ZEQ2 Lite

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Currently I am mapping for zeq2lite. I wanted to make some destructible structures (breakable brushes) but for that I need to use func_breakable which is not supported by quake3 and zeq2lite. (that's what I could find out.)

Add this entity to the game engine if you haven't cause it really makes the map more fun. If you have already added it then tell me how to use it.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

I do believe that NND-lite implemented this already and it thus it should be available in a followup update patch to ZEQ2-lite. You'll have to ask Tenken or Alex to confirm.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Unless Tenken implemented it without telling me, I'm pretty sure we haven't got it in yet, but it's certainly on the list of features to add.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

hmm okay thanks

but is there a way I can add it to my installation to test it for my map?

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

nielsmillikan wrote : but is there a way I can add it to my installation to test it for my map?

Only if you code support for the entity it into the source yourself. It's not a straight forward "add a file" type change, creating such an entity-type would require a number of additions to the gameplay code as it is currently not supported.

Once it is implemented and an update released you'll just have to add an entry to your level editor's entity definitions to be able to place the entity type in your level.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Unless it's there and we're unaware, you'll need to do some source code modifications to pull it off.

Friday, November 06, 2009

okay... I can't modify the source code.

So can you confirm with tenken whether he has added that entity to the game or not?

Meanwhile I think I will release a normal version without the breakable structures. (Unless you tell me you're going to release the next update real soon :p)

One more thing... Are you guys going to add collision detection to the game engine?

Friday, November 06, 2009

You're going to have to be a tad more specific as to what you mean by "collision detection." The engine already has plenty of collision detection routines, it wouldn't be much of 3D game engine without them. However there's collision detection and then there's collision detection, so you'll need to elaborate

Friday, November 06, 2009

I was asking whether the shader driven brushes would stop on contact with the ground or any brush or the player. Right now it doesn't happen.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

You mean brushes which make use of shaders' vertex manipulation functions to move them lack collision detection?

Such movement would lack collision, movement via shaders is nothing but a rendering effect, the geometry does not actually move from it's origin it's just rendered in a different location place. Implementing collision detection on that would likely be both painfully time consuming and horrible in terms of performance.

If you want moving brushes which collide with the player, make them as a func_mover (or is it func_platform? been too long since I mapped for Quake 3) in the editor.

What exactly are you wanting to use this for?

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Well I want to use them for my snow particles. Are you sure there is a func like func_mover or func_platform for quake3 (or ZEQ2). I do see a func_plat but I don't think it does what you say it will (for the movement of brushes).

Also is there an easier way to add particle emissions to my map? Rather than using shader driven brushes for it.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

There are plenty of ways to simulate snow on a map (such as using a grid of quads with a tcMod scroll effect), however using ZEQ2-lite's current particle system for map effects is not supported yet. It'll be something we'll likely add in future builds through map configuration files.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

I see... then I guess I'll use the brushes only.

Any info regarding how to make my surfaces reflective?

Saturday, November 07, 2009

There are ways of doing true reflections (using portals I believe), but I cannot recall off-hand. I'll try to pull up some of our older maps that had it.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

thanks Zeth. I really appreciate you're help.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Yeah, for snow mover brushes definitely aren't the way to go. Currently the best way to do a snow effect would be as Brad said using multiple overlapping brushes with a scrolling shader. That's the way a number of big games actually handle such effects, rather than implementing an efficient particle based weather system.

"Collisions" for rain and snow are often simply layered splash animations over the textures, calculating collisions of tens of thousands of snow particles per frame would be just a bit overkill, not to mention would give pretty poor performance