General mapping information

This page contains general information, limits and sizes that are useful to know when mapping for ETJump. All measurements assume pmove_fixed 1 and com_maxfps 125 unless stated otherwise.

Player sizes

Values are rounded to integers to match grid in Radiant. Actual values for clearances can be lower, as long as they are still bigger than the bbox.

• Player model size (bbox) - 36x36x72 (XYZ)
• This is the size of info_player_deathmatch entity.
• Minimum horizontal clearance - 37 units
• Minimum vertical clearance
• Standing - 73 units
• Crouching - 49 units
• Proning - 41 units
• Jumping - 121 units

Movement

Speed

Ground

Water

If water level is < half of your height (stance dependant), you are still walking normally but your speed is clamped to 267 units/s.

Following values assume axial yaw. Non-axial yaw can provide higher speeds.

• Swimming in water - 160 units/s
• With 35.5 degree pitch, its possible to swim in water at 195 units/s.
• Wallstrafing in water - 174 units/s
• Pitch has no effect when wallstrafing.
• Swimming on water surface - 196 units/s
• Assuming 0 pitch, water bobbing, pitch and yaw affect this. Possible to achieve ~235 units/s.

Stepup

Stepup happens when you are moving against a vertical wall and are within 18 units (vertically) of the top surface. Stepup doesn't happen if the wall is angled towards you from the bottom, unless the top surface is a seperate brush.

When stepup can happen, jumping direction from left to right.

Jump height

The following heights are measured online. Offline results may vary.

• pmove_fixed 1 - 66 units (48 units jump + 18 units stepup)
• pmove_fixed 0 - see table below

If the top of the brush you are trying to jump onto is angled, it's possible to jump onto higher surfaces than these. The angle of the top matters; maximum values (with pmove_fixed 1 and com_maxfps 125) are 76 units for a standard jump, and 87 units for a backwards prone jump, when the top is at 45 degree angle.

Jump timing

Note: due to pmove_msec 8, all jump timings have +/- 8ms margin of error. The times here represent the elapsed time between jumping and landing.

• Jump delay - 850ms
• Flat ground jump - 712ms
• 41 unit jump - 848ms
• This is the minimum height difference between gamma pads.
• 64 unit jump - 904ms

Fall damage

Fall damage is calculated from falling speed, not height. These measurements assume flat ground to flat ground with standard gravity.

Falling

Jumping

Note that because ETJump uses adrenaline to give unlimited sprint (if etj_nofatigue is used), all fall damage is halved & rounded down. When you take fall damage from a fall/jump, the game applies knockback event on you (slick physics). This lasts for 1000ms for every fall damage event, except for 25hp falls, where it only lasts for 250ms.

Map limits

Compiler limits

These limits might be different depending on the variant of Q3map2 used.

• Maximum amount of brushes - 32768
• Compiler error - MAX_MAP_BRUSHES (32768)
• This limit is not present on all Q3map2 variants.
• Maximum amount of surfaces - 131072
• Compiler error - MAX_MAP_DRAW_SURFS (131072) exceeded
• Any visible surface in the map counts towards this limit.
• Maximum size of VIS data - 2MB
• Compiler error - MAX_MAP_VISIBILITY exceeded
• Common error with gamma maps. Q3map2 creates BSP splits every 1024 units, unless worldspawn key _blocksize is adjusted. Use 0 to stop q3map2 from automatically creating splits in large open areas.
• Maximum amount of T-Junctions - 65536
• Compiler error - MAX_EDGE_LINES
• T-Junction is created when a vertex is placed along an edge. Because all surfaces are chopped into triangles, this forces q3map2 to create an extra split on a surface to connect the vertex to other vertices. In the picture below, T-Junctions are highlighted with green circles. The top row is incorrectly made, while the bottom row is correctly made.
  

Engine limits

• Maximum amount of entites - 1024
• Game crash - G_Spawn: no free entities
• Some of these are reserved for the game.
• The actual limit for map to be playable is 949, but because the game creates entities on runtime (grenades, bodies, medpacks etc.) you should always leave some headroom.
• Maximum amount of brush entities - 255
• Game crash - CG_RegisterGraphics: Too many inline models: N
• Brush entities are stuff such as script_mover, trigger_multiple and func_static.
• These count towards standard entity limit.
• Maximum amount of remapped shader - 32
• Game crash - G_FindConfigstringIndex: overflow
• This is the amount of unique shaders reserved for remapping on the map.
• Maximum amount of misc_gamemodels - 1024
• Game crash - G_FindConfigstringIndex: overflow
• This assumes static misc_gamemodels.
• Non-static misc_gamemodels count towards standard entity limit.
• Maximum amount of sounds - 255
• Game crash - G_FindConfigstringIndex: overflow
• This is the amount of unique sounds referenced by the map.

Common errors and warnings

• ******* Leaked *******
• Your map has a hole into void. If it looks like the red line indicating the leak spot goes straight through a structural brush, make sure the shader on the brush doesn't have surfaceparm trans.
• Entity N, Brush N: duplicate plane
• Happens when two faces are combined into one by edge or vertex editing. Use brush cleanup to fix.
• Entity N, Brush N: degenerate plane
• Happens sometimes when 2 vertices of same face are very close to each other (under 1 unit) due to usage of clipper. Use brush cleanup to fix; often deletes the brush and you have to recreate it.
• BaseWindingForPlaneAccu: no dominant axis found because normal is too short
• Related to degenerate plane error. Use brush cleanup to fix.
• Entity N, Brush N: degenerate patch
• This can often happen when capping patches. This always happens when you try to cap a cone; Radiant creates a 0x0 cap at the sharp end of the cone, which is a degenerate patch. Delete the patch by selecting it via the error window or by going to Misc -> Find brush... and entering the correct entity/brush number.
• Backwards tree volume
• All brushes in your map are detail brushes.
• SV_SetBrushModel: NULL
• Most likely cause for this is an improper usage of a special shader in an entity. For example, using an origin shader for trigger_multiple entity causes this error. Another cause is corrupted brushwork in a brush entity, which can be fixed with brush cleanup.

Common shaders

This list contains common shaders that are useful for ETJump mapping. This is not a comprenesive list; it only includes stuff thats relevant and actually works. Clip shaders for example have variations with different surface sounds, but they are self-explanatory and are not listed here.

Stock ET

ANTIPORTAL - Combines areaportal and hint into a single shader. Difficult concept to understand (don't understand it myself fully either). Use in conjunction with skip. Some talk about their usage here and here.

AREAPORTAL - Blocks VIS by culling everything behind it. Must be placed inside door entities to work. Use in conjunction with skip.

CAULK - Solid, invisible surface. Generally any surface not visible to player should be caulk.

CLIP - Invisible surface that blocks player movement but lets everything else through. Used for smoothing out movement and to block non-playable areas.

CLIPMISSILE - Invisible surface that blocks players, projectiles and entities, but lets bullets through.

CLIPWEAP - Invisible surface that blocks everything.

CUSHION - Solid surface that disables fall damage. Functionality can be reversed with a nofalldamage worldspawn key.

HINT - Structural surface that creates a portal to force a split in PVS. Use in conjunction with skip.

SKIP - Structural surface that doesn't create a split in PVS. When placing hint brushes, use this on every surface where you don't want a portal to be created.

HINTSKIP - Same as skip, but filters with hint in Radiant.

LADDER - Surface that players can grab onto and climb. Note that ladders don't work if vertical angle is under 45 degrees.

LIGHTGRID - Defines the area included in lightgrid calculation. Lightgrid has a block limit; this can be used to exclude unnecessary areas from it and shrink each block.

NODRAW - Invisible, nonsolid surface. Explicitly marked as a detail brush.

NODRAWNONSOLID - Same as nodraw, but doesn't explicitly make the brush detail.

NODRAWWATER - Applies water properties to a brush. Use on non-visible faces of water brushes.

NODROP - Entities inside this brush disappear when they touch the ground.

ORIGIN - Used to define origin point for various brush entities. The center of the brush will become the origin of the entity.

SLICK - Solid, slippery surface.

TRIGGER - Used for trigger entities.

ETJump

If you don't see these shaders in Radiant, make sure you have the latest ETJump mapping assets, available here. nodelay, noprone, nosave, overbounce and portalsurface shader functionality can be reversed with worldspawn keys.

NODELAY - Players landing on this surface are not affected by jump delay.

NOPRONE - Players cannot prone inside this brush.

NODRAWSLAG - Same as nodrawwater, except has slightly lower acceleration scale (0.3 vs 0.5). This is technically a stock shader, but it's not shipped with Radiant.

NOSAVE - Players cannot save inside this brush.

OVERBOUNCE - Players cannot OB on this surface.

PORTALSURFACE - Players cannot shoot portals on this surface.

SLICKCUSHION - Surface that both disables fall damage and is slippery.