Atlantis and other projects + Playable Alpha

[Sting]

So this is something I have been working for the past month alongside a few other mapping projects of mine. There are very few Stargate Atlantis maps out there, or atleast one that has done it justice. none the less I have taken matters into my own hands while I learn how to use Radiant.

 

 

Half of the map is .ase models since GTKradiant does not like brushes on extreme angles. IE: the control room stairs. 

 

 

 

The Balcony, those pillar thingies are also .ase models again due to the Q3 engines restrictions on angles. Skybox is a modified version of Grimm Night by Hipshot

 

 

All of the Computers, TVs and Interface screens are fully animated. The Aquariums on the lower levels also fizz bubbles, still working to perfect the shader for it. Oh please ignore the untextured proto control consoles Still working on the model for those

 

 

 

 

While I could use Wade's gate. I am trying to make my own so my map won't conflict with other Stargate mods. I will need help with scripting the gate, I'm hoping someone more well versed with Radiant could help me do that. That and I want to make a gate with some sexy shaders with the glyphs slowly and dimly pulsating. 

 

 

I am also making a Coruscant/blade runner esq city map with all of the shader and lighting styles I learned from making Atlantis, still too early to post anything of it as I am still crafting textures and shaders for it so stay tuned.

 

PS: Oh as a treat, I am attaching a playable Alpha of the gateroom. I will need to know how this runs on low end machines and what your collective framerate is like. Let me know how it is with and without dynamic glow. Either select solo game or at the main menu hit ~ to open the console and type in /devmap Gateroomalpha

 

Atlantis Alpha

[Droidy365]

This looks great so far! One problem I found, though, was the Z-Fighting in this room, here:

 

 

 

 

It's an easy enough fix (in fact, I actually took a peak in your *.map file):

• Find the Blueprint
• Click on it
• Find it on the grid plane (View/Filter/Models to find it easier)
• Set the grid size to Grid0.25
• Zoom in
• Move it up 1 little tiny square

Done. Sorry if this was an unnecessary tutorial, lol. I mean, you do seam to be a very talented Mapper, so yeah. FYI I do have a pretty damn good PC, and I have Dynamic Glow turned on, if that helps.

[Sting]

This looks great so far! One problem I found, though, was the Z-Fighting in this room, here:

 

 

 

 

It's an easy enough fix (in fact, I actually took a peak in your *.map file):

• Find the Blueprint
• Click on it
• Find it on the grid plane (View/Filter/Models to find it easier)
• Set the grid size to Grid0.25
• Zoom in
• Move it up 1 little tiny square

Done. Sorry if this was an unnecessary tutorial, lol. I mean, you do seam to be a very talented Mapper, so yeah. FYI I do have a pretty damn good PC, and I have Dynamic Glow turned on, if that helps.

 

That table is one of the things I'm going to texture later. I just got to get around to making the texture, as for the schematic It is also one the list of "Things to do later" I was going to make it a decal (kinda like the ticket stubs in Rocky_ruins but hey that works too! I'm also planning on adding more stuff to that table, more schematics, top secret documents, maybe a coffee mug with steam coming off of it. 

 

Also feel free to "peak away" That is why I included it.

 

Here is the table in the reference photo by the way. To give you an idea of what it will look like when I finally get around to texturing it. 

 

 

How was your frame rate? (Edit: NVM, peaked at your counter at the top right corner) Any lag or slow spots? I'm going to make the conference room doors 3D and I have been reading up on func_static to see if I can get them to rotate which will probably be more resource consuming. Actually all of the doors in general are going to get a massive rework. 

[z3filus]

I've got GTX1060 with 16GB RAMM and 8-core processor, and most of the time I have a steady 90-110+ FPS

 

This map had it different. The FPS kept jumping between 40-50 and only at certain angles, it would rise up to 90 ish even, but
anytime I would look at the direction of center of the map, it would instantly drop down to 28-31 FPS. Have a look at the screenshots.

I can't say how accurate the map is, compared to what was seen in the show, since I'm not a Stargate fan, but..  this looks nice.. ^^
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The4thRemnant]

Holy cow! Just judging by the screenshots, this is awesome! Very accurate to the show, totally and utterly mind-blowing. Now, when I've scraped my brain matter off the walls, I'm going to have a good look at this. Definitely keeping both my eyes (sleep as they may be) on this. 

[Sting]

Ah-ha! The FPS drop is because of all of the glass and transparency shaders. It might get a little worse because some of the new doors I'm working on have semi-transparent stained glass as well. 

 

 

Here is what I have so far of the unnamed city, bladerunner, coruscant, neo-toyko esq map. Only have a few textures and shaders made so the grey on the buildings is just a place holder. Still at a writers block on what to make the billboards of. This theme is def to modern to be Star Wars so billboards and ads in Aura-besh and Huttese are out of the question. Maybe I could use some forgien or fictional alphabet to spice things up leaving more to the imagination. I am experimenting with fog shaders to try to extend the visibility to the building tops. The buildings themselves are just glorified cardboard cut outs essentially with the out of sight areas caulked or non existent. 

 

 

[AshuraDX]

This is looking fantastic!

Transparency overdraw sucks a lot of performance, indeed. You could try to make your Windows md3 models and use an opaque texture on the second LOD.

That'd require them to be misc_model_static though, unless q3map2 bakes LODs for misc_models.

[Sting]

I gotta figure out how to convert an .ASE to an .MD3 I have been playing around with Quake Army Knife a bit. Infact A majority of this map is .ASE models. The actual brush count sits below 3k and only takes a couple of minutes to compile. All of the light pillars, the grand stained glass window behind where the gate goes. The TVs, the wooden control room stairs. Some of the ceiling lights, the boxy things on the walls, the pillars on the balcony, and parts of the railings are all ASE models. Furniture too like the chairs are .ASEs Also to make things more interesting, the night time version seen here actually has two skyboxes. The one seen on the balcony and a dark green mushy one behind the grand window. (I plan to add faint lights to it to give it that murky feel) I should also mention when I build the other areas of the city, they will also have their own skyboxes to give the illusion of location change. 

 

The daytime version of the grand window luckily doesn't require a skybox. Oh yeah I almost forgot, this is from a younger build of the map. I'm going to go back and make a daytime version when everything is done. Night time in Atlantis has always felt more whimsical, that and the Quake 3 engine does low lighting better than daytime environments. 

 

 

If you were wondering why there are multiple sets of window and floor textures in the files, its for the daytime version which has this. The trick is not to abuse dynamic glow, even with the night version I'm very selective where I use it. Dynamic glow should not be used on everything that lights up. You want to use it to emphasize certain things like say godrays coming through a window. You can do this by glowing select areas of the window. Its also nice for interior ends of a window to make it look like light is actually coming through. Day is going to be tricky to light properly when I get to it, less lights involved but more complicated since its Q3. I am currently working on a .gfx file for floating motes of dust for all of the windows with godrays. 

 

 

Speaking of GFX, this is also from a younger build. I had to make several multi colored mist gfx shaders for this. When I begin expanding to other areas of the city I will include it if resources allow it. It's a working Hologram which you can switch on and off. Sadly I haven't figured out how to make it spin as its a Func_usable. All of the shaders are pretty much sprites. I will get back to it much later, Those door textures for the hologram and conferance rooms are merely just placeholders until I can make 3D .ases and make them pop.

 

 

 

Reference photo

 

 

Speaking of references, here are some shot by shot comparisons of the gateroom and the show. I am still going back and making changes based off of these. 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and if resources allow it, I noticed that two different people gave their Atlantis maps exteriors where you can fly around in a Puddle Jumper. Unfortunately the Gateroom and the Tower in the CGI don't match up interior and exterior wise, so I decided to make mine a separate area in which you just teleport to, similar to the star destroyer map. That is if resources allow me to include this thing. Its nowhere near textured or finished and as you probably guessed, It's a behemoth .ASE model since GTK radiant is not very geometry friendly when it comes to stuff like this. I have been experimenting with water shaders just for this. This is a big maybe since I'm planning a graphically intense offworld location and the outer sections of the city which will be connected to the gateroom via those transporter booths. (teleportation) 

 

 

 

PS: If anyone has any experience with importing custom sounds via goldwave, let me know. JKA is weird as only a certain type of .wav can be used. I want to get some sick sounds of the ocean, wind tunnels, computer interfaces, etc in. Since this is going to be mostly an RP map, atmosphere is everything. 

[Sting]

Whoops, forgot this shot. Don't mind the small scale, once converted into an .ASE Model_scale will fix that problem. 

 

[ZanderNao]

You are a god.

I have played on four different versions of the Atlantis gate room. I've never seen one that comes this close to being picture perfect. I think the only thing that stuck out for me in the pictures was the other gate model, lol. But superb work. Watching this project with bated breath.

[Sting]

You are a god.

 

I have played on four different versions of the Atlantis gate room. I've never seen one that comes this close to being picture perfect. I think the only thing that stuck out for me in the pictures was the other gate model, lol. But superb work. Watching this project with bated breath.

 

Don't worry, Wade's amazing gate is just a place holder. I will either attempt to re texture it or make my own, but none the less, there will be a majestic pegasus gate filing those two slots in the floor when this is all said and done. 

[Ramikad]

PS: If anyone has any experience with importing custom sounds via goldwave, let me know. JKA is weird as only a certain type of .wav can be used. I want to get some sick sounds of the ocean, wind tunnels, computer interfaces, etc in. Since this is going to be mostly an RP map, atmosphere is everything. 

 

From what I remember they have to be mono files, 44100 Hz, and that's just about it, but I'm not dealing with sounds a lot so I could be wrong.

[AshuraDX]

From what I remember they have to be mono files, 44100 Hz, and that's just about it, but I'm not dealing with sounds a lot so I could be wrong.

That sounds about right.

[Corto]

I want to make a map of the Death Star using mostly static meshes instead of pure brush work. Looks like that's what you are doing right here and it looks amazing. You kind of set my mind at ease knowing that I'm going to be able to work like I imagine. Fantastic work.

[Sting]

I want to make a map of the Death Star using mostly static meshes instead of pure brush work. Looks like that's what you are doing right here and it looks amazing. You kind of set my mind at ease knowing that I'm going to be able to work like I imagine. Fantastic work.

 

We'll see. I haven't broken the game yet with model overuse lol.....

[AshuraDX]

@@Sting what does your workflow look like currently?

You said you use a lot of ASE models - are these models made from converted brushwork? Do you use the "make solid"/autoclip spawnflag for your collisions?

[Sting]

@@Sting what does your workflow look like currently?

You said you use a lot of ASE models - are these models made from converted brushwork? Do you use the "make solid"/autoclip spawnflag for your collisions?

 

Yup, Anything which needs to be on an angle or a piece of repetitive furniture (like the light pillars) which uses a decent amount of brushes) gets compiled into an .ASE

 

I actually had no idea you could do this, I have been using physics clip brushes. I did include my map file in the alpha PK3 if you want to take a look. 

[AshuraDX]

@@Sting keep working with clip brushes.

 

The autoclip function works by creating a clip brush per face of the .ASE and thereby creates an unnecessary amount of BSP data on compile.

 

This does not only increase compile and load times, but may also decrease the ingame performance.

[Sting]

@@Sting keep working with clip brushes.

 

The autoclip function works by creating a clip brush per face of the .ASE and thereby creates an unnecessary amount of BSP data on compile.

 

This does not only increase compile and load times, but may also decrease the ingame performance.

 

Do you know how to fix "WARNING: Flipped Triangle?"

 

Other than that, Compile times are very short. Vis only lasts less than a split second. 

[AshuraDX]

@@Sting I'm not exactly a experienced mapper. I just happen to be developing a new Leveleditor that integrates into 3ds max, as a replacement for GTK Radiant.

 

I'd recommend you try the Brush Cleanup, that may get rid of it.

[Sting]

@@Sting I'm not exactly a experienced mapper. I just happen to be developing a new Leveleditor that integrates into 3ds max, as a replacement for GTK Radiant.

 

I'd recommend you try the Brush Cleanup, that may get rid of it.

 

Whoa does your mapping program have cross engine capabilities? 

 

I did manage to port the Atlantis Gate room into an OBJ file from Radiant about a month ago for the fun of it and out of curosity. It was as simple as using an online tool to convert an .ASE into a different format. This is an early build. I know I am such a super fan that I want this ported into newer and more capable engines like Unreal and Crytek. 3D printing also crossed my mind  Other than a few small hiccups in the geometry, it ported perfectly, texture maps and pretty much everything intact. 

 

[AshuraDX]

@@Sting It's not my program.

I'm working on a script based plugin that adds a .map exporter for geometry and the option to configure and export Entities along with the geometry to to Autodesk 3ds max, a professional 3d modeling suite.

 

Because 3ds max can be used to create geometry for any engine that uses a format it can export to - the answer is: yes, you could use this for multiple engines.

[RAILBACK]

Heh.. StarGate. Filmed in my backyard a few times. Heck, my bro even built spaceship sets.

[Sting]

Sooooo I started this today. Still got to make some changes to the structure before I make some new textures and shaders for it (Raven's doesn't even come close to the actual set hilariously enough). I was disappointed with the actual "Academy" in Jedi Academy. I will be doing some research on the actual temple they used before I do anything outside of the Ceremony Hall. 

 

 

 

Heh.. StarGate. Filmed in my backyard a few times. Heck, my bro even built spaceship sets.

You gotta show me pics of this dude, that sounds awesome!

[Ramikad]

Here's a good lot of reconstructions and blueprints from the Yavin base, mostly outside:

 

https://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.it/2012/12/yavin-base.html

https://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.it/2013/01/yavin-base-transport.html

https://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.it/2013/01/yavin-sled.html

https://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.it/2015/08/yavin-base.html

https://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.it/2015/09/landing-at-yavin.html

https://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.it/2014/04/yavin-base-briefing-room.html

https://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.it/2013/01/the-millennium-falcon-in-yavin-base.html

 

And of course:

 

 

 

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much about the Ceremony Chamber around.