Modding Tremulous?

[Gottlos]

A little button in the main menu has sparked my curiosity...specifically, the "Mods" button.  Put simply, I was wondering how to make a mod for Tremulous.

With that in mind, how does one create a new mod to go in the "Mods" window?  What are the first steps one should take to see some in-game changes?  How does one take the source code, put it all together, and make it run?  These are stupid questions, I know, but these things have to be asked, and I'm not afraid to show my noobishness by doing so.  :wink:  

I'm sure there are others who would love to try their hand at modding.  Hopefully they have a better idea of what they are doing than i do, but if not, there will be others looking for answers to the same questions.  I'm not asking for an in depth guide, just wondering how to get started.  

If anyone can provide some information on the subject, I would greatly appreciate it, and if anyone has additional questions, please feel free to post them here.  

[Julius]

I am not part of the dev team, but I am sure it is 99% the same as modding for Quake3.

[[EVIL]Unknown]

yes it is....

here have fun....

http://code3arena.planetquake.gamespy.com/

[Shafe]

The vms*.pk3 file has the qvm files.. this is the game, cgame and ui codes.. so yeah.. Mods would work the same as any quake 3 mod..  The source code is freely available.. The best thing is just to check it out.. and go from there..

From what I've seen thus far it's fairly well commented and/or understanable so if you have a fair experience in q3 mods you shouldnt run into any problems..

But this also brings up an interesting question.. with the whole game's source available... is it still a mod with modified qvm's and a modified engine? or is it a whole different game... I guess since the engine is now open to all, what defines a mod specifically?

[nisse]

I guess since the engine is now open to all, what defines a mod specifically?

Well i would think that a mod would just modify the way normal tremulous works, like add ctf or something even more objective orientated, or maybe like the etpro mod works for enemy territory.

I think the total conversion modification crowd would just make a standalone game like Tremulous, but maybe they want to still use trem resources like some of the models or textures but that depends on the license they have, since trem code is gpl, but what is the textures, models etc licensed under?

[Catalyc]

I guess since the engine is now open to all, what defines a mod specifically?

I guess it would be considered a mod if it uses the trem content (models and maps).

[Pat AfterMoon]

... code is gpl, but what is the textures, models etc licensed under?

From the "COPYING" file provided with Tremulous :

The media is licensed under the CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE 2.5
LICENSE. Please read http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ to learn
more about this license. The full license text is contained in the file named
CC. Please be aware of the exceptions to this license as listed below.
:
:
--------------------------------------------------- Media License Exceptions ---

All shaderlab (http://www.shaderlab.com/) textures (by Randy 'ydnar' Reddig)
are subject to the following license:

  Usage and redistribution policy: Textures may be freely downloaded, modified,
  and used in free maps, mods or total conversions provided this copyright
  notice is left intact and a link to Shaderlab is provided in the credits or
  read-me file. Other non-commercial applications are considered on a
  case-by-case basis via e-mail. All other usage requires written permission.
  Bulk redistribution or archival of the textures in any medium, digital or
  otherwise (except mapping packages for mods) is prohibited.

In short, the "CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE" for the media is in many points similar to the GPL for the code.

[Gottlos]

Thanks for all your help guys!  I'll go take a look at the quake3 modding info right away.  

I just cant believe i didn't think of that before, lol.  I've never done any Quake3 modding, but i have done some tinkering with games like Rune, BFME, Battle for Dune, and the Homeworld series.  Its mostly been just scripting, adding new abilities, changing objectives, designing a new team structure, etc.  Anyway, I'll get to tinkering and see what I come up with.  With any luck I'll have some fun stuff to post before long.  

EDIT:  I went to the Quake3 site and looked at the modding turorials, but there is a problem.  The first step involves opening the .vcproj file, but this file simply does not exist.  The source code package contains all the .h and .c files, but it still needs to be compiled into a project.  

I found a "Makefile" in the package, which suggested that I use GNU Make to compile the code, but that again has left me frustrated.  GNU Make seems to also come as a bunch of source code, and the instructions for it are all about creating makefiles, not using them to compile source code.  Point is, its getting me nowhere and I really need some help.  

I'm still stuck on one of my first questions; how do I turn the source code into a working project??  I just don't know what im doing when it comes to working with C.  I can read and understand the code fairly well, but I just don't know how to make it run.  Once i have it open in the compiler and set up so i can run it, I should be able to figure out the rest.  Can someone please tell me how to do this?

[Pat AfterMoon]

The first step involves opening the .vcproj file, but this file simply does not exist.  The source code package contains all the .h and .c files, but it still needs to be compiled into a project.  

I found a "Makefile" in the package, which suggested that I use GNU Make to compile the code, but that again has left me frustrated.  

Maybe Timbo (the tremulous main coder) could give more precision, but I think tremulous was developped under linux and "cross compiled" for the windows version. If you want to work under windows and use .vcproj file, you probably need to download Visual Studio C++ express edition (free from microsoft site). The .vcproj file for tremulous need to be done, but you could use the standard quake3 files as a start and add/remove source files.

You can maybe also use the icculus quake3 .vcproj file as a start :
http://svn.icculus.org/quake3/trunk/code/win32/msvc/