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Den V
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Quake vs Unreal
Hey All,

I was watching Day 079 episode where Casey talks about difference in how Quake and Unreal engines handle world editing, and I think Casey got the games mixed up.

Quake is the one that treats space as empty space where you fill it in, creating objects from brushes (3d rectangles). And Unreal is the one where space is solid and you carve out the level inside of it.

Back in the day, I've done some fan map-making for Counter-Strike (pre-Source), that is based on Half-Life game engine. And Half-life engine is Quake 1 on steroids, if I remember correctly. So Half-Life and Counter-Strike inherited world model from Quake. One of the requirements for successful compilation for Counter-Strike map was that the map has to be closed (sealed). That means that if you are build a room, you must have the bottom, four walls, and the roof, where the room is sealed -- you cannot have a crack or a hole that leads to empty space. So in other words, you must create a vacuum, or a closed space. When you play CS level and you see the sky, the sky is actually a brush, that functions like a "lid" for your level, and it is textured in a special type of texture that makes it look like the distant sky.

One of very common compilation errors is those days for Counter-Strike maps was leak error. That meant that the map maker did not properly seal the level and it had a crack to empty space. This is one of the problems with empty space architecture that Casey discussed in Day 079. Those leaks have to be tracked and fixed. With that said, personally, I did find it easier to grasp the idea of building a level out of brushes in empty space (Quake) rather than carving it out of the solid (Unreal).
Casey Muratori
801 posts / 1 project
Casey Muratori is a programmer at Molly Rocket on the game 1935 and is the host of the educational programming series Handmade Hero.
Quake vs Unreal
Man, I'm getting old. I honestly remember it as being the other way 'round... I suppose it was two decades ago at this point, though :P

- Casey