New Rail Only Map

[Lockdown]

Hey, What's up?

I have been playing Quake2 for about 6 - 7 months now. I decided to give map making a shot being that I love the game and I have some extra time right now. I made this one last night using Qoole v2.50. This is my second map and I would really appreciate your opinion/s. Thanks!

Here is the link: http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=1985703

Its a rail only map. No custom textures or sky. (794kb) redlightdistrict.bsp

Thank you for downloading the map!

Rock on...

[PANTONE 7717C]

Looks okay, open and simple and I can imagine some intense fights in there, as with most wide open rail maps. Only complaint is the lighting which is almost fullbright and could use some contrast. (Personally I think it's wise to have some items in a railmap but if I'm not mistaken the railmod's settings remove items like ammo, shards and health so they either won't be spawned or get replaced by grenades.)
Nice effort for a second map:)

[Lockdown]

Thanks Panjoo!

The lighting was the problem in my first map too. People couldn't see at all in that one. This time I added lighting to the walls, floors, and I made the sky 1000 bright...lol. I guess that was too much... I wanted to add more items as well. I just thought that it looked too cluttered as is. Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

Any lighting tips would be greatly appreciated! That is where I have most my problems. 

Thanks again.

Rock on... 

[PANTONE 7717C]

Yeah, lighting a map can be a real pain in the ass. Adding light to the textures themselves (with the light-flag) doesn't seem like the right way to go, except for actual lightfixture textures.

Here are some tips; it's not that hard once you know the tricks:
- What I normally do is start with adding a global ambient light (a very low value) to the Worldspawn settings. I don't know how it works in Qoole but I guess it's the same as in any other editor. Enter the Worldspawn settings and add a new Key / Value like this: light / 10 8 8 
(the 3 numbers resemble Red Green Blue; in this example you'd get a very low and slightly reddish ambient light. If you use 1 number you'd get a neutral white colour.)
Of course you will still need more light in the map but with a soft ambient light you won't see unlit parts and it's a good start.
- The next step is to use the sky-light. Usually this is the best and easiest way to get some light in your map. Especially when you have outdoor parts in your map. (You say you used a value of 1000 for the light-flag but as you noticed that's pretty bright and the map will just be bathing in light.) I'd say values of 250-400 give the best results and will leave room for local spotlights.
- The cool thing about sky-light is that you can also use coloured textures to produce your sky-light. In fact sky-light is just the same as texture light and you can use any kind of texture on the sky you want.
Let's say you want an overall strong orange tint (eww:), select the parts of your sky that should emit the light and give them a normal brown/yellow wall texture. Now edit the texture flags (properties) and set them to act like a sky, ie. check the flags; -sky, -nodraw, -light and set a light value, eg. 250.  (see first image).
Ingame you will not see the wall texture on the sky (second image), but you will see the radiated brown colour. Don't forget to specify an existing sky in the Worldspawn, eg. _unit1 or space1.
- Texture lighting; this is the light that comes from light emitting surfaces like ceilng and wall lights. This type of lighting produces strong and saturated light but it creates nice soft shadows. (I find it works best in combination with pointlights.)
- The final step in lighting is adding detail lights a.k.a. pointlight or spotlights. These are the type of lights that add detail and dept because if done right they break up the monotonous light and help see better in 3D.
When inserting a light entity the default value is 300 and the colour is full white. This is quite bright and will look like a landing place for UFO's.  I've found that a light value of ~150 - 200 is strong enough and I always suggest specifying a soft colour, eg. soft yellow, brown or grey or whatever fits your map best.
- I've seen plenty of maps where the author threw in big pointlights with no visible source. This is best to be avoided 'cause it looks fake. The best places for pointlights are close to actual lightfixture textures or near sky surfaces. (see third image)

To get it right lighting takes alot of practice and tweaking, but it can really add life to a map. Just try out some of these tips and it will hopefully save you a headache;) Good luck man.

[Lockdown]

Hell yeah! Thank you Panjoo!

I wish I would have read this before I finished my other map. I posted it in another thread if you want to check it out? I will use your tips in my next map for sure. I will probably start working on it in the next couple hours...lol. Hopefully Qoole is somewhat similar to what you are using.

Should I be trying to make these maps on a different program? Only reason I am using Qoole is because I Googled, "Quake2 Map Makers" and it was the first one that came up...lol.

Again, thanks for the help! I really appreciate it.

Rock on.....