.Map :: MoHAA Mapping

Here is a fast way to compile that does not need a hole in the skybox to work.

Add log paths to the vis and light compile options, only have them go to a folder that does NOT exsist! That will cause both vis and light compiles to be skipped.

examples:

BSP
-v

VIS
-fast > C:\notafolder\vis_log.txt

LIGHT
> C:\notafolder\light_log.txt

Using this method, a map that normally took 30 min to compile with -v, -fast, [nothing in light], took less than a minute to compile!

I didn't read the whole thread to see whether someone mentioned it before, but anyway here's an important one:

In radiant's preferences check 'snapshots'

This will - everytime u save ur map - place a copy of your work in the folder maps/snapshots. 364 days per year u will say 'this is ridiculous', but let that 365th day come... If u don't believe, search the forum for those poor mappers who suddenly had lost their work of days, weeks or months. It might happen faster and sooner than u imagine!

The main problem (there always is one) of this function is that this folder will grow steadily, so u should do a clean-up every month

Maybe I'm the only one who didn't know it for ages and was fighting with brushes until my brains were steaming!?
I always knew about editing brushes by pressing 'e' and dragging around the blue dots and I also knew about editing meshes and LOD by pressing 'v' and dragging around the green and pink dots, but a really great thing is editing normal brushes by pressing 'v' and being able to do almost everything.
ps if u really try hard, there's the slight possibiltiy to crash radiant, so I'd read and follow my last tip

If you only have Medal Of Honor Allied Assault, go and buy Spearhead and Breakthrough. This way you can see all the other maps people have made.

Hey Led Zeppelin you back? Good to hear from you man.
If you are back, welcome Home.

That post from him was over 5 months ago...

If you want to launch MOH up and go right into your map to test it, most people would tell you to:

1. Make a NEW shortcut on your desktop for mohaa (i guess this works for sh and bt but not tested)
2. Right click the new shortcut and select "properties"
3. In the 'Target' box you should have something like "C:\Program Files\EA Games\MOHAA\MOHAA.exe"
4. Add the following after the last bit (MOHAA.exe") of the target 5. Rename the Shortcut to your map name or something too, so you know what it does.

The above somebody else told me about, however i find it isn't the best way to test your map. So heres an added tip for you and why you should use it.

6. After the add the following (with space so they are not connected) This now, not only starts your map up, but it changes the gametype from single player (which is what it would have been without the code) to TDM. Because its now TDM it lets you spawn with a gun and test the allied/axis spawns AND fly around in spectator which it wouldn't do in single player mode. Giving you full advantage to test your new map.

So just click the newly formed shortcut and test away!
(to start OBJ gametypes change where needed)

Add this to the command line to turn off the intro

+set cl_playintro 0

big time saver prefab everything and anything you do that you may need later on ie: staircases, ladders, special windows etc...

simply select all the brushes in your ladder for example and hit file, save to prefab, and name it and save it! you may want to create a folder for them

also, when doing this i find it useful to create the same object on all axis reason being is when you load the prefab and say do a axis flip or free rotate you might find that on some of thebruses they go off line by a hair, and in some cases becomes very visible

I've always found this useful, but a lot of people i've explained it to think it's annoying.
it gives you a realtime console display, so you can see warnings and errors and suchlike.

Here is one Elgan sent me

ui_drawcoords "1"

Type that into the console and it will show the coords under the cursor . Only works with the cursor visible so you will probably have to keep the console open or use pushmenu to open a menu I guess .

What to do to increase the compile (if the vis part takes a long time):

Make every brush detailed only the brushes which create different parts in your map like a wall you make structural.
Use the common/hint to create different area's in your map so the vis-compile will take a less more time.

#1/. Save a skybox with info/player/start in it as a ".map". This way you'll never forget to add it (finding out only after you've compiled) and you are certain that the current skybox doesn't leak because you have used it many times before. I actually have three skyboxes of various sizes saved as maps (e.g. "skybox1.map", "skybox2.map" & "skybox3.map") The most I ever need to do (if anything) is re-texture the sky.
Just remember before you save a pre-made skybox to "Save As" yourmapname.map that way the skybox is clean and ready to use again.

#2/. Not sure if this is still an issue with PCs these days but years ago whenever I was a fair way into creating a map and I selected "General_Industrial" or "General_Structure" textures radiant would crash.... time and time again. I got around that by making brushes of all the textures then saving that as a map (no skybox required). Rather than risk the repeated crashes I would simply load the industrial textured map select the brushes with the textures I wanted then load my current map allowing it to copy those brushes, textures and all.

These days I use "Texture References" (html pages with images of all the MOHAA textures). Sorry I can't recall who did this huge task or where I downloaded it from but it sure beats loading all those textures in radiant only to find you loaded the wrong folder or typed the wrong word in the search (e.g. rock/concrete).