Q2 Remastered/Q2 for Quake Live

[themuffinman]

Howdi folks! Haven't been here for a while. Previously known as Dr_CORN, the name kind of started getting old after about 10 years and started looking for a weirder name to use!

I've been creating a Q2 conversion planned to grab ID's attention for Quake Live. It's still far from being complete, and probably won't be completed until late this year if not next year. Since you guys are all about Q2 it would be interesting to see the responses/ideas that I might be able to get from you. Here's some screenshots of how things look at present:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ggjzifnawan

[console]

OMG. It's Dr_CORN !!! 


Interesting, so you're converting the Q2 single-player maps over to QuakeLive???

Is it even possible to run custom maps on QuakeLive?



Regards,

[VaeVictis]

OMG. It's Dr_CORN !!! 


Interesting, so you're converting the Q2 single-player maps over to QuakeLive???

Is it even possible to run custom maps on QuakeLive?



Regards,

you can run custom maps, you just gotta change some stuff away from read only and then vote it up in a practice match

if it is the SP campaign though, i dont think it would work so well :/ Q3/QL game itself doesnt have the bots programmed into it used for SP, just the MP bots which are quite a bit different id imagine

[themuffinman]

Ah yes, mister Console, we meet again! 

Yeah I've been doing this on and off for a few months so far. The base maps are more of an experiment to see if I can somehow get a good deathmatch map out of 1 of them for QL physics, but also blends in with the rest of the QL maps. My main mission is to convert Q2DM1 - it's understandable how every few QL players you come across has been begging ID to include The Edge. There have been tons of conversions made over the years for Q3 but none of them can truely be considered as a worthy remake (most are direct conversions anyway). It's incredibly difficult to make a good conversion, not just texture wise but also sizes of areas, weapon balance, physics changes, etc. while still keeping the original map's character. I'll give it a good few months/a year work on The Edge, then beg the crap out of ID to include it as an official QL map.

@VaeVictus:

Well like I've said above, it's experimental. It's not intended for SP but as deathmatch maps. In order to do this, I have to open up areas, connect distant ends of the maps, enlargen small areas, make large areas more tight, mess around with item availability, remove intermission areas such as elevators and replace them with suitable multiplayer-style areas, and that's all just the focus on gameplay!

If all else fails, these maps will at least be playable in Q3 and the texture packs would be great to integrate into Q2 mods such as Q2 Evolved.

[[BTF]adam]

why so serious, doctor corn?!

[yahoo]

I'd say "a very nice job".   

[VaeVictis]

there is actually a REALLY good remake of q2dm1 for cpma by swelt, i believe the map name is nodm10 and it never had a final version but i have played it and it was by far the best remake... cpma also having double jumping allowed you to do most of the jumps, however, quakelive does not have double jumping so you would really have to improvise a few things and play the map kind of restricted

just thought i would point that out might wanna check the map out

[themuffinman]

@Adam: No I'm just 'in the zone' And since when were you BTF? You must be getting good or something!

@yahoo: And I'd say "thank you" 

@VaeVictus: Out of the many Edge conversions out there, that's one I haven't come across before (I'm not much of a CPM player).
I tried it and it turns out that it's layout seems to be almost a direct copy of original :/ , which might be alright for the CPM community, but Quake Live is a different story! I did get a few ideas from its aesthetics though, thanks for the tip. Still, my main inspirations for my version's look and feel is going to be a mix of Q3DM11, MPTEAM1, MPTEAM2, Q4's Edge and the original, among others. One of the best conversions I've seen is Charon's 'Return to the Edge' - http://lvlworld.com/t.php/Return+to+the+Edge . It's got a strong Q3 feel to it, has well-designed geometry, has the original's feel, but still is far from being the perfect conversion IMO. I still have to decide whether or not Q3/QL Edge should have crates and lifts and if not, how to go about altering it

[[BTF]adam]

honey please. i've been in btf for YEARS! I'm almost at the stage where i'll have BTF tattooed on my arse.

good to have you back though don't go dissapearing again!

[themuffinman]

That could be painful. If it's spread across both cheeks I'd hate to know where the 'T' is going to end up! I remember the good old SX days... where's my spammy bastard partner-in-crime Omega gone? I had my own clan going for a while... called WTF! Problem is, I could only recruit one member.
If I didn't have 400+ pings to tastyspleen servers (compared to 20-30 on local Quake Live) then I wouldn't go disappearing Besides, I'd rather have a gauntlet and machine gun instead of a puny blaster  Maybe I'll convert some Q3 maps for Q2 (first in the list - Q3DM7) and upload em here, just for the hell of it!

[yahoo]

Im just curious. Did u just render those q2 maps or u have them made from scratch. The detail and resolution was very impressive.

[themuffinman]

Im just curious. Did u just render those q2 maps or u have them made from scratch. The detail and resolution was very impressive.

From scratch. I convert the Q2 textures to TGA, bump up the resolution to 400% and use them to plan the replacement textures. When I'm satisfied with the result, I usually blur out sections of the original to make the brightness and color a bit more similar to the original. The end result are textures that are faithful remakes of the originals, 4 times the size, 16 million colors (as opposed to 256 colors), sharper, more realistic and can take advantage of Q3's shader engine. Here's some before and after pics:

[yahoo]

Wow thats a hard and long job I think.
How many total working hours (and days) did it took you to finish just one map?

[VaeVictis]

If nothin else, release a high res texture pak for quake2 that way when id shoots you down at least some one will enjoy your work

[yahoo]

If nothin else, release a high res texture pak for quake2 that way when id shoots you down at least some one will enjoy your work

Yeah .
But i kinda doubt it if its possible to use a high-res textures simillar to what you (Dr.Corn) had shown us. If I'm not mistaken, its all in the Q2 graphic engine. But if it can be done, it sure would be "super cool".