The IW tools wiki still lists the mine texture as valid tool texture (here) - as opposed to the occluder, which is apparently obsolete. That's good news for me, since I have no idea what an occluder did anyway.



I think we're getting Backlot. Check the second screen shot on this page.

occluder is like a portal... but instead if not drawing what you cant see, it doesnt draw what your ment to see too, have a look in foy around the church if you have uo

well let me say one thing:
that wiki sure looks awesome!!
it is an awesome idea to have the basics tuts written by profesionals. Also, even tho it is not fully written yet, it seems their is a section for pretty much all subjects. it is looking to be one really awesome reference for cod4 mapping.

so now when a newbie comes in and ask:
"how do you make a house and stuff?"
--> wiki!
"how do I light my map?"
--> wiki!
"how do I make something go boom ba da boom?"
--> what? ... anyway .... wiki!

it seems there will be a section for portalling. Sparks, it would be nice to ask IW for a very simplistic tut for portals. I know the act of portalling itself is easy, what I am specifically asking for are design tips regarding protals. in other words, when to protal and when not to and what impact will it have. By example, it is safe to assume bog, countdown and wetwork does not have any portals or very minimal ones because you can pretty much see the whole map from anywhere. while maps like vacant or district have a design that suits well for portals. I am really curious to see their "chain of thought" for portalling intermediate maps, such as crash or crossfire, if any. Is there any outside portalling for these type of design? If so what would the average amount of cells (or seeable cells) in such a map? so basically, protal design hints, if such a thing exist. you know getting that out of the way right of the bat would nice, don't you think?

and about lightning, and the fact that you said it'll be harder.... isn't sunlight a primary light? Let me direct you to a quote of the wiki:
http://www.infinityward.com/wiki/index.php?title=Direct_Light

When I read that I am thinking "well ... sunlight is a primary light by default" ... which would mean that outside areas directly light by the sun will have that "quality" lightning feeling to it. Now am I right to assume this? I really hope we won't have to plant primary light everywhere in outside areas (while I admit it will be required inside)

anyway the lightning wiki is wip, so I guess we'll know eventually.

and finally sparks:
they have talked of great improvements to the terrain editing tools and alpha texture editing tools (basically the "y" advanced patch editing tool). have you played with it and could you share what has been improved? They have talked of stuff you couldn't do before ...

well anyway, what is for sure is that IW effort towards this really sparked my imagination and motivation ...

edited on Jan. 7, 2008 09:47 pm by FlesyM

Regarding portals, you can see how they portaled those maps using r_showPortals.

As for lighting being hard, I was referring to indoor lighting. Sun is a primary light and has the smooth and nice lighting to it as you said, so you don't need to add lights out door unless you want street lights. Two primary lights can't touch each other/ the same brush face.

Didn't really notice any physical differences to the GUI for advanced patch editing. It's basically the same interface. Dealing with patches seems to be smoother and cleaner now. Plus there is the new right button click on stuff so you can quickly select a layer to work on (works on brushes/terrain/patches).

Is there a vegetation painting feature like there is in Sandbox2, or similar, or are we still going to have to painstakingly place each and every individual grass and bush model and adjust each and every individual grass and bush model's height and angle?

I have never been able to use r_showPortals and actually see portals in-game ... well in cod2 anyway ... does that need dev mode? anyway i'll figure that one out eventually.

anyway thx for the answers.

btw, the scriptable lightning seems also very very nice. it'll finally be possible to move/destroy lightning.

about layers, you mean selecting the patch you want when you have 2-3-4 alpha patches on top of each other? yes that is very welcomed! that was real hard to select the right patch previously.

about P.C.Invasion 's post above, I heard there is now a way to plant many models in a random manner on selected patches. i.e. vegetation. cod2 had the tool to plant at random angle and scale, which worked great, but have they improved that in cod4? meaning: selecting a patch and a model, click, and it fills the patch with that model at random angles ...
the guy at IW said that yes, it can be done by doing "click, click, click, click". now do you have any info on that sparks?

edited on Jan. 8, 2008 09:33 am by FlesyM

You should really jump into the COD4 maps and heck out the portalling, can be quite interesting:

/developer 1
/spdevmap mapname

or
/devmap mp_mapname

/r_showportals 1

Everyones asking about new features, have any features been removed from the tools?

FlesyM writes...
Where do you find the option to plant at random angles and scale in cod2? I don't recall seeing this option anywhere in cod2radiant. Thanks.

43, 44 and 45th button from left in the toolbar, these buttons are also in cod4 radiant.

yes basically the buttons with the 0 with the line under, and the two green arrow buttons. If I recall correctly (I haven't used that in a while), the one with the downward arrow pointing an angled line is the one I am referring too. it plants the model on the nearest surface below it, its z axis perpendicular to the surface, at a random x-y angle and random scale around 1... or it may be a combination of these buttons ... anyway if you don't see them (prolly because you don't have widescreen or high enough desktop resolution), you may have to "pull" the toolbar out the top of the window.

still I am curious if they improved that further in cod4. There's maps with loads of grass models, they surely haven't planted them one by one....