[GtkRadiant] modelling arches for doors with round tops?

[Mike_Tyson]

I use GtkRadiant 1.5.0. I want to model arches that can be used with textures of doors which have round tops like door03_2, door04_1.

Here are some pics about which textures I mean (I hope the pics are visible in this thread):


My question is, what is the best way to model a round arch in a wall so that I can use these doors properly and that they fit? And is it best to do this via CSG or via curves?


What I already tried: I made a bursh, then curve -> end cap to turn it into a half pipe. I press v and move the vertices around until the half pipe approximates the round door top. Then I use curve -> cap selection, inverted bevel to get something like a 2D-arch polygon.

Below is what that looks like (again I hope I set the permissions such that you can see the image).

The idea was then to turn this into a solid brush again and insert it into a square hole in a wall... but I don't know how to turn the polygon into a solid shape, and I think there's something unny going on with the front and back sides of the polygon. Anyway I dont' know if this is the way to do it.

Is it better to work with CSG? Or how do you model an arch?

[Spirit]

Curve tutorial.

[golden_boy]

You're using q3bsp? Curves, bevels and endcaps use patch meshes which Quake 1 doesn't have.

For Quake 3 format, you use two bevels to form the arch itself (make a brush of the right size, then use curves - bevel). You can use Ctrl-I to invert the bevel, to get the texture on the other side. Then with a bevel still selected, you click Endcap Selection - Inverted Bevel. Radiant will automatically generate the triangle-shaped part to fill out the arch.



You can use "endcap" instead of two bevels, but I hear that can cause tjunc problems or something. Bevels seem to work fine.

Remember the Quake 1 map compiler doesn't understand what these curves are. Only Quake 3 (q3map2 compiler) supports patches (which is what these actually are).

For Quake 1 maps, you have to make arches out of brushes, like here:



More steps are shown in my Radiant tutorial here.

CZG's curve tutorial is good, but also old. Remember the more surfaces you have in a curve (the more sides your "circle" has) the smoother the curve will look ingame.

For correct lighting on curves, that's something you will only get with the Quake 3 curves. See here - patch curve (endcap) on the left, curve made from brushes on the right. Watch streaks on brush curve. You can use angle sensitivity (read Q1 Light tool documentation) to slightly improve lighting on brush curves.



Oh and don't use CSG. Build these by hand, it's easy enough.

Edit: To make an arch fit the door (texture), first put the door in, put the arch in, then texture both. Then go to vertex editing mode (V) and in the front view, move the vertices of the arch around until it roughly matches the curve of door. Control this using the 3D view. Stay on the grid (use a small grid if you have to, Quake 1 supports grid sizes down to 1) and try to not distort the arch. It's OK if the arch slightly covers the door texture, it's better than texture outside the actual door showing through.

With patch curves, again go to vertex mode to manipulate them but you'll need basic knowledge on how to modify patches in Radiant.

This patch tutorial is in german, but has good illustrations. I can also explain more in depth if you go for q3 format patch curves. But brushes for curves also work, of course.

http://victorkarp.wordpress.com/2011...s-mit-patches/

Here is an arch using a 24 sided circle (6 surfaces in one quarter circle) at a 45 degree angle, made from brushes:



This was absurdly painful to do, since the vertices have to stay on the grid, and this was one reason for me to eventually switch to the Quake 3 map format and an engine that supports it.