TUT: Creating Rain + Snow + Fog in DarkPlaces

[keropi]

LOL, it's not that awesome anymore... a sandybridge i5/i7 setup would be way better

[keropi]

I did the test on my office pc...

My values:
with rain: 110
without rain: 111
That is a drop of ~1% LOL
I use 5570 + E8500

The 5570 is a very basic vga (for nowdays), 512mb , no power connectors and as big as the PCIe slot. It costs ~65eur.

[OT]
This ATI/nVidia thing with DP is quite interesting. If anyone ever messed with eDuke32 and the high-resolution-pack would know that the super-eye-candy polymer_renderer works way better on nV cards , TX (an eDuke32 dev) commented this on their forum:

You can't enjoy Polymer because ATI's drivers don't do OpenGL worth a shit, unfortunately.

This seems to me a case of different openGL features used in the two ports... those used in DP benefit from ATI implementation, those that eDuke32 uses benefit from the nV implementation...
[/OT]

[Seven]

UPDATE 14.05.2011

Dear all,

I finished Episode 2 now.

Now these .ent files are included:
- start map
- Episode 1
- Episode 2

I also added a nice .ent file for e1m8 and included the extended e2m6 map+ent file from MH. Thank you very much MH for your effort and work !
Read more about it here.

On top of that I updated almost all Episode 1 .ent files and added nice ground fog where applicable.

Now you can choose from over 30 .ent files !

Please find the updated Download-Link in post #2.

I hope you like them. I didnt make screenshots cause I am too tired now.
Maybe the next days.

Kind regards,
Seven

[DaniOcampo1992]

Good! Thanks Seven!

[gdiddy62]

Wow! What can we say. You are too kind Seven.
THANK YOU SO MUCH !
Best Wishes
Jeff

[LambentHammerBurst]

Awesome work as usual Seven

[Seven]

Dear friends,

Yesterday it was too late for screenshots, but now I�d like to show you some,
so that you can get a feeling what to expect and how the new .ent files look like.

Please find/download them in post #2

I have to thank LordHavoc again for the possibility to bring so much more ambience to Quake. It is really amazing in my opinion.

Screen from New E1M4 (underwater) is my absolutely favorite one.
You simply have to dive into that lake to get the feeling...


New E1M3:




New E1M4 (underwater):




E2M2:




E2M4:




E2M5:





E2M6:



E2M7:




Sorry for so many screenshots...

[keropi]

the fog implementation is awesome...!
is there a way to use the .ent files without rain/snow? only fog?

[Seven]

...and ruin all the hard work ?

Of course, simply delete all rain blocks inside the .ent files.
Starting with block no.2 and then all the other rain blocks that follow.
If you dont know what a "block" is, read post#1 please.

Even though fog can be called without an .ent file (as described in my post#1 as well),
i recommend using one, because every ground fog in every map has a totally different position.

[DaniOcampo1992]

is there a way to use the .ent files without rain/snow? only fog?

You don't like the rain effects? D:

[gdiddy62]

It is so cool to change the mood of the map with the variety of ent files! Snow will be used by me around the Holidays.
Thanks again Seven!

[golden_boy]

It looks good, and I will probably use rain/snow like this for one or two of my RMQ maps.

However, I think it's slightly overdone. Especially the fog is usually overdone (thickness) in most of the shots.

Less is more.

Also, just like coloured lights and hi-res textures, rain would look best if put in by the mapper - because there should be puddles in all those rooms where rain is falling through the skylights. ;-)

Plus, the skybox should absolutely match the rainy weather.

Ideally, there would be a 'wet' shader for the textures like there is in Crysis for example.

It's nice that this can be done of course. And there's nothing wrong with playing around with it.

[LambentHammerBurst]

Highly possible with Darkplaces support for custom texture replacements that are map specific:
textures/e1m1/ for example.
Could "fake" a wet floor by making it's _gloss texture more strong.

[keropi]

You don't like the rain effects? D:

actually no, because it wasn't in original Quake... I feel fog is something like real-time-lightning - an extra that could be in original Quake but rain/snow? there is no evidence in the original game of them...
not that I criticize them or Seven's outstanding work, they are awesome, I personally don't want to use them , it's a personal thing

[DaniOcampo1992]

Well, everybody with their respective likes..