Author Topic: 256 Player Group Mapping Project (Read 27539 times)

peewee_RotA · « **on:** March 10, 2009, 08:05:10 AM »

I'm reviewing last Friday's Countdown to Quake Con Registration Party. It was suggested to try as many quake 2 connections to one server as possible. The goal is 256 because it is theoretically possible to serve that many clients.

Soooo..... We need a map!!

I would like to propose a giant 256 player map. Every mapper who wants to contribute, please respond. The mapping will take place as follows. Everyone who would like to participate will be assigned a number order. The mapper who gets #1 starts and has 3 days(time limit subject to change) to put together a series of rooms (don't bother lighting, but please align all of your textures) The next 3 days we pass the unfinished map to mapper 2 who has free reign to add whatever he wants and change anything he wants. This will follow suit until all of the mappers get a first pass. After the final mapper takes a pass, then the map will be reviewed in reverse order for 24 hours each. The last mapper will go back and make any changes and follow back up the line in reverse order. The first mapper will make final changes and then release the map for testing!

We'll also put together a specific team to work on lighting. (Seeing as we're looking at some unbelievable compile time)

Rules:
#1) Please stick to stock textures, sound, and env files. This map should be about 5MB in size. Don't make it any more painful for the clients to download!
#2) All files passed to the next person should be in .map format unless you have pre-arranged to use the same editor and would rather keep it in a native format
#3) Please do not use Qoole2.5 (I say this reluctantly as I am a huge fan of it) as it have been known to kill or otherwise corrupt .map's. Also N'Pherno's Deathmatch Maker 2 should be avoided for similar reasons
#4) Stick to adding new content and limit the amount of changes that you do to the previous mapper's work. This is to keep good with the timeline and to be sure that we create enough rooms.
#5) Ben random DM generator would be a GREAT start for the map
#6) If you miss your deadline, we'll be flexible; but without notice we will move to the next mapper using the file that you were originally passed and ignore your changes.

I think that this will be fun!

[BTF]Jehar · « **Reply #1 on:** March 10, 2009, 11:48:45 AM »

Even if we don't get 256 players on this, this is an AWESOME mapping contest idea. It would be good to forward this to Q2C. But yeah, I'm in, fuck yeah!

[BTF] Reflex · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2009, 05:21:38 AM »

Lighting crew, you'll need a spawnpad crew!

This sounds really neat.

What about things like intersections, the sprawling interconnected nature of big maps,
you could have several places to add rooms

The Dreaming Dragon · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2009, 06:36:30 AM »

how about taking he existing 64 player maps and connecting them together ? I would still like to see a bunch of huge maps,but to test the client limit that could be whipped up that much sooner...

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2009, 06:52:31 AM »

Quote from: [BTF] Reflex on March 11, 2009, 05:21:38 AM

What about things like intersections, the sprawling interconnected nature of big maps,
you could have several places to add rooms

I mentioned the Ben random map generator in the rules section as a suggestion, but maybe it should be the starting point. If we pump that up to it's max settings and have the first mapper start there, adding rooms and fixing up some of the premade ones, then it should provide a template for that.

(My only problem is that the amount of elevators that ben creates may be an issue)

Quote from: TooMuchFun on March 11, 2009, 06:36:30 AM

how about taking he existing 64 player maps and connecting them together ? I would still like to see a bunch of huge maps,but to test the client limit that could be whipped up that much sooner...

I thought that that was done already, that would be great as well if someone is willing to do it, but I really like what group mapping projects put out. It's always a great experiment.

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #5 on:** March 19, 2009, 06:27:40 AM »

We've got until August to get this thing done. I'm going to start this officially on Monday March 23rd by releasing a .map generated by the BEN map generator.

Reflex are you participating? Willing to take the first shot at it?

quadz · « **Reply #6 on:** March 19, 2009, 06:49:27 AM »

Quote from: peewee_RotA on March 19, 2009, 06:27:40 AM

We've got until August to get this thing done.

Not meaning to be discouraging -- i think it's a neat idea and I look forward to seeing the map...

But I can't help thinking we're lucky to find 32 players at quakecon with Q2 installed, let alone 256...

Now if it were a semi-official quakecon 'event' and they passed out cd-roms with the Q2 demo and 3.20 point release and instructions for installing the thing to everyone.... ???? (Or they hosted said downloads on one of their internal webservers...?)

[BTF] Reflex · « **Reply #7 on:** March 19, 2009, 08:12:43 AM »

256 out of 3000, gotta be enough ppl who want to MAKE HISTORY!

maybe if 128 ppl connected twice

I dont even have Worldcraft installed on this machine

could take me 3 days to get it tweaked right

I'd like to participate, but afraid of embarrassing results. Kinda like team games on tourney

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #8 on:** March 19, 2009, 09:11:33 AM »

Quote from: quadz on March 19, 2009, 06:49:27 AM

Not meaning to be discouraging -- i think it's a neat idea and I look forward to seeing the map...

Not discouraging at all. I think that we can get support for this from places like PQ, Quake Unity, etc.. Once I get this thing kicked off I'll be trying to promote the crap out of it until somebody bites. If nobody does, then at least we've got a cool project. Jehar brought up the idea during the qcon registration event. The organizers are at least aware of the idea. I was kind of hoping to just provide the map and that if the development was in the works then it would spark someone else's interest to plan the actual event.

Either way I'm still going to promote the crap out of this thing!

...

Jehar, would you like to take the first shot at the map?

Reflex, I encourage mappers of any skill level to join in. Even bare cubes and rectangular hallways can be touched up later by another mapper. Just make some brushes that you think would be fun even if it looks newbish. Someone will touch them up later and you've contributed by expanding the size of the map, it's most important feature.

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #9 on:** March 19, 2009, 09:50:06 AM »

if you're allowing cubes in cubes then I think I'm in.

I just need to see if I can get gtkradient to work.... it's never worked for Q2 for me, ALWAYS crashes on every comp I've ever had.

[BTF] Reflex · « **Reply #10 on:** March 19, 2009, 11:24:27 AM »

ok, I'm in.

(rubs slightly twisted arm)

Yendor · « **Reply #11 on:** March 24, 2009, 09:02:47 AM »

Darn - I wish I could be in on this!! I went to Q-Con last year because I just happened to be in the area on business when it as going on! What a cool event!.

Also, I only know how to use Qoole 2.5, and it's the shareware version that's limited to 300 brushes. Oh crap! I just have too many PCB layout projects and other nerdly activities to have time to learn yet another CAD system! That's why I wrote Ben in the first place

I replied to PeeWee via e-mail, detailing some concerns on all this...
~Yendor

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #12 on:** March 24, 2009, 09:14:31 AM »

Thanks for all the help! This is the perfect job for Ben. How quickly they grow up.

I'm going to officially move back the starting date while Yendor and I discuss possible improvements/optimizations of ben for the purpose of this mapping project.

Yendor · « **Reply #13 on:** March 24, 2009, 01:36:10 PM »

I was going to do the changes right now, but alas, I had installed Visual Studio 2008, which not only obliterated the Old version 6.0 installation in an un-recoverable manner, but also destroyed my Ben2 Source Code.

Sukkage. I need to restore a backup, which I think I can do later today....

I would say shame on Microsoft, but the problem is pervasive in the entirety of the software engineering world. Virtualization, lazy-ass programmers that think Java is a real language, automatic updates, the loss of standardizations, and, ack! "Cloud" computing.... ugh, I think we're headed for a time when we're going to be looking fondly back on a golden age long past, and reminisce on those days when we could actually get something DONE on a computer.

Special Frak-You's go out to Google, Adobe, and of course, Microsoft. Also to the company that makes "Cruzer" USB thumb drives with their ROM-based auto-installation file manager included with each and every drive, with a FREE virus on every one!

For now, I'm just going to curl up with my copy of the Unabomber Manifesto.... "...technology is the bane of human existence...

Stay Tuned...

quadz · « **Reply #14 on:** March 24, 2009, 02:00:14 PM »

Quote from: Yendor on March 24, 2009, 01:36:10 PM

I was going to do the changes right now, but alas, I had installed Visual Studio 2008, which not only obliterated the Old version 6.0 installation in an un-recoverable manner, but also destroyed my Ben2 Source Code.

Wow, lame. It doesn't surprise me much that VS 2008 obliterated VS 6.0, given the way the way the visual studio developers seem to have taken a bad idea like the windows registry, and embraced it with wanton lusty abandon.

But... how did it destroy your own source code???

Quote from: Yendor on March 24, 2009, 01:36:10 PM

lazy-ass programmers that think Java is a real language

As an aside... Although I find Java uninteresting as a language, I have to give proper respect to the implementors of the JVM. These days, they have got the JVM execution speed on a par with the gcc C compiler. Current benchmarks:

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=java&lang2=gcc&box=1

...that is some pretty badass engineering right there...

Also... laziness is one of the three great virtues of a programmer.

In any case, sorry to hear your source got deleted. Hope there are no snags in recovering it from a backup!!

Regards,

quadz

Author Topic: 256 Player Group Mapping Project (Read 27539 times)

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