Experienced Mappers: Techniques and Tips

[Nanime]

Alright, I know a lot of you are really busy with the maps, and that's great, but I think that we could really eliminate a lot of the redundant questions and posts if we got a few of you really awesome map editors to post some of the basics for us. I know it takes time, but from a newbie's point of view, we'd all appreciate it and be indebted to you... plus your name would also stick with us as someone who helped us when we needed it most.

 

Therefore what I'm asking is this:

 

For all you uber elite mappers out there, please take a moment of your time and answer some of the normal newbie questions. There are basic things that if you just take a moment and give some pointers, we'll have an easier time.

 

My thanks already to those of you who have helped me resolve earlier issues. I'm still fighting with that model issue however. Maybe one of you awesome type people will lend a hand? *hopeful look*

 

Thanks ahead of time!

 

[mapmaker]

Following my instruction in that other post about models didn't do the trick? What is it exactly that's happening?

[Nanime]

The models don't show up after a compile. I did the full and the relight. I've closed the editor and restarted. Just squares. The only time what should be there is there (for misc_models only) is when I go, start the game, and then leave, restart the editor, and open the map file. It's frustrating. If I've used an object once, it doesn't recognize the model name and re-use it either. I don't know where I've gone wrong

[mapmaker]

You could try reinstalling JK2Radiant, then following what I said in that other post again. Are you sure you have 'View Entities as' set to show them as wireframes or skinned? Douple check that the filepath in the entities window is correct as well.

[Cunnah]

Hi this has nothing to do with getting models to work but is a HOW TO... checkout 'NPCs AI and fun battles' thread im not pluggin my post but im not retyping it here

[Nanime]

I guess I'm going to have to re-install it. I've done everything I can think of. Anyone looking to get a hold of me, newbies inclusive, I added my Aim ID to the profile. Here's hoping this works.

[mapmaker]

Good luck

[Nanime]

Well, re-install didn't do much. The models load each time, but only one type of misc_model will show. Anything else gets deleted when you open it up.

 

Since I'm still having trouble, I'm going to tell you what I'm doing.

 

 

 

1: right click on the wireframe, selecting misc model.

 

2: brgining up the editor window and chosing the model I want.

 

3: deleting everything up to models/whateverfolder/whatevermodel.md3

 

4:closing the editor window and saving the map

 

5: restarting the editor and the model is there, but the other misc model I added before (different model eg, one crate, one light) is gone leaving only my latest addition there.

 

 

What'm I messing up?

[mapmaker]

The only thing I can think of is that you instead of selecting a wireframe to turn into a model, just place the model on an empty spot on the grid. Other then that, I truly have no idea, sorry

[Nanime]

The model situation is improved, but still has some of the same issues. I'm looking to the Uber Designers for this one, should anyone have any suggestions.

 

 

Some other questions:

 

*only one color of light at a time with one effect?

 

*one misc_model per level?

 

*Recommended lighting attributes for rooms

 

*That funky glow on sabers. Where does it come from? (Not the one for the saber itself, but the little light halo)

 

 

Thanks!

[Nanime]

Alrighty, just so it's here, as Cunnah said, here's some helpful tricks from a pro

 

 

FIRST THIS DOESN'T WORK FOR MP

 

ok alot of ppl have been posting stuff like 'NPCs just sit there' or the equivilant. The reason for this is because the AI needs to know where to go before it goes

 

First add some waypoints:

 

You got to look at your level as a load of paths, you've got to think where you want your NPCs to run about, Waypoints are like corners of the paths. The NPC will run directly towards a waypoint sooooooo if you got a wall in the way then the NPC will get stuck if there, if you got a cliff in the way then you NPC will commit suicide.

 

first set up your waypoints along your map, do this by making a waypoint and giving it a target name of W, then press space to duplicate it as many times as you want, this way you get w,w1,w2,w3,w4....etc automaticaly........done that?

 

OK....now you done that you need to draw the paths, to do this you need to work out wich waypoints the NPC can walk to from the one you have selected. for example you have a crossroad with a waypoint in the middle, you can travel North, South, East and West. the closest waypoints in these directions are w1,w2,w3 and w4 so you have to make the waypoint your on target those points do this by using the TARGET command

type target first and give it the value w1, then type TARGET2 and a value of w2, do this so you have all intended points targeted

 

NOTE:

 

to add extra targets after target put the target number in front starting at target2 then target3,target4,target5....etc

 

now compile and run your map.

 

'HEY THEY STILL DON'T RUN ABOUT!' I hear you cry

 

ok ok, so your NPCs don't run about, why? Well because the AI may know how to get around the map but it doesn't know why it wants to. This is is where the COMBAT POINT comes into use, place these any where you want your NPCs to run to, this means if you want em to run up and hide behind a crate put a combat point there, if he looks a little stupid standing up check the DUCK flag and he'll duck behind cover. If you want the NPC to run off if the going gets tough then put a combat point in a suitable hidey hole with the FLEE flag checked, do this any where you want to stage a fight, with practice you can make some realy intresting battles, with troopers running for cover, or running for support

 

'OH GREAT NOW THERE RUNNING OFF AND JUMPING OFF CLIFFS!!!!!!!!!'

 

hehe...........easy go to your textures system directory and select the DO NOT ENTER tex.........then stick it anlong the cliff edges, the NPCs will not enter there unless pushed (and normaly pushed to there doom )

 

So thats it I'm gona be messin with scripts once i got that sorted ill post it

 

-Taken from Cunnah's post in the afore mentioned thread.

 

Enjoy!

[mapmaker]

No, you can have an almost infinite amount of misc_models in your level, the map I'm working on now quite a few trees in it, among other models.

Also, I just remembered something. You might have 'Show entities' turned off. Go to the 'View' menu from the menu at the top of the editor, then click 'show' on the drop down menu, then make sure that 'Show entities' has a check mark by it.

[Nanime]

Nope, It's all checked. Let's face it. I'm a lost cause! Oh well. I'm still working on it. The structural things don't have me stumped at all, it's the extras that're giving me trouble. I just ran a compile and I'll see how it goes. Cross your fingers

[Nanime]

"Entity NOT created, brushes not all from world"

 

That's the error message I was given when I tried to add a new entity to my map. Any thoughts?

[mapmaker]

I have no idea, that's a very strange error.

[Nanime]

I'm thinking the editor treats each model folder as a "world" so that if you want to bring in things from other areas, you have to put it all in a folder for that particular level and it'll treat it all as something different. I tested it a little bit. Since I'm working out of the kejim folder right now, I brought in a different misc model and it worked fine. I'm going to try a few other things, then I'll see how it goes. If that IS in fact the case, then I'll make a generic folder for all the model files and then export them to it in with Winzip. That might solve the problem.

[Mr. Nip]

I believe the 'brushes not all from world' error occurs if you try to place an entity with an entity already selected. This includes simple things like func_groups, so (as far as I know), if you want to group func_groups together you must first select them, ungroup them, then group everything at once.

[Nanime]

you're right

 

My only problem right now is the necessity of closing and opening that stupid program every time.

 

 

Also, should the weapons and powerups, etc have their model showing up in the square when I add them, or are they always solid color squares?

[RichDiesal]

On that same note, how do you add blaster rifles to the prefab blaster rack?

[mapmaker]

They shouldn't be solid color squares if you have 'View entities as' set to wireframe or 'skinned'.

[Cunnah]

Adding blasters to a rack is easy just click on the rack then press n (sometimes twice) this will bring up the entity window.

 

then just check the weapon flag of the weapon you want

 

also clicking on more than one will give you different combos of weapons but i think it looks tacky.....your choice though

[Cunnah]

er you know the models, you could just load ALL the models into one giant map and save it as MODEL BANK. then all you got to do is open it up select the entity you want go to the selection menu and click on copy brush then open your actual map and click on paste you won't need to re-load each time you do it

[freehub]

I guess i'll ask the experienced mappers my question. How can I get single player entities to work in multiplayer?

[Cunnah]

simple YOU CAN'T..................you'd have to edit the script but since that isn't avalable yet you'll just have to wait. The main thing is that the combat system is different.

[JumboMonkeyfish]

Well I don't know if I'm an "uber l33t" mapper or whatever Nanime said, but i have a few tips that i see people posting about, and I'm not sure if they realize just HOW related some of those things are.

 

-Vertex/Edge dragging

I see a lot of people wondering how to make arches or or trim for curved surfaces, etc. What I did for my map (Imperial Duel Bridge, go download it and put it onto the list of most popular files plz ) was simply make a square brush (a cube/prism for the geometrically minded) and then press E to go into edge manipulation mode. This allows you to simply drag the edges to where you want, allowing you to make nice precise trim and arches. Arches are a little different tho, you have to make a bunch of blocks and manipulate them to make a smooth arch. a better way to make a smooth arch is:

 

-Make a brush.

-With the brush selected, click on brush at the top of your screen and select arbitrary sided. Then enter your number (NOTE: it is best to use an EVEN number as it helps with making your arch) and hit ok, and you've got a nice kind-of-circular thingy.

-Take your kind-of-circular thingy and with it selected, hit "x" on your keyboard to turn on clipper mode. then click one side of your brush and a little dot with a "1" next to it should appear.

-Click the other side of your brush and a "2" should appear next to another dot. Also, half of your object should be white, and the other half yellow. Press "[" and "]" to adjust your grid and make sure you have exactly half of your brush yellow.

-Now press enter, and you have only half of your brush.

 

At this point there are 2 ways to finish our arch. One way is simple, rotate what remains of your brush so it resembles the top part of the arch, then make it hollow and delete the brushes on the sides and bottom. After that, you can simply add the sides of your arch and viola, you're done.

 

The other way:

-Rotate your brush so it resembles the top part of the arch.

-Copy and paste it.

-Use scaling (i think you need free scale turned off, and you dont want to change the thickness of your brush, so disable scaling on whichever axis the thickness of your arch lies on (front to back)) to make a smaller version of your arch top within itself.

-Then, selecting only the smaller one, hit the csg subtract button.

-If it worked, you should see the top of your arch all carved out and ready for you to add the side poles of your arch .

 

If you are making an arch inside, simply use either of these methods and then use edge manipulation to make the pieces of your arch meet the ceiling and walls as needed.

 

As for lighting, make sure that the inner radius of your light entities touches the surfaces you want lit otherwise i think everything is kinda dark. Also, turn on no incidence on most of your environmental lights to make it look better. And to change the color of an individual light entity, hit "n" to bring up ur entities menu, then go to selection>deselect to make sure you have NOTHING selected, then shift+click the light you want to edit and in the key/value windows enter:

 

key: color

value: r g b

 

rgb = redgreenblue, for people unfamiliar, these change the colors of your light. I recommend using something like mspaint to check what color mixtures u want to use.

 

Once you have that in place, press enter and your key should appear in the entity's list of parameters.

 

One more thing that pisses me off: ADD MUSIC TO YOUR LEVEL PLZ. Place a worldspawn somewhere that no spectator or player will ever see it, select it with your entity window open (press "n"), and add in the key/value fields

 

music

<filepath>

 

and press enter.

 

To find the filepath, u dont need to extract anything from your assets files, simply open them in winzip, look at the filepath of the file you want, and ur done. To test sound files, you dont need to extract them, just double click them in the winzip window and it will play.

 

Well I hope that helps someone.

 

-JumboMonkeyfish