grasssteps sound is not generated with q3map2

(sd2009) #1

Hi,

I am building a new large sp rtcw map (65 x 65 gray scale height map). The grass terrain does not cause grass sound if I put (surfaceparm grasssteps) in the terrain shader but the terrain looks fine. I hear the grass steps sound if I enter the shader name of the map in shaderlist.txt but the textures look totally damaged. The tcmod scale does not work properly after I insert the name of my terrain shader in the shaderlist.txt file. What is the reason?

I have q3map version 2.5.11
gtkradiant 1.4
EasyGen 1.42

The parameter q3map_terrain is present inside the file common.shader.

Here is a sample:

texture/mymap/terrain_0
{
q3map_lightmapsamplesize 64
q3map_lightmapaxis z
q3map_texturesize 512 512
q3map_tcGen ivector (1024 0 0) (0 1024 0)
surfaceparm grasssteps
{
map textures/grass/grass10.tga
tcmod scale .063 .063
}
{
map $lightmap
blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
tcGen lightmap
}
}

Thank you for any help.
sd2009

(vicpas) #2

I don’t know why this error occurs.
Try to email for the best RTCW mapper and inform your problem.
He always help me and his email is info@katsbits.com.

(sd2009) #3

Thank you vicpas.

(Wezelkrozum) #4

Replace your script with this one:


texture/mymap/terrain_0
{
q3map_lightmapsamplesize 64
q3map_lightmapaxis z
q3map_texturesize 512 512
q3map_tcGen ivector (1024 0 0) (0 1024 0)
surfaceparm grasssteps
 
 {
 map $lightmap
 rgbGen identity
 }
 
 {
 map textures/grass/grass10.tga
 tcmod scale .063 .063
 blendFunc filter
 }
}

Your problem was the lightmappart, which should be as first. I did add an blendFunction and changed the lightmapblending code. Hope it works for you!

(sd2009) #5

I am sorry. The terrain is totally damaged.

(Detoeni) #6

make sure notsoeasygen has not added random stuff in your world spawn.
I seem to rember it did this, cant rember what it added there. Its been a few years since I last used it (about 6!!! eek!)

(sd2009) #7

I deleted several things from the *.map file but the map still compiles with damaged textures. The strange thing about it is that q3map1 compiles fine and removing the shader name of the shaderlist.txt also compiles the map with q3mpa2 also but without the grasssteps sound unfortunately.

(sd2009) #8

Please, look at the attachments, maybe they help solving the problem.

(Wezelkrozum) #9

what if you remove the q3map_blabla lines and the tcMod line?

(sd2009) #10

Wezelkrozum you found it. It was the q3map_bla that the wolfsp.exe did not like. It works now!!! Unbelievable! Million thanks for you.

(sd2009) #11

I conclude that EasyGen 1.42 is not compatible with q3map2 2.5.11 and 2.5.16 that I tested so far.

@Detoeni what do you suggest as an alternative for notsoEasyGen? Which terrain tool do you use?

(Detoeni) #12

Umm, I should of looked more closely at your shader, I take it “texture/my…” is a typo? Should be “textures”.

q3map_tcGen ivector (1024 0 0) (0 1024 0) sets the projection of the texture tile, its a q3map2 pramater that gives more predictable results as it uses a fixed value. Given the textures your using I would use a value of 512 as a staring point.
It is intended to replace tcmod scale when used for terrain shaders. Its probably conflicting with the other shader comand.

There are a few problems with easygen, It was made before a lot of the q3map2 functionality had been fully added to the compiler, so the ways it does things are not well suited to these new needs. That and I’ve never liked its shaders, it will serve you much better to learn to write your own.
Over the years I’v also seen a lot of new folks struggle with it.
As your working with RTCW its terrain construction will serve you well as that engine and its SP AI don’t like anything more complex.

I have mostly used Radiant for making my terrains in the past.

(sd2009) #13

You are right Detoeni, texture was a typo.

The q3map_blah that was generated with notsoEasyGen did not work at all, neither with spreading the textures on the terrain nor with the sound. The problem with the textures was solved by me through coincidence not through shader manuals, because they only tell you, this command does this, that one does that. They never tell you why is something not working as they tell you or as you expect! I simply selected the option standard or q3map2 shader from notsoEasyGen and I noticed that the tcmod was visible inside the standard type and missing inside the q3map2 type. I thought that the q3map_blah is the q3map2 way to do it first but it never worked. I added the tcmod manually to see what will happen, and you bet, I was impressed, the terrain looked so beautiful for the first time!!!

The shader manual tells me, use surfaceparm grasssteps and you will hear steps on grass, is it that easy? No. It never worked with me. The q3map_blah from EasyGen was not welcome by q3map2 2.5.11 or 2.5.16. The sound was heard only after I removed the q3map_blah. Why? I do not know. Maybe we should ask ydnar?!

My terrain looks nice and the sound is working perfectly with tcmod, surfaceparm grasssteps, and gravelsteps now, sand flies in every direction whenever a bullet hits the ground, cool! Some polygons are not textured properly for an unknown reason so far. I included two shots as a reference. The textures and the transitions between two layers are smooth except the ones that I marked with arrows. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
sd2009

(Detoeni) #14

erro is due to you having three colours next to each other on the pcx image from easygen

(sd2009) #15

No, at this position only two textures are getting blended. Sand texture with grass texture. The compilation with q3map2 2.5.11 with:

q3map_nonplanar
q3map_shadeangle 120
q3map_tcGen ivector ( 512 0 0 ) ( 0 512 0 )
q3map_alphaMod dotproduct2 ( 0.0 0.0 0.75 )

gave a perfect terrain. q3map2 2.5.16 and 2.5.13 are giving too bad results.

Please, see samples.

Thank you.

sd2009.

(sd2009) #16

I found the reason. q3map2 2.5.11 does not understand the command q3map_alphaMod … and 2.5.13 and 2.5.16 understand it and it was damaging the terrain. 2.5.11 is not better, it just ignored the bad command. I removed the command and recompiled with 2.5.16 and the result was even more perfect than 2.5.11. No manual would tell you all this. You must guess it alone. Mapping is a guessing game, at least most of the time.

(Detoeni) #17

When you down loaded q3map2 2.5.16 there was two notepad files called readme included. These will tell you whats been added and when.

http://www.robotrenegade.com/q3map2/docs/shader_manual/index.html
Will give you more info on what the functions do.

(sd2009) #18

How could you explain that the command and method q3map2_alphaMod dotproduct, which was introduced with q3map2 2.3.24 (2002-10-20) in the readme.txt and never mentioned again except in the documentation by ydnar and obsidian, is not known by my q3map2 2.5.11? The compiler 2.5.11 wrote in my log: Warning: unknown q3map_alphaMod method dotproduct2. I did not find it in the readme.txt. I am reading the readme.txt from q3map 2.5.16. The link that showed me the sample shader was given by Obsidian to me, and I thanked him for that. He gave me a very helpful hint that offered a direct solution, although I had to tweak a bit myself, but the change history is still a bit incomplete. But the command q3map2_alphaMod has anyway several methods that I did not try all yet. Method dotproduct2 is only mentioned in the documentation by Obsidian and ydnar (for me at least). Let us wait and see. Thanks for your links.

(sd2009) #19

I did not answer your last question, sorry. I did not test them thouroughly yet. I do not want to give you any fast answer yet until I do some testing. The terrain is now perfect. The shades of my custom md3 and ase models on the terrain are so smooth with very little ambient light. Not one triangle is badly textured.

(sd2009) #20

Hi Detoeni,

Sorry for submerging that long. I was too busy with other projects. The new method that involves dotproduct is a very complex and new method. It is not straight forward. At least for me. It includes creating terrain brushes manually through the use of templates. dotproduct has been introduced to me with a new method that require creating terrain with a manually created shader too. You must do a lot of work manually. Working with EasyGen was tough enough to understand and get used too and to adapt to the new shader syntax manually. I tried the new method and found it too hard to learn a new and even more difficult method. You must not only create the terrain manually. You must put brush and blending “delimiters” between the brushes manually. If EasyGen is difficult to understand and adapt to, the new method is the hardest way (for me at least) to make it, especially if you want to create large terrains as I tend to. If you wish to learn more just let me know but please forgive me if I do not look at the sd forum that much. dotproduct computes the blending of textures according to a mathematical formula. It has several methods too. See the shader manual for more details. the shadeangle control the light shade angle. I did not experiment a lot with it yet. I did not have the time to. nonplanar controls the blending or shading if I remember correctly between non planar adjacent brush surfaces. The default is not to do so. q3map_tcGen ivector is the equivalent of tcmod.

sd2009.