[OTB] BSP Package Feedback

[jitspoe]

This is really just directed at Chef-Killer, but he's not online at this hour, and it may be valuable to have some public discussion/feedback about this.

T3RR0R15T sent me the BSP build that he and Chef-Killer worked on.  This is just some feedback on things to tweak.

Overall, lots of good changes.  There are a few things that would be nice to tweak:

clone_delta_disable "1" - This is a must.  Really annoying when you're trying to clone stuff and move it on a specific axis, but it shifts over on all the other axes as well.  Also annoying to have to alter the grid size to shift it back the right amount.

Pressing "L" selects the CTP by default.  Would it be possible to make it use "pball"?  Maybe make pball loaded by default on start, since pretty much everybody is going to need to do that?  That way new guys don't even have to worry about figuring out how to load textures since they'll just be there by default.

Transparency makes detailed brushes difficult to see.  It's useful on hint/clip/ents, though.  Not sure if it's possible to disable transparency on the detail brushes.  I think that may be why I had that setting disabled.  It is kind of handy to know what is detailed at a quick glance, though.  Maybe there's some other way we could display this...

In the entity help, some of the lists are confusing, especially when they have list numbers that don't correspond to the actual values that should be put in there.  Example:

"gamemode" "#" - # options:
 1) Deathmatch (set 1)
 2) Single flag (set 2)
 3) CTF (set 4)
 4) Siege (set 8)
 5) KOTH (set 16)
 6) Pong (set 64)

Add the options together for multiple modes (1-flag and 2-flag mode would be 6 (2 + 4)).
"gamemode" can be applied to any entity.

Should probably something like:

"gamemode" "#" - # options:
  1 - Deathmatch
  2 - Single flag CTF
  4 - CTF
  8 - Siege
16 - KOTH
64 - Pong

Add the options together for multiple modes.
example: "gamemode" "6" for Single flag CTF (2) + CTF (4)
"gamemode" can be applied to any entity.

Another example:

"type" "###" - ### options:
 1) low (set low, random trracer or stingray)
 2) medium (set medium, random vm68, carbine or spyder)
 3) high (set high, random autococker or automag)
 4) trracer (set trracer)
 5) stingray (set stingray)
 6) vm68 (set vm68)
 7) carbine (set carbine)
 8) spyder (set spyder)
 9) autococker (set autococker)
10) automag (set automag)

Perhaps something like this would be more readable:

"type" "<weapontype>" - where <weapontype> is one of the following:
low - Randomly spawns a Trracer or Stingray.
medium - Randomly spawns a VM-68, 68 Carbine or Spyder SE
high - Randomly spawns an Autococker or Automag.
trracer - Spawns a Trracer.
stingray - Spawns a Stingray.
vm68 - Spawns a VM-68.
carbine - Spawns a 68 Carbine.
spyder - Spawns a Spyder SE.
autococker - Spawns an Autococker.
automag - Spawns an Automag.

I'll probably have more feedback soon.  I haven't spent much time with it yet.

[deadfroggy]

what about when you rotate something like a box or something and its lock the texture the texture moves out of place and have to unlock the texture and reposition it?
Its really annoying to be honest.

[Chef-Killer]

I just played around with the windows, toolbars, menus, settings, etc. to make it more user friendly. I don't have the knowledge to change anything related to the .exe, maybe T3RR0R15T or ViciouZ can help with this.

Clone_delta_disable "1" is done.

I'm pretty sure loading (used) textures by default was possible with an older version, maybe the old code can be reimplemented (for all pball textures?)...guess this is an .exe thingy.

I prefer the transparency on non-solid brushes. It's really helpful to notice what's already detailed and what's still solid. However, texture alignments should be done before, because they're very hard afterwards. That's correct.

I agree with the entity help. It's confusing with different numbers. I'll have a look at this again.

For the brush rotation there's a setting to disable automatic texture rotation on locked brushes, but I didn't figure out yet how it affects on the texture alignments.

What about new .wal files based on the official hr4 textures? That would make it easier to imagine how the map looks ingame, wouldn't it?

[jitspoe]

Is it possible to use the full HR4 textures in-editor?  I was thinking this was added at some point, but I might just be imagining things.  Also, it looks like you enabled the skybox feature, but it did not appear to do anything different when I added sky brushes.  In any case, with the clone_delta_disable set and some ent help tweaks, I think it's worth making a release and we can try to fix some other like the textures and such later.

[deadfroggy]

Are you guys going to finish on this?

[Chef-Killer]

Yes I'll have a look at the entity help and the possibly hr4 support soon. Skybox settings are done, so everybody can enable them with gl_skybox "0". It's disabled by default, because there was something wrong with it, though. Can't remember offhand what it was exactly ...

[jitspoe]

Bringing this back up again -- the more I use it, the more I find transparent detail brushes impossible to work with.  I make almost everything +det now.  You can have a lot more control of things making more stuff detailed, then using hint brushes to break up the portals in more optimal ways.  Also, the way transparency is handled, it's additive, meaning black textures are completely invisible.

[deadfroggy]

Might decide to do a english tutorial with voice on the basics of mapping like locking textures, creating your own. Just the simple stuff that people. Sometimes fail at. So you can put that in the pack too if i end up getting motivation.