JK2 Radiant FAQ

[Hubris]

Mapping is at its core about knowledge, the editor, while very powerful, isn’t very user friendly, the extent of your fluency with it dictates how strong of a map you can create. You might be the Michaelangelo of level design, but without knowing how to properly make a patch mesh, use shaders, or cylinders you’re going to be reduced to making poorly lit boxy rooms. If you spend 10 hours doing research, you’ll probably learn techniques to cut your 30 hour map down to 15, so it more than pays off for itself. Learn your editor.

 

Very fortunate for us Radiant is way older than JK2, and there is literally tons of documentation on Radiant, due to the Q3A engine’s popularity there might be more documentation on Radiant than any other map editing tool. With that in mind you need to know what to look for. Most tutorials are about Quake, as that’s where Radiant was first implemented, for the most part these tutorials apply in their entirety to JK2radiant, the rare exceptions are references to textures or shaders which didn’t necessarily apply to JK2. Another exception would be where some of function textures ended up.

 

However, all in all the tuts are very straight forward, if a tut in question refers to a shader or texture, unless it’s a system shader (Like no-draw, clip, caulk, etc) you might not have it, and will need to figure out another way to go for the effect you want.

 

I will be using links to provide answers, in the situation where it applies directly to JK2, I’ll answer directly. Don’t pass over a link because it refers to Q3a, I guarantee your answer is somewhere in there. All of my links, unless links to pictures, will be demonstrations in the Quake 3 paradigm.

 

Tip:Built into your internet explorer is the function "find" hit control F when you load one of these pages, for example, you can try control + F and type in shader, and it will return places on the html document that have the word shader mentioned, very useful when scouring huge FAQs and tutorial lists.

 

So let’s start:

 

Installation

 

Where do I get JK2Radiant?

You’ll find what you need here:

http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=87277

and here:

http://www.3ddownloads.com/?file_id=159544

 

Read the readmes in those files for the full rundown on how to properly install.

 

Now, your entities should be screwed up, this happens to just about everybody, so here’s what we’re going to do.

 

Whenever I right click to bring up entities/textures etc there’s nothing there, what’s wrong?

The issue is that Radiant is looking in the wrong spot. What you want it to find is your MP_entities file, or your sp_entities file.

 

Go up to “File” then click on “Project settings” and change it proper like so that it refers to the exact position of where your entities file is. Now restart Radiant. This is what mine looks like, yours may look different if you installed elsewhere:

http://www.tribalpharmacy.com/hubstuff/jk21.jpg

 

Basics and definitions

How do I start making stuff?

There are literally 50 some odd tutorials on making your first room, look here:

 

http://planetquake.com/bubba/room.html

 

Note that your first couple of projects shouldn’t be too ambitious, a lot of people will become frustrated if they bite off more than they can chew. Start simple, learn the basic skills, then move on to huge sweeping rooms.

 

What’s a brush?

A brush is a multi purpose term used for the various planes that compose a level. These are covered with textures and you’re given something to look at. For example a square room would have six brushes that compose it, the ceiling, the floor, and the four walls.

 

What is a texture or shader?

Textures and shaders are almost identical. A texture is the art that covers a brush, a four sided brush covered in a crate texture will look like a crate, a rectangle set into the wall with a control panel texture on it will look like a control panel. A shader is a texture with a script attached to it. A shader can do a wide variety of things, it might be animated to tell the texture to move in a certain way, or it might be a function shader, such as no-draw, which is telling the engine to not draw the brush/brush face to draw a certain object. When loading up your textures, you can tell a shader apart by the white outline surrounding it.

 

 

What on earth are entities?

Entites are a ton of things, basically different kinds of functions to place into your map. If something in your map isn’t a brush, curve, or a texture/shader it’s an entity of some sort. Entities can be anything from an inserted model of a tie fighter to a light to a shield pack to a door inset with breakable glass. Note that some entities (Such as doors) will require you to select a brush as an entity function, such as a door requiring you to actually have a brush that composes the door, others such as buttons or fans or any such will require you to tie a brush with an origin or another trigger.. When you install an entity hit the “N” button, this will bring up the entity window that allows you to edit your entities, by default your selected entity should be present, in the center view you’ll see all the various functions an entity can entail.

 

More info on entities can be found here:

http://planetquake.com/bubba/entity.html

And here:

http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/surface/tutorials/entities.html

 

What is a model?

A model is a pre-generated set of polygons that you can insert into a level. Models have a lot of advantages, if you’ve ever tried creating your own generator or tie fighter or anything from brushwork, you’ll find yourself frustrated. Fortunately models are available in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and due to the popularity of Star Wars, a lot of free models exist on the net that you simply need skin.

The major advantage to using models is time, it saves you a lot of it, the second major advantage to models is that you can get a hideously complex model in a level with literally thousands of polys and it won’t lag the player half as bad as if you made it out of brushes. A few disadvantages come along with models (such as their own vertex lighting thus making them look a little strange in some lighting arrangements) but by and large models are almost always preferable to using brushes for the same effect, generally it will look better too.

Now, here’s how to insert a model

 

Models

Why won’t my model show up?

So you’ve right clicked for the entities and sat on misc_model and you’re getting a pinkish square and that’s about it. Well, that’s because Radiant is dumb. Well, not entirely, it’s just looking in the wrong place. Here’s what to do: Right click misc_model and then hit the N button, go to insert your own model, minimize the entities window and you should be prompted with a windows file search with Radiant asking where your model is, go to the models directory under your base folder and find your model in question.

Now, it should say something like C:/program files/lucasarts/Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast/base/models/blah blah/blah blah/yourmodel.md3

Roughly, what you want to do is go back to your entities window (N) and delete everything before “models” so it ends up looking like:

models/blah blah/blah blah/yourmodel.md3

As an example take a look at the inserted probe droid head on my hoth duel level, Frostbite:

http://www.tribalpharmacy.com/hubstuff/jk22.jpg

 

For more information on models look here:

http://planetquake.com/qworkshop3/tutorials/model/index.html

 

My model is intangible, why am I falling through this tie fighter?

Models by default have no substance, if your model needs to be solid, then surround it with a brush and define that brush as "clip" from your system textures. It might take multiple brushes of multiple faces to get the clip effect you want. Note that the clip brush will not be rendered, it will just lend an invisible solidity to the model. (Note, there is no need to get overly complex with clip brushing, it's just unnecessary overhead and can make bots insanely stupid if you were to cover something like the probe droid head with 50 brushes of 5 faces each to properly simulate. It's really not necessary, you can just as easily do it with 4 brushes with 5 faces, a player can bounce up and down on that droid head for an hour and not figure out that the model is actually covered in clip brushes.)

 

Is there a list of models?

Why, yes there is.

http://website.lineone.net/~in.truder/_MODELS.txt

Some of those do not function properly, but the majority do.

(Compilation of models by RelFexive.)

 

Textures

Is there anyway to select an individual face of a brush to apply a texture just to it and not the whole brush?

Control+ Shift click a brush face to individually select that face. A nice tip to speed up your mapping process is if you have a middle mouse button is:

 

Control+Shift click a face, and then control+shift click + middle mouse button another face, and you can just click away applying the original texture you selected.

 

When I move a brush or mesh, my texture stretches, is there anyway to the fix this?

Select the brush face via control+shift+left click, and then hit the s button. This will bring up the texture information, hitting "natural" will apply the texture as it's supposed to be applied naturally. You will also see a wide variety of selections there, such as shifting the texture if you want to stretch it and make it larger on a face.

 

How do I use my own textures?

Create a folder under your base/textures directory, drop your textures in there, the next time you load radiant you should have a new textures category which contains the textures you dropped in that folder.

 

They still aren't working

It can be one of a number of things:

 

Try the following:

A)Make sure your texture is saved in an increment of 2, 256x256, 512x512.

B)Make sure it's saved in a 24 bit jpeg, or a 32 bit tga.

C)When you load your map to try and test the textures make sure you input sv_pure 0 into the console, this is the only way JK2 will recognize the textures if they aren't in a pk3.

If else fails try this site: which contains a number of Q3A textures, and try applying them first before you try your own textures.

http://www.planetquake.com/hfx/textures.html

 

Entities and function textures

All the big mappers have Caulk in their maps and screenshots, what is Caulk, do I need it?

Any map that wants to perform well needs caulk. Caulk is basically a “Do not enter” sign for the engine. If you place caulk on surfaces that won’t be rendered anyway, it lets the engine know they are of zero importance, and to disregard them, and thus, your players will see a significant boost in their FPS. In simple maps it might mean one frame per second, in very complex maps it can mean literally dozens of frames per second.

Use caulk.

For a better understanding of caulk, look here:

http://quake3.qeradiant.com/q3afiles/caulk.htm

 

 

How do I make a sliding door?

Draw a brush, right click with it still highlighted and click func then func_door. That brush is now defined as a door entity. From there there are a bunch of variables you can define. Hit the N button and bring up the entities window, the most important one is “angle” this is the angle your door will slide when someone is close to it. If you look in your lower left corner you’ll see an eight pointed diamond of buttons with up and down on the side. These are examples of the different angles. If you’re facing degree 180, and the door is defined to slide at 270. You can move your entity window around a bit to get an exact view if need be to see which direction your door will slide.

 

How do I make an elevator?

Create your brush, then define it as func_plat, from there, hit the N button, and bring up "height" this will determine the height your elevator ascends to. Height cannot be a negative number, if you want your elevator to descend, from it's default position use a func_door and indicate it's angle to be down.

Correction by Vorax

 

How do I make a two-way elevator?

 

First build your brush that will be the platform. Make it a func_door with an angle of -1. Add a soundset if you wish, I used impdoor1 for mine, and make the speed 250-300, slower or faster if you wish. Also do a targetname like this:

 

Key: targetname

Value: T1

 

And also create a NEGATIVE lip value that's nearly equivilent to the height of the area the platform moves in. You'll have to give or take a few points to get it to work how you want it.

 

Now, create a trigger_multiple that will surround the entire area of the platform, JUST the platform. The key to placement is this:

 

When you come to a spot and the elevator is down, you want it to come up to you correct? Well, work around and see where you want to stand so that it will return when it needs to. Here are a couple screen shots.

 

http://chartermi.net/~ahartley/plat1.GIF

http://chartermi.net/~ahartley/plat2.GIF

 

Now with the trigger, make the following keys:

 

Key: delay

Value: 1

 

Key: wait

Value: 4

 

Key: target

Value: T1

 

Now what this does is important: The platform starts at the bottom...always. When you enter the trigger, you have 1 second before it goes up. This is plenty of time, but you need it, otherwise you'll never get on the thing! The wait part will mean the platform will wait 4 seconds at the top before returning to the bottom, and the target just connects it to the platform itself.

 

Notice in the first screen shot how the trigger goes a little onto the entrance at the bottom, and at the top overlaps also. This will make it so that when you go in that area, the platform will function after a delay. So at the top, you touch the trigger, there is a brief delay, and it comes up to you, stays for 4 seconds, then takes you to the bottom. On the bottom, you enter the trigger and get on, and it takes you to the top, waits 4 seconds then returns.

 

The func_plat isn't how Raven did these type of platforms, and I just thought I'd give everyone directions on how to finally do it so it works like in SP.

 

Originally posted by [RDH]Diversion in this thread:

 

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58326

 

How do I make breakable glass?

Draw a brush, and cover it with a glass texture. There’s a wide variety of these, type in “Glass” in your texture/shader window in the field just below the button to “show shaders” and you should see a wide variety of these. (Some folks recommend putting no draw on the edges, so only the two surfaces of the glass are rendered. Otherwise you get chunky looking edges.) Now, with that brush still selected right click, go to func, and click func_glass. You can use “health” as a key/value combo to boost the health of your glass. From there you can also change the sound and a wide variety of other values.

 

How do I make a func_train work?

First, make the brush that is gonna be your train(a platform, elevator, etc.). And then make another small brush placed in the middle of the train and texture it with the origin texture found in textures>system . Then while both brushes are selected make them a func_train. Place a path_corner entity at the center of the elevator just as you did the origin brush, that's where it will start. then continue placing however many path_corner entity's that you need for each stop of the elevator.

 

Now, while nothing is selected, select the func_train and then the first path_corner entity and press cntrl+k to target the train to it. Then deselect everything and now selct the path_corner 1 and then path_corner 2 and press cntrl+k to connect the path_corner's. Repeat for all your path corner's. Set wait values for the path_corner's so it will stop for an x amount of time at each one and set the desired speed as well.

 

And that's it, you're done. Just be sure to link the last path_corner back to the first one or else if i'm not mistaken it will just stop at the last one and never move again, at least not untill you load the map again.

Submission by Manquesa

 

How can I insert lightning or other effects?

Right click and insert an fx_runner, under fxfile insert env/electricity, other effects are available as well. The default for all effects seems to be pointed straight up, so you need to target it. Right click again on the XY view and select a target_position, name it via the targetname key/value combo (such as targetname elecaim1), and then point your fx_runner towards the target position (target elecaim1.)

 

You said there’s other effects, is there a list?

Why yes there is.

http://website.lineone.net/~in.truder/_EFFECTS.txt

(Compilation of effects by RelFexive.)

 

I’ve made a tall level and tried it out and I can’t get that neat falling to my death animation that I see on maps like CTF_Bespin, how do I do that?

Draw a brush that extends the length of the area you want your falling area to be in. Note that you only have to cover the horizontal plane, you don’t need a very tall brush, only one that people can fall into, it can be an inch thick if need be. Now, extend that brush out and make sure it covers your area, now, right click and go to trigger, trigger_hurt. Then go up to textures and select “Trigger” to cover your brush. Hit the N key, in the key field type in “Dmg” (Not damage) and in the value type in –1. Now, whenever someone hits that trigger it will trigger a death animation which they will not return from. You’ll get that falling scream, locked camera, the whole shabang.

 

Lighting

How do I light my level?

If you right click, and scroll down you will see an option for lights. Hitting the default “K” button will bring up an option to allow you to edit the color.

You can also use the following key/value combos “Light/X” where X is the strength of the light (300 is default) You should be able to look over the key list yourself by hitting the N key.

Correction by Vorax

 

How do I make a spotlight?

Follow the above steps, but now, put an info_null on the wall/floor you want your spotlight to go to, now select both the info_null and the light and hit control + k, you will now see a line connecting the two. “Radius/X” where X is the radius of the light, 64 is default will change the radius of your spotlight.

Load up your map, if it’s not working, I seem to have issues if they are too far apart, so just get them a little closer together.

 

More info on spotlights available here:

http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/surface/tutorials/spotlights.html

Correction by Vorax

 

How can I insert a sky?

Draw a horizontal plane at the very top of your level and cover it with a sky shader. What you want is are the little green squares, that become blue when you click on them, surrounded by a white outline. What you don’t want to cover your sky with are the textures that you’ll see.

For an example look here:

http://www.tribalpharmacy.com/hubstuff/yes.jpg

What you do not want to see is here:

http://www.tribalpharmacy.com/hubstuff/no.jpg

 

My sky still is not working, help!

Make sure there are no brushes further beyond your sky, it should be the furthest brush you have.

 

In the stealth level in single player there's a light switch that turns the lights off and on, how do I make that?

This is currently an unknown dilemma to the mappers here and Massassi.net, your guess is as good as mine. Previous versions of the Q3A engine didn't offer this feature at all, JK2 however seems to have undocumented improvements to it that we're still learning.

Should you discover how to make a light switch, please post in this thread so I can update this and give you credit. Inquiring minds want to know.

 

Does JK2 offer dynamic lighting?

Yes and no. The Quake 3 engine does not offer the true definition of dynamic lighting, JK2 however is updated to offer a slight bit of dynamics in map design.

 

See beneath the technical garbage below for how to make pseudo-dynamic lights in maps.

 

Begin technical garbage here:

Be forewarned that using the "pseudo-dynamic lighting" that JK2 offers is very detrimental to frames per second. (FPS) Doing tests on my own in a reasonably rendered map my fps was about 75% of what it normally is with these lights, and multiples close together lowered it down to half and this is on a mid-high machine. Some folks have reported zero FPS hits using this method, so it might just be video card specific. I suspect the pseudo dynamic lighting is multiple lighting compiles within certain vis ranges, and them being interchanged as necessary and thus isn't truly dynamic (Which is why you only see it on a mapping level, the lightsaber gives off no ambient light, muzzle flash or energy balls give off zero light, etc.)

 

How can I make a candle flicker, or a strobe light?

 

You need to use the key "style" and a value:

1: Flicker 1

2: Slow Strong Pulse (full light to black)

3: Candle 1

4: Fast Strobe

5: Gentle Pulse

6: Flicker 2

7: Candle 2

8: Candle 3

9: Slow Strobe

10: Flourescent Flicker

11: Slow Weak Pulse (full light to faded light)

12: Fast Pulse

13: Disco Madness

 

List originally posted by Richdiesel in this thread: http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54447

 

As posted above, these may give FPS hits to some users, as such due to the performance importance of multiplayer, and the wide variety of video cards, I do not recommend using pseudo dynamic lighting in multiplayer levels.

 

Compilation and errors

How do I play on my map?

What you wanna do is go up to the BSP halfway across your toolbar, and you’ll see a wide variety of options, you will need at least two, these are “bsp fullvis (nolight)” and bsp fullvis (EXTRA). Selecting either will start up a dos prompt that is your map compiling. You can watch it, or you can go afk if you’re confident your map is stable, if it’s a small map it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two, very larger maps with complex lighting systems under fullvis can take hours. The “no light” setting will result in your map being very very bright, this is still a good quick compile so you can look at your textures or brush work, however, your finished map should be the standard “bsp fullvis.” Also, if you wanna test out your FPS and other issues, it should be “bsp fullvis (EXTRA)” for a realistic simulation.

Once you have finished your compile, launch jedi knight, and open the console via shift + ` (the key to the left of 1) If it's a multiplayer map type sv_pure 0 and hit return, then type devmap yourmapname and hit return. Single player just requires you to type devmap yourmapname Yourmapname will be whatever you have been saving your map as, devmap will make it so cheats are on so you can experiment in different ways.

Correction by Vorax, note that BSP FULLVIS (Extra) is used by JK2 radiant, not standard fullvis

 

So I made a dinky test map and lit it, compiled it, and tried to test it and the whole place is lit up like times square and doesn’t have any of the light effects I inserted, what gives?

This is simply a bug in the compiler. Any map smaller than 100k will result in you having issues with the lighting. It’s just a bug. Larger maps will not have this issue, and considering most serious maps that are released are well over 100k due to various details of the level, it’s not really a concern.

If you absolutely must overcome it, there is a solution:

 

Take your little square, and move further back on the map, and in a corner not too far away, make yourself a “spur” a spur is a complex bit of brushwork with the sole purpose of increasing the size of your .bsp. In the end it will look something like this:

http://www.tribalpharmacy.com/hubstuff/jk23.jpg

 

Problem solved.

 

Uh, my compiler told me to speak with John Carmack, do you know his number?

It means something is really, really wrong, and Radiant is telling you to see the boss. To find out your specific problem load the map and you will be getting booted, take note of your error message.

 

My single player map is loading as MP/My MP map is trying to go SP

First: If loading an MP map and it won't let you make sure to have sv_pure 0 typed in before you try and launch the map.

 

If that doesn't work make sure you have your project settings right in JK2Radiant, MP maps must use MP entities and likewise for SP. If you have built the Mona Lisa of maps on the wrong entities set, worry not, load up a map under the right entity settings and go up to load, and then load your map, it should import your map leaving behind the entities which do not apply in the current gametype.

 

If that fails you can load your original map, make a huge brush that surrounds the entirety of your map, then go up to selection, select and then select complete tall. That will copy every thing within that brush, now you open up your next map with the right entities (it can be blank) and then hit yes when it prompts you to ask if you want to copy the selection voila it should paste it in, or at the worst require a control + V to put them in there. (Note, copying and pasting very large maps will generally cause radiant to crash, the first method is best.)

 

Miscellaneous

How do I make that screenshot that shows when my level is loading?

When you are about ready to compile your map, drop in a single info_player_deathmatch entity. Now, use the angle pad at the lower left of your entities menu to select it's facing so it is facing what you want to take a screenshot of.

 

Compile and load your level.

 

Now, open the console and type levelshot and hit return. It will pause for a moment and then say it took a screenshot, and where it saved it. (Default should be base/levelshots/yourmapname.tga)

 

Now, reload your level, you should now see your screenshot as your screen loads. This will also tie in perfectly to the default spectator spot and deatmatch spot so you get that beautiful smooth transition from the level loading screen to the in-game engine. Make sure to include the levelshot when you are creating your pk3.

[Hubris]

The following is a set of links that I used to assemble the above post, as well as bunch others, these range from simple to complex, the majority being in the middleground.

 

Tip:Built into your internet explorer is the function "find" hit control F when you load one of these pages, for example, you can try control + F and type in shader, and it will return places on the html document that have the word shader mentioned, very useful when scouring huge FAQs and tutorial lists.

 

A list of various tutorial collections:

 

http://www22.brinkster.com/ravenmapping/tutorials.asp

Simple to advanced tutorials

http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/surface/tutorials.html

Well presented Wolfenstein tutorials, same theories and functions apply.

http://www.claudec.com/the_tutorial_Index/q3a/tutorials.shtml

At least half of the links in Claudec's list are broken, but some of them still work, and you can't find them elsewhere. Even with the broken links it is the most exhaustive gathering of them as of yet.

http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/013172.html

Huge collection of mapping links.

http://planetquake.com/bubba/mapping.html

Bubba, simple to advanced tutorials, very useful when first starting at, but has some tips for vets too.

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23998

Original resources thread by Wilhuf, lots of links, some good, some bad.

 

Contributions by Yrean:

 

Ok here are a list of tutorials that you will need....use them as bibles..I know they are for Q3 but they are both edited by radient..

 

TOOLS YOU NEED!!-youll find them here..

http://www.jediknightii.net/files/index.php?category=16

 

READ FIRST: very helpful if your just learning radient

http://jk2ed.jediknightii.net/bookofnoob.htm

 

Good Tutorial:

http://quake3.qeradiant.com/tutorials.shtml

 

Good Tutorial:

http://planetquake.com/qworkshop3/tutorials/

 

Good Tutorial:

http://www.cgonline.com/features/010626-f1-f1.html

 

Heres on on some advanced lighting.

http://q3lab.telefragged.com/tutorial10/

 

And yet anothere Tutorial:

http://www.planetquake.com/gothic/

Those few sites will answer almost all your questions

 

Contributions by Vorax

An in depth explanation by SmallPileofGibs of what the compiler is up to when you launch it:

http://www.planetquake.com/spog/stuff/technical.html

[Imran]

Excellent FAQ . I hope it doesn't get lost in the sea of threads

[RelFexive]

 

Nice to know my work is appreciated....

 

I knew those effect and model lists would come in handy....

 

Max lives!

[Hubris]

Awesome Rel, I have been looking through threads trying to figure out who that author was . Could you give me a link to the model list as well?

[RelFexive]

Simple: just exchange EFFECTS for MODELS and you're away!

 

I don't think all of them are right, though There's a few glm's or gla's that have sneaked in. I should really go through it to check sometime, but I'm trying to get to grips with everything JKradient related at the moment.

[Hubris]

Updated, great lists, thanks a bunch

[Snake44]

Now THAT is helpful

 

Thank you, Thank you

[yrean]

hubris...i had roger put the other post as a sticky...we really only need one sticky of FAQ's is it possible for you to take valide info like all the links i listed and a few posts that answer som peoples questions and move them to this post? that way we only have one post for people to look thru to get there links, tuts, and FAQ's instead of 2?

[Hubris]

Will do, just gimme a bit to organize and what not, I'll try and update and edit this post once a day for a few weeks.

[Vorax]

Umm, it still needs work. There are several incorrect things in your post. However, despite that, I still think what you have here is a good start for new mappers.

 

- Vorax

[Hubris]

If there's issues, then post them.

[yrean]

hubris your doing an awsoe job..i think for the most part as soon as we get all the FAQ and tut links etc up this post should be edited to take out any comments including this one...and the post should be locked so this isnt 3 pages of posts having to do with nuthing....by the way.....did i say your doing an awesom job?? just checking...lol thanks.

[Hubris]

 

In the long run it'll either save me time or guilt. I always feel bad passing over a question that I know the answer to, easier just to post a link.

[andychip]

Im speachless!

That is what I call a thread!

Im sure that will help all the new mappers and some of the more experienced ones:thumbsup:

[RelFexive]

You know, Hubris, it's just occured to me that we need to specify that people need to add ".efx" and ".md3" after the effect and model path/name bit in my files. Some folks out there seem to be missing them off.... My fault really.

 

Or maybe not.

[Vorax]

Originally posted by Hubris

All the big mappers have Caulk in their maps and screenshots, what is Caulk, do I need it?

Any map that wants to perform well needs caulk. Caulk is basically a “Do not enter” sign for the engine. If you place caulk on surfaces that won’t be rendered anyway, it lets the engine know they are of zero importance, and to disregard them, and thus, your players will see a significant boost in their FPS. In simple maps it might mean one frame per second, in very complex maps it can mean literally dozens of frames per second.

Use caulk.

For a better understanding of caulk, look here:

http://quake3.qeradiant.com/q3afiles/caulk.htm

 

Actually caulk is not disregarded at all. The compiler sees caulk just like a wall, it is solid and it blocks vis, however, it isn't rendered in the game. Caulk has 2 purposes. It speeds up compile time because the engine doesn't have to determine if this face is drawn. If a textured face on a structural brush is completey covered by another face on another structural brush, then the face is removed (essentially it becomes caulk). Working this out slows down compile times. With structural brushes, caulk or no caulk makes no difference to r_speeds. When a face is caulk already, the compiler doesn't have to do those calculations.

 

Which brings me to the second purpose of caulk. When brushes are detailed, the above doesn't apply (detail brushes aren't structural) The compiler doesn't determine if the face should be drawn or not. By setting the unseen face to caulk, you have the same effect as if the calculation was done by the compiler. This is the only time caulk improves r_speeds. But it can be drastic if you have alot of detail brushes in your map.

 

 

How do I make a sliding door or elevator?

Draw a brush, right click with it still highlighted and click func then func_door. That brush is now defined as a door entity. From there there are a bunch of variables you can define. Hit the N button and bring up the entities window, the most important one is “angle” this is the angle your door will slide when someone is close to it. If you look in your lower left corner you’ll see an eight pointed diamond of buttons with up and down on the side. These are examples of the different angles. If you’re facing degree 180, and the door is defined to slide at 270, that means it will slide left a door defined as “Up” will be an elevator. You can move your entity window around a bit to get an exact view if need be to see which direction your door will slide.

 

Elevators should not be made with func_door. They should be made with func_plat. Func_plat creates a platform that lifts up and down. It has a controlable height to travel up and down, can be triggered to go up and down, can leave a lip and the game also applies an appropriate sound as it travels up or down.

 

Lighting

How do I light my level?

If you right click, and scroll down you will see an option for lights. Hitting the default “K” button will bring up an option to allow you to edit the color.

You can also use the following key/value combos “Light/X” where X is the strength of the light (200 is default) “Radius/X” where X is the radius of the light, 64 is default. You should be able to look over the key list yourself by hitting the N key.

 

300 is default and only spot lights have a radius default 64 and it can only be changed for spot lights.

 

Compilation and errors

How do I play on my map?

What you wanna do is go up to the BSP halfway across your toolbar, and you’ll see a wide variety of options, personally I use two, these are “bsp fullvis (nolight)” and bsp fullvis. Selecting either will start up a dos prompt that is your map compiling. You can watch it, or you can go afk if you’re confident your map is stable, if it’s a small map it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two, very larger maps with complex lighting systems under fullvis can take hours. The “no light” setting will result in your map being very very bright, this is still a good quick compile so you can look at your textures or brush work, however, your finished map should be the standard “bsp fullvis.” Also, if you wanna test out your FPS and other issues, it should be “bsp fullvis” for a realistic simulation.

 

Bsp fullvis (extra) should be used for final compiles. In Quake 3 Bsp fullvis does do the extra detail tracing, but in JK2 it only does a fast light compile. The Quake 3 tutorials will tell you to use BSP-FULLVIS but for some reason in JK2Radiant Raven changed it. So use BSP-FULLVIS (EXTRA) instead.

 

In very slight amounts clipping just looks ugly, in larger amounts clipping will cause major FPS hits, in extreme cases, it will decimate your map and cause harsh errors and tell you to contact John Carmack

 

Clipping doesn't cause problems, it just changes the number of sides on a brush. It doesn't create errors. CSG-Subtract however...now that's evil and should be avoided. It does do the things you described.

 

 

As it stands, the editor is very smart, and if a structural brush entirely blocks a viewpoint it will negate things beyond that, thus keep renders low, FPS high, and things on the user good.

However in some circumstances a mapper can’t rely solely on the editor, you must give it a hint.

 

The compiler (editor has nothing to do with it) is not that smart. Just because a wall blocks view doesn't mean it will hide everything behind it...not by a long shot

 

Please add this *very* good informational link to your list. It is by one of the gods of Quake 3 mapping...SmallPileofGibs (SPoG). It, in detail, explains much about the compiler and compilation processes. I beleive it should by mandatory reading for all mappers:

http://www.planetquake.com/spog/stuff/technical.html

 

There are also situations where you can’t have a structural brush in an area, for some reason or another, and you must resort to using hinting to tell detail brushes to act as blockers.

A more in depth explanation of hints can be found here:

http://fps.brainerd.net/hintbrushes.htm

 

No. Hint brushes do not block vis, they only create more portals and nodes. This means the compiler has a better chance of isolating only the portals that will be visible.

 

- Vorax

[UniKorn]

Originally posted by Vorax

I beleive it should by mandatory reading for all mappers:

http://www.planetquake.com/spog/stuff/technical.html

 

- Vorax

 

Belive,

Beleive,

 

BELIEVE !

 

(inside joke)

[Vorax]

Originally posted by UniKorn

 

Belive,

Beleive,

 

BELIEVE !

 

(inside joke)

 

Damn you! hehe...I can't type at 8 in the morning with no coffee!

[Hubris]

Updated.

 

The majority of those however are you misinterpreting explanations.

 

Clipping for example, does not refer to 2 and 3 point clipping of a brush(Which is what I think you're talking about), it refers to ramming multiple brushes or meshes into each other. I even gave a screenshot demonstrating what clipping looks like in game, so it was pretty obvious I wasn't talking about 2/3 point clipping.

 

There's a few others like that as well, I reworded them where necessary to not cause confusion.

 

With caulk, hinting, etc, I'm giving short simple answers, and then elaborating with a link which if they need more information they can follow. It is simply not necessary to have a page long explanation of caulk, or a multiple page explanation of hinting. I'm giving a simple explanation and then following up with a link or three. Some mappers might see this thread as their first exposure to radiant, in depth explanations of complex concepts would only seek to spook them off. If they do want them there's a link sitting right there at the bottom of almost all my commentary.

 

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

[Vorax]

Oh... What you are calling 'clipping', is typically called 'Z-fighting'. You should use Z-fighting instead because lots of tutorials will refer to it like that, and lots of other tutorials will refer to clipping in the way I was, as clipping brushes with the clip tool. 'Clip' is already an over used term that confuses new mappers because of the clip texture (system/clip) for smothing things out and the clip tool for point clipping (damn ...used it again ) both are discussed using the word 'clip', but they are not even close to the same thing. I should have looked at the picture, I was confused by 'clip'...see..confusing isn't it.

 

Heres the normal use of the terms that you will see in tutorials:

 

Z-fighting = 2 or more brushes faces sharing a plane

Clipping = Clipping brushes using the clipping tool

Clip = The system/clip shader that is used to smooth out

uneven surfaces (in Quake 3 tutorials it will be common/clip)

 

One other thing...the tutorial you pointed at of Bubbas is actually about trains not func_plat. My wife emailed him about a year ago about that title, but he still hasn't updated it. Moving platforms sounds like he is describing func_plat, not func_train. Hehe

 

- Vorax

[Darth Yoda]

how do you put a spawnpoint in JK2 Radiant? All of the Q3 radiant tutorials say right click, go to info, and info_player_spawn or something like that, but raven obviously changed that in JK2 radiant.

 

**EDIT: found what i was lookin for in the resources sticky, thx **

[Manquesa]

first, make the brush that is gonna be your train(a platform, elevator, etc.). And then make another small brush placed in the middle of the train and texture it with the origin texture found in textures>system . Then while both brushes are selected make them a func_train. Place a path_corner entity at the center of the elevator just as you did the origin brush, that's where it will start. then continue placing however many path_corner entity's that you need for each stop of the elevator. Now, while nothing is selected, select the func_train and then the first path_corner entity and press cntrl+k to target the train to it. Then deselect everything and now selct the path_corner 1 and then path_corner 2 and press cntrl+k to connect the path_corner's. Repeat for all your path corner's. Set wait values for the path_corner's so it will stop for an x amount of time at each one and set the desired speed as well. And that's it, you're done. Just be sure to link the last path_corner back to the first one or else if i'm not mistaken it will just stop at the last one and never move again, at least not untill you load the map again.

[Hubris]

Been slacking lately as my interest in JK2 had waned a bit after the last patch. But, getting back into it. I still love mapping even if I'm hating the MP now

 

Updated with the func_train information by Manquesa, as well as a large texture section, more information on lighting, a couple of new error questions, and more.

 

Forthcoming over the next day or two will be a comprehensive single player section dealing with single player specific entities, some scripting, notes on making cinematics, and more.

[ape2man]

Guys ... for all newbie's in mapping just use GtkRadiant with JK2 support and the JK2Radiant from radiant. In GtkRadiant you make the map ( why you ask , becease its the same as q3Radiant and all tutorials for Q3mapping are based on it) dont compile it (bsp) becease it just give's a error and doesend compile it.

 

Open JK2radiant and open your map "made in gtkRadiant". then go texture your map , why you ask not in gtkRadiant becease it dousend have that nifty search tool for your textures and shaders. and when your ready compile it.

 

PS: for all raven guys here JK2radiant is freaking buggie as hell importing models works buggie and it dousend show you the model it self.

 

ape2man

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