Patch-Mesh 101
This is a Tutorial on how to work with patch meshes - you know curves.
There are many different things you can do with
patch meshes.
To start with they come in many different shapes. More
about that in a minute.
I also want to
thank John Hutton for his help in correcting my bad spelling and the way I
tried to explain a few things.
Take a minute and check out his site Quake 3 editing site here.
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Menu Pic. |
Z -axis view |
X- axis view |
Notice how the texture on the cylinder mesh is only visible from one side. This is the
case for all meshes.
Meshes also don't block visibility as far as the Q3A
engine is concerned.
Meshes also don't seal a map from the void. If you try to seal your map with a mesh, it'll result in a leak.
What else
can we make? There are more cylinders.
Go ahead and make a new brush or, if you want, select the
first cylinder and then go to the curve menu again. This
time pick More Cylinders then Square
Cylinders.
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x-axis |
z-axis with vertex on |
Square
cylinders are cool-looking because the edges are
rounded in the game.
Use them with caution because they will raise your
r-speeds fast, especially if your bend them in two
different directions.
You will notice there are two more cylinder options - Dense
Cylinder and Very Dense Cylinder. These are just round
cylinders with more rows and columns added to them, they
come in handy when you want to bend them or make them
real small.
What other shapes do meshes come in?
Next let's make an Endcap.
Make a brush any size. While it is still selected, go to
Curve then Endcap.
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z-axis |
x-axis |
3d view |
Endcaps are
used for the walls behind the curved jump pads. However, for the arches over doorways you should use bevels instead because
you will have less trouble with those
dam sparklies (t-junction
errors)
Now let's try a bevels.
Make another brush any size and while it's still selected, go to
Curve then Bevel.
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Z-axis |
X-axis |
3D View |
Bevels come
in real handy for making the arches over doorways, curved corners
and for many other uses.
(On
making
a door, check out my doorway tutorial.
You will notice there are more options below Bevels in
the menu. It says More End caps and Bevels. The
square end cap is the same as a end cap that we've already done.
The square bevel adds a back to a bevel. I don't use
this one as I like to use brushes to seal off a bevel from the void.
What's next? I know, how about a Cone.
You should know the drill by now. If not, make a new brush and while it's still selected, go to the Curve menu then cone.
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z-axis |
z-axis |
3D View |
Cones - what fun. You can make all kinds
of things with these like teeth, spikes, tops of
buildings and let's not forget the domed ceiling.
What's next? I know - a simple patch mesh.
This is a fun one, because it starts out as a flat mesh that
you can shape in all manner of ways.
The dimensions of the mesh will depend on the size of the brush from which it's made (although obviously it can be resized). When you make a simple patch mesh you'll be asked for the patch density. This actually determines the number of control points which allow you to change the shape of the mesh. The greater the number of vertices, the more control you'll have. The default setting for the width and height is three.
The dialog box looks like this:
Ok, let's make one. First create brush brush (it doesn't need to be more than 8 units thick). Then go to the
Curve menu
and select Simple Patch Mesh.
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Z-axis |
x-axis |
3D View |
There are many things you can do with
these.
Some of the common things are curved floors and walls, and natural-looking terrain.
There you have it. These are the basic shapes for meshes.
There are also the options of Caps and Thicken. The former are used to fill the gap between curved meshes and any adjacent geometry while the latter make it look like the patch is a solid brush. Thickening is useful for creating curved trims on corners although I don't like using thicken because it
adds meshes that are not on the grid.
So let's go to the next page to start making some curves and shaping them.
The real fun starts there.
Patch Mesh page 2
