"From start to finish" tutorial

(Flippy) #1

Hey all…

ive just started writing a basic tutorial about mapping in ET which includes everything from start to finish… unlike other “get started” tutorials that only describe the box map and how to load it in ET, mine continues beyond that and also explains how to make an objective in your map, how to write the script, the objdata file, the .sounds file, voice announcements etc etc etc…

I dont know if i ever finish it, but it will be one hell of a long tutorial as its 16 pages long (in Word) already and im only just started on the basic entities…

here’s the current Contents of the tutorial, which will probably change alot still…

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. What do you need?
  3. Getting started
    3.1. Making a clean W:ET install
    3.2. Installing GTK Radiant
  4. Building the base of your map
    4.1. Setting up GTK Radiant
    4.2. Rooms
    4.3. Texturing
    4.4. Basic Entities
  5. Compiling your map and playing it in ET
  6. Adding objectives
  7. Adding Spawnpoints
  8. Adding Objective Cameras
  9. The script
  10. The Command Map
  11. The Voice Announcements
  12. Adding Objective Status and .objdata file
  13. Making the .pk3 file

Any idea’s, objections, tips etc are welcome

(Pytox) #2

Great, so people now can learn more about mapping! :slight_smile:

(=SC=Beef) #3

Terrains, blending, not sure if you will cover that in 4.3

Good Luck

(bro12) #4

nice flippy real nice people r gonna love that especally me lol

(CooperHawkes) #5

IMHO most of this stuff is already covered by Ifuritas great tutorials and howtos.
… anyway, it might be a good idea to have a second source of information… good luck!

(Flippy) #6

hmm sorry I didn’t know that

anyway my tutorial is going to be VERY detailed and aimed at people who have never touched gtk radiant before.

Why i did this is that it bothered me in the beginning that there were only beginner tutorials on how to make one room, and nearly no tutorials on how to write the objdata file, the .sounds file ETC… so i figured id write one myself… :slight_smile:

About the terrain blending, well… i dont have a clue how to do it so i don’t think i will include it… however, im atm working on trying to understand terrain blending so if i can get it to work ill see if i include it anyway

Also, the map I (we) are making in the tutorial is a simple 2 rooms connected with a corridor map, where there’s a captureable flag in the corridor and an objecitve for allies to take from one room to another. It’s nothing complicated like a huge terrain or anything, imo that’s not basic
I will however include a bunch of links to different sites (like this one) and tutorials (tuts for easygen etc) so people know where to look …

(Panzergrenadier) #7

Can you make part 14 about engineer constructing something, so to teach someone how to make a tank barrier buildable for example, and then devote part 15 to getting a tank into the map :smiley: (Tank lov3r :chef: )

(Flippy) #8

Sorry, no tank tutorial :frowning: I don’t understand half of it myself and only got it working with copy/pasting…

engineering constructions will be in however :slight_smile:

(Panzergrenadier) #9

Ok, thats great! (btw, I say this without sarcasm)

(Flippy) #10

lol, the 3 pages was an exegaration (spelling? :P)

about the ASE models, ok i understand it :slight_smile:
thnx

(Big Aid) #11

Have you released this yet? If u hav or when you do can u tell me where plz?

Thanks Aid!!!

(Flippy) #12

No i haven’t. It’s a lot of work and im still working on it :slight_smile: i had a bit less time the last few days/week(s) but im trying to do as much as i can and want…

(g-ram) #13

dont mean to be rude or anything but are you any closer to finishing it. and if not is it possible to post how much you have done and then constantly update it…

o and btw
:bump:

(Flippy) #14

well its hard work… and im not constantly working on it ofcourse :stuck_out_tongue:

but i guess i could post what i have done untill this time, BUT i will not be updating it like daily or something…

but i guess some feedback wouldnt hurt :slight_smile:

so here’s the tut so far:

http://www.fragland.org/nick/mapping_tut.pdf

(PDF File, if you cant see it download the latest Acrobat Reader (from adobe i think)

note that there WILL be mistakes (even things that are probably just wrong) , so that’s why im also asking if any experienced mapper could have a look at it?

also, when it’s finished i will also include the sample maps.

(=PoW= Kernel 2.6.5) #15

Looks good so far.

I like how you touch on some of the details that we learned the hard way. By trial and error.
That’s the kind of help a good tutorial gives.

You could easily do a whole section on how to use Radiant.
This is because many of Radiant’s functions are bound to key combinations but are not always in the menus.
I found out about the “J” key totally by accident.

Good points about the clean ET install, that can’t be stressed enough.

To get Radiant you may want to toss in some links to http://www.qeradiant.com and ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com because you can’t count on any one source to be around on the internet forever.

The area most lacking in information are entities and scripting.
The entity descriptions are often times lacking useful information and scripting information is nearly non-existant.
Chrucker’s site is about the best source of scripting I’ve seen.
I find myself digging through exisiting maps to see how these were done.

I know - I know - It’s a free game with free tools and the forums are free too so I shouldn’t expect much.

I still think a top notch all inclusive tutoral guide would be worth $$ if it saved the hours spent searching these forums and digging all over the internet for answers.

(Flippy) #16

thanks for your comments :slight_smile:

about the scripting and entity parts, well ive only just got there so expect some heavy changes there… and about the scripting, i can’t really explain it very well so im gonna toss in some links with guides and tutorials… also, scripting is imo really a thing you should learn by simply doing it… you cannot learn it by reading a tutorial.

also i agree on dedicating a chapter to radiant alone. that would clear up some things and would also make the chapters about building the rooms etc a bit more understandable

(=PoW= Kernel 2.6.5) #17

All of the great scripting languages have one thing in common. Well written tutorials.
Don’t believe me? Do a search on references to bash, tcsh, and csh not to mention windows scripting.

I’ve brought this up before. A manual for ET scripting would be awesome.
Chrucker’s site is the only one that touches on what entity, brush and other objects’ properties can be accessed via script.
It looks to me like he figured it out by looking at the ET source code.
That should never have been necessary.

A tutoral showing basic block structure and built-in functions.
Then a section on what properties of each entity can be accessed in script with a short example.

Look folks, I’m not scripting impaired. I do UNIX shell scripting all the time and I learned how from books which I reference often because I can’t remember every function or the syntax of some commands.

I fear that by the time I get a good handle on ET scripting and I’m finally able to write a tutorial, the game will have long since died.

(mrfin) #18

Hey Flippy

Good job m8

wish you well