HEXEN II community work and discussion

[kal27]

Now this is awesome, I love Hexen, and hexen 2, so this is freaking awesome!

[Naykin]

Rino, you very helped me! Thanks)

[Korax]

Pakscape is a pretty cool option, I often use it myself when I need to create PAK files.
With UQE you got another option to also use WinZip to create standard zip files and rename them to PK3.

Basically exactly the same process you'd typically follow to create PK3 files for Quake III Arena. Pakscape also supports the saving of PK3.

[Rino]

Hello Naykin,
for textures I use paint shop pro, I run it directly in Quark,
to do this you must go to menu - General - External Editor, and put in file extensions (jpg bmp tga) the directory where you have your photo editing program (.exe).

Obviously to start creating your texture, you will need to create a new Add on, in the menu Toolboxes, of Quark.

Click on Folders - New main folder, a window will appear, you
select "In a new Add on", and save your file with a name in the root directory.

Then you can rename the file with the same name in Toolboxe (Texture Browser)

Click on it, then Edit - Import Files - Import (copy) files, (eg a. Wad file)

Alternatively you can make from scratch, click on new texture Q1, (above the toolbar, fine for Hexen2),
and then invoke the editor, to create or edit your textures.

Regarding PAK files, I use Quark, but often usage Pakscape is easy to use.

When you've made your map, open Packscape and
create a new folder named maps, in which you put your map.

Save it as. Pak0 (normally) and put it in a new folder with the name of your game eg naykin, this goes in directory Hexen2.

Finally, launch your map you need to create a. Bat file (using Editpad or Notepad) enter the example string:

GLH2 -game naykin -width 1024 -height 768 +map naykin +playerclass 1

(GLH2 can change depending on the port you use, and also more parameters)

and save it as all files as well: (naykin.bat), then you put it in Hexen2.

Finally, double-click on naykin.bat, should start your first level!

I hope I've helped
bye.

Rino

[Naykin]

Hello, Rino. I want to create Hexen 2 mod, and i need some help. What the programs are you use for textures and how you create *.PAK files?

[Seven]

inkub0 started with creating replacement textures at a time where he didnt know jeank.
jeank found this thread somehow and 2 high talented people met
That was the beginning of a great story

At that time, jeank already converted almost all world textures and a LOT of the model skins (including some amazing weapon skins and monster skins !).

They both teamed up and share their work with each other.
In the end you find some work from each on in the others release

That time and the talent of these guys impressed me so much, that i even fell more in love with Hexen2.
I like jeanks improved engine very much too.

But now all the other engine devs are making a great progress and hopefully Hexen2 will be more popular again.
Yes, there is still the map-limitation, but maybe there will be a new standard for all engines soon...

Kind regards,
Seven

[MadJak91]

Thank you both, Seven and Korax!

Converting all of the JPG to TGA made the texture pack work with UQE.

In the end I decided to play with jaenks textures like Seven suggested. They are also really nice!
It is interesting that a few of the textures are still JPG but work fine with UQE. I guess they are the "proper" JPG textures in jaenks pack.

[Rino]

Hello Seven,
the work I'm doing on mpbyrino, will not be optimized for uhexen2, if you've already played the old mpbyrino, there is no problem with the missionpack by rino EVO.

Thank you, and sorry for the wait

[Korax]

JPG files are supported in UQE.
The problem I found is that something is different in the way those JPG files are saved as my own JPG files I've tested with work fine. I've used Photoshop CS3 to do my testing on using standard settings.

I know about the crash that gets caused by the texture pack and I did do debugging on it specifically to see whats going on.
Realistically there are only two ways to fix this, either get the JPG files re-saved to a standard JPG format or save the JPG files as TGA. The crash itself occurs within the JPG library itself which is what lead me to believe this is a JPG file-specific issue.

UQE uses the exact same library Quake III Arena uses as I directly ported it from idTech3 to the Hexen (Quake) engine. So barring any additional checking that idTech3 might perform I'm pretty sure these JPG files would probably crash-out Q3A as well.

An alternative I might investigate in the future is to have a look at what version of the library the idTech4 engine uses and look at porting that over to replace the one I'm currently using which was ported from idTech3.

I did report this issue to inkub0, but haven't gotten a response regarding it ever since.

[Seven]

Hello to everybody, new page on my site, work in progress.
I started working on mpbyrino, old episode made in '98, by performing major changes at the various levels and with new textures, if you want take a look:

https://sites.google.com/site/missionpackbyrino/

i wait your suggestion, and ideas, also regarding if you have a map sp that you would like to add

Hello Rino,

I already was worried, because your old page was no longer available.
Now that you are starting a new page and even rework your maps, everything is good again
Your screenshot compilation looks really nice.

Are your maps now optimized for uhexen2 only ?
Because you mention it on your page...
I use another engine.

Hello,

I am having a problem using inkub0's Hexen 2 textures (0.85) with UQE Hexen 2 1.16.
I put the "textures" folder in "data1" and after running the engine it crashes with the error: Requested feature was omitted at compile time.

The UQE help file mentions crashes due to unsupported JPG encoding or something similar but I do not know if that is relevant. I am guessing that the pack is not compatible with 1.16 UQE?
UQE works fine without the pack.

Maybe I just need to place the folders differently so any help with the problem would be appreciated.
No official or unofficial add-ons, mission packs etc. are installed. Just plain old patched Hexen 2.

Thanks!

Hello MadJak91,

The author of UQE visits this thread from time to time. He can surely answer your question.
Until then, you should try to use jeanks High Resolution replacement textures. They are in .tga format.
Maybe this format is "better" supported ?

jeanks textures (which are reworked originals) keep the "dirty" look of Hexen2 which I like so much. You should try them.
They are included in jeanks complete pack (with improved jshexen2 engine and all).

Or you can (via mass-batch-convertion file) convert inkub0īs texture to a supported format.

Good luck,
Seven

[MadJak91]

Hello,

I am having a problem using inkub0's Hexen 2 textures (0.85) with UQE Hexen 2 1.16.
I put the "textures" folder in "data1" and after running the engine it crashes with the error: Requested feature was omitted at compile time.

The UQE help file mentions crashes due to unsupported JPG encoding or something similar but I do not know if that is relevant. I am guessing that the pack is not compatible with 1.16 UQE?
UQE works fine without the pack.

Maybe I just need to place the folders differently so any help with the problem would be appreciated.
No official or unofficial add-ons, mission packs etc. are installed. Just plain old patched Hexen 2.

Thanks!

[Rino]

Hello to everybody, new page on my site, work in progress.
I started working on mpbyrino, old episode made in '98, by performing major changes at the various levels and with new textures, if you want take a look:

https://sites.google.com/site/missionpackbyrino/

i wait your suggestion, and ideas, also regarding if you have a map sp that you would like to add

[Rino]

Hello Guys, of the legendary HeXen2,
I wanted to write two things: Seven, first of all I thank you!
"Editor used: Hexmaker + + + 1999 + + +", it is actually the YEAR in which
I made the first mp, (nothing special parameters) ,
I had a desktop pc with Windows98 (but also Windows95!).
I did the add on for fun,
but also often by trial and error,
it is clear that in mp1 I put a little of everything and I realized that making small maps I avoided the obstacle of slowdowns to SO, and Hexmaker,
and the various levels I made them as the ideas came to me at that moment, as a fan of the game without project ... even if I did something on paper, Furthermore with little regard for example for the VIS (important parameter to compile)
with mp2 I tried to do things better.
golden_boy, you're right it would require a modern engine to the game and
to make maps, maybe a q3map.exe, or other so as to give freshness
to our HeXen 2, deserves it, given the many fans who still play today.
Rino would be very pleased .
Mathuzzz, you're right it's better small map, to add detail
looks at The Mill, the Ravens have put in a block small, because
has many details, movement and triggers.
One way is to angle the corridors that avoid the VIS calculation,
concealing what's next.
A castle outdoors to 360 degrees, full of details, it is really big to handle
if it is single player, you have to take into account the triggers, you can sometimes see a door disappear no reason, it happens!
sometimes it is better to show only a few brush, such as the entry part of it and the main walls but then choose a changelevel, dividing the map into sectors.
There are cracks which create problems, but I when I can put a skybox and solve the problem.

Good mapping




See you soon, there are novelty incoming

Rino

[Mathuzzz]

Seven, I donīt say that all the existing maps for Hexen 2 (including originals) are bad.
Iīll put it this way. My map is a castle with both exterior and interior and some surround areas. The space there is simply too big for the mapsīs limits. And there is no such a map (complete castle) that I know of, because most of H2 maps are enclosed corridors.

I know what you are trying to say and I have this in mind, but once one cannot finish the map he spent months working on, he has very little passion left for another mapping.

Maybe Iīll try some compromises if I donīt have other choice, but Iīm afraid it wonīt be enough.

[golden_boy]

Seven;

it is too bad that you never felt the frustration of putting tons of enthusiastic effort into a level, just to be KO'd in the 11th round by a hard limit from the past (that is almost impossible to know beforehand).

And then given a high-horsed sermon about the "virtues of self-control".

Oh and also, it is quite natural that a game, and the fan-made assets created for it, will evolve over time. Many years have passed since Hexen 2 was new. Evolution is a normal thing.