulcher is, it is only one out of 60+ maps released this year and the quality has been exceptional.
Jazz_
Arcane
^ I get Mod_LoadLeafs limit exceeded error if I try to play that map with Quakespasm.
index.php
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2013
- Messages
- 882
On a technical level, this is hands down the best Quake release so far. These maps use a ton of amazing trickery using only vanilla progs, which is just insane when you know how it works. Some of the themes used, such as the Wild West map, actually work really well mostly thanks to the crazy scale of the maps.
2017 is one hell of a year.
2017 is one hell of a year.
As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.