Questions From a Quasi-mapper.

[iSlak]

#1 Sky Question

 

I am creating a sky from a 4-sided brush. I am texturing this brush with a sky texture from the, "skies", textures.

 

The sky texture tiles. How might one go about producing a sky that looks realistic enough not to stand out as an eye sore, and will emit surface light?

 

#2 Liquids Question

 

How can I make a brush that acts like water?

[Pope2k]

#1: The sky textures appear to tile within the editor, but once you get into the game, the sky looks normal and does produce light.

 

#2: Use system/caulk_nonsolid to create your brush. Texture the top and bottom of the brush with a water shader. Make sure the brush is completely contained within solid brushes within your map.

[iSlak]

My sky textures still tile.

 

And I'm led to believe I am suffering from a major texture/shader issue here.

 

Some of my shaders/textures aren't loading. (example: My gfx shader/textures).

 

How can I get these shaders/textures? I'm presuming I can obtain them from the assets0.pk3.

[monsoontide]

You should've extracted the ENTIRE assets0.pk3 into the base folder.

 

If you're getting a tiled sky texture it's probably because you're using the image rather than the shader. Just using the image won't produce the 'Sky' effect.

 

To get a skybox you need to apply the appropriate SKY shader which appears as a small white box with sky written in it in the texture window.

eg: textures/skies/artus_light I think is one.

 

In RADIANT it will look like a big white wall with SKY written on it many times.

 

(To untile a texture, press 'S' for the surface menu make sure width & height are set to 1x1 and hit FIT, then press APPLY and then OK)

 

To make a brush act like water make a square brush (for now) and fit it inside

a container (i.e. another series of brushes) and texture the entire things with the textures/system/nodraw texture. Then surface the top and bottom with one of the several water shaders (Bespin & Yavin texture sets feature them from memory)

 

For more details goto

http://richdiesal.jedioutcastmaps.com/tutorials/br201lsn1.html

 

Monsoontide

[iSlak]

These missing textures have driven me to uninstall Jedi Knight II, reinstall it. Extract the assets0.pk3 into the base directory. Uninstall GtkRadiant, then reinstall it.

 

I am running into the same problem.

[iSlak]

I've built (and compiled) a working sky-box. Thank you for your assistance.

 

Now, my next question. How do I make an elevator move to a specified location, then back to it's original location, through a distance trigger?

 

I've given up on getting those gfx textures, for now. Seeing as I have no way to go about it, currently.

[Eldritch]

About your elevator, if you wanted it to go out and return (and look professional) you could use buttons to trigger its movement (both going and returning) as a func_plat. Or if you want it to be in constant motion make it a func_train and target it to waypoints wherever you want it to stop and wait before moving again.

[iSlak]

Thank you for your reply, JEDI_Anakin_S.

 

I never thought about using buttons to trigger elevators...

[buckman]

I have been using func_plat a while, but im having problems triggering it: At the top i have targeted a func_button to the func_plat, that works well, the elevator comes up, but when i get on the elevator at the top it does move! it just stand there in the same position, but when i get of the elevator, it goes back down.

 

What gives? Can i fix this?

[Eldritch]

Islak,

 

No problem. I used the 'buttons' method for one of my maps a while back... had a custom texture for each button, because the elevator could go to different floors, so there was an 'up' button and a 'down' button.

 

Buckman,

 

The elevator is not going back down when you get in it because func_plats are supposed to wait at the top of their movement until you get off, after which it returns to the beginning of its movement. To get it to go down, you have to have a SEPERATE trigger that will make it go down to it's starting position. Kind of a hard concept for me to explain, as I'm not great at teaching this kind of thing, but check out Rich Diesel's Mapping University, you can merge different things you learn in the various lessons and apply them to your problem (for example a way to have a trigger make an elevator return to the bottom of it's movement while still carrying a player). Hope this helps at least a little.

[buckman]

To get it to go down, you have to have a SEPERATE trigger that will make it go down to it's starting position

 

How da hell do you do that? i tried targeting another trigger_multiple ontop of the func_plat's toplocation, but that only made it to go up as soon as i enterd that trigger.

 

Kind of a hard concept for me to explain, as I'm not great at teaching this kind of thing, but check out Rich Diesel's Mapping University

 

Can you atleast try to explain? Because i have red Richs tut several times, and i cant find the info im looking for

[Eldritch]

Originally posted by buckman

 

How da hell do you do that? i tried targeting another trigger_multiple ontop of the func_plat's toplocation, but that only made it to go up as soon as i enterd that trigger.

 

 

 

Can you atleast try to explain? Because i have red Richs tut several times, and i cant find the info im looking for

 

I'll give it a shot. Ok... func_plats MUST be placed at the END position of their movement. To move both up and down, you have a few options:

 

1) Make a second elevator next to the original one, with it's own doors and elevator shaft preferably. Make this one go down. So now you have an "up" elevator and a "down" elevator. This is the less complicated approach, but I imagine you want the SAME elevator to go both up AND down, so...

 

2) Instead of a func_plat, make it a func_train with a trigger_multiple attached to it (for more info on trains, see Rich's tutorial section, it does have a section on func_train). Then just adjust the train's settings so that it acts however you want it to.

 

I hope this helps (at least a little).

 

-Anakin

[monsoontide]

For help with Func_Trains try http://planetquake.com/bubba/train1.html

 

These tutorials are old (For Quake3) but still very relevant to JK2.

 

For lifts, I found this tutorial that I downloaded ages ago, but I can't find the original website (Which has all the pix) It's a bit long Sorry...

 

This is the easiest type of lift to create, using the “func_plat” entity function for the platform itself…

 

From the textures area, select the texture titled “grate” which looks like so,

 

Now simply create a brush that covers the area you carved earlier. Then go into XZ view mode and make your lift brush as thick as the following and at the bottom of your bottom room,

 

When done, return to XY view mode and right click on your lift brush, and go into the “func” menu and select “func_plat”. Now press your “N” key to bring up your platform’s properties. In the “Key” field, type:

 

angle

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

-1

 

This will make your lift move up when moving and return to its original position by going the opposite way, in this case, down…

 

Press the ENTER key to enter the key and value, and now, in the “Key” field, type:

 

delay

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

1000

 

This is in milliseconds (1 second = 1000 milliseconds) so your lift will wait one second before moving giving you time to step on the platform. Press the ENTER key to enter the key and value. Now press your ESC key to unselect your lift and close its properties.

 

Now for the triggers!

 

From the “Textures” menu, select the “system” texture subset. When the textures are loaded, click to select the “trigger” texture which is green in colour and has “Trigger” written all over it. When selected, create a trigger covering your entire lift and also covering a bit of the floor. From the XY view mode, you should see the following,

 

 

 

 

 

 

And from the XZ view mode, you should see the following,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for your second trigger, on the top position of the lift…

 

From XZ view mode, simply press your “Control C” keys to copy the first trigger brush and then press your “Control V” keys to paste a copy of it. Now simply move it up to the floor of the room above. When you have both trigger brushes in place, return to XY view mode and select both your trigger brushes. To select a brush, in the 3D camera, face the brush and leave your “SHIFT” key pressed while you left click on it. When you’ve selected both, in the grid editing area (XY view mode), right click on them and go into the “trigger” menu and select “trigger_multiple”. Now both your brushes are real triggers…

 

Press your “N” key to bring up the properties of both triggers and in the “Key” field, type:

 

 

 

wait

 

 

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

 

 

4

 

 

 

Press your ENTER key to enter the key and value and then your ESC key to unselect both triggers. This will make both your triggers wait four seconds before being able to be re-activated again to call the lift…

 

 

 

Now you’re done!

 

You have successfully created a multiplayer working lift. To test it, go all the way down skipping the section below on single player lifts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Lift Is For Single Player (then read on, if not go up)

 

Before you continue, make sure you have “Single Playerr mapping mode”. To activate it, go to “File”, “Project settings” and select “Single Player mapping mode” from a list, click “OK” and close JKRadiant (providing your map is saved). Re-run JKRadiant and load up your map, then continue…

 

 

 

Lets start making our lift for single player. We will be using the “func_door” entity function for the lift to work…

 

From the textures area, select the texture titled “grate”, which looks like so,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a brush covering the entire area you carved earlier…

 

When done, go into XZ view mode and make your lift brush as thick as the following and at the following height,

 

 

 

 

 

 

When done, go back into XY view mode and right click on your lift brush. Go down into the “func” menu and select “func_door”. Then press the “N” key to bring up your lift’s properties. In the “Key” field, type:

 

 

 

angle

 

 

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

 

 

-1

 

 

 

Press your ENTER key to enter the key and value. This will make your lift go up when triggered. In the “Key” field, type:

 

 

 

lip

 

 

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

 

 

-365

 

 

 

Press the ENTER key to enter the key and value. This value defines by how much your lift will move…

 

For the height of the rooms, it is “365” but your levels may be for example “705”. I am afraid that to get the exact measurements, you require the use of trial and improvement but for this tutorial, enter “-365” as it is the proper value for this tutorial level. Always make your value negative ( - ) for lip values, it is just the way it is, even for lifts that start at the top and go down. Now, in the “Key” field, type:

 

 

 

delay

 

 

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

Press the ENTER key to enter the key and value. This value will make your lift start to move one second after being triggered, to give you time to move onto the platform itself. In the “Key” field, type:

 

 

 

wait

 

 

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

 

 

2

 

 

 

Press the ENTER key to enter the key and value. This will make your lift wait two seconds before returning down once it goes up…

 

In single player, by default, doors have no sounds but for this tutorial, lets use the default soundset so in the “Key” field, type:

 

 

 

soundset

 

 

 

And in the “Value” field, type:

 

 

 

impdoor1

 

 

 

Press the ENTER key to enter the key and value. This will give your lift moving and stopping sounds!

 

To see a list of all the available soundsets, go down to the end where I explain both, testing your map and changing soundsets.

 

 

 

Your lift is ready so press your ESC key to unselect it and close its properties. All we need now are the triggers at the top and at the bottom, so from the “Textures” menu, select the “system” texture subset. When all the textures are loaded, select the “trigger” texture which is green in colour and has “Trigger” written all over it. Now, we need to make two triggers at the top and two at the bottom. Create two brushes similar to the following screenshot,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now go into XZ view mode and make them taller than the player, like so,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before you return to XY view mode, press your “Control C” keys to copy the triggers and then press your “Control V” keys to paste a copy on top of the originals. Now simply move your copies up to the floor brush of your top room, like so,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you can return to XY view mode and press your ESC key to unselect everything…

 

All we need to do now is make these four brushes real triggers and connect each one to the lift itself. From the 3D camera, select one of the four triggers and in the grid editing area right click on it and go down into the “trigger” menu and select “trigger_multiple”. Now that you have a real trigger, before you unselect it, also select the lift and then press your “Control K” keys to connect them together. Press your ESC key to unselect everything.

 

 

 

Repeat the above to convert all the other three trigger brushes into real triggers (trigger_multiple’s) and to connect them together with the lift.

 

 

 

When all your triggers are there and are connected to your lift, you’re done!

[monsoontide]

All credit for the lift tutorial to

 

Kayron James Mercieca

 

I copied and pasted the text from his tutorial 'cos I couldn't find the link to the website.

 

Monsoontide