Making DarkPlaces even MORE beautiful...

[osjclatchford]

basically, the induvidual parts that make up the vapour trail are alphaing fine but the resolution of them is terrible, kind of square and blocky. i'm assuming they are sprites not particles (Although i'm normally wrong about these things) as the particles for the explosions/rocket trail/smoke etc are great but the trails on 'nades/wizard projectiles/deathknight projectiles/vore spores are lo res...

Ill get a screenie up soon...

[Seven]

Hello osjclatchford,

I think now I understood your problem:
- trail from rocket is nice
- trail from wizard and deathknights projectiles are blocky

Please compare my screenshots in post #1 with your situation.
I posted screenshots from wizard and deathknight trails,
so you see how they should look like...

If your situation is different then my screenshot, you most probably edited your "particlefont.tga" !
And destroyed parts of the alpha channel.
Please use my "particlefont.tga" (also available in first post) and see if your problem is solved.

Let me know, if it helped you out.
Seven

PS: Do you use my effectinfo or jakub1�s ?

[osjclatchford]

yours, but the script/tga remains the same.
must be a hardware problem.
for now i'll just use the explosions and sparks untill I upgrade!

thanks though...

[osjclatchford]

Hi again guys, I know its bad manners to double post but I hope you could help with this one. I posted it elsewhere but it just got lost/ignored, its not really off topic as the problem is a hindrance to darkplaces' beauty;

Not sure if any of you can help but I'd love to know if there is a way to remove/update the old quake explosion sprites.

I hate them now! they date the game and look damned ugly (especially as they oftimes obscure the lovely explosion effects from the updated effectinfo.txt I use.)
I felt sure I'd seen a nicer alpha explosion in a screenie somewhere but I'm not sure if that was for DP or not.
Likewise, it would be nice to remove/update that old orb-light sprite (as seen underwater in e4m7) if possible.

I saw mentioned earlier something about sprites being 'hard-coded' (not quite sure what this means, but I'm sure its not good ) in relation to the sky sprites and I wondered if this applies here.
If I can replace them, all I really need is a filename/directory fo the original sprites and then I can just make new files and add them to my mod!

any help or insight would be greatly aprecciated.

Many thanks in advance.

[jakub1]

sprite for darkplaces

to osjclatchford
-
the old q1 explosion sprite is realy ugly, especially with custom effectinfo.txt - that's true. however, you can't just delete explosion.spr from pak0.pak (not sure if it is correct filename, but it's something like this). if you do that, darkplaces will display in the centre of the explosion big ugly colourful strangely-shaped something instead. my solution is simple. i opened spr file in spr editor - there are many - and altered it. explosion.spr consists of eight frames, i deleted seven of them and set the whole remaining one as alpha. that's all - the file is still there, dp has no problem with these changes and the sprite is fully transparent.
-
other topic - there is new darkplaces autobuit available inside the "files" directory in the download section of darkplaces homepage. exploding boxes now use the correct effectname and custom effectinfo.txt now works with exploding boxes too.
-
jakub

[osjclatchford]

liquid texture's query

thanks jakub, most helpfull.

Got another Idea guys, working on the lines of making dp more beautiful;
is there a command/way of making the water/slime/lava/teleporter surface textures do that swirly warping thing they used to do in quake.only mine's not doing it. it just slides around on the surface and I'd quite like it to do what it used to, as I think it gives it more 'life'. (nostalgic nonsense, maybe? but it bothers me a little...)
I'm not even sure if it can do it in Darkplaces or not.

...and no, I'm not using pretty water nor do I intend to (for one I can't get it to work! I also feel it looks a little too clean and out of place in quake's dark world) no offence to the creator, it looks amazing but there's no according for taste (however poor on my side )

Any insight, as usual, will be greatly appreciated...

thanks in advance guys.

-UPDATE-
look what I just found and had to share; conback.tga - just paste in your id1/gfx folder.
Not much I know but every little helps!
Anyway I'm sure the crusty old console must have been bugging some of you out there just as as much as its bugged me (those who haven't done this already that is!).

[MaraST78]

Unfortunately, DP can't do the old software Quake's water warping. At least I don't know about that ability.

I don't like hijacking threads much, but if someone knows the answer, I would appreciate it, without creating another thread.

DP's shadows have some glitch - they 'propagate' thru surfaces. So e.g. shadow on some ledge above is seen also on the floor under it. It looks strange. From what I tried, it can be solved by simply enabling realtime world, but apart from the fact that I don't like RT world much, it also has a severe performance impact.
Does anyone have a clue if some other setting can solve that without enabling RT world?

Thx.

[inkub0]

Hey Guys
I noticed that download and install Rygel ULTRA textures doesnt mean "the best graphics ever".

I combined QRP textures and Rygel textures, adding QRP normalmaps (overwriting rygel's)

That was incredible better!!!

Maybe is time to create a "repack" with combined textures that takes the best from Rygel and QRP plus QRP normals...


http://hellcathq.com/h2tp/screenshots/QRPRYGEL1.jpg

http://hellcathq.com/h2tp/screenshots/QRPRYGEL2.jpg

http://hellcathq.com/h2tp/screenshots/QRPRYGEL3.jpg

http://hellcathq.com/h2tp/screenshots/QRPRYGEL4.jpg

http://hellcathq.com/h2tp/screenshots/QRPRYGEL5.jpg

[Seven]

inkub0,

just 5 days ago I wrote, that there are 2 main texture packs available (and explained the details):
- QRP�s
- Rygel�s
- Debaser�s Base-Only textures are less common (and come without normals)

Everybody knows it. There is no need to create a new "repack".
This can be done by anybody according to their personal taste.

I also told you, that QRP normals are way better than Rygels and told you to try them.
So this is also not a surprise.
Now that you did try them and finally found out how wonderful they are, makes my happy.

It is also known, that Rygels "ultra" pack is not "the best graphics ever" (as you describe it).

...hoping that more people will have your "ahaa" effect.

Seven

[Disco]

I think people would be more likely to try all these cool graphics if they had a clue as to what you guys are doing.

You are talking about 2 texture packs. Swapping out one packs normals with anothers. I could probably figure this out but i dont want to spend the time doing it. It really would be nice if someone took the time to take the best looking combination "In their opinion" and make a 2 click install pack. Download, unzip, done. I trust their judgement on what is the best.

In my opinion i think half or more of the people on this forums doesnt try DP because it isnt user friendly on making it work with all the bells and whistles. It is sad to see all the time spent on a client and limited people use it because of this.

[Seven]

Hello Disco Rockstar,

good statement
I am "working" for so long with DarkPlaces, that I maybe underestimate some things.

Lets talk about external textures here. And first of all ONLY external textures.
(not model skins, or something else)

In respect of Bakers words in another thread, there are only these engines, that support external textures:
(I never used different engines that much, so I dont know it; but I believe his words like the bible)
- DarkPlaces
- Qrack
- JoeQuake

Regarding external textures, all of those engines are handled the same way.
So, as you see DarkPlaces isnt more difficult than the others

Download both texture packs.
- Rygels_High_texture_pack (I strictly dont recommend the "ultra" pack)
- QRP (you need "Map texture Pack" 197 MB and "Normal Texture Pack" 222MB)

Create a subfolder in "id1", called "textures".
Put all the tga files (like described below) in there.

Now you have all the files you need in the correct spot.
Visuals are already better when you start DP due to (diffuse) textures.
Now, you surely want to see what normal maps brings.
So you have to activate offsetmapping (= Parallax Mapping).
I have no idea if the other engines support this.
In DarkPlaces you must do it via console. There is no options entry.
Simply type in the console: set r_glsl_offsetmapping 1


Now try out QRP textures + normals in your "textures" folder,
and after that try Rygels files from his "textures" folder (included in the pk3 file).
So you can see the different visuals.

If you want to mix both, just copy over QRP normals into your "textures" folder
overwriting Rygels normals. They have the same name. Or the other way round.
For most textures this works. There are a few different looking ones though,
which will look wired now (because normal texture doesnt fit the diffuse texture).
But 90% will fit. So now check, which variation you like more.

Play with it a little and mix them.

As I wrote in the other thread, I did this for EVERY single texture, normal AND combination.
It took me 2 month to get the best result in my personal opinion.
But this doesnt mean, it is everybody�s opinion !
Thats why I think, that it doesnt make sense to upload 1.4 GB data.

Best wishes,
Seven

[jakub1]

hello seven,
-
just as i've written you a couple days earlier - there are a lot of people here who aren't familiar with darkplaces the way we are :-). i've been playing q1 with darkplaces for almost 10 years now, and still it surprises me every now and then. as for the texture repack - i don't agree with you. like you, i also had my private texture pack based on various sources, but it's gone now together with my old hdd (backup dvd is no longer readable, murphy's law is the only certainty in this world). it took ages to compile that collection and i wasn't in the mood to go through that endless work again.
-
yeasterday i found nice compilation of q1 stuff here and the texture set looks really nice. it is, as far as i can say, combination of qrp's and rygel's textures. it also contain separate pk3 file with fixed models of weapons, keys, runes and powerups - rotating items are back!
-
to Disco Rockstar: darkplaces isn't user unfriendly, it just requires a great deal of study :-)

[Seven]

Thats funny jakub,

you are the first to approve my words:

It took me 2 month to get the best result in my personal opinion.
But this doesnt mean, it is everybody�s opinion !

Also funny thing is:
Maphfus is the one, that some people in this forum dont like, because of his origin.

Of course, I can only encourage people like Disco Rockstar to try his pack.
It is surely good and well balanced. (Maphfus loves QRP�s pack just like I do)
In this way you will get the exact copy of Maphfus�s Quake.
But dont complain, if you dont like texture xx, or weapon yy, or monster zz.
Rotating items arent back. He simply deleted Rygels screwed up ones.
If you want to get the rotating items back, follow this.

For me its the same thing as Rygels pack. An exact copy of Rygels Quake with all consequences.

For the impatient people this is the best way to go. I fully agree !
But it will never be perfect for the individual taste.


@ Disco Rockstar
for all the "bells and whistles" as you described it, some things are missing in Maphfus�s pack:
But you will find some of the jewels in the first post of this thread

Warm greetings,
Seven

[jakub1]

i know that maphfus uses different models than rygel. i like this model set more because they don't contain any crazy effect like rygel's runes and invisibility. what you meant by "Rotating items arent back. He simply deleted Rygels screwed up ones."? maphfus's pack contains new models and they are rotating... so... yes, he deleted rygel's ones, but he also added new model set.
-
edit for inkub0:
all items in maphfus's pack are working the way they are supposed to.

[inkub0]

He means "Are the items rotating?" Quad damage is still firm or is it rotating?