ten questions

[Oddball_Woof]

Questions:

1. How do I get a door to open upwards is it possible

2. I have tried using area_portals but even though I have thoughly checked the sealed rooms no leaks, no way but through doors, in solid windows etc error msg comes up about 2 areas as usual.
I placed the area_portal brush inside the door in the middle 1 unit thick filling the doorway and filling doorway and 1 unit beyond
any suggestions? Ps how can 2 area portals be reported as having the same number when the '2 connecting areas' error comes up

3. I think that radiant causes errors in maps on its own, especially if its crashed and antifreezed using nortoncrash guard, I get brushes that have moves slightly weird black patches like the time my whole terrain on an earlier map when black and couldn't be fixed. I have also what appears to be a BSP file saved as a .reg file! very dangerous? .reg being the extention for registry files and might explain why my registry was damaged one time by Radiant.
BTW Norton has recorded over 200 crashes in Radiant in 6 weeks.

4. Why do i get brushes that appear to be in between whole units so that its very hard to clip them and prevent overlaps.

5. why are my textures reversed in Radiant now any text is backwards how can I fix this without reinstall? I can flip them using x flip

6. I have a constant error msg of an entity in a duplicate plane but everytime I check which entity its a different one which I delete but the msg comes up.

7. Why does Mbuild look for .tik files that it says have the .map extention eg. MG42_bipod.map, how has it managed to change the extention.

8. How do I get user skins displayed in SP/MP maps, i.e. a mission to assinate Hitler

9. How do you use the moon instead if the sun and still have it illuminate the map as per FULL moon, a Moon1.tga sprite .

10 What are the uses and purpose of all the different clips like skyclip,waterclip etc and many other textures in common like how do you use the coloured glass in a window.

one extra one.....

What is 'real lighting' in radiant when I use this everything is quite a bit darker and the map I had total darkness on terrain when compiled shows the dark terrain here but not if de-selected, is it an estimate of how the map will look after compile?

[tltrude]

1. Yes you can make hatches and trap doors, but you have to do it with the script. Here is an example of a hatch that opens downward.

//*********************************************
// engine hatch threads
//*********************************************

//----------------------------------------------------------->
left_fwd_hatch:
//----------------------------------------------------------->

local.eh1pos = 1
goto left_fwd_standby

//----------------------------------------------------------->

left_fwd_standby:

$left_fwd_button waittill trigger
if (local.eh1pos == 1) // if hatch state is up, use this one.
{
goto lower_left_fwd
}
else
if (local.eh1pos == 0) // If hatch state is down, use this one.
{
goto raise_left_fwd
}

//----------------------------------------------------------->

lower_left_fwd:

$left_fwd time .75
local.eh1pos = 0
$left_fwd playsound metal_bunker_hatch_open
$left_fwd rotateZdown 65
$left_fwd move
goto left_fwd_standby

//----------------------------------------------------------->

raise_left_fwd:

$left_fwd time .75
local.eh1pos = 1
$left_fwd playsound metal_bunker_hatch_open
$left_fwd rotateZup 65
$left_fwd move
goto left_fwd_standby


You can use the rotate command with any axis and negitive numbers as well. The time is how long it take to move. You'll need a trigger to activate it ($left_fwd_button in this case) and an origin brush on the hinge. Make the door and origin brush a single script_object with a targetname ($left_fwd in this case).




4. Brushes do get off the grid--when you rotate them mostly. If it is not to complex, you can fix it by clicking on "snap points to grid" which is under Seletion, or use the hot key (Ctrl G).

5. Everyones textures are reversed and we do the same to fix it.

7. Ignore that error, it's an old Quake3 thing I think. Although there are .map files for every .tik in the game.

8. You will have to add the files for the skin into your final pk3.

9. I don't know how to add the moon--large brush in the sky maybe. To make it look like moonlight you would probably change the suncolor to 20 20 20 (70 70 70 is full bright sun) in any worldspawn brush.

10. Clip brushes are invisible in the game and prevent a player from walking through something. There are different types to match the different surface sounds.

--don't use real lighting in radaiant.

Hope that helps some.

[McBa1n]

1 - God hates you
2- Read up

wow man, you're having some serious issues.. that stinks.
Tltrude answered a lot of your quesitons, I'll take a stab at the rest.

2- I'm not real sure how area portal errors are handled with this engine, however, I would advise putting area portal breaks AWAY from doors in most situations to block vis...


http://www.nibsworld.com/rtcw/tutorial_ ... art1.shtml

^-- that url might have more depth on that for you, it's a great site. It might also help your problem, I certainly would have to see the issue to better attack it - at least in this case.

3- Radiant DOES create errors. Seeing as it just loads points onto a grid when you open maps - yes, it makes mistakes (either in saving points into a .map file or extracting them and displaying them)... and when/where you least expect them. I've had random brushes appear, as well as brushes creating brushes on top of them and a few other random mishaps. Not sure what causes it, but yes,it does f up now and again. All map programs have this problem... You get used to it

If your .bsp (should be decent sized, .reg files are miniscule) is being named a .reg file, thats your crash guard... I would think.

System resources play a part in using radiant without crashes. I actually KILL all my Norton UBER RESOURCE HOG (tm) apps when using the editor. I get less crashes. Also, terrain editing can cause crashes when you are doing sophisticated things that make the program go 'wait wait wait waaaaaaaaait...sheet *crash*' I get the majority of my crashes using the terrain editor. Simple terrain editing and brush manipulation does not cause crashes, its when you start doing really nutty stuff that the bad things happen. Normally with floating points off the grid, that is.

4- ALWAYS use 'snap to grid'. Clipping brushes is not something I like doing because 1- it knocks points off the grid and 2- using the 'snap brush(es) to grid feaure is well - f'n poor in point placement...Making it a pain in the ass vertex-fixer-upper episode.

5- You answered your own question;p Another nice 'feature' of the editor

6- I get those errors sometimes when I copy/paste doors... I just delete anything I copy/pasted or perhaps didn't assign correct properties to or forgot to put all the tags on the entity that would make it stable or function (just basic crap, that is).

If it wont let you run your map because of it, then I would delete delete delete and test til I found the culprit. If not, f it... You'll find whats causing it somehow and fix it later on (hehe, the 'lazy man's method of fixing non-fatal errors)

BONUS QUESTION - I never even bothered with that feature... Time to do some homework to check it out.

Thank god I found this thread 2nd. Good answers previously - some of which, I havn't a clue, I'm not a script ninja:/

GL and good bowling!

[Oddball_Woof]

Ahhh gee there are some real diamond geezers (and geezettes?) on this forum, patient understanding and fabulously helpful, thanks both of yous.
I guess its easy not to attribute the kind of resources one need for decent use of major programs like Photoshop or Premiere or Modelling programs with a program like Radiant especially as it came as a disguised beta without any support or documentation. I think many of my problems stem from the first major crash it caused, some of the effects on windows and IE are still lingering....opps mustn't drift on and get hung up on all that or this thread will be crashing the server by size alone.
I have to admit I know very little of scripting so far all I have worked out is by example and rote learning rather than real understanding.
The problem is the further I get into a map the more limiting and extensive these problems become until I seem to spend most of the time fixing stuff that was fine before and not managing to get much further.
I am a hatchling mapper going on 2 months with no previous experience.
Its a crying shame that the game that really got my desire to build maps is one produced by a company with no interest in working with us lot and offering a full SDK and other support.
The numbers of players on-line would cause any self-respecting company to think HEY WE CAN MILK THIS GOOD AND PROPER. Look at the Never Winter site and the kind of support there, when was the last time anything much happened on the EA MOH site! ANd MOH has had 6 good months on NWN.
ummph .....oi some damned German worker has come along and taken the crate I was using as a soap box.
BTW have you tried the fun of spectating your own AIs, they see you and attack its great fun watching them kill each other in the cross fire and you get some terrific screen shots, details you never really see when you are cowering behind a rock. Ummm I guess tis doesn't really come under the mapping thread......

[McBa1n]

Seriously, the biggest problem I have with the MOH development community is EA's lack of support - or non-existant.

But whats cool is the people who ARE sticking around are really into it... And theres less crap to weed through.

Sure NWN has tons of support, but have you tried the modules people crank out? Making tools so anyone can use them is a double edged sword. Sure you can make it easier for talent to make GREAT things - but for every one brilliant thing, theres 200 dorks who RELEASE 'my first module' and all it is is a steaming pile of boredom....

I don't play NWN anymore because the community is still very young and it is very easy to make modules... I'm waiting for it to develop more and GOOD module review sites come about. I wasted days on playing buggy boring 'my first module' garbage... Maybe 2 of 50+ modules were even creative and something fun.

With a shooter like MOH, it takes time, patience, persistence and the learning curve is steep. Not everything created for it is 'brilliant', but if you compare whats released to other games - the maps, mods, etc are all pretty damn good by comparison. I think theres a reason for that.

The MOH dev community really needs a boost right now with the sdk... By the time thats ready tho, there will only be about a 3-6 month window before we see the new Unreal engine and 6+ months until the new Doom engine. What happens in that period will be critical to the MOH homebrew development community... And what stinks is quite a few mods are off on other q3 engine games and making mods for that instead.

Sad part is, MOH is 10x the game of any other q3-based title... EA is capatalizing on the franchise for pc at retail right now - but long term, by holding us back, they are just hurting themselves when they go to release addons and sequels.... Putting together an sdk isn't THAT big of a deal or that tragically difficult.

sorry for the rant, but this stuff has been bugging me for awhile=)

[Oddball_Woof]

No it cool man I totaly agree, I only meant that the NWN site is very active and that is the official site, I quit the game too after the patch debacle. Anyway I meant that the EA site by comparision is dead, no info no effort at all.
I fear too that EA will leave us to wither on the vine, wierd since the half life engine is still going strong in the MP arena with CS and DOD but I guess there's no money in that for EA, personally I would pay for a real SDK with support right now.