Q3Test in development

Out with the old, in with the new

How much Quake 3 can you handle? Or more specifically, how much old Quake 3 can you handle? You may remember back in February, Thresh reported on his visit to id and Q3 beta testing experience. Well, he didn't come back empty handed, even in a literal sense.

One for the road? Dennis was lucky enough to take with him a ZIP disk full of Q3A level screenshots! Now, what's interesting is how complete (or rather, incomplete) these screenshots are. When designing a level, it's good practice to start with basic geometry, fleshing out the major areas and hotspots, and delve more into the details and aesthetics later. While browsing through the screenies, we came across two that caught our eye! Now, these look pretty damned familiar, and you should recognize them pretty easily. First, let's take a look at Q3test1:

Plasma/Megahealth room

Q3test1 revisited

As you can see, the main differences in Q3test1 are in lighting and detail placement. A usable "adrenaline pack" replaces the plasma gun here, and in the 1.08 picture you can see that one of the 3 support beams has been taken out and replaced by a wall decoration in the form of a model_misc.

Bird's eye view

Pillars of death

Q3test2 gets more of a geometry overhaul, and what originated as looming towers is now literally a floating arena in space. Yellow armor now replaces the red at the top of the acceleration pad, and you can make out the old untextured rocket launcher in the distance. The railgun and megahealth still sit in the distance, but you'll notice that at one time, there was extra machinegun ammo on the level.

What do these pics show? Well, if anything it's damned interesting to see the evolution of a map as it goes through the various levels of design. The key of course is to design the map so it's action-oriented and fun to play, and touch up on details afterwards. Polygon counts also need to be tweaked and optimized as design progresses.

Well, that's all folks. Keep up the fragging, and don't forget to check out our own 1.08 deathmatch and teamplay servers at donut.GamersX.com and donut.GamersX.com:27961!

Quick update: if you're using gamespy and encountering a problem where the server isn't full, but is password protected, it's gamespy's fault :P Both Donut servers are fully active and public. The passwords are only for a few reserved slots in case some of the FS/GX staff guys want to play. So if you try to connect and get a "server is full" message, it really is full, keep trying!