Introduction! And a noobie terrain question....

(Digm) #1

Hi! I just signed up for the forums… last week I decided to try my hand at mapping. I’ve picked it up quite quickly, having already created a small playable map with constructables, returntable objectives and a fair amount of lighting (yes, I don’t sleep much). So I’ll be hanging around quite often :slight_smile:

ANYWAY - I tried to make my first terrain today using EasyGen… everything seemed fine until I tried to compile. Radiant (I’m using v1.3.12) gives me the error:

Entity 1 (func_group) has shader index map “test1.pcx”
************ ERROR ************
LoadPCX: Couldn’t read test1.pcx

Is it a problem with EasyGen, Radiant, or me? :banghead:

Thanks in advance!

(redfella) #2

The explanation of the error within the error message is so open-ended it could be understood in many different ways… Does it mean that its finding the file, but couldnt read it? Does it mean that it can’t find the file? Does it mean it can’t read the file because the file is right-protected? Etc.

I understand my answer doesnt help you at all… just like the error message doesnt help you at all. My advice would be to re-export your terrain from easygen again (under a different filename) and then re-compile. Make sure not to tamper with any of the files created after the export. This includes pathes.

(rgoer) #3

make sure that your terrain entity has the key “alphamap” with the value “test1.pcx”

then make sure that test1.pcx is in your etmain/ folder (just etmain/ not any subdir of etmain/).

(Digm) #4

You were right. The problem was the paths… it wasn’t in the etmain folder.

But now I have a new problem…

Now I get this:

WARNING: Couldn’t find image for shader textures/test1/terrain_0
WARNING: Couldn’t find image for shader textures/test1/terrain_0to1
WARNING: Couldn’t find image for shader textures/test1/terrain_1

I’m confused, because the textures I selected through EasyGen weren’t named terrain_0, 0to1, or 1.

Is there a way I can manually change the texture names in Radiant? I can compile the map now, but all I see is a yellow grid where the terrain should be.

Thanks!

(hummer) #5

Last time I used Easygen, you had to tamper with the shaders to get them working properly.

Easygen exports shaaders that are not compliant with q3map2. So, you have to edit your terrain shader manually.

Here is a document that will help you make light mapped terrain:

http://shaderlab.com/q3map2/lmt.txt

You’ll have to change your terrain shader (that was exported from easygen) to fit this style / format. Also, if you exported an info_player_start into your .map file, you’ll have to open up worldspawn and knock out a bunch of entries that point to some shaders. I can’t recall off hand what they were, but they pointed to some vertex lighting shaders that don’t need to be there.

Anyway, for your shader setup, basically you’re creating a base shader, which other terrain shaders will draw from… that should be documented in the link I posted. Then, for your other shaders, you can have some that kick up dirt, some that you can plant mines on, etc, etc, which are defined through surfaceparms… those can be found in the Level Designer Reference that comes with SDRadiant…

Also, rummage through pak0.pk3 to find the terrain shaders used with the ET maps to get a better idea of how this all works. Goldrush has a terrain shader, and you have the .map file for goldrush, so you should be able to piece it together.

(SCDS_reyalP) #6

WARNING: Couldn’t find image for shader textures/test1/terrain_0
WARNING: Couldn’t find image for shader textures/test1/terrain_0to1
WARNING: Couldn’t find image for shader textures/test1/terrain_1

those warnings, by themselves, are not a real problem. To avoid them, and help q3map light your terrain correctly, you should add a qer_editorimage or q3map_lightimage to each one.

(Moonkey) #7

If you change the shader template (on the export screen in easygen) to q3map2 things seem to work ok :slight_smile:

(MindConfusion) #8

If ya get any more compile errors, that you really want answers to quickly try these couple of links.

http://www.wolfensteinx.com/surface/tutorials/compile_errors.html
http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/tramdesign/resources.html

They should help you out instead of having to wait for an answer.

(DAbell) #9

I know not much about editing in radiant but i can always import a working landscape from Easygen, so i do know something.

there is a thread that helped me no end this is it here i think

http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4679&highlight=

I really don’t think you have go fiddling with your shader just download the new template for easygen from liberos website

http://digilander.libero.it/ilbanca/

Then all i do is do my terrain save the map as whatever in easygen then hit the exp map button and highlight the insert into skybox and add info playerstart boxes then select the new et template, continue save map again then thats it. sorted. I know this may seem brief if you want a step by step just say.

(Digm) #10

After a couple more hours last night… still not working.

I’ll dive into the new suggestions/links and report back in a bit

(hummer) #11

Ah cool… haven’t used easy gen for a few months now… glad they (he?) updated it :slight_smile:

(Digm) #12

I think I know what the problem is…

I stumbled upon it when I tried to make water, but when Radiant couldn’t find the texture it showed up as that same yellow grid.

So I checked my .shader, and it says this:

textures/testing/terrain_0
{
	surfaceparm nolightmap
	q3map_novertexshadows
	q3map_forcesunlight
	{
		map textures/terrains/grass_dm01.jpg
		rgbGen vertex
		tcmod scale 0.250 0.250
	}
}

textures/testing/terrain.vertex
{
	surfaceparm nolightmap
	q3map_novertexshadows
	q3map_forcesunlight
	{
		map textures/terrains/grass_dm01.jpg
		rgbGen vertex
		tcmod scale 0.250 0.250
	}
}

I’m assuming it’s a path problem. Specifically, in the textures/terrains/grass_dm01.jpg paths.

So where does /textures/terrains/ belong? In etmain? In etmain/maps/?

I think once I reference the files correctly it’ll work.

(Digm) #13

I DID IT!!!

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Ah man… the feeling of finally accomplishing something so daunting after hours and hours of trying feels damn good.

:smiley:

Thanks for everyone’s help!