Mapping Q & A Thread(if you have a mapping question look here)

[CreatureofHell]

Modify the shader file? (at a guess)

[amz181]

i know that lolz, thanks anyway though, just wondering if there was a simpler way.

i'll repeat for this page.

can you turn off light emmiting textures? if so how?

[Ingar]

i'll repeat for this page.

can you turn off light emmiting textures? if so how?

By using the texture instead of the shader. Sometimes the shader has the same name as the texture:
you won't be able to select the texture in radiant and the engine will use the shader anyway.

The clean and simple solution is to create a new subdirectory yourmapname in textures/ and copy the textures you use there. Use your own shader file and name your shaders like yourmapname/shadername.

This will usually stop other maps from messing with your textures, and you from messing with
other maps shaders.

Note for the casual reader:

A shader is a script that can use textures (jpeg images, ....) and do interesting things with it
like make it a ladder, nonsolid, or make it emit light.

Use light emiting shaders, seriously. Only add point lights where you want to touch up the lighting.

[lol]

well something else has gone wrong for me lol, this time i added in a alien spawn to fix my previous problem and then went to put in a human one as well and bam! its like 10x larger that what is should be.  So i deleted it tried again and it still wasnt normal so i tried using the scale tool and nothin happened. The only thing i can think of is me not using the scale tool right. 

[CATAHA]

May be not spawns lagrer? Just your map too tiny?
Sense of proportions is one of worst of common problems. Humans have approx 64 gird unids height and 32 in base.Tyrant have base 72 gu and height approx 96 gu. So you can imagine how big hallways and other stuff you need. =] When i started mapping i always place RC before other stuff. =]

UPD: Yeah... and i think 1 gird unit its approx 3cm in real life =]

[lol]

well the alien spawn is 10 times smaller and seems right but ill test to make sure its not my map being too tiny

[Knowitall66]

@lol; dont worry the size of the egg, it looks bigger when ingame. In editor it shows it before it has 'grown'. Oh and make sure you put it a few units above the ground.

[lol]

thanks, hopefully i can get this map done now

[UniqPhoeniX]

For player sizes: (once again in the same damn mapping guide, GO READ IT) http://tremmapping.pbwiki.com/Starting+Tremulous+Mapping#QuickReference

[lol]

I think i finally got the hang of this lol. 

[CATAHA]

For player sizes: (once again in the same damn mapping guide, GO READ IT) http://tremmapping.pbwiki.com/Starting+Tremulous+Mapping#QuickReference

Sorry... at beginning i tested those values and stil have sense they wrong. For examp. when i make 'hole' a bit bigger that wiki human values human just cant walk through it. Thats why i maked test map and calculated all values manually. Now when i make maps i'm sure in they size. =)

[Kitashi]

I normally start off a map by building a reactor or overmind on a platform (which eventually gets made into a room) that way I start off with a good sense of how large things should be.

[Plague Bringer]

I try to build a relatively large central room or hub, occasionally using the reactor for reference. Then I just build the rest of the map in relation to the door sizes on that room, ceiling heights, etc. I build land marks in relation to the reactor, for reference.

[lol]

I just start buildin somethin and hope its close once i put in spawns lol. 

[gareth]

lololololololol.

[lol]

Can anyone give me a rundown on ladders.  I didnt see it as a shader or an entity.   

[CATAHA]

Ladders defined in shader. Try this params in shader:

  surfaceparm ladder
  surfaceparm nodraw
  surfaceparm nolightmap
  surfaceparm nonsolid
  surfaceparm trans
  surfaceparm nomarks
  surfaceparm noimpact
  surfaceparm playerclip
  surfaceparm metalsteps

[CreatureofHell]

http://tremmapping.pbwiki.com/Shader_Ladder

very useful!

[lol]

thanks and since yall pretty much know everythin lol, please answer my topic about pk3 trouble

[Winnie the Pooh]

Can anyone give me a rundown on ladders.  I didnt see it as a shader or an entity.  

A ladder shader is contained in the Karith map by default.

[amz181]

Need two bit of help.

I need a good tutorial for bending pipes, i still dont know how to do it.

And need a good tutorial for making simple patch meshes into corner bits. Ya know, for when you have cylinder doorways... I thought i knew how to do it, but the texturing comes out all warped

[fleash eater]

Need two bit of help.

I need a good tutorial for bending pipes, i still dont know how to do it.

And need a good tutorial for making simple patch meshes into corner bits. Ya know, for when you have cylinder doorways... I thought i knew how to do it, but the texturing comes out all warped

click on the patch mesh then press "s" key. then below "axal" and "fit" there is a buttun that says "natural" click that.

[Knowitall66]

Bending Patches Tutorial (By  Bubba): http://bubba.planetquake.gamespy.com/bc2.html
If you need more help with the basics, then perhaps you should check out some of his other tutorials too.

[amz181]

@flesh eater

When i did that the texture just blurs.

@Knowitall thx alot

[Ingar]

And need a good tutorial for making simple patch meshes into corner bits. Ya know, for when you have cylinder doorways... I thought i knew how to do it, but the texturing comes out all warped

I figured it would be best to document the entire story, so  I wrote a doorway arch tutorial.
It also explains the corner bits.

http://ingar.satgnu.net/gtkradiant/tutorial-arch.html

Some tips on handling patches:

If you edit mesh-vertices (V) you will notice there are two kinds of dots: green dots and pink dots.
The green dots are knots. A knot will always be on the patch mesh surface. Pink dots are control
points and are used to control the curvature of your mesh. A control point can be outside the patch
mesh surface. Compare it to editing a curve in a vector drawing program.

You can select multiple points at once by holding the shift key and mouse-dragging a box around it.

[amz181]

And need a good tutorial for making simple patch meshes into corner bits. Ya know, for when you have cylinder doorways... I thought i knew how to do it, but the texturing comes out all warped

I figured it would be best to document the entire story, so  I wrote a doorway arch tutorial.
It also explains the corner bits.

http://ingar.satgnu.net/gtkradiant/tutorial-arch.html

Some tips on handling patches:

If you edit mesh-vertices (V) you will notice there are two kinds of dots: green dots and pink dots.
The green dots are knots. A knot will always be on the patch mesh surface. Pink dots are control
points and are used to control the curvature of your mesh. A control point can be outside the patch
mesh surface. Compare it to editing a curve in a vector drawing program.

You can select multiple points at once by holding the shift key and mouse-dragging a box around it.

Thanks alot, my corner bits are in your debt.

[Ingar]

I need a good tutorial for bending pipes, i still dont know how to do it.

Just added http://ingar.satgnu.net/gtkradiant/tutorial-pipe.html
Happy bending.

Thanks alot, my corner bits are in your debt.

You're  welcome. I hope this solves these FAQ's.

[fleash eater]

i can haz sticky now?



also: my mate wants to know how he could change a fog shader to have brown fog so it looks like a sand storm, also maybe a particle system could show this effect? and if it can how woud you make a particle shader.

[lol]

well im back lol after a 3 month break but anywayz i decided to finish up my map and when i go to test it i get this error message
(sv:brushset is null)
or something like that so i try the sv_pure 0 devmap on my other map and it works fine.  any ideas?

[UniqPhoeniX]

"something like that" is not accurate enough. I assume you mean SV_SetBrushModel: null which means there are some entities that consist only of origin textured brush? Running the map with sv_pure 0 might have run a different .bsp (that isn't in a pk3) which doesn't have that problem.