QuakeWaveGenerator

Disclaimer

🔴This is still work in progress🔴

Why...?

Over the last couple of years I spent some time on and off with another Quake map, "Fire, Water, Squish", and played around quite a bit with func_train entities. As part of the experiments I did within the map, I came up with the idea of a grid of blocks in a map moving up and down in a "wave" like manner. After testing in a proof of concept map that it works, I thought of a less time consuming and flexible way to set up all the necessary entities and their properties. So this is what I've come up with so far - "Quake Wave Generator" (still thinking about a more appropriate name...).

What this is

A Winforms application to automate the creation of multiple func_train "blocks", laid out in a horizontal grid where you can configure the number of "rows" and "columns". The blocks only move vertically and, by timing the amplitudes of that movement, give the impression of a wave.

What it looks like in a map file editor

The Winforms application

The output of this program will be in the format as required by the Quake map file specifications, e.g.

{
  "classname" "func_train"
  "dmg" "0"
  "speed" "32"
  "sounds" "0"
  "target" "train_row-002_column-002_init"
  {
    (68 68 64) (68 68 0) (68 132 64) METAL1_3 0 0 0 1 1
    (132 132 64) (132 132 0) (132 68 64) METAL1_3 0 0 0 1 1
    (132 68 64) (132 68 0) (68 68 64) METAL1_3 0 0 0 1 1
    (68 132 64) (68 132 0) (132 132 64) METAL1_3 0 0 0 1 1
    (68 132 0) (68 68 0) (132 132 0) METAL1_3 0 0 0 1 1
    (132 68 64) (68 68 64) (132 132 64) METAL1_3 0 0 0 1 1
}
{
  "classname" "path_corner"
  "targetname" "train_row-002_column-002_init"
  "target" "train_row-002_column-002_bottom"
  "origin" "68 68 0"
}
{
  "classname" "path_corner"
  "targetname" "train_row-002_column-002_bottom"
  "target" "train_row-002_column-002_top"
  "origin" "68 68 0"
}
{
  "classname" "path_corner"
  "targetname" "train_row-002_column-002_top"
  "target" "train_row-002_column-002_bottom"
  "origin" "68 68 0"
}

Options

You can configure (in Quake units):

the side length of the blocks that are created
the spacing between them
the number of them (the product of the number of rows and columns)
the offsets for x, y and z coordinates
the amplitude of the wave
the number of steps between 0 and the amplitude
damage (if any), speed (of the func_train and sound (if any) -> these are the properties of the func_train entity
the texture to be used

How to use the output

The generated output is in the Quake Map File format and can - as it is - be saved in a .map file, e.g. mymap.map. Please take into account that the output only includes the blocks and the corresponding entities, so you'll have to build some walls around them and also add some lights if you want to be able to see something :-).

Example

A Picture (or video...) says more than a thousand words:

Example video

Issues

As you can enter rows and columns (mostly) as you wish, the resulting number of func_train entities and linked path_corner quickly can get pretty high. With vanilla Quake you'll soon run into the No free Edicts error message, meaning that the maximum number of entities (512) was exceeded. Either pay attention to that limit and reduce your overall number of entities or use an engine (e.g. QuakeSpasm) that has a higher limit (8192) or is configurable.

Another issue is that despite being configured in the right way, adjoining blocks with initially different positions in the wave cycle tend to synchronise over time. This needs more investigation though as so far it doesn't seem to behave in a reproducible manner.

Download Binary

You can download the (hopefully current...) binary.

gorgsenegger/QuakeWaveGenerator