Planet Woune

   

Planet Woune --- a rather peaceful planet with no dominant intelligent species. The planets foliage is completely covered in blue-green land based lilly pads and has a core of molten SLIME!


If everything goes well (which almost never happens ... so dont get your hopes too high) I might actually get high-school art credit for creating stuff for xonotic (through my high school's independent study program(I'm currently a senior)) My goal is to make the picture above a reality... i will be creating

--a complete texture pack set (textures terrains skys maybe a new water shader)
--all the plant models
-- an attempt at custom music and sounds (probably won't turn out well ... no promises )
--hopefully 3 maps -- 1 dm -- 1 ctf -- 1 assault
--if I have time -- maybe even some avi cut scenes

I will try to make everything as single player ready as possible
--all three maps will be part of a series (related back story)
--ctf will have custom flag models to make sense with the story
--if I make cut scenes they will be in avi ... or other movie codec... I know that xonotic does not currently support this but I have a feeling that movie based scenes would be the easiest to implement (if xonotic can write avis it can read them ... right?) feel free to correct me if im wrong
--Ill try to make the maps as bot friendly as possible without making them lame.

I will likely need alot of technical help on this (shaders stuffs, radiant stuffs) so don't be surprised if I start asking a ton of questions....

Now.... is this a good idea?
-- is it ok to make a new planet environment and drift away from mars and asteroid based facilities? Is it ok to start making sp ready maps?

Sounds great hutty.

For video, I know the engine can only read it's own video format called dpvideo. I've seen it used in Nexuiz only a couple times and can't find any sort of documentation on how to encode files to that format other than what is found this thread on a different forum:

http://forums.inside3d.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4521

Which let me to this file:
http://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/f...070925.zip

That seems to contain an encoder, a decoder and a player but there is no documentation at all I guess you will have to experiment.

Good luck with this project!

It would be awesome if you could make this!

I really like the idea of an outdoor spacemap, instead of just another facility. I would love it

I experimented with dpvideo tonight because nifrek's post made me curious. Usage is pretty straightforward. I am on Windows and did something like this:

- captured some footage in Xonotic using cl_capturevideo 1;
- converted the resulting OGV file to PNG files using Super. There are probably better options but I had this program already and it works fine;
- batch converted PNG files to TGA using ImageMagick's mogrify tool;
- encoded the TGA files to a DPV file using the tools that nifrek linked to.

Here (edit: use 'save target as' in your browser please) is the file I made. Download it, put it in /data/video and play it ingame using the console command playvideo test.

It hardly uses any real compression, so it is 20Mb for maybe 5 seconds of footage To get a high image quality you use up a lot of Mb's quickly! I also tried the same file with compression 20, it looked a lot worse but was only 2,5 Mb.

Now, how to sync this with audio?

Thats nice ... I didn't know xonotic had the ability to do video playback ... will look into this after finals got out of the way.

-- Licensing .. I assume that the stuff I make will be under GPL right? also ... how is that different from creative commons 3 attribution (what I normally use)

I also edited the first post to include music and sounds


edit --- Has anyone made a xonotic port of nexuiz crossover .... cause Maybe I could make that as a small test map while i'm experimenting with various things.

You have the right to use any licensing you wish. However, if you plan on distributing it bundled with Xonotic, you will have to license it under GPL. I don't know if this applies to limited distribution (i.e. if you're allowed to bundle it with Xonotic to give it to a few people, but release it publicly on its own). That is one difference with CC: the GPL must cover the whole bundle if one of its components is GPL-licensed.

Another difference with CC-BY is that you have to give the sources to whomever asks for them. Usually the sources are provided right away to ease that process. For maps that means the .map file and any sources to objects or other assets you use in them. For textures, usually a high-definition uncompressed version is enough -- what matters is that they can be modified with no quality loss. For music, sources are project files and raw samples if there are any. For objects, the uncompiled project file. In all cases, more is better, but what I listed here should be sufficient.

The GPL is a software license, so it's a little ambiguous when it comes to music and such. What I listed above is (what I remember is) the common interpretation of the GPL by the Xonotic team.

---

As for dpv, there's a "any2dpv.sh" script that suggest PinkRobot has the right approach (except for using mogrify, that thing is SLOW). Apparently sound comes in a separate ogg file that's played by DP during the video. But apparently, as PinkRobot said, it seems to be a heavy format.

... the independent study was accepted ... time to get to work on this

Looking forward to any results! Congratulations!

Awesome

Congrats with being the first one working to work full time on Xonotic!

This Is Great NEWS! We are waiting for results. And between you and me... (conspiracy tone of voice) This plant models are allready mine! he he he.

I will keep you updated weekly .... (every Friday) ...

My first map will be digsyite a sniper friendly dm map...

* Mepper would like to request a normal map, not a sniping one.

Sniping = camping -> No fun

i'm making 3 (or more ... time permitting)
only this one will be sniping

also I'll make sure the campers have to go through hell to get their hands on the nex (no rifle for this one)

Update 0001

Its update time !

Dig Syite - dm - tdm - kh - ft

.map file




I've only been working at it for about 4 days at this point ... so here is what I have so far...

at this point I am in the middle of setting down the main geometry - mechanisms - and item placement. I am using a few trak 5 textures (to be replaced) because they are really good for judging the sizes of things

I won't make a pk3 till it gets farther along.


questions section ---

If I am doing anything very wrong (especially fps/vis blocking related) please tell me as soon as possible ... before its too late
nex ... or rifle?
jetpack? portolaunch? minstnex?
is it okay if I leave our mg and crylink?

I was just wondering, since you will take a lot of time in all this, have you read any articles about level design?

Maybe these articles will help you with your maps:

http://benb-design.net/ (read the "Ben's small bible of realistic multiplayer leveldesign")

Multiplayer Level Design In-Depth, Part 1: The Specific Constraints of Multiplayer Level Design
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/13...php?page=1

Multiplayer Level Design In-Depth, Part 2: The Rules of Map Design
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/13...depth_.php

Multiplayer Level Design In-Depth, Part 3: Technical Constraints and Accessibility
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/13...depth_.php

Good luck, if you need any help tell me, i dont have a lot o f time but i'd be willing to help

Update 0001
nex ... or rifle?
jetpack? portolaunch? minstnex?
is it okay if I leave our mg and crylink?

Nex, the rifle is likely to be merged with the nex and axed
Minsta is too powerful, porto ehh never really liked it, jetpack might be cool
Crylink and machinegun are drastically different weapons

I know crylink was drastically diffrent from mg ... i was thinking of leaving both of them out for this map

for guns ... i sure hope they don't mix rifle and nex.. as they are very different...

rifle --
mg ammos
shotgun secondary
object penetration
amo clips
headshots

nex
cell ammos
useless secondary
stronger overall
charging
not - object penetrating
awesome model

I think you should just build your map. Weapons can be replaced easily if you wish to do so.

More questions

-- pendulum object ... how do i make it swing less
-- can i make doors rotate on an axis other than z? .. like so -- ..... \ / ...... | |
-- how can i compile a model using radiant for mapping (the compile setting says it cant find bsp ... when i try to render just bsp the map leaks cuase the maps is just a crate)

... thats all for now ...

For your entity questions, that's all explained in the entity editor window thingy! (I'm quoting entities.ent because that's what netradiant uses)

Pendulum frequency:
<real key="freq" name="freq">frequency (cycles per second) of the swinging (if unspecified, a physically &quot;somewhat correct&quot; value is calculated that matches Quake 3)</real>

Door axis:
<group name="func_door_rotating" color="0 .5 .8">
Normal rotating door entity that opens by rotating around an axis (default: Z). Use an origin brush to specify the rotation axis.

I do read that little window thing ....
.... However often times I find it much too brief...

so it is frequency ... thx

I do use an origin brush however it spins like a regular door ...
... I am trying to make a trap door that opens from the ceiling. the trap door is rotated 45 degrees on the z axis ... if I used the x or y axis I wouldn't be able to specify the 45 degree rotation ... the z axis however allows for specifying a rotation....

If you do license the maps and media under the GPL then there is the possibility of having them included in a future Xonotic release, if they look and play well enough (well enough being about the same as current default Xonotic maps )

Join the #xonotic.editing IRC channel if you already haven't, at irc.quakenet.org!

   

Oh Noes ! its Friday already ...

Anyways ... the map is really starting to take shape now...

Its a large dm where the main emphasis flying...
The map includes several jetpacks ... and a raptor-plane-vehicle...
The nex i guarded by 3 remote button controlled toggle-doors (one of them is not working in this release) ... and a on-command rise and lower slime pit

There is also a mistanex (very low by the slime) ... however in order to get it you have to be a pro with the jetpack... and even if you do get it your 30 seconds will likely be up before you can make much use of it.


-- i know this doesn't look like the concept art .... the nex map I make will

besides that all the other weapons are rocket based (hagar -RL mortar- seeker- )

I also included a couple porto-launches .... but the 30 sec time linit makes them next to useless (why is there a time limit on the porto-launch anyways?)

-----------------------

I have started to make a few textures ... but they are not all that good yet....

I am also concerned about fps... this map had nearly no vis-blocking elements ... and i haven't caulked anything yet ...

I am also unsure what to do about the invisible ceiling at the top


----------------------

here is a link to the pk3 [http://ubuntuone.com/0fQtKHX2CbHkfUAlYEc8De]da pk3[/url]

I haven't tested the pk3 file (didn't have time to)

feel free to comment / criticize / and mull over my every mistake

...

This already looks a lot better
No need to worry, everyone has got to learn it.

Practice makes perfect

ok, first thing, you packed it a bit wrong, you have a folder named digsyite0018 inside pk3, which makes it unable to launch in game, you know what i mean, right?
anyway, map looks very promising, might be really enjoyable in future!!
About those triggers to nex, neat idea, although it seems not to work properly now, somehow i wasn't able to deactivate all those barriers, but maybe i just failed somehow...
(also, slime is not "on" by default, i turned it on by one of the triggers, is it intentional?).
EDIT: ok you wrote that one isn't working, i must read more carefully before pointing bugs next time...

Great work so far, flying around with jetpack is fun, it's good that there's plenty of fuel for it everywhere