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I. Install Instructions
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a) Quake 3 Arena --> Extract Polaris.zip into your baseq3 folder. Normally Polaris should appear in the map menue
after you've chosen skirmish mode.
For some reasons Polaris doesn't appear here sometimes. Then try following example:
Extract polaris.zip into baseq3 folder. Right click on Q3Arena starticon (short cut) on your desktop (or whereever).
Choose properties out of the menu, there choose connection. Into the white field add following commands (behind
the commands which stands there before, don't delete this!): +set g_gametype 4 +map polaris
Polaris starts automatically after you have doubleklicked the q3a icon. Polaris won't load into the map selection
menu as with other maps, this is because it was original compiled for Team Arena (don't know exactly, think so ...:)).
b) Quake 3 Team Arena --> Example: Very easy, just extract polaris.zip into your missionpack folder. Polaris
will automatically appear in the map menu. You will reach that by following the path: multiplayer/startserver
(gametypes: oneflag,harvester,ctf,overload)
c) Threewave --> Example: Extract polaris.zip into your baseq3 folder. Start threewave and choose polaris from the
map selection menu. If it doesn't appear, make shure you have activated filter all maps or gametypes cctf/ctf
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II. Play Information
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Gametype + Settings : CCTF, CTF, One Flag CTF, Harvester, Overload (3wave,vanillaq3,TA)
Number of players : min. 6 vs 6 up to 12 vs 12
Bot Support : Bots are fully supported
Weapons : 6x rocketlauncher, 3x plasmagun, 5x shotgun, 2x lightning, 2x grapplinghook, 1x railgun, 2x nailgun, 2x chaingun,
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III. Construction
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Base : new from scratch
Editor used : GtkRadiant Ver. 1.1.1.
Used Q3 Arena Version : 1.31
Brushes : 11594
Entities : 785
Compile machine : Amd Thunderbird (C) 1,2 Ghz, 512mb RAM, GeForce256.
Q3Map compile time : at fullvis; vis: approx.: 2 min. / light: approx.: 5,5 hours
Tools : XFader, Photoshop, Bryce 3d, Particle Studio
Building time : approx. 5,5 months pure construction and design, learning all the new stuff time before: approx. 6 months
r_speed : tried my best to reduce polys at any time. At my system at 1024x768 and custom settings
I get approx. 10000-14000 polys in worst corners (hope you won't find them :) )
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IV. Previous Works
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-Quake3Arena-
a) roomdm (small double-boxed DM-map)
b) starlight (middlesized ctf-map)
c) leviathan (middlesized ctf-map)
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V. Known Bugs
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Hope you won't find any... :)
Please, let me know which bugs you've found (if so). You could mail to me: **email removed**
--> One botcluster includes approx. 1000 areas. That's too much. The quadroom and centreroom are connected to one big room to the bots. The reason
is they are connected by the water tunnel. I've placed a clusterportal brush or two there but without effect. Tried a lot of positions to place
cl's in the tunnel but without result. Don't know why but it isn't possible to divide this big bot area. The disadvantage is that this will increase
the calculation load of the cpu. But I think with modern pc's >1 GHz everything should work ok (more than 8 or 10 bots)
--> It could be a bit hard to get out of the water in the mainroom and quadroom for some reason. I did my best like set small invisable clip-stairways, but
please, for all that try use the straight borders of the basins. You could also try to lock straight above while trying get out of the water.
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VI. General Information and discussion
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This project was made to be big, beautiful and unique. At first I planned to build something like a realistic setting in a polar region
or something like that. But this failed because of technical problems. I first had to learn all the new stuff of constructing
terrain for q3 engine coming with TA. This period took 6 months before I could start to create something new especially for the terrain.
The old method of manipulating terrain and with that textures wasn't very effective and ugly. The textures must be angled right and vertex
lightning as such wasn't beautiful at all. With pure lightmaps the calculation limits with q3engine came faster than one can say cooool.
For latest BETA-versions I tried to get more stable gameplay to the map. First versions were to huge and orientation was bad, there were too many
teleporters (yes it's true, I loved them ;) ) which brought additional chaos to the gameplay. However, I reduced the size of the outdoor areas in the end
extremely and tried to balance gameplay and I hope I was successful. At least with TA gametypes and q3a ctf gameplay is very satisfactory now.
I hope you will enjoy this piece of work where I've spent hundreds of hours to finished it.
Thanx for attention and reading
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VII. Credits
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-->People<--
-->Special thanx to Martina for ideas, inspiration and discussion. Also for patience during the never ending period of construction
and let the sundays mutate to mapping sessions... ;)
-->Thanx and greetings to the members of quake3world LE + TA forum, especially:
a) Tetzlaff for fantastic and helpful comments, greetings to Berlin :) :)
b) phooka for managing UMP- packs 1-2, comment
c) jetscreamer for comments
d) scourge34 " "
e) Hydrus " "
f) bigfoot113 " "
g) sock " "
h) fender " "
i) kat " "
j) q for help with alpha version, tips and tutorial for caulk hull
k) everyone I've forgotten
l) sandman for comments and help
m) Old_Fellow for comments and help
-->Thanx and greetings to the planetquake.de LE forum, the biggest german forum at all,especially:
a) stoni: beta testing Polaris for BETA1
b) Tetzlaff for tips, test and experienced reviews (your help was very very helpful :) greetings to Berlin)
c) schulz-vr for critical and therefore helpful comments
d) PadMan for testing and comments
e) everyone I've forgotten
-->Thanx and greetings to the planetquake.com/lvl beta section forum,especially:
a) VisionThing for helpful comments and tips
b) sks.45 for comment
-->Thanx to Evil Lair for review (alpha version) and creating beautiful textures and let me use (and manipulating a bit) them
!!!Greetings to all of you who love to play and to create 3d-worlds!!!
-->Thanx to the following tools, programs and what ever<--
-->Textures+Models<--
--> Thanx to Evil Lair for beautiful textures: mtldrk, t-flr_oddtile_drty, metal (renamed it to con03 because of technical problems
, same name as on other q3 texture or something like that, sorry but there was no other way :) ), mtlsupport_grt2, rstmtl, rstmtl_btm.
I also created con03dvt with metal.jpg as basic and floor_oddtile_step with t-flr_oddtile_drty (I had no steps for this tex,sorry but
changed nothing at the roots). Thanx man! :)
--> Special thanx to VR magazine' Texture Pack #1, great textures!
--> Very very special thanx :) to the creators of the textures from Graphitallica, Sean Johnson: Without your textures all of my maps would never exist!!
--> Thanx to Krystallen Texture Pack 00, Suren Pillay at www.quake3mods.net/nightrunner. Sorry, I havn't mailed you yet. I used the door- texture. :)
--> Thanx to Gollum, author of Skeletor- model
--> Thanx to Ewooz, author of Drola- model
--> Thanx to Drahd, author of Gargoyle- model
--> Thanx to Hoplit, author of Skullcam- model
-->Shader<--
--> Please read the comments in the .shader file. Many, many of the shaders were made new from scratch by MopAn :)
-->Sounds<--
--> Sorry, I've forgotten from where I get some of the sounds, it's because my sound collection is a bit confusing. :)
The only thing I remember is, that the Bubbling sound could be taken from some of padman's map, but I'm not shure at the moment
cause I've renamed most of my sounds. If someone thinks I've forgotten to mention him please let me know and E- Mail :)
-->Tools<--
--> Thanx to the makers of Particle studio, great tool to create particle effects!
--> Thanx to the makers of XFader at www.pegtop.de (program to make tileless textures: !free demo version!)
--> All other textures that I haven't made and were used in Polaris are free available at:
a) www.zoorender.com
b) textures.forrest.cz
c) www.saturn.online....main_native.htm
d) www.graphtallica.ingava.com
another important link is: d) www.3dlinks.com
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!If you review this map, please send me a note!
!Your feedback about this map will be appreciated!
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VIII. Copyright Notices and Permission
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This level is by 2001 Andreas Spitzer, all rights reserved.
All commercial use of this map is prohibited unless you have my
explicit permission. This includes, but is not limited to, mass archival as on a cd-rom
and inclusion in commercially published compilations (books and/or magazines).
You are not allowed to distribute this work on compact- and floppy-disk or other
electronic storage for commercial use.
Copyright 2001 Andreas Spitzer
All rights reserved.
Quake III Arena is a registered trademark of id Software, Inc.