Can someone describe to me how to make the kind of stairs you see in office buildings? u know, the metal ones that they put in to use instead of the eleveator in case of a fire....
Office Building type stairs...
- Thread starter Mclarenlover
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yup! i'm now hosted here. 
not sure what you mean abut the stairs but if my stuff helps build it, cool!
not sure what you mean abut the stairs but if my stuff helps build it, cool!
well, what I am hoping I will be able to do is make something that looks like this:
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and so on if that helps any at all...
Those stairs are supposed to be ones where you would walk up a flight of stairs to a landing, then turn and go up another flight to another landing, then turn and go up to another landing and so on, so that there are several landings one on top of the other...
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and so on if that helps any at all...
Those stairs are supposed to be ones where you would walk up a flight of stairs to a landing, then turn and go up another flight to another landing, then turn and go up to another landing and so on, so that there are several landings one on top of the other...
kusiami
Unholy Mapper
Let me in on that idea when you can figure out how it works. I would just use slanted paths with a transparent ladder-type texture.
It could work... right?
P.S. Im just learning so call me a newbie if im wrong.
It could work... right?
P.S. Im just learning so call me a newbie if im wrong.
kusiami
Unholy Mapper
Those are a pain in the ass... I had made one for my Tactical Ops map. Stupid things... (forgot to intersect.. turned out real cheap)
Get the Tactical Ops mod and look at some of those maps. Thats what I call talent!
Get the Tactical Ops mod and look at some of those maps. Thats what I call talent!
Here's a pretty picture, followed by a demo map!
I think the attached picture may be sort of what you're trying to do.
I built 1/2 of the flight of stairs in the 2D editor, then extruded the width of the stairs. Then, I added the 1/2 flight of stairs in an empty building room. Then I rotated my stairs brush around, raised it up, and added it again. Voila, instant full flight of stairs. Then I wrapped the full flight of stairs with the builder brush, and intersected it to make a full flight brush.
After this, it's pretty easy to add the stairs into my stairwell tube. Just be sure to DE-INTERSECT the stair brush before adding it, this will ensure that hidden surfaces (where the stairs touch the stairwell) are removed.
I added a small plate for the very top and very bottom of the flight, added a few test room, some lights, and it works quite well.
(For the nifty touch, there's even a nice water drippy noise in the stairwell)
My next post contains the demo map and the 2D brush, and the 3D brush.
BB.
I think the attached picture may be sort of what you're trying to do.
I built 1/2 of the flight of stairs in the 2D editor, then extruded the width of the stairs. Then, I added the 1/2 flight of stairs in an empty building room. Then I rotated my stairs brush around, raised it up, and added it again. Voila, instant full flight of stairs. Then I wrapped the full flight of stairs with the builder brush, and intersected it to make a full flight brush.
After this, it's pretty easy to add the stairs into my stairwell tube. Just be sure to DE-INTERSECT the stair brush before adding it, this will ensure that hidden surfaces (where the stairs touch the stairwell) are removed.
I added a small plate for the very top and very bottom of the flight, added a few test room, some lights, and it works quite well.
(For the nifty touch, there's even a nice water drippy noise in the stairwell)
My next post contains the demo map and the 2D brush, and the 3D brush.
BB.
Here's the DM-OfficeTowerStairs demo map!
Here's my little demo map of the office tower stairs. Also included in the .ZIP file are the 2D half flight of stairs brush, and the 3D full flight of stairs brush.
Be prepared for lots of brush rotation, de-intersection, and merging polygons to get it all lookin pretty.
BB.
Late breaking news... I think I'll make one revision to this, so the stairway has that nice center hole in it -- you know, so you can jump waaaay down if you want... splat! These stairways do NOT pass any safety inspections! Stay tuned for an update.
Here's my little demo map of the office tower stairs. Also included in the .ZIP file are the 2D half flight of stairs brush, and the 3D full flight of stairs brush.
Be prepared for lots of brush rotation, de-intersection, and merging polygons to get it all lookin pretty.
BB.
Late breaking news... I think I'll make one revision to this, so the stairway has that nice center hole in it -- you know, so you can jump waaaay down if you want... splat! These stairways do NOT pass any safety inspections!
Stay tuned for an update.
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Here's Office Tower Stairs, Part II
Attached is my new set of office tower stairs demo map. This stairwell is bigger, and has a nice empty space in the middle that you can jump down into.
It looks nice, works well, but unfortunately, this time I picked up a butt-ugly HOM on the stairwell wall just outside of the 2nd floor doorway. You can see the HOM typically by looking downwards at the 2nd floor door from higher up in the stairwell.
I'm not a HOM expert, but I guess the staircase perhaps could have been built using a semi-solid brush, as I guess the full-solid brush I used (nicely and fully de-intersected from the stairwell) is doing massive BSP cuts up the yingyang. I don't know what I can/could do to prevent this HOM in the first place, or how to remove it now. I guess there are no 100% reliable ways to prevent them. *sigh*
BB.
Attached is my new set of office tower stairs demo map. This stairwell is bigger, and has a nice empty space in the middle that you can jump down into.
It looks nice, works well, but unfortunately, this time I picked up a butt-ugly HOM on the stairwell wall just outside of the 2nd floor doorway. You can see the HOM typically by looking downwards at the 2nd floor door from higher up in the stairwell.
I'm not a HOM expert, but I guess the staircase perhaps could have been built using a semi-solid brush, as I guess the full-solid brush I used (nicely and fully de-intersected from the stairwell) is doing massive BSP cuts up the yingyang. I don't know what I can/could do to prevent this HOM in the first place, or how to remove it now. I guess there are no 100% reliable ways to prevent them. *sigh*
BB.
Hrm, I dunno what problem y'all are running into... I'll give it a try, personally I think it sounds easy.
Thats exactly what I wanted to know how to do Bitbasher. But I'm gonna need a little more details about the De-intersecting and stuff.
Oh and by the way, I tried looking at both stair sets at every possible angle I could think of, and I never saw a single HOM or BSP hole...
Oh and by the way, I tried looking at both stair sets at every possible angle I could think of, and I never saw a single HOM or BSP hole...
Well, actually, now that I look at Cool Breezes Photo, thats closer to the actual look that I want, but Bit has the design that I want...
kusiami
Unholy Mapper
My first play map is full of BSP holes.. w00t!!
I made something simular to cool breeze's stairs tonight. Looks bretty cool, just cant get the entire set of stairs to go to one big red brush. I am a newbie, after all.
I made something simular to cool breeze's stairs tonight. Looks bretty cool, just cant get the entire set of stairs to go to one big red brush. I am a newbie, after all.
Heeeeeeeer's HOMie!
Here's where I look on DM-OfficeTowerStairs2 to see the HOM. Make sure you look in the bigger stairway, standing above the 3rd floor, looking down towards the 2nd floor door. (See picture at end of message)
I'm not an intersect/deintersect expert at all - I barely understand all the issues. My general rule-of-thumb 99% of the time, is to always intersect the builder brush before subtracting "touching geometry"; and to always de-intersect the builder brush before adding "touching" geometry.
For example, when I subtract a door or hallway between two non-touching rooms, I typically make the brush WIDER than the opening, and when I intersect the builder brush, it instantly shrinks-to-fit the opening to be a perfect door, all nicely aligned exactly to the grid.
So, for DM-OfficeTowerStairs2, the staircase is all an added solid. So, just after I positioned a staircase builder brush inside the stairwell, I would de-intersect it. This in my mind, "glues" the brush to all the adjoining walls/surfaces. I believe this also helps remove surfaces on the staircase that will become unseeable (surfaces between the stairwell and staircase that are in direct contact). AFAIK, there is absolutely no need at all to de-intersect something that is not contacting anything else (floating).
As I mentioned, I don't know this stuff very well, so when it comes to adding SEMI-SOLIDS, this is where my mind goes all fuzzy. I don't know if the staircase, if a semi-solid, should touch or not touch the stairwell, nor do I know if it should be de-intersected or not.
In my next post, I've attached a THIRD MAP, DM-OfficeTowerStairs3. In this new map, I've done the stairwell and stairs all over again, but this time, the stairwell is SLIGHTLY bigger than the staircase, and the staircase has been added as a SEMI-SOLID instead of a SOLID. Also, the staircase was NOT de-intersected, and the staircase does not touch anything - it is free floating.
So far, the third test map does NOT have any BSP holes or HOMs that I've found. Probably because now that the staircase is a semi-solid, it's no longer cutting the BSP up to shreds. I don't know if I could make the semi-solid staircase touch the walls or not, I'll let someone with more experience answer that! At least this map is working.
Oh, ignore the water zone - I was testing something, and I just left it in the map for fun.
BB.
Here's where I look on DM-OfficeTowerStairs2 to see the HOM. Make sure you look in the bigger stairway, standing above the 3rd floor, looking down towards the 2nd floor door. (See picture at end of message)
I'm not an intersect/deintersect expert at all - I barely understand all the issues. My general rule-of-thumb 99% of the time, is to always intersect the builder brush before subtracting "touching geometry"; and to always de-intersect the builder brush before adding "touching" geometry.
For example, when I subtract a door or hallway between two non-touching rooms, I typically make the brush WIDER than the opening, and when I intersect the builder brush, it instantly shrinks-to-fit the opening to be a perfect door, all nicely aligned exactly to the grid.
So, for DM-OfficeTowerStairs2, the staircase is all an added solid. So, just after I positioned a staircase builder brush inside the stairwell, I would de-intersect it. This in my mind, "glues" the brush to all the adjoining walls/surfaces. I believe this also helps remove surfaces on the staircase that will become unseeable (surfaces between the stairwell and staircase that are in direct contact). AFAIK, there is absolutely no need at all to de-intersect something that is not contacting anything else (floating).
As I mentioned, I don't know this stuff very well, so when it comes to adding SEMI-SOLIDS, this is where my mind goes all fuzzy.
I don't know if the staircase, if a semi-solid, should touch or not touch the stairwell, nor do I know if it should be de-intersected or not.In my next post, I've attached a THIRD MAP, DM-OfficeTowerStairs3. In this new map, I've done the stairwell and stairs all over again, but this time, the stairwell is SLIGHTLY bigger than the staircase, and the staircase has been added as a SEMI-SOLID instead of a SOLID. Also, the staircase was NOT de-intersected, and the staircase does not touch anything - it is free floating.
So far, the third test map does NOT have any BSP holes or HOMs that I've found. Probably because now that the staircase is a semi-solid, it's no longer cutting the BSP up to shreds. I don't know if I could make the semi-solid staircase touch the walls or not, I'll let someone with more experience answer that!
At least this map is working.Oh, ignore the water zone - I was testing something, and I just left it in the map for fun.
BB.
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Here's Office Tower Stairs, Part III (uses floating semi-solid stairs)
This message contains just the latest map, using "floating" semi-solid stairs instead of solid de-intersected stairs. So far, this map does not show BSP holes or HOMs.
This message contains just the latest map, using "floating" semi-solid stairs instead of solid de-intersected stairs. So far, this map does not show BSP holes or HOMs.
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I think you can eventually merge both designs together to get what you're looking for. Just as a test, I applied a nice masked grid texture onto just a half flight of stairs. I wanted to see what it looked like. (See picture below).
I think it looks pretty good, but I just pasted these textures on my current staircase brush, which is NOT really suitable for a masked/translucent texture (my current staircase is 16 units thick - which is way too thick for such a texture). The staircase could be re-constructed to better support a nice see-through catwalk type staircase.
I kinda like the look --- it's that kind of staircase that gives you the willies when you walk on it.
Only thing is can the UT rendering engine handle an entire staircase that is using a masked texture - that's a lot of see-thru stuff!BB.