Setting up and using Radiant

[bluntz]

Thanks GB,I thought it was all snapped to grid since I leave that option ticked in the grid menu.

[golden_boy]

Unfortunately you'll have to manually check / make sure after building ANYTHING out of brushes that isn't a simple block.

Whenever building curves and details, it pays off to make double sure the stuff is on the grid. Best way to do so is in Vertex mode, in the 2D viewport, because the vertices are clearly visible then.

Check the columns in front and back of the temple in top view with grid size 1, you'll see the vertices are between the grid points. :-)

Patches really make it easier.

If all else fails, ASE the stuff - i.e. make it into a static mesh.

[bluntz]

I dont see how to import other models into netradiant.I am glad for the help with patches as I was just going to leave the rag off the amphitheater not seeing any way to use fabrics but now it's done.This should also pave the way for flags and banners and sails..OH MY!

[golden_boy]

You can import ASE models into Radiant via the misc_model entity (this is Radiant specific, does not need QC and will only work with q3bsp).

Place some entity, then rename it (classname) to misc_model. Give the misc_model the following key:

"model" "path/to/mymodel.ase"

You can give this entity spawnflags to make it solid and/or lightmapped. I think it was spawnflag 6 to make it solid & lightmapped, but look it up in the q3map2 manual.

Here is an ASE export script for Blender 2.63, hacked to work for Quake 3:

Hacked ASE export script for Blender 2.63a - Pastebin.com

Put that into scripts/addons in your Blender installation, then activate it in the user preferences under im/export or whatever it was. You'll figure it out.

You can export any brushwork from radiant as *.obj (with netradiant, via brushexport plugin). Load that obj into Blender, model whatever you want, and export as ASE. Then use misc_model to reimport the ASE in Radiant.

Katsbits has a tutorial on that. I have something on my blog here.

About Meshes spawnhost

Before exporting an ASE from Blender, make sure

- it is UV unwrapped, even if badly
- it has a material and a texture of type Image or Movie applied
- triangulate faces
- Apply Location, rotation and scale in Object mode
- Center the object at grid center
- Add an Edge Split modifier and Apply it to create smoothing groups
- Make sure all face normals point outwards

That should be it.

After exporting from Blender, open the ASE in a text editor and change the line that says "Bitmap" to one of your shaders or map textures. You can have multiple materials in an ASE as long as they are on different objects ^^

enjoy...



just as an example, the curved guide rail here is a static mesh and was modelled in Blender after a mock-up made from brushes was exported from radiant. This functionality is very powerful.



The helicopter, too, is a static mesh (model by gnounc).

[bluntz]

So saving the script as ase_export.py correct?
This info is confusing

You can import ASE models into Radiant via the misc_model entity (this is Radiant specific, does not need QC and will only work with q3bsp).

Place some entity, then rename it (classname) to misc_model. Give the misc_model the following key:

"model" "path/to/mymodel.ase"

You can give this entity spawnflags to make it solid and/or lightmapped. I think it was spawnflag 6 to make it solid & lightmapped, but look it up in the q3map2 manual.

Where do I enter this info at? In the entity inspector?Netradiant has no options I see in misc model for anything but a few entity models,GTK 1.62 DOES have all the options listed there for various model format imports.

[golden_boy]

I think it doesn't matter what the filename is; mine is ASE250.py.

You can turn one entity into any other entity in Radiant by editing the classname.

You can also manually set spawnflags in Radiant by adding "spawnflags" "somenumber" to the entity. It's very simple.

If you want the entity, with full description of all keys, and checkboxes for spawnflags in Radiant, you must add it to your entity definition file (.def file). That's going to be difficult if you use Radiant's default entity definition file for Quake.

The full description of misc_model is in my q3bsp tutorial, further down the page in red print. It is also in the q3map2 manual - please google and read that. Spawnflag 2 is clipmodel, spawnflag 4 is lightmap - so "spawnflags" "6" enables both (remember spawnflags is a bitfield).

Q3bsp for Quake tutorial spawnhost

Edit: If your misc_model doesn't accept ASE models, first try just entering "models" "xyz.ase" manually and see if the model is loaded. If it isn't edit the gamepack configuration file as described in my tutorial. The model type information is in there.

[bluntz]

ok followed best I could understand and think this is the line in the ase.
*BITMAP "/home/bluntz/Pictures/head.tga"

So what I did was copy that texture to the textures folder.
correct?

[bluntz]

I think I am close,I got the entries into the inspector and it imported. the ase
the textures not showing but I suspect my ase editing is likely wrong or placement of the texture as it is not in the browser.
Here is the con output with the error,seems the material is missing.

Open file /home/bluntz/darkplaces/id1/maps/apollo.autosave.map for write...success
entitySetKeyValue -key "model" -value "/home/bluntz/darkplaces/id1/progs/head.ase"
Loaded Model: "progs/head.ase"
Texture load failed: "mat"
entitySetClass -class misc_model
Autosaving...

Rename head.tga to mat.tga?

Here is the model,again its generated from a picture, likely too high poly.32k faces

[golden_boy]

You must text-edit the Bitmap line in the ASE to point to a texture inside your gamedir. As an example, here is my texture path:

quake/scouts (this is the gamedir)

quake/scouts/textures/map01/plainsteel.tga (this is where the textures are)

So what I put into the "Bitmap" line of the ASE is:

"textures/map01/plainsteel.tga"

You should generally not use absolute paths in entities, because your map/mod needs to run on other people's computers as well. So, always give the path relative to the game dir.

32k polies is pretty high for a prop like that (that's half of what many *maps* weigh), you should try to get it under 1000 polies (3000 polies for a creature model). The process normally used for that is normal mapping.

Make a low poly version of that model (less than 1000) and use a normal map to provide the missing detail.

From your high poly model, in Blender, bake a normal map. There are tutorials on youtube how to do this, it's done by many people who make gun models and want more detail but a low polycount. This is what you should do, too. The model should be low poly, with all the detail of your high poly model preserved in the texture / in the normal map instead. Just like e.g. Doom 3 does.

For a static mesh, I believe you have to texture it with a shader that contains a normalmap stage. I haven't done this myself so far because SJ doesn't use normal maps atm (it will, though, as soon as we get deluxemapping working). Quake 3 also doesn't support normal maps, but of course FTE/DP/Qfusion etc. do. So we will have to find out how to properly include a normalmap in a DP/FTE shader...

As an alternative, you could bake an ambient occlusion map from your high poly model and merge that with the lowpoly model's texture (overlay / multiply mode in Gimp). This will also help to provide detail and will not require realtime world lighting/deluxemapping, unlike normal maps.

You notice you have to learn Blender and Gimp (or Max/Maya and Photoshop) as well as Radiant to do stuff like that

http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/

Take a good long look at katsbits' tutorial section.

http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/bl...rom-models.php

here's how to bake normal maps in Blender, btw.

[bluntz]

GB did you do a water tut somewhere? I made a pool put a brush in it filling the tank and applied the water shader to it.All the physics seem to work right after compile but I cant see the water.I added a brush over the top and put a water texture on it but it is of course solid,how do I make the brush not solid?If this is the way to make the pool of course.
EDIT:
I made it a detail brush to unsolidify the water

[golden_boy]

I use the ftewater shader myself, but unfortunately (?) that requires FTE.

The other water shaders in the example shader pack create correct water physics, but their appearance sucks. I never bothered to continue developing vanilla Q3 water shaders, because GLSL water is just so much better.

I suggest you find one of the Darkplaces pretty water shaders and use the GLSL from that. Someone like Seven might be able to help you.

Alternatively rip the water shaders from Warsow, Nexuiz/Xonotic and Quake 3 and experiment with them until you find something that works. It's hard to get good looking water without resorting to things like GLSL though.

[bluntz]

Got the low poly terrain mapped to more detail from the kats tut working.
Thanks GB!.

[bluntz]

I will now have plenty of time to get back to this map.I just hope I can do the work on a P4 laptop.

[MadGypsy]

That stuff is epic, man. Lightsources are strange though. The light seems to just appear from nowhere.

You should litter the entire environment with WWII stuff.

.

[bluntz]

Glad you like it!