Howdy, Bloodshot. Maybe this PM GB sent me a zillion years ago will help you. I wanted to learn how to make Q3 maps in FBSP format. You may not be using FBSP but, all of this is just general Q3 stuff.

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Here is the FBSP stuff:

1) You use the q3map2 compiler by Ydnar to make FBSP maps. It is the standard compiler for Quake 3 maps today and supports many games. It also has some outstanding features. It comes with Netradiant and probably also GTKradiant. Make sure you get the latest version, I have 2.5.17n. Here is the q3map2 wiki:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Q3Map2

Note that some entities work differently with q3map2; for example misc_model does something special (models are actually compiled into the BSP), and lights have spawnflags and different keys than in Q1, and spotlights always require targeting an info_(not)null. Sunlight and ambient light are also done differently (via sky shader, and via floodlight feature).

2) You use Radiant to make maps for FBSP; you start with the Darkplaces gamepack because that uses TGA images and shaders (Quake 3 does not use texture wads). You run Radiant in Quake 3 mode so the maps get saved as Q3 .map format (yes the map format is different too). This mode allows you to use shaders, curves, patch meshes etc.

You modify the DP gamepack's config files to contain your engine path etc, and work with the model formats you want. You must also configure it to use your entity .def file, not the default one.

To use shaders, you must install a couple things; chiefly, you need a scripts folder in your mod's gamedir and inside you have the common shaders (trigger, clip, hint, nodraw, origin, caulk etc). These common shaders come from Quake 3 in a file called common.shader. You probably also want sky, water, glass etc. shaders. You can get them from the web, from games like Warsow, and from Quake 3 itself.

Inside the scripts folder is a shaderlist.txt file that just lists the names of the shaders to be loaded.

You also want the corresponding images for the shaders to use in the editor; these go in the textures/ subfolder. Radiant will display a white frame around an image in the texture browser IF a shader belongs to that image.

All your TGA textures (I use Moondrunk's textures as a base) also go into textures/ so Radiant will find them. You can directly use TGA images for mapping - no more texture wads. You need to scale them down in the surface editor to fit the Quake scale, usually the scale factor is 0.125. This is because their resolution is so much higher than Quake's.

Q3map2 supports deluxemapping; this means you *can* use normalmaps with static lighting if the engine supports it. Lumas also work (instead of Quake 1's fullbrights). To use animated textures, you really should use a shader, but FTE at least also supports the old Quake way of animation. For water and sky, you definitely need dedicated shaders.

You *can* use GLSL within a Quake 3 shader. For example I use FTE's pretty water in my water shader! Shaders also support if statements to check if eg GLSL is even available.

Here is the shader manual that explains the shader syntax:

Q3Map2 Shader Manual

I can also give you shaders if you want.

Be aware that Quake 3 shaders are NOT the same as GLSL shaders!!! For example "pretty water" is done with GLSL shaders, while a light emitting texture is done with a Q3A shader. Think of Quake 3 shaders as "materials" similar to Doom 3's. Just read a few examples.

Curves and patch meshes will just work as soon as you use the Quake 3 setting in Radiant.

3) Remember to use -game qfusion on the q3map2 command line to create FBSP maps. You can check the first bits of a BSP file in a hex editor to see if it says "FBSP". This is the only difference compared to normal Quake 3 mapping.

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I found updated common.shader(w/ pk3) and entities.(ent/def) for Radiant.

Also, I found this complete set of Q3 map tutorials (9) with sources. Scroll down a little to Quake 3 series.

This page has a pretty damn sizable amount of content related to q3 mapping. Textures and shaders seem to be covered extensively.

There is also a beginners tutorial for Warsow. The concepts should be the same... maybe even identical.

Here are some videos. I didn't actually watch them but maybe one of them shows you how to set up radiant for your needs.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgWxosthJcE[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZEAdVETkDo[/ame]

Honestly, I could keep going and going. The amount of available information and resources is overwhelming. My google term was "Q3 map example".

I know that probably none of this is the simple, straight-forward answer you were hoping for but, I assure you the answers you need are linked in this post in one way or another. I never bothered to become knowledgeable regarding Q3 mapping so, unfortunately I can't just take a couple of screenshots and figuratively dump the answers in your lap. I would if I could though. However, if I was going to use my own info to figure this out, I would download the shader/entities resource and the sources for those 9 tutorials (or probably just the first one). I'd then ignore all the rest of this shit and simply get the map source to compile. If you can get it to compile, you're ready. If you can't get it to compile, maybe the missing answers are in one of the other links or GB's PM.

edit: The manual is always a good place to start. Scroll down to Creating Textures::setting up files (about halfway down the page). This should be exactly what you are looking for. I could delete this entire post except for this part but, I spent a lot of time trying to find helpful info for you so, I'm leaving it all up.

A good forum to get help is Quake3World.com • View forum - Level Editing & Modeling

Donkey has a series of excellent Q3A level editing tutorials that will get you started (scroll down): Untitled Document

I already included a link to both of those. It's the links that are anchored to "This page has a pretty damn sizable..." and "Complete set of Q3 map..". I even already had the (scroll down) instruction. The manual (absolute end of my post) is really the info he needs.

Thanks for the guide, It really helped steer me in the right direction, got things working now