Small Mod compilation

[insightguy]

Sorry if this has been asked to death but could you upload a link to the "Quake1.5 meets smc" modification? if not, then can you at least see if you can tell me of you remember what you changed in the config file as to make them compatible? (shotgun and axe decals are black squares problem along with the required barrel adjustments)

[Mugwump]

I now also made a hanging overhead fire / light

This is a damn fine overhead lamp, yessirree!

[Seven]

Hello Focalor,

Yes, that is the main idea behind the SMC: To be able to adjust Quake and all additional features to your personal likings / skills.

If you are focused on "special effects" mainly, then I can only recommend using the SMC v5.41 update.
Mainly because of these additions:
- Improved blood effects when shooting enemies.
- Animated HUD effects.
- Bleeding gibs may also catch your interest but it is not very spectacular
- Last but not least, v5.41 has the particle amount/quantity cvar defined for which the SMC was designed.


Important:
V5.41 has an updated smc_config.cfg, which you should use as base !
But you do NOT need to go through it all again and make your edits (as the smc_config.cfg is quite long) if you are using a diff tool. You only need to compare your personally edited smc_config.cfg from v5.30 with the default smc_config.cfg from v5.41
The diff tool will display both side by side and highlight all differences. You can easily add the new v5.41 cvars into your personally edited smc_config.cfg from v5.30.
A popular freeware diff tool is WinMerge for example.

WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows.
WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.

I personally use Beyond Compare for coding and working all the time. It has some advances over WinMerge but it costs money.
WinMerge is absolutely enough for comparing 2 simple config aka .txt files.




Be also sure to use the new torch model, that can be found in the "This and That ..." thread.
It was created after v5.41 release and therefore is not included in it. I recommend to use a tilted torch angle of 15° instead of 20° with it.

I now also made a hanging overhead fire / light:


Have fun,
Seven

[Seven]

Hello Focalor,

Yes, tha

[Focalor]

Some people say that the realtime lighting feature is one of the most impressive feature from Darkplaces and that is what makes it stands out from the others.

Sure, it's cool, but my video card is an AMD Radeon HD 6450. It's crap. It'll run DarkPlaces with RT lighting and shadows, but not at any speed that would make the game "playable".

Please read the "backpack" feature in the smc_config.cfg. It speaks about "floating on water", "spinning", "shootable" and so on. cvar is enabled by default.

I did read it, and I turned it off. I was more or less looking to keep the gameplay as faithful to the original version of the game as possible. I also turned off all the new monsters (too Hexen-y), death animations (too Blood-y), kickable gibs (too FIFA-y), slime poisoning, burning corpses, etc, anything not found in original Quake.

First of all, why do you use an outdated version ?

v5.41 update is the newest final (downloadable from the same link as v5.30). And v5.50 beta3 is the newest version (until today no bug reports).

Secondly, please do NOT rename the SMC files. Otherwise updates will not work. It is also written/described in the "update" versions.

Why? Because I'm fucking stupid, I guess, lol. I guess I saw that one file was 300+mb and the other was 10mb, so I picked the bigger one. Just now downloaded the update add-on. After looking through it, doesn't look like anything I'd use anyway. Mostly, I just want the fancy special effects, nothing that will change the look or feel from the original game too much. Maybe later, I'll play through with all the added stuff. See, back in the day, the only part of Q1 I ever played was the shareware 1st episode. So now I'm finally getting around to playing through the ENTIRE game for the first time. I'm 20 years late, but oh well.

Short answer:
The original Quake dog model has a horrible uv-mapping. Even with QRP replacement skin it looks totally out of place (especially the face). Capnbubs made an absolutely faithful replacement dog model which is better in every aspect compared to the original dog model !
His dog model is included in the SMC, as there is no reason to use the original dog model any longer. I suggest to delete your QRP dog skins and keep the SMC as it is.

Yeah, that higher-poly model looks a little better, but if I go tossing out my QRP dog skin, then all the other models will look undead zombie-ish and the dog will look all normal.

The link to "Fraggers Quake Skins" is down in the Definitive HD Replacement thread, but I was able to find them on ModDB. I'll give em a try.

[Seven]

If I've got "RT World" lighting OFF, is it necessary to keep these "gloss" "norm" "glow" and "luma" versions of map and model textures? Or maybe more specifically, could someone briefly explain what each of these types of textures are for?

Copied from Darkplaces readme section:

_norm.tga - normalmap (can have alpha channel with bumpmap height for offsetmapping/reliefmapping)
_bump.tga - bumpmap (not loaded if normalmap is present)
_gloss.tga - gloss map, also known as specular color map (the color of reflected light)
_glow.tga - glow map (use _luma if tenebrae compatibility is a concern)
_luma.tga - alternate tenebrae-compatible name for glow map (use one or the other)

If you only play with rt world disabled the _gloss textures will have no effect for you. While the _glow textures will still keep their effect in-game.

By the way, also the _normal or _bump textures will not have much effect for you without realtime lighting or dlights. Some people say that the realtime lighting feature is one of the most impressive feature from Darkplaces and that is what makes it stands out from the others.

Little issue with SMC. At first, the SMC pk3 was using the backpack model contained in it instead of the backpack model I put in my "objects.pk3".

It is not an issue. It is a feature !
Please read the "backpack" feature in the smc_config.cfg. It speaks about "floating on water", "spinning", "shootable" and so on. cvar is enabled by default.
It needs a special model positioning/treatment for this feature, so I had to use a custom one. With the regular model, the backpack will not float correctly in water, etc.
So, if you want to use this feature, you need the included "backpack1.mdl" or modify another model that you want to use instead the same way as the included "backpack1.mdl" is.
I chose the included model as it is the best I could find.

I renamed "Quake_V5.30_small-mod-compilation_Seven.pk3" to "aaa_Quake_V5.30_small-mod-compilation_Seven.pk3"

First of all, why do you use an outdated version ?
v5.41 update is the newest final (downloadable from the same link as v5.30). And v5.50 beta3 is the newest version (until today no bug reports).

Secondly, please do NOT rename the SMC files. Otherwise updates will not work. It is also written/described in the "update" versions.

There seems to be some kind of issue with the dog model now. I'm using the Reforged Bestiary pk3 too, so I guess what's probably happening is the dog model contained in the SMC pk3 is texture mapped differently and that's why the model is displaying the skin incorrectly. I've hunted through the smc_config and found the cvar "dog_extended_newmodel" and set it to 0. The most obvious solution is to simply remove the dog models from the SMC pk3. Is there maybe another cvar I'm not seeing that will work around having to delete anything?

For a detailed answer, please follow this link: click

Short answer:
The original Quake dog model has a horrible uv-mapping. Even with QRP replacement skin it looks totally out of place (especially the face). Capnbubs made an absolutely faithful replacement dog model which is better in every aspect compared to the original dog model !
His dog model is included in the SMC, as there is no reason to use the original dog model any longer. I suggest to delete your QRP dog skins and keep the SMC as it is.

Regarding the "dog_extended_newmodel":
This is a different model with extended features and has nothing to do with above point. Find a screenshot of the new extended dog in the opening post of this threat.
By setting this cvar to 0 will ignore that dog and only use the regular dog (which is Capnbubs model as explained above).




I suggest to use the 'Starter Kitīs' for monsters and weapons (included in the initial download).
It makes fully use of SMCīs multimodel/multiskin feature (have different models/skins for each monster type at the same time in a map for big variation. And you do not need to use only 1 model/skin but many different.) and adds special visual weapon features (please read readme.txt point 7. for more details).


Have fun,
Seven

[talisa]

what you are getting is not an SMC bug, but it is what happens when you try using a skin made for the default dog-model with capnbubs dog model.....

capnbubs dog model is NOT compatible with textures made for the original ID1 dog model since it has a completely redone UV-mapping

.

the issue is related to the fact that capnbubs model is not an md3 but an mdl
and thus if any textures called dog.mdl_* are found, darkplaces will use them on the model.

if you have any textures called dog.mdl_* anywhere, delete them and the issue will dissapear
as the model will use the default texture thats embedded in the mdl itself

[Focalor]

Little issue with SMC. At first, the SMC pk3 was using the backpack model contained in it instead of the backpack model I put in my "objects.pk3". I renamed "Quake_V5.30_small-mod-compilation_Seven.pk3" to "aaa_Quake_V5.30_small-mod-compilation_Seven.pk3" to make it load first so that my objects.pk3 (and all other custom pk3's) would overwrite it, and that worked. However, there seems to be some kind of issue with the dog model now. I'm using the Reforged Bestiary pk3 too, so I guess what's probably happening is the dog model contained in the SMC pk3 is texture mapped differently and that's why the model is displaying the skin incorrectly. I've hunted through the smc_config and found the cvar "dog_extended_newmodel" and set it to 0. The most obvious solution is to simply remove the dog models from the SMC pk3. Is there maybe another cvar I'm not seeing that will work around having to delete anything?

[Focalor]

Alright, that's pretty cool. I'll probably end up keeping it intact then. I already had the Pretty Water in my main install of Q1. But I wasn't able to figure out to get the splash and ripple effects in water to work like what I saw in the Quake HD Pack. Now that I've got this SMC in there, it ripples and splashes properly.

But my other question still stands. If I've got "RT World" lighting OFF, is it necessary to keep these "gloss" "norm" "glow" and "luma" versions of map and model textures? Or maybe more specifically, could someone briefly explain what each of these types of textures are for?

[talisa]

@focalor

No, seven has coded the smc so that only modelz, textures and sounds from features that are enabled get pre-cached.

So if you disable A feature, The models,sound,textures associated with the disabled feature Will NOT get pre-cached and thus wont add to loading-times

.

In standard quake everything doez get pre-cached regardless of A model/sound/textureactually being used in the map,
But seven went out of his way to optomize the smc to make load-timez shorter by only making stuff used in A map getting pre-cached

[Focalor]

I was trying to keep my game as frills-free as I could. Which kinda brings up another quick question maybe someone could answer for me.

I'm not using the "RT World" lights setting in DarkPlaces, mostly because my machine can't handle it and still run the game as super-fast as I want it. And I notice that all these map textures and model textures have slightly different duplicates with longer names containing things like "gloss", "norm", "glow", etc. Since I'm never gonna be running the real time lights and shadows, are any of these extra textures even necessary for a guy like me? I notice that whenever my pk3 containing all map textures is in the id1 folder and I go to start the game, it takes a good bit longer to load everything. I'm hoping if I were to be able to remove unnecessary textures it might speed up the load time.

Anyway, at this point I've got most of the 100% necessary things picked out, weapon models, ammo/health boxes, map textures, HUD graphics, hi-res monsters, translucent water. Everything but new sounds. So now I'm at the point where I've finally loaded up the Small Mod Compilation and I'm playing around with it to see if there's any "extra" (unnecessary, but pretty) type of stuff. Problem with using the SMC pk3 and just turning off all the stuff I don't want via a config is that all that content is still in there and probably still loading into the game, which is gonna effect load times, right?

[JDSTONE]

focalor i would just use the smc and open up the smc config and turn everything off that you do not want. seven made it so you can keep it very close to original quake if you want. to start learning more about qc if thats the way you want to go check out InsideQC Forums • View forum - Programming everything moved and changed from last time i was there im not sure where the starter qc mods tutorials are at any more. you could also look for my qc thread to see if you can pick up anything up in that. the community did a lot to help me understand qc. maybe you can learn form all my mistakes.

Seven enjoy your beach time!

[Izhido]

Cheers, Seven.
Also, did you notice I said "sea of pacific"? Essentially, I made you travel the whole world from Germany to Spain, the other way around ;D ;D ;D

[Focalor]

you have to wait

But seriously. No problem, it's no rush.

I'm in the middle of trying piece together things to build out my game to my liking. So far, I've made my own weapons only pk3 with v_ and g_ models and textures I've taken from various things as well as nail, grenade, and rocket projectiles. Right now I'm trying to find a good hi-res map textures only pk3. The two I've found are the QRP one and the xolveoptimized rygel's texturepack. I like Rygel's version better, but unfortunately it seems to contain a lot of OTHER things with it like armor models and ammo models and keys etc, and all I want is just the map textures.

Later, I want to create a separate custom pk3 containing any keys, ammo, health, and powerups. Then I'll make another pk3 containing things like HUD graphics and menu graphics. The idea is I'm trying to isolate these different things in their own pk3's so that if later I want to change something specific, it'll be much easier to find things and I wont have to hunt through folders filled with a bazillion things in them to find the one thing I'm looking for.

Anyway, unless someone knows where I can find a collection of ONLY the map textures found in this Xolveoptimized Rygel's texturepack, then it looks like I'm gonna have to sift through it by hand and delete all the extra stuff that isn't map textures. And that'll probably keep me busy for a while. So like I said, no rush.

[Seven]

Hello Izhido,

why should i travel via USA to Spain?
It takes about 2 hours from Germany to Spain.
And yes, Sangria is a traditional drink there. I like it a lot. Cheers



Hello Focalor,

with "easy" I meant, that the source is included and when it is in front of you, it should not be a problem to copy/paste the relevant code. Basic understanding how qc works and how to compile are of course necessary.

There are several people here who could extract the code for you. If nobody is willing to help, you have to wait, I am afraid.
In the meantime you can play around with the mod and see if you like it. Remember that you can disable all the things/features that you do not like.

Cheers,
Seven