Noob mapper, wants to compile his map.

(Loffy) #1

Hi!
I just made a map. I want to compile it, and I wonder if you guys have any suggestions.
It is part outdoor, part indoor. First half is outdoor (terrain made with EasyGen), the skybox is “wurzburg sky” (a dark, cool sky with lightenings, as you know). The ground is grassy, and the surrounding mountain peaks are rocky. Nothing fancy. There is a big dark castle at the middle of the map. Dark brick textures.
When the castle wall is breached, the fighting will move on towards the other end of the long-streched map. This area of the map is indoor (inside the castle. Brick walls, with a much lighter textures. It is egypt textures that I found at Sock’s “simland” site. (He gets credits in the readme-file.)

Now, is it enough to do a -bsp, -vis (full vis) and -light fast, “inside” gtkradiant? Or should I try some other settings, to get a better compile?
I have gtkradiant 1.3.11-beta and q3map2 2.5.5.

I guess one answer is “just try different setttings and see what works the best!”. I will do that also. But I just wanted to toss out this, and see if there is some extra advice for me.

Time to press Alt + S !
// Loffy

EDIT: I will try to get screenshots out later.

(Loffy) #2

This is the shader i use for the textures (that I have imported myself to the map):

textures/mytexturesfolder/mytexture
{
q3map_nonplanar
q3map_shadeangle 90
implicitMap -
}

And here is the shader for the model that I have created and textured:

models/mapobjects/loffymodels/dahlia3
{
cull none
nopicmip
{
map models/mapobjects/loffymodels/dahlia3.tga
alphaFunc GE128
depthWrite
rgbGen vertex
}
}

(duralisis) #3

Save the following as a batch file and use it as a final compile for your map. These settings should turn out fairly well, but -super 2 will definitely cause it to take longer.

q3map2 -fs_basepath x:/quake3 -v -meta -patchmeta x:/quake3/baseq3/maps/yourmap
q3map2 -fs_basepath x:/quake3 -v -vis x:/quake3/baseq3/maps/yourmap
q3map2 -fs_basepath x:/quake3 -v -light -patchshadows -shadeangle 90 -bounce 4 -bouncescale 1.5 -filter -super 2 x:/quake3/baseq3/maps/yourmap

Of course, replace x:/quake3 with the path to your Q3 dir and do the same for the map path and name. Save the file as something like “compile.bat” to your q3map2 directory and just launch it instead of going through Radiant.

(Valhue2) #4

self pimpage or just check out this link here for a .bat file that will run your map when done. Im still working on getting a true .bat file that will run your map in Q3 w/o an external shortcut. It works. (oh btw, it will stop if it finds a leak)
/self pimpage

V^2

(Loffy) #5

Oh, i mapped for enemy territory. Forgot to tell you guys that.
Thanks for your advice!
Duralisis, I have 1 question: The phrase “x:/quake3/baseq3/maps/yourmap” is pointing to a .bsp file, right? (yourmap.bsp). Although the suffix (.bsp) is not written, am I right?

My .bsp is called “berserk_beta4” and it is inside a folder called “maps” inside a folder called “berserk_beta4”.
Here is my interpretation of what I should write in my bat-file:

q3map2 -fs_basepath C:/Program/Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory -v -meta -patchmeta C:/Program/Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory/etmain/maps/berserk_beta4/maps/berserk_beta4
q3map2 -fs_basepath C:/Program/Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory -v -vis C:/Program/Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory/etmain/maps/berserk_beta4/maps/berserk_beta4
q3map2 -fs_basepath C:/Program/Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory -v -light -patchshadows -shadeangle 90 -bounce 4 -bouncescale 1.5 -filter -super 2 C:/Program/Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory/etmain/maps/berserk_beta4/maps/berserk_beta4

I hope it works. Will try it now. Thanks!

// Loffy

PS. Hm, on the other hand: Im not sure that phrase points to a bsp-file. I mean, the first instruction for q3map2 is: “-v -meta -patchmeta”. That sounds to me as if the compiler is asked to create a bsp (the meta command).

EDIT: Hm, it just wont work. I guess the path to stuff is wrong. Will continue. See u !

(Loffy) #6

Ok, it worked. Sort of. The two first phases went ok. But the “-light -patchshadows -shadeangle 90 -bounce 4 -bouncescale 1.5 -filter -super 2” went on forever (the whole night, only to reach bounce 2). I terminated it because I know the kids will use the computer after school when Im at work.
Any suggestions to what I should remove here (-light -patchshadows -shadeangle 90 -bounce 4 -bouncescale 1.5 -filter -super 2) to get a little bit faster compile?
I’ll experiment a bit myself. But Im going away for two days now.
By the way: This was the first time ever that I used a .bay-file tom compile my map. Im not sure but I think the compiling was faster (?). Swooosch, it just ran past me on the screen. My imagination or is this technique faster than doing it inside Radiant?
// Loffy

(chavo_one) #7

Try swapping “samples 3” for the “super 2”.

I always loved this quote from ydnar. It sounds like an infomercial ad to me. “As seen on TV” :smiley:

The -samples switch uses an adaptive supersampling algorithm to give you -super quality resuilts in 1/3 the time.

(ydnar) #8

You should see my multicolor knit sweater!

(Hewster) #9

I dunno how much RAM you have, or how big your map is ect, but
if you notice that you are running low on RAM during your compile
(HD light will start flashing a lot due to Windows swapping data to disk)
try adding “-lomem” to your light stage.

edit: oh and you could remove “-filter”… I think this is pointless, as
“-samples” does basically the same thing… Ydnar ?
Also, are you sure you need to bouncescale by 1.5 ? I believe this can
increase compile time too.

so using all the above advice, your light switches would be:
-v -light -lomem -patchshadows -shadeangle 90 -bounce 4 -samples 3

Hewster