Quick
Statistics
|
| Working
Title: |
The
Abyss Bridgeway |
| Version: |
1.2 |
| Author: |
Christopher
L. Canfield |
| Target Machine:
|
PIII 800, 128 MB Ram, onboard OpenGL |
| Game Type: |
Single,
FFA, Team, Tourney |
| Weapons: |
1
Shotgun, 1 Rocket Launcher, 1 Plasma Gun,
2 Grenade Launchers, 1 Rail Gun, 1 Quad Damage,
1 Haste, 1 Flight |
| Opponents:
|
Hossman
Lucy Razor Daemia Stripe Tankjr |
| Editor Used:
|
Q3Radiant
202, Q3Build 2.0, Pakscape 0.08 |
| Brushes: |
2147 |
| Entities: |
400 |
| Build Time: |
3
Weeks |
| Compile Time: |
4
Hours |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
See other pictures of this level
|
1. The Cathedral.
Quake 3 A was made for small, circular fighting areas with
a lure in the middle. Dominated by quick and dirty shotgun
fighting, scrambling to get to higher ground, and high kill
levels, this area embodies all of the design goals that ID
had in mind when creating the codebase. While it could be
said that the intensity of a region in a Q3A level is directly
related to the number of access points and the ratio of inputs
to outputs, a total which this area excels in, it could also
be said that the Cathedral just clicked.
2. Early Empahsis on Compile Times.
It is an urban myth that the visibility stage of a compiling
a Q3A map should take a sizable portion of the total time.
Early on in our development phase our render times crept up
to over eight hours, a cumbersome total at best. With some
careful level re-creation, generously marking as detail anything
that doesn't provide substantive blocking, and disciplined
use of the caulk / nodraw textures, that compile time was
dramatically reduced. This map is ideal for detail brushes:
almost nothing in this level constitutes a genuine visblocker.
While that phase of the process used to constitute the bulk
of four hours, by the end of our first pass it had been reduced
to 60 seconds, a total where it rests to this day. While in
theory this could lead to high polygon counts, due to careful
tradeoffs aided by the rapid testing afforded by the visblockers
R_speeds levels hardly ever break 5 digits, and never exceed
12,000.
There is also clip brushes throughout the level, on most
stairways and around rough textures. This helps to prevent
miniature location brushes from being created during the bspc
phase, defines regions of space that the compiler doesn't
have to run visibility scans for, and makes player movement
much smoother than it otherwise would be. This also had the
beneficial effect of reducing the aas file (bot AI) by several
megs.
3. Good Documentation.
Never underestimate the importance of quality documentation.
If one were so inclined, the history of this level can be
traced from the original inspirations through the tribulations
of implementation and to completion through the 40 pages of
spiral bound documentation. This gave background to the myriad
of decisions made throughout the process, and attempted to
ensure that while significant design changes could be made,
the original intent of the previous creation was not lost.
In terms of a project this size, a good design doc lets you
know where you are, where you should be, where you have come
from, and where you are going. It also simplifies the bug
tracking significantly if you have a histogram of when an
error manifested.
4. Strong, well-documented engine.
A solid codebase is the backbone to any computer endeavor:
it must be robust, well-documented, and open. Quake3Radiant
is one of the strongest open-source level editors of any project
I've seen, with extensive documentation covering everything
from scripting the damage and radiosity of shaders to how
the compiler splits regions during the vis phase. Id's commitment
to the mod community is further shown by their inclusion of
many .h and .c files among the pk3 resources used by Q3A,
which people have extrapolated to discover much of the flow
of the software. Carmack will even pop his head into the myriad
of bulletin boards every now and then to correct a misconception.
Q3A is one of the better understood pieces of commercial software
on the market today, and that has lowered the division between
professional modifications and personal ones. Kudos to ID
for letting the community work for them.
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