QuakeWiki
July 31, 2019

Mapping Progress #1

I’m approaching 40 and midlife crisis translates into level design for me. Apparently.

So, I dusted off the cobwebs and reinstalled QuArK. I’m using Fitzquake 0.85 (and Quakespasm interchangeably) and ericw-tools for map compiling. Don’t know if it’s good or bad. I’m trying to go for a bit of ambient occlusion, dirtmapping and nice shadows.

I created a basic map in 30 minutes last night and now I’m buzzing for more. I want to go into advanced architecture, with lots of details.

I’ll just leave this here for later, as I’m trying to quickly switch arguments to find the best map appearance:
https://shoresofnis.wordpress.com/utilities/ne_q1spcompilinggui/

I don’t know who’s listening on the other side, but I’ll document my process here.

I have these unanswered questions so far:

  • What is the best engine to play with? I would try Darkplaces and q3map2, but I got errors the first time. I used to play with it and create nice particle effects, but it’s been more than 5 years. Maybe more. See? I’m getting old. I’ll go vanilla for now, until I have a proper level and then experiment with other engines.
  • What are the best compiling tools for nice shadows, dirtmapping, ambient occlussion and coloured lighting?
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3 Comments »

  1. Gypsy Says:

    @best tools

    ericw tools are as modern as it gets. I doubt anything can compare

    @ Quark

    If you are willing to switch to NetRadiant I made a pack that has an ENT which puts all of ericw’s extras into the entity inspector. For instance, Worldspawn has all of the fields included for AO, dirtmapping, etc… and all you have to do is fill them out. It is probably missing a few newer settings, but to take the ENT that is already provided and append the new features would be simple enough.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pC-oeIPWK4m9EWJaO4U5T6bu_8G9-1lN/view?usp=drivesdk

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  2. Ciprian Says:

    I’m not willing to switch. I’ve been using QuArK since forever (since switching from Qoole, actually) and I’m more than familiar with it. I wouldn’t say intimate :S but familiar.

    I want to switch to Q3Map2 (and use Darkplaces), but I need to find my configuration files first. I’m sure I still have them.

    For now, ericw tools seem the best, I agree.

    I can probably edit worldspawn for QuArK, as well, I need to check. Gotta get some spare time, first.

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  3. Well, QuArK should be using either .fgd, .ent or both. That being the case, I already have you covered.

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OhfTod_0h5cpzX_Fc00iiDxBWjsKqhhZ

    It’s not as simple as just editing worldspawn. That was just an example in my last post. My .fgd does not include the necessary entries for the models to appear in the editor (IIRC). The .ent and the .fgd should cover everything that was available up to ericw_TyrUtils_0.15.4

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