BIG Poll Monday

Hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing Easter Sunday. Mine was filled with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and tamales. Great Easter Sunday brunch, I am sure. Spent most of the weekend attempting to install Windows2000 Pro onto a 45GB IBM HDD. Thanks to BladeKiller, RabidCow and Iain, for putting up with my bitching and complaining for over 12 hours! For some reason, I am not able to get my Soundblaster Live card working correctly. The Device Manager shows no conflicts, yet there is no sound being emitted from the speakers. So it’s back to square one I guess. Tried my current sound card, a Diamond MX300. Same results. So, if you think you have an idea, I am willing to listen to any and all ideas.

Now onto what you came here to see. I was able to obtain a copy of Urban Station thanks to PointyGit. While I have only spent a few minutes on the level it is quite an impressive level. Still found a handful of problems spots that are easily corrected. I am sure this will be a post-Beta 2 Urban Terror level you will be playing in the near future. The most impressive area in this map has to be inside the station. The ceilings are quite breathtaking. Here are a few bonus shots from Urban Station being used in build_10 of Beta 2:

[SHOT #1] | [SHOT #2] | [SHOT #3]Spoke to NRGizeR yesterday. It seems among his work on his upcoming levels for Beta 2, we is also beginning to put together tutorials for mapping for Beta 2. You have seen and most likely used his work which can be found here on The 6th Floor. While the details are still a bit sketchy, these tutorials will probably focus on the new entities, functions and surface parameters mappers can user to give their levels a more realistic feel to them. Also expect to see some sample maps to work from. More details as I receive them.

Another mapping question which has been touched on before, but I feel the need to bring it up again. Scale, you know how anal I am about getting the correct scale in a map. Level developers are always asking, “How do I determine scale in QERadiant?” The answer is simple. Check out this link which is available from Claudec on Quake III Arena Player Specifics. It should answer most all of your questions regarding measurement and size for your mapping pleasure.

Completed another review yesterday, which debuts today over at PlanetQuake, as the Quake 2 Level of the Week. While, many of you are not interested in the content, the level did feature some stand out texturing from [H F X]. If you are in dire need of quality textures, check out the work from evil_lair. For those who dabble in creating their own textures, evil_lair has some good tutorials to help you out.

The results are in from the last Bi-Weekly Poll. While I am not one bit surprised at the top answer. We should have thought it through better, than any answer with ‘Counter-Strike’ or “1337 liek jeff K’ will always win. Well, check out the rest of the answers and take the new 6th Floor Poll which begs the question, “What do the members of Silicon Ice Development do in their free time?“