Ah, the advantages of homeschooling. For my final in computer science, I'm writing a general essay on video game mapping!
How fun!

The first 1/3rd of the essay is dedicated to describing the tools of a mapper (sight, sound, illusions), while the 2nd 1/3 will describe the technical aspects of mapping (basics of  brushes, textures, shaders, etc). The last third will cover Station15's development from beginning to beta2.

If anyone would like to read it at it's current stage, (It is quite short now) it's at:
http://mercenariesguild.net/supertanker/videogame.html

Any and all suggestions welcome!
Thanks to Trak for finding that little glitch about sight being mentioned twice...

Whoever can tell me which Halo (Any of the 3) level I used in the two ministories for Sight and Sound gets a free on me!

Neat essay. Very readable. It's light on the technical aspects of mapping as of yet, but if I understand correctly, you're writing that part next. It is very interesting. Perhaps you should consider contributing it or something else towards the RTFM project as a general introduction to mapping in trem? I've never even attempted to get into mapping, but that's something I always have been curious about. If I ever wanted to get into mapping, I would love to have something like that to serve as a nice introduction to ease me into the process of how one goes about creating a map. Very useful, thanks for posting this!

The part that I like is that you emphasize on inspiring emotions in people through atmospheric unity. I think that in putting this all down in writing and exploring your notions about the topic, you will solidify good mapping skill not only for others but for yourself in your own mind. I am glad that you are putting this together. It should be useful and interesting.

Certainly, after you finish, I would not mind having a greatly stripped down version placed into RTFM. Or perhaps we would make a new section altogether and place it there. It's somewhat out of the current scope, but the quality looks promising. Perhaps it is worth it to expand our scope somewhat.

Anyway, if not there, then this will certainly be mirrored in the MG Documentation Project (assuming your approval).

(And yes, he's already helping with RTFM somewhat, I believe.)

No I haven't read it yet as I've been considerable busy, however I'd like to point out that this certainly sounds like it falls well outside the intended scope of RTFM.

Should definitely go on the mapping wiki or something similar.

Khalsa

Mapping Wiki?

Yeah, it's outside of RTFM. I'd like to include it in some form, but Khalsa is probably right in that we should keep it down to a "what noobs need to know to play the game" scope. I vote MG Documentation Project. Mind you, that project needs an quick link or it's own wiki or something later.

Yes, probably outside the scope of the RTFM, although it might be a good idea to include Tremulous's "technical" aspects (such as the current particle/trail system descriptions and the binds that are currently in the manual PDF) as a seperate PDF aimed at people who might find such information useful...

And yes, I approve if a stripped down version is put in the tremulous documentation (somewhere)
Posted on: April 23, 2008, 04:44:27 PM

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Second version (PDF for some reason)
http://mercenariesguild.net/supertanker/videogame2.pdf

Also includes a rought layout of the future areas.

You should probably include details on video game maps like flow and how they "cheat" at creating a 3d image.

I like it. It gives perspective to a subject that is confusing to the outside world.

Draft 3 is out: http://mercenariesguild.net/supertanker/videogame-d3.pdf

A few grammar errors, thanks to TRaK for finding them--I wrote this all in the last 2 days, so I haven't had time to spell-check or read through it much.

On a related note, if you want me to look over a "pretty much just about ready to write my final" draft, send it by.