Tremulous Mapping Guide Cont.

[zeta]

Im going to tell you How to make your first room, and add new rooms and add a base!


FIRST u must install GTKradiant, Guide for that is found here http://tremmapping.pbwiki.com/GtkRadiant1_5-Win32


Now if you are done with that here is step 2,

open up GTKradiant with tremulous as the game you want to use.(if it isnt on the games selecting thing u didnt install it right, seek the first guide for help!)

Now, see the 1 in the picture? Thats your grid, It is your BEST friend with GTKradiant. This is the thing that will help you create anything your mind can think of(except that rlly hard stuff that you need to use 3dsmax for xD)


the tool bar should have different stuff in it for u because this is from a JKA tutorial!

I want u to Click that drag ure mouse in it! and it will creat a box! Should look like this!


Dont ask about the box size i dont know how to do it, im using pictures from existing tutorials because im lazy xD

now in the camera, top right box it might looks short or wide or something like that, then u need to switch the veiw on your grid, this is the XYZ butten



Here is a nice thing i like to call player sizes! :wink:

Class, Size    
Granger             40x40x40    
Adv Granger,    50x50x50    
Dretch,             30x30x30    
Basilisk,             36x36x36    
Adv. Basilisk,    42x42x42    
Marauder,             50x50x38    
Adv. Marauder,    52x52x42    
Dragoon ,            52x52x55    
Adv Dragoon,    64x64x67    
Tyrant,             64x64x92
human Standing,    30x30x56    
Human Crouching,    30x30x40

IMPORTANT TIP! Always make hallways extra big for more fighting room, and room for detail(Pipes, boxes, your minds desire!)

NOW back to the room! ok say u make a box thats like 1024(L)x1024(W)x192(H), what the hell does it do its just a box u cant go inside, WRONG! You can go inside it if u hit a certain butten i like to call hollow!



If you havent figured it out yet, to control the camera in the top left you press *Right Mouse* on the box, then use the arrow keys to move around in it xD simple huh?



Adding Rooms, and yes it is simple!

1. Make another box the size of a hallway you want, and place it next to your big room! put a little bit into the big room, and make sure its not touching the wall the celing or the floor, should look like this!


2. Now you need to subtract it out xD, hit the subtract butten


3. Take ure box and move it out from the main room, then make it so it makes up for the whole by adding 1 block on each side


4. remember that hollow butten you used to make ure big room, WELL hit it again with the new box selected! Just to let you know to select a item press *SHIFT+LEFT CLICK*

5. Delete the doorway! Once you have it selected then hit *BACKSPACE*, this will remove it and u will have a nice little opening into the next room!

6. now it should look like this


NICE quikies with the program!
the spacebar will copy any item you have selected
backspace will remove any item you have selected
shift+click will select stuff!(do this from the camera window)

Ah yes textures u might be asking about! hit the texture butten at the top of the map and load the textures from a map






PART 2!
In this part i will tell u how to add a base to your map,add lights, and how to test it!

1. get a base model for a base, im going to make just a simple little thing and texture it!

2. now right click on the grid where you want your building!  Then go into team then select the building you want!


3. Your building prolly wont be where u want it, but u can move it around using the grid


IMPORTANT TIP Always ALWAYS ALWAYS place a building at least 16 blocks away from any wall or the floor! like in the picture, otherwise when you start up your map all the building will expload! but i know what ure thingk BUT ZETA i dont want the buidlings in the air... well they will fall to the ground gently when the map starts up so you dont have to worry about that!

4. Place all the other items in the base
Here is a list of things u will need and some u might want depending on the size of the map

Need at least 2 acid tubes or machinegun turrets at each entrance into the base

Need at least 2 spawns!

Need a overmind or a reactor!

And for humans u might wanna add a armory if the map is small and there will be alot of kills right away!

5. Now say your map is all done and you want to go and try it out?
wait arent u forgeting something? starts with a L! or ya Lights!

A simple light system in basic maps is pretty ez, now im not telling you, that you need a source for the lights, because on your first map that should be the least of your worrys!

here is how you add them!

1. right click on grid and select light, This will ask you for the entinsity put 50 for now!


2. now center the light out equaly in between the celing and floor!

3. just hit space(copys the light) and move every so often should look like dis!


Now when you get better with the editor you can learn how to do sources for lights, like making a moddel for a ligth then making it emit light! Kinda like dis


Compiling the map for play!

1. go to file>save Then put the name as somehting simple like test or firstmap, now save it in your map folder, if you dont have one add one, and if you dont know how to add a map you might as well go back to playing tremulous cuz you arent expierenced enuf with a computer!


2. once its saved go to Build>(test) BSP -meta, -vis fast, -light -fast -super 2 -filter

3. OMG its building your map, i bet your shaking in your pants cuz u cant wait to play but just a lil bit longer! once it is done and the dos box has disapeard u may now open tremulous!

4. once ingame you much go into the console, the key is the key to the left of 1 and above the TAB key, it has a ~ and a ` in it! this is called the tilde key and is used as a console key in many games!

5. once you are in it type   /sv_pure 0    hit enter, the type   /devmap firstmap!   then hit enter and it should load!

6. if you have any problems getting it to load post telling us what it said and we will tell you what is wrong xD




 

MORE IN DEPTH AND ADVANCE TUTORIALS AT RICH DIESALS, these are JKA 2 tutorials but they work in all of radiant so be resourcfull!





END for now i might add more later if ure luky PLZ rate it

[Karvajalka]

If I remember right, most of those tutorials are for JKO (Jedi Knight II: Jedi Oucast, which rocks btw), because I read them when I  was editing JKO, and JKA wasn't even released back then :roll: , huge mistake there :wink:. I believe that is a nice tutorial for someone who hasn't touched GTK before. Maybe you could add something like how to add spawns and lights in to the map. otherwise they can't test their first map  :cry:.

[kozak6]

That's a pretty good start.

I think I might end up making some simple maps along the line here.

Thanks for the write up!

[Seffylight]

A rather nice start for those that are new to mapping (like me? xD). I'm planning on working on a map somewhere down the line as well.

[Survivor]

Starting certain habits though aren't good. Like using hollow (walls should be thicker than 8 gu as well) to make rooms and substract for making corridor entrances, both are better done by hand using the clipper tool for optimization. This can save some fps and headaches occuring when light bleeds or other problems.
For starting people, well it's a start   but I'd say teach them the right way from the get go and make it specific to Trem since certain gameplay mechanics are unique to it.

[KorJax]

Thanks, ive been needing a good turtorial.  I'll look at this other guys site too.

About it being a bad way to start.  Mind telling us the right way?  I dont want to make a map that is unoptimized and problumatic  

[soubok]

Perhaps the best thing to do is to give some good advises to mappers.
- do not use hollow
- DO NOT USE SUBSTRACT
- walls should be thicker than 8
- do not overlap brushes
- avoid face overlaping
- ...

with a short explanation for each advise.

[Survivor]

The fact is there is the easy start tutorials like this one and the beginners tutorials who teach it right. They're already out there you only have to find them. Maybe I'll get to a basic map tutorial this vacation but i'd doubt it. Collaboration effort between a few mappers would make this easy.

Things to learn for mapping (follow up to soubok):
Clipper tool
Explanation of allcommon textures and common trem textures, including the custom ladder texture
Explanation of the way certain entities work.
Detail vs structure brushes.
Optimization tutorial consisting of proper brushwork, hint and areaportal usage.
Alien Gameplay and Human Gameplay.

[zeta]

Perhaps the best thing to do is to give some good advises to mappers.
- do not use hollow
- DO NOT USE SUBSTRACT
- walls should be thicker than 8
- do not overlap brushes
- avoid face overlaping
- ...

with a short explanation for each advise.

LOL u dont use hollow or subtract?

[Who]

LOL u dont use hollow or subtract?

Only the best mappers have enough skill and self confidence to use csg hollow/subtract. Most people mess it up.

[zeta]

i never had any trouble with it and ive been using it all day

making each individual wall is a major hassle and can take so much time out of your day

ANYWAYS

update on how to add bases and lights and how to compile and test your map!!!!

[Stof]

It's very hard not using substract when you've done some serious mapping with UnrealEd.

Of course, it works much better in UnrealEd than in Radiant but still, it is a very useful feature

[Survivor]

Substract can be useful, noone denied that. But in a game where optimization is useful and sometimes downright demanded substract almost always chooses not so optimal solutions concerning make holes in brushes. The fact is one bad substract won't make a difference, but pile numerous of those in a map and it can show.

[Survivor]

making each individual wall is a major hassle and can take so much time out of your day

See above and the fact that doing it right from the start saves time in the end when optimizing.

[Stof]

The problem I see with substract ( either automatic or done by hand ) is that the operation is destructive. When you do that, you break the affected brushes and if later you want to do it in a different way, you have a lot more work to do to undo the damage done.

Also, I'm sure the engine can be ( should be ) a much better judge than you on how to optimaly split a brush to make a hole

Well, not much to say anyway until someone does a completly CSG based editor for Quake 3 anyway.

[zeta]

its pretty easy to repair if u do it right away

its called CTRL+Z xD

[gareth]

I also see not much wring with subtract, you could hardly call me an experieced mapper tho.

[zeta]

lets put it this way

u could make every wall and take crap loads of time maybe it would take 5 to 10 tiems longer just to make your map

OR u could use subtract and use hollow, then at the end fix the very few errors wich might only take a hour!

so there u have it use subtract and hollow it was put in the program for a reason

EASEIR MAP MAKING

no need to make each wall by hand unless u want to belive the "pros"

[Stannum]

lets put it this way

u could make every wall and take crap loads of time maybe it would take 5 to 10 tiems longer just to make your map

OR u could use subtract and use hollow, then at the end fix the very few errors wich might only take a hour!

so there u have it use subtract and hollow it was put in the program for a reason

EASEIR MAP MAKING

no need to make each wall by hand unless u want to belive the "pros"

*rolleyes*

[[db@]Megabite]

This is getting funny...

Where is beer and popcorn?

Danny

[Stannum]

More funny:

I timed myself making an L shaped room:

CSG: 27 seconds
Manual: 25 seconds
3Dsmax:8 seconds

[Karvajalka]

<3 3DS Max, I always design my maps with it  

[Survivor]

u could make every wall and take crap loads of time maybe it would take 5 to 10 tiems longer just to make your map
OR u could use subtract and use hollow, then at the end fix the very few errors wich might only take a hour!
so there u have it use subtract and hollow it was put in the program for a reason
EASEIR MAP MAKING
no need to make each wall by hand unless u want to belive the "pros"

Believe what you will then. We'll just let this slide and get on with the topic.
Just remember, most often easy =/= good.

[zeta]

good for u

cept i dont know how to use 3dsmax

 :x

[Stof]

More funny:

I timed myself making an L shaped room:

CSG: 27 seconds
Manual: 25 seconds
3Dsmax:8 seconds

Wow, you are very bad at using CSG

First, one big cube, second one smaller cube for the first half of the L, and then one last cube for the second part of the L and voila

[soubok]

Just remember, most often easy =/= good.

true !

[zeta]

explain to me how do u make that without csg?

[Who]

Something like this:







Here's a video of this:

http://vilkacis.net/trem/nocsg.avi
(Note: you may need the techsmith codec: http://download.techsmith.com/tscc/tscc.exe)

[zeta]

hmmmmmmmmm interesting.....................

idk i still like csg but with cliping i guess there is less models..

well i guess i might try more clipping but i am going to use a mixture of the two

[zeta]

hey how do u guys get that black background mines white and boring....