				The Journey Home
				[===============]
				     

Reason for Living
[===============]

Wanted to say bye bye to the Quake engine in style.  Sounds a bit sad I know, but this IS the last map for Q1 I will make.  Honest.

The main thing you should note is that GL Quake is recommended - it will run on software versions BUT there is a danger of 'graying out' as the polygon count in this map gets very high in several places.  Reason I'm not concerned is because this is to show what the Q1 engine can do if it's pushed so far that it's practically bending over backwards.  I get about 25fps on my 166 with voodoo2, a machine which is a slow by todays standards; on any P2 onwards with a 3D Card it will run perfect.

I also wanted to make another SP map.  After "Twelve Minutes" I took the easier route to fame; choosing to make DM maps instead.  They're also quicker to make, though do take more effort to create atmosphere (given you've only got brushes and static lights if you want it to play fast).  Also many people have asked if I'd do another SP level, especially since my visual quality has increased a hell of a lot since 12.

So here it is.  It's taken a very long time to make, a good 6 months on and off (mainly off I confess).  As I'm now working for a games company that doesn't use a Quake engine, it's been difficult swapping between the various editors and styles.

Hope you enjoy the level, I've made it as good as I possibly can; and maybe, just maybe, I'll see you in Q3...

-Alex Moore, aka Pingu

Other levels
[===========]

DooM :
World.wad - 9 SP levels
World2.wad - 9 SP levels
World3.wad - 2 SP levels & 2 half-finished
Death - 4 DM levels

DooM II :
There are 6 maps, but I've lost them *sniff*

Duke3D :
Several DM maps, again lost, and a fantastic SP level, again lost...

Q1 DM :

BCDM1 - The Spiral
BCDM2 - The Ledge
BCDM3 - Long Walk
BCDM4 - Homeless house

The place from Atlantis
Space Station
Pingu's Castle

insomnia
nightmare
dayDream

UKpak7 - Secluded Store

A2: Return To Atlantis
Back2School
P3:A - Domination

Rediscovered Fantasies

Q1 SP :
Ickle
Twelve Minutes

Half-Life DM :
P3:A - Medication

Grab them all from my web site - http://www.planetquake.com/pingu

Statistics
[========]

Game 	  - Quake 1, GL HIGHLY recommended
Map name  - a3.bsp
File size - 2009kb
Zip size  - XXXb
Author    - Pingu
Real Name - Alex Moore
E-Mail    - pingu@planetquake.com
Build time- 6 months, way too many hours

Play Information
[==============]
Single Player - Oh yes.
Co-Op         - No
DM            - No
Transparent W - Yes, r_wateralpha .5 is my fave.
Gamma 	      - Should look fine on all cards at gamma set to 1

Weaponry
[=======]

Lightning Gun    - One
Rocket Launchers - None
Grenade Launchers- None
Super Nail Guns  - One
Nail Guns        - One
Super Shot Guns  - One

Armoury
[=====]
Red Armour   - One
Yellow Armour- One
Green Armour - One

Special Items
[===========]
Pentagram of Protection - None
Quad Damage	       	- None
Ring of Shadows         - None
Mega Health   	        - None

Programs Used
[===========]

Brushwork - Worldcraft 1.6, QBSP & VIS as supplied, Tyrlite 0.5Beta
Transparent Water - Bsp2Prt
Texture hacking / WAD management - TexMex 2.9 & 3.1, Photoshop 5.0

GunLok (r) shadows used with permission from Rebellion Developments Ltd.

Thanks to
[=======]

Beta testers - Aardappel, Bal, DaMaul, Peej, Dandy & SPoG
Special - HotCakes, who's grass effects I stole from him in A2 & didn't credit
	- The Fat Controller, who's page I got the non-QC tips from
	- Vondor for offering help when I broke it =)
	- Shambler for threatening to send the 'boyz' around if I stopped (and also for the general support throughout)
	- All those people who emailed their support when I said I'd stop (this again was through Shambler)
	- Paul for helping out during alpha stages.. where've you gone mate??
id software
Rebellion Developments Ltd (for using my PC work when my 166 gave up #8¬)
The various people who wrote the software used


Nasty Legal Bit
[=============]

This work is entirely mine, do not use it in part or in whole as your
own work.  If you wish to modify it, contact me and we'll talk further.
All copyrights of original software (quake - id software, worldcraft - 
ben morris, tyrlite - kevin shanahan) are acknowledged, and I respect
the original creators of any textures used here.

Build Notes
[=========]

Okay, notes on how the hell I built this.  Only started this when I was pretty convinced it was going to turn into a fully fledged map, which was around the 6th December 1999 (after the first area was complete and looking lovely).  Since then I updated this document pretty much every time I did some work, unless it was only a couple of minutes.  Usually it was typed as BSP did it's funky stuff in the background.  This isn't (hopefully) too boring, I'm not really the 'did this this and this' type of person.. I tend to waffle more than that.  So it shouldn't be too labourious to read (and sorry about any spelling mistakes..)

~ 22nd October 1999
	- Begun.  Didn't mean to, just playing about with praevus wad (from Frib's site), chucked a few textures from A2 against one of them and liked the look.  Within an hour or so the skeleton for the first area was complete (arches for gold key)

10th November 1999
	- Top of first area complete.  It's had two reworks, mainly all on the extrance to where the spiral staircase will be.  Still missing half the required walls, plan them to be rocks.  Gold key looks wicked with effect around it, can't help but take a screenshot for the web re-design (speculation)

4th December 1999
	- First area now complete.  Spiral staircase took a fair while to get right, but looks wicked.  Gold key mechanism took 2 hours to time properly, it's not as elaborate as first  planned, but that looked shit anyway.  Now this is sealed and vis'd up, going to start the next bit as a seperate map for faster building.

6th December 1999
	- Stormed ahead with the next room, a 3 tier affair.  Unfortunately looked really bad, so redesigned.  Now a circular room.  Was going to have a wicked spiral staircase all the way around, but ran out of polys.  In fact, the 3 tier idea (with the center opening up on the second visit) is quickly proving one that is probably going to get ditched, which is a bugger because the test I did in a small map looked wicked.  To combat this going though, had a fantastic idea of a deep cave with a crack at the top & light pouring in (bit like the UKpak7 rocky bit, but better).

19th December 1999
	- Had a holiday (Christmas and all with the family), didn't think about the map once, which is a bit wierd for me, but a nice change - maybe I'll end up normal after all #8¬)  Got back to it anyway, the cave area has quickly taken shape, lovely bridge, a few more tiers... basically it's nothing like the original idea.  However, it'll get visited 3 times in SP mode (fairly closely together), so thankfully looks damn fine.  Slight flaw with the lighting though - the current sunlight vector (which looks wicked in part1) doesn't do the cave justice.. I'll have to sort this one out later.

23rd December 1999
	- Got to work tomorrow despite it being Christmas Eve (my fault as I had my Christmas hols last week).  During the week I've finished off the cave area and made it link back to the circular room.  Looks good, took an age to seal, but the r_speeds are mainly good; apart from when you initially go onto the bridge, they hit 800.  Might do something about it later on, we'll have to see...

9th January 2000
	- Happy New Year and all that.  No rest for the wicked mind...  Knocked up a temple area to do the link from the bridge to the high tier in the central cave, so far looks ok, shown it to Paul who sent back a screenshot with some fog - wicked.

13th January 2000
	- Finished Temple area, got the mechanisms in, looks good.  As the r_speeds are good here I'll probably add more detail later, but for now I'm taking both parts into work and sticking it together on the beast there.

14th January 2000
	- Hit a flaw.  Left the machine at work building whilst I went down the pub for lunch only to get back and find there was an error - some problem with one of the models (#51 to be precise; whichever one that might be).

15th January 2000
	- Had a chat with Vondor and Spog, they were helpful and have given me some ideas to try for when I get back to work... if I can wait that long.  Sent the two seperate parts to the beta testers (part 2 not vis'd) and they seemed happy.

16th Jan 2000
	- Finally managed to stick both parts together successfully, no leak errors this time (WC kindly found a func_door floating in mid-air with no brush attached...), only took two hours to fully compile... much fun.  Showed to beta testers, they love it and it's not even anywhere near finished - nice.

23rd Jan 2000
	- Sundays rock, played with final area a bit.. not going to be quite as big as I'd hoped; there's a big danger of hitting the spiral staircase.

25th Jan 2000
	- Actually played with it for an hour, reworked new area (recessed mini-staircases, added the DooM reference).  Also discovered that the bridge across isn't going to work at all how I expected it too - that damn spiral staircase is in the way.  Options options everywhere.  Tried to do a complete build but ran out of memory, looks like I'm taking it into work again...
Reason for the build is 2 things, one to check the spiral staircase intervention, and the other to see if the idea of mirroring the top of the first area around is a good one.  Would clear up both the staircase problem and also the lighting problem... 

7th Feb 2000
	- Snaaaarg.  Word of the moment and it sums up what's going on.  The current file is officially too big for Qbsp, or any other BSP program I can find out there.  Which is a bugger.  Looked back at the last build I managed, noclipped around it, planned out how to change the map.  Fired up worldcraft and started chopping bits away.

	First thing to go was the circular room, in fact, all those connections - the curvy corridor now feeds directly into the snowy-peaked cave (bit of a hack at the moment).  The temple area will get moved to the end of the level (which is where I'd planned it to be in the first place.. just made it too early).  It'll also probably get changed shit loads, but remains in there for now (if hidden).  The snowy cave itself has been rotated and mirrored, the bridge now living along the west - east border, as opposed to the original north - south.  Built all this and am quite happy (as is worldcraft.. there's about 1400 less brushes).

8th Feb 2000
	- Un-hacked the link from the curvy tunnel to the snowy cave, now looks top.  Also put the _sun_mangle back to the original vector (to make the gold key structure shadow look wicked), and the cave now looks top dollar - much better than before (where the bridge was way too dark).  Wandered about, planned the route out completely, should be much better than it was before - and much tighter, it's gonna feel quite small...  Thankfully though each area will be visited at least twice from different angles... should work well.  Now to just find the damn time to finish it....

12th Feb 2000
	- Polished off the cave area which needed it; Added a new arch area which complete with floor semi-circle and re-sealed the cave (I'd deleted about 1/4 of it..)  Also retextured the lower rocky section (next to the water), so it now looks pukka.

13th Feb 2000
	- It doesn't get much better than this....  Must've been watching too much baywatch of late, because I've gone completely curve crazy.  The new area is starting to take shape, with a sorted S-staircase (lifted and tweaked from the first spiral staircase in the level).  This makes it's way up around a half-circular pillar, which curves over the head (a bit like in the LG area in A2, but much, much smoother).  Amazingly it compiles too!!  There is a slight flaw or two, but hopefully this won't be noticable (tho I'll probably change my mind later and delete it..)

Lastly I've re-added the DooM refernce back in, in a much cooler place this time; on the aforemeantioned pillar.  Nice plan.. took a while to get the texturing right (worldcraft and quake disagreed a bit...)

14th Feb 2000
	- Bah.. no valentines =(  Sent two as well... oh well, back to worldcraft then.
One of those un-productive feeling evenings, basically attempted to fix the 'slight' flaw with the arch.. failed.  Bah x2.  Changed it to something a bit less ambitious, worked first time.  Played with the texturing and voila!!  Space for not one but TWO DooM references!!  And in less brushes.. every cloud does have a sliver lining...

15th Feb 2000
	- The new area is starting to fall into place - I've added the base for the outer wall, allowing me to place the lower floor here.  Give's this bit a feeling of completeness, despite having a large void...  A bit unsure how to texture it - I'm worried it's going to look a bit like a large wall (it's about 512 units high in some places..)

Also worked on the entrance to the room, reworking the roof of the original lower chamber, and putting a roof on this bit, lifted straight from the RA section of A2 (well, the idea, not the actual brushes).  Had a build of the lot, jerks like a 12 year old due to not being anywhere near sealed, but looks sweet.

17th Feb 2000
	- Snnaarrrrg comes into play once again.  It's not been a bad hour, just annoying.  Basically changed the first section of the new area, made the ceiling a full arch, and it looked lovely.  However, the rocky area wasn't high enough to convince anyone that you were inside the rock, and it was also so damn tight to fit in with the rest of the level.  Gave up in the end and slapped a brick wall and roof in, with the top opening up to reveal a false rock front and a bit of sky.  The lighting doesn't work quite as well, but it'll do.. once the lighting is done properly it should look lovely...

24th Feb 2000
	- God that week went quick.  Work is starting to build up now (get to play my levels on playstation for the first time which is cool as beans) and am finding less and less time to play with A3, mainly because I'm bloody shattered methinks.
Another reason is that I was reading a damn fine book - Enigma by Robert Harris, set around World War II in Bletchley where they cracked the Enigma code.  Damn fine read, most recommended.

Anyway, I is rambling.  A3 then.  Spent an hour tonight finishing (yes, finishing!!) off the new area, attempted to do a full build, but am plagued by pointfile hell...  The first one I'll let it off - I'd somehow deleted the main sky-brush in the first area =)  It's just getting niggly now though.. need a faster computer methinks...

26th Feb 2000
	- Took it into work yesterday and spent lunch finding leaks, got them all and then tried vis'ing it, but ran out of lunch time =)  So brought it home instead & left my beast on overnight - 5 and 1/2 hours it took according to the screen.  Shite.....

Does look lovely though, if the r_speeds are a bit high (hitting 1000 here and there).  Still have DaMaul's trick to try for removing sky_brush poly's, will try that a bit later on.  Before that though, off I send to the testers...

[later]

Spent an hour making the lift area and sealing it, looks nice and references Back2School nicely (in that it looks damn similar =)  Need to remind myself to add the Castle reference next time....  Build it, not vis'd it, but it's all falling together nicely.  The curvy steps area needs a bit more work though, somehow more detail without more brushes....

14th March 2000
	- A combination of work and Battlezone II has completely taken over my life, and that along with a lack of inspiration has meant very little editing time.  What has been done mainly concentrated on the final area; and I just can't get anything I want looking right.
So over the last 3 days or so I've changed tact, working on the facelift of the newest area.  Diagnosed that the main problem was the long curvy staircase - it had too much hieght to gain.  So extended the highest ledge towards the lovely half-arch (which is now a full arch), added a small ledge half way up the staircase... demolished the outer wall & have started replacing with a low wall/rock.  Basically overhauled the entire area.  And it looks bloody good for it #8¬)

Along with doing this inspiration has struck for the final area - I'm going to do a scaled down version of the map that was originally A2.  Not many people saw it, but it was basically a massive 4 half-arches meeting up top with a circle.  Naturally I've lost the .map file, but I do still have a screen grab if anyone's interested...

20th March 2000
	- After a slightly long weekend, back to work & back to A3.  Put together the working bits of the final area, with the logic in and simple monster to test the triggers.  All works pretty well (a couple of glitches; nothing major) and I is happy.

21st March 2000
	- Did plan on spending the evening finishing off the architecture to the final bit, but instead ended up playing.  Spent a good couple of hours tweaking the ammo & monsters here, ended up sending a copy to Aard and Peej.  As the start of the level isn't here, ammo is a bit short (you end up with an axe =) which Peej loved but Aard grunted at.  Once everything's in though it should rock, and we all agree that the gameplay idea is wicked.
SO DAMN CLOSE!!!!!

22nd March 2000
	- Finished off architecture to end area in the wee hours, looks pukka & everything's sealed and ready...

23rd March 2000
	- Spend a few hours at work (after hours) redoing the lift area up to the silver key - now there's no lift (it was pants anyway, no great loss).  So the architecture is officially finished.  Started adding some monsters and logic, added the door at the top of the spiral staircase.  Compiled and recieve a "WARNING: CutNodePortals_r:new portal was clipped away" message from Qbsp, but it builds it ok (think I've gone over the brush limit again, but this time it's sealed).

24th March 2000
	- Spent a little time after work trying to finish off all the logic so I can tweak the lighting and monsters at home.  Did a full vis on a spare P3-733; took 54 minutes, not good, but hopefully I don't have to do it again.

25th March 2000
	- Spent an hour or so tweaking gameplay, it's starting to get good now.  Lighting is all on fullbright at the moment, it's gonna take a while to get right (probably just skimp it a bit for beta).  Somewhere along the line I've changed a brush, and had to re-bsp to get it working again.  Bit of a bugger, but it does mean I can add a bit more stuff before beta.  

26th March 2000
	- Fired up the map in dos quake, it threw up a few errors regarding monster paths, but the co-ordinates it gave don't match any in the map... hmmmm.  Shrugged my shoulders at that for the moment, and instead made the few tweaks I wanted.  Added a door to the arches, hopefully sorted a monster_jump there too, changed the gold key door again (get the feeling I still won't like it) and done some brush optimisation... which basically equates to deleting a load of brushes that used to fit external curves & replacing them with one brush which BSP will clip for me.  Also found some rogue brushes that were still around from previous experiments so ditched those too.  Set BSP off & it still CutNodePortals_r, but the brush count is down a couple of hundred.

Did a -fast vis, zipped it up and sent it off to the testers..

27th March 2000
	- Played a little bit with the architecture, but concentrated mainly on the lighting today; it's getting much better (seem to be getting the hang of it again).  Got home and had a lengthy chat with SPoG, he pointed out a fair few gameplay flaws (via the help of a demo); mainly the problem that I was giving real good weapons away too early (SNG right at start).  Oh, and there were too many orges.  Peej had also pointed these out last night, but I was too stubborn to agree & SPoG seemed much more diplomatic.  Aard refused to play the beta as it wasn't vis'd properly.. 

28th March 2000
	- Did the gameplay tweaks SPoG suggested, plays much better; plus is more of a challenge, always a good sign.  Worked on the brush detail in the silver-key push area, basically made it look much better (that old broken wall effect).  It's a shame I haven't really got any more brushes to spare else I'd make this area look even nicer, but as it is it'll certainly do the job.  When I built it I had actually broken it, so took some more brushes out from elsewhere to get it back under...  Had another chat with SPoG and Peej, and tonight joined by Dandy, who pointed out a good idea (changing the 'Prove yourself' message on the exit button to 'Prove yourself to the Knights of Atlantis' as you ultimately walk through the doors with Knights on).  Like the idea a lot, but will have to come up with some gammar thing as the current suggestion won't fit.

29th March 2000
	- Bit more gameplay tweaking, but mainly worked on textures.  Made a button texture at last (been putting it off for ages), a little bit conceited (a gold lettered 'A3' =) but it looks nice in game.  Tried to sort out a strange lighting glitch in the start room, found the problem after a while (one of my distance lights was set way too bright..).  Done a full vis at work & am now ready to send off to the beta testers.  Basically I think it's done, just have to see what they feel...

1st April 2000
	- April fool and all.. feel a bit like one going into work to finish the map, but I've now had very good feedback from my testers, and it's time to finish off.  

As I've had a fair bit of noise, mainly from Aard, about r-Speeds, I'm trying a technique DaMaul told me about - moving the vertical sky brushes slightly away from rocks to avoid QBSP cutting them up.  Nice idea, hope it works.. it's causing me a bit of hassle cause I've gotta give the rocks a full depth (I usually just make a front and top).  Still.. has led me to get rid of some brushes and also squeeze the first secret in.... 

Later added a second secret, SPoG wanted a GL so here it is.. near the end so shouldn't disrupt the gameflow too much.  Also managed to get rid of the 'snow line', or certainly vastly reduce it.  Added the pcastle reference in properly this time, put some pictures in the LG room... basically finished it off.  Time to do that last full vis and release the last quake map by me :

C:\Program Files\WorldCraft>qtools\vis -level 4 c:\levels\a3
---- vis ----
testlevel = 4
1749 portalleafs
5414 numportals
average leafs visible: 225
c_chains: 51543057
visdatasize:127897  compressed from 383031
5636.0 seconds elapsed

Alex Moore 1st April MM