Setting up and using Radiant

[MadGypsy]

I have so much map related stuff it isn't even funny, talisa. When gb told me that using only Worldcraft is a "weakness", I took that pretty seriously and went balls out to learn everything I could. I have collected so much data that I could form my own "quaddicted" for just maps.

I found something out about a lot of this stuff I have. I'm probably one of the last few people that even has it. This stuff was last minute scraped from old Quake sites that no longer exist. All those map examples I just gave you, you would be LUCKY to find 3 or 4 of them. I managed to get ALL of them (years ago).

I think Quake navigator managed to cache a few of those map examples, but not all 26 of them.

edit: Oh, and you are welcome, of course.

[MadGypsy]

I just went to Quake Navigator to double check what I said and there are no examples there. Not one. But, I found something else that you may find useful.

[JDSTONE]

im not working on mapping right now but i have been reading this a lot.
gypsy check out the bunker
Index of ./Quake 1 and 2 Prefabs/Quake/map/gamers/
lots of good quake stuff hiding there

also is there a way to have radient open a bsp like quark will?

[MadGypsy]

also is there a way to have radient open a bsp like quark will?

Well, I'm not familiar with Quark, but that sounds like you are saying that Quark has a built in engine. Sadly, radiant does not have such a feature BUT you can make radiant open your engine with the bsp loaded. All you have to do is goo to the become a Quake modder thread and look through all of my work on the radiant build menu.

Speaking of the radiant build menu. I will have a new version in the near future. Using .bats and .hta files I was able to create the GOD of build menus. Instead of it just being a shell with some number options, now it is more like an html form, fully equipped with buttons and option save features. The only drawback is .hta is pretty much an IE thing.

[JDSTONE]

you can run your map in quark and play it. but quark will also open the bsp and show it to you like a map. the brush work is all crazy but you can see all the triggers and everything elce. you can even put new thing in the map and save it. i gave the map unforgiven a few well placed extra quads. if you have not looked a quark you may wanna give it a look i know its old but they don't call it the quake army knife for nothing. nahuel reminded me that it was out there when i was having issues with radiant.

[MadGypsy]

I couldn't even imagine using that nightmare. I have played with it before, it is a nightmare. I will die with some Radiant on me. (lol)

Actually, I have tried every single solitary map editor that exists for windows and that was a gigantic waste of time cause I was already using Radiant...and I still am.

If I'm not mistaken, Radiant is what Quake was originally built in. It has certainly seen some updates since then, but I'm almost positive Radiant was their editor.

Here is my own personal (highly opinionated) review of Quake map editors.

Worldcraft: easy to learn and use but seriously lacking any clear way to customize your compiles and in some ways it is also "broken"

BSP: The WORST editor I have ever used. Very unfriendly.

QuArK: Hella powerful and stuck in 1996

NetRadiant: The bomb

GTKRadiant: a slightly weaker bomb (mostly due to config options [.pref])

DarkRadiant: I couldn't figure out how to do anything in this editor.

If I wasn't a diehard Radiant user, I would use Worldcraft. No other editors would even receive consideration by me.

[golden_boy]

DarkRadiant doesn't support Quake I believe, it officially supports The Dark Mod and Doom3 afaik.

If it wasn't for Radiant, I'd be using Unity or something. I can't deal with Worldcraft because of its user interface.

[golden_boy]

also is there a way to have radient open a bsp like quark will?

BSP is a compiled format that isn't meant for editing, if something still lets you do it then it's a giant hack.

There are programs that let you decompile a BSP (bsp2map I believe) but you'll not get a clean map from doing this because the format isn't made to be used that way.

.map is for editing, .bsp is for loading into an engine.

Just build the stuff yourself. It takes longer but it's yours.

[JDSTONE]

Thankyou Golden_boy for addressing my question. when i open a BSP all the brushs are triangulated (if that is the word for it) and the textchers are a mess. it would be bad to try and copy and past out of it.
but its a good way to see how the map works such as triggers if you do not have the map file. and it is good for the hard core cheater like my self to drop in some extra goodies lol

I agree with
Just build the stuff yourself. It takes longer but it's yours.

my map peaces that i have done are kinda messy but it is my mess and i take pride in it

[golden_boy]

You have a good point; map sources do let you see how stuff is done.

Index of /pub/idgames2/utils/level_edit/converters

Take a look in there.

[JDSTONE]

im mapping around and i think im getting an error from trying to make a brush too thin. im trying to hang some pics on the wall. what would be the right grid size to use when trying something like this?

[golden_boy]

In Quake 1 bsp format, you can use grid sizes down to 1 unit. Not smaller.

Only q3bsp format can deal with smaller grid sizes afaik.

[JDSTONE]

thanks both for you help...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZVZ_mHIPhY]MAP LIGHTS - YouTube[/ame]
this is the map peace im playing with and trying to make a room filled with them... one works 2 sometimes works but more then that and something gos wrong and i get that
************ ERROR ************
SubdivideFace: Didn't split the polygon near (2615 788 10), altar1_6

i open the map file in note book but i can't seem to find the line (2615 788 10) do you guys know a place i can get more information about whats going wrong..(any good links)

[MadGypsy]

1 is really thin. To go any smaller you might as well just make it flush with the wall. Don't forget to make lil clipbrush "ramps" on the edges so the player wont get snagged. I wrote you this lil tutorial.

note: all of this is in top view and you should select the clip brush texture from the texture browser before beginning

1) draw a brush next to your edge


2) press cntrl+3 to make it 3 sided


3) press cntrl+G to snap it to grid


4) press v to enter vertex mode


5) use shift+left mouse to draw a selection box over the bottom column of vertices. It looks like 1 but it is 2


6) lmouse+drag it down 1, give the slope some better easing


7) press escape til you don't see any vertices and press space to duplicate


move the duplicate brush to the other edge


9) go to modify (in this case) flipY


voila, clip brush ramps for your edges. Now I am going to go turn this exact tutorial into a presentation. Really, this lil tut shows you quite a few shortcuts and simple techniques that you can reuse for many things.

note: I combined my previous post with this one and deleted the other. They were saying the same thing but this one "says" it better.

[JDSTONE]

thanks i get what your saying... im having fun getting frustrated as i learn... i feel bad about jacking your threads with my learning stuff. you both have been a big help!