Quake 3 Arena HQ mod Thread

Hi everyone,

I'm an avid fan of Quake 3 Arena, and have played it since it's release.

A few years ago, I created a high resolution Quake 3 Texture pack, which replaces every texture in the game with a texture four times as big. Of course, I didn't just increase the size - I also used many image improving filters and effects.

The result is a Quake 3 with way prettier texturing, and the one I still play today. Most of my friends also use the texturepack. (which basically is a 240 mb .pk3 file).

I was wondering if people would still be interested in such a modification for a game as old as quake 3. I could post some images to compare the texturepack with regular quake 3. I probably will do this soon.

I would really like to share the texturepack, so I hope there are people who would like having it !

Oh great, so you applied photoshop grain to everything to make it cheaply 'detailed'?

Also id software wouldn't like this texture pack being derived from their own textures.

leilei wrote: Oh great, so you applied photoshop grain to everything to make it cheaply 'detailed'?

Also id software wouldn't like this texture pack being derived from their own textures.

Lets not diss it before we see it, put up pictures id be interested in seeing how they look and the fps difference!

leilei wrote: Also id software wouldn't like this texture pack being derived from their own textures.

I don't recall id ever having issues with modifying assets in a game to be used in the same game.

I'd like to see screens myself.

leilei wrote: Oh great, so you applied photoshop grain to everything to make it cheaply 'detailed'?

No I did not just apply photoshop grain to everything to make it cheaply detailed. I didn't recreate the textures either, but I never said I did.

Here's what happened with about every texture:
1) I individually opened every texture file in a graphics editing program (paintshop pro)
2) Every texture was resized to 200 %, using 'smart size' resize. (which is really just pixel resize with a blurry interpolation algorithm)
3)Most textures received the 'Edge Enhance' filter, which makes edges more pronounced.
4)on many textures 'Edge preserving smooth' was used.
4)The resulting image was sharpened.
5)color/contrast settings were adjusted to best suit the new appaerance of the texture.(minor adjustments)

And, most important of all: I monitored the result on every texture file. That is, if these steps didn't produce a texture that I tought to be more appealing than the original, I used other filters and methods to get what I was looking for. Many textures ended up being multilayered images before I was satisfied and merged them again.

Now clearly, none of these steps add actual artwork to the texture, so admittedly, no *real* detail was added. However, the details that are in the original textures become way more pronounced.
With the original size of these textures, such pronounced detail was not possible, because once a detail resolves into a sharply distinguishable line of pixels, it looses its attractiveness. This doesn't happen with my resized textures, simply because there are more pixels to gradually change the luminance and hue of detailed structures.

Besides, I don't see why there is shame in creating the appaerance of more detail. After all, it's a game and we want it to look good. If you stand close enough, it will be pixels either way around .

Edited by (in order): QuinQuix, QuinQuix, QuinQuix, QuinQuix

q3ctf1

q3dm2

modelselection

and last but certainly not least:

Comparison

I think that if there is anything to say for the method I applied, it can be found in this image .

As to the fps difference: it is significant, but it's not a problem on todays average hardware.

Edited by (in order): QuinQuix, QuinQuix, QuinQuix, QuinQuix, QuinQuix, QuinQuix, QuinQuix

ugly, you might as well turn up the sharpen filter in the video card display panel for the same result

Edited by: leilei

It does look rather like the contrast has been upped on all the textures.

I'm not trying to put you down or anything, it just dosen't seem like the amount of work you've put in qualifies the results.

leilei wrote: ugly, you might as well turn up the sharpen filter in the video card display panel for the same result

You certainly don't have a lot of tact, but I can live with that. It is probable that you have been confronted with nOOb-modders too many times, and don't feel like making nice comments anymore.

The textures have been made sharper, so yeah, upping the sharpness would make the original textures more like these. Not the same though.
Edge enhance is *definitely* not the same filter as *sharpen*, so you couldn't achieve this result with sharpening alone.

Besides, some games (like max payne 2) have a build-in texture sharpness slider. This is because some people like their textures to appear sharper. I am one of those gamers, and I can live with it quite well.

DrZais wrote: It does look rather like the contrast has been upped on all the textures.

I'm not trying to put you down or anything, it just dosen't seem like the amount of work you've put in qualifies the results.

The amount of work I put in it I put into it quite a long time ago, and I was in love with this game so bad that I can't feel bad about it in any way. Besides if you work like 30 seconds on each texture on average, it can be done within days.

Upping contrast / brightness or gamma will not sharpen the structures displayed in textures, so It wouldn't look the same. Putting up the sharpness slider in your videocard driver also wouldn't do it all.

Ow, and thanks for making a nice comment .

my own conclusion:

It makes Q3 look a lot sharper and some people (Including me) like that. With my upload (100mbit surfnet connection) it is uploaded in 25 seconds.

It's not just sharpening or upping the contrast, but a combination of filters/effects that make up for something a little more sophisticated. The difference is not incredible, but definitely there.

It takes me 25 seconds to upload this at full speed, so if anyone wants to try it and give his/her definite opinion on it that would be welcome. Email to quinquix@hotmail.com and I'll arange it.

Maybe this mod combines nice with the mods that add pixel shaders and stuff, I haven't tried that yet.

final comment @ leilei:
I'm not looking for a place in the modders-hall of fame. I just put effort in this a long time ago and like it myself. If you don't want to use it, that's fine. If you think this should not be the default way for modders to operate - I agree. But I did, and if people want to try/use this package, they're welcome as far as I'm concerned.

If there is a mod which replaces the textures with redone artwork twice the size and four times as detailed, let me know. I will replace this mod immediately. Please make that mod for me leilei, I'd be grateful. Until it's there, I'll use my own mediocre surrograte.

Edited by: QuinQuix

leilei wrote: All concept and no game makes Jack a dull modder

Brilliant movie. Leilei, don't think I don't respect you or that I am blind to the fact that you have been around for some (16,504+ posts) time. If the mod community needs anything it is active people. However you *could* be a little nicer towards people offering their work .

Edited by: QuinQuix

I'm gonna join in on this one:

leilei - if you don't have anything constructive to say then would you kindly weigh out of the conversation? Thanks for listening.

QuinQuix wrote: Upping contrast / brightness or gamma will not sharpen the structures displayed in textures, so It wouldn't look the same. Putting up the sharpness slider in your videocard driver also wouldn't do it all.

I'm sure thats probably true, I don't know a whole lot about texturing myself.
I just meant that to the average layman (such as I) the level of work involved might not be apparent.

If you're still interested in working on this have you considered making some actual alterations to the textures alongside the improvements you've already made? the results might be more dramatic and have more of an impact on people.

Edited by: DrZais

To me certain things look better and certain things don't. For example the sharper floor grip looks nice with a bit of shine, but now the player model looks a bit too "shiny".

The right balance and it could work out. I guess it is a difficult area since everyones tastes are different

DrZais wrote: If you're still interested in working on this have you considered making some actual alterations to the textures alongside the improvements you've already made? the results might be more dramatic and have more of an impact on people.

I did it with one thing, the railgun. I thought the orange wasn't looking very good and replaced it to fit my own taste.

Railgun

I'm going to try uploading it so people can try how it looks when playing.

here it is:
Download

The site is not really structured in an orderly fashion, but you'll find a space on the downside (right) where you have to put in a generated number. Then you can press download and it gives you a link which starts the actual download.(I'm not sure it would happen automated otherwise) Download speed is great, something like 3mbps.

I think people would know this, but to make it operate put it in the Q3\baseq\ directory.
Name it pak*.pk3, were * stands for the highest numerical value found in the pak*.pk3 files plus one.

(So if you have pak0.pk3 up to pak7.pk3 - simply name it pak8.pk3)

Edited by (in order): QuinQuix, QuinQuix

I'd love to hear opinions of people who tried it.

I believe I kinda changed the main menu background and added a text that gives me credit - I could remove that. It is not about getting credit, I just wanted a great game to look a little better.