Quake++ for Quake/Quake++.iso/quake/quakmap/quakemap.doc

Text File | 1996-09-02 | 8.5 KB | 174 lines

                      ---===  QUAKEMAP  ===---        for Windows 95

Version 1.1

QuakeMap is a basic level editor for the game Quake from ID Software.
It provides full 3D edition of .map files, allowing you to build
levels by using polyhedrons with any number of sides with any leaning:
you are not restricted to cubes. It also lets you extract textures
from .bsp and .wad files and put them into .wad files, ready for the
nodebuilder. The QBSP, VIS and LIGHT utilities are required to
"nodebuild" maps.

Included : UNPACK, a program that allows you to expand PAK files
without requiring enough free disk space to hold both the PAK file
and all the extracted files.

Target Quake version : from 0.91 to 1.01. It should work with other
versions, at least partially, but it has not been tested with these.

What's new :
- cut polyhedrons in two parts along planes. Very useful
- bug corrections and other minor enhancements
- UNPACK


 * Introduction *

The main screen is divided into 3 regions. The two regions at the
right shows you the levels you're currently editing. The bottom one,
yellow, is a top view of the level, and the top region, green, is a
front view. The level is drawn in wireframe. The left region shows
you various parameters, such as the view scale, the grid, the
compass, and the currently selected object.

To understand basic principles, open an already existing .map file,
like for example the included sample Watercub.map. Use the "file"
menu. Note that the file EmptyMap.map is here to be automatically
used as model when creating new maps, and the file Entities.map is
the list of standard entities, and contains no real map.

As long as no object is selected, the bottom left region of the
screen lists the entities of the map. An entity is either a
particular Quake item, enemy, light spot, etc, or a solid object like
a door, a button, or the map itself. The former are shown aside a
sphere, and the latter are shown aside a cube. The former are
associated with a particular spot in the level, which is the starting
point of the item or monster. If you click on one of these entities,
the spot will be shown on both views of the map. You can drag it
elsewhere with the mouse. The latter, i.e. the solid objects like
doors, are not associated with a starting point, but with some of the
polyhedrons that constitute the level ("brushes"). If you click on
one of these entities, the corresponding polyhedrons will be
highlighted. The first entity is always "worldspawn", and it owns all
the polyhedrons of the level except the ones owned by doors and
buttons.


 * Working with entities *

If you double-click on one of the entities in the list, you'll be
shown the list of parameters associated with this entity. Parameters
are couples of Specific-Arg : a Specific is a parameter name, and an
Arg is this parameter's value. Double-click on a Specific to edit the
Arg's value. For example, every entity must have a "classname"
Specific, whose Arg specifies the type of entity, like "light" or
"weapon_rocketlauncher" ; and most entities have an "origin"
Specific, whose Arg specifies the coordinates of the starting point
of the entity. This is the Specific which is used to show the little
sphere on the map, showing you what these coordinates really means ;
and if you move around the little sphere, it modifies the associated
Arg.

Some entities may have other Specifics, whose meaning depends on the
classname. For example, lights can have a "light" Specific, whose Arg
specifies the light power. For more information about which Specifics
are meaningful with which classnames, look for other sources, like
the Quake Entities specs by Niklata and Thomas Winzig
(http://www.infi.net/~nichd/qentity.html). This is the document I
used in order to build the list of common entities that pops up when
you choose "New entity".


 * Working with polyhedrons *

Let's come to the serious stuff. The heart of the program will be
discussed here.

In .map files, polyhedrons are represented by the definition of each
of their sides. Apart from texture, a side is only defined by the
plane in which it lies. My program uses the same concept. This mean
you cannot manipulate vertexes of the polyhedrons, but only sides, or
more exactly only the planes which define the sides. As only convex
polyhedrons are allowed, the whole polyhedron is determined by the
set of planes. You work by moving or rotating these planes, and the
program will by itself compute the new vertexes and display the
resulting polyhedron.

To select a polyhedron, first click on the green front view at the
polyhedronÆs height. This will move the red line. Then click on the
yellow view into the polyhedron. A click in the yellow view is
converted into a 3D position : the X and Y coordinates are these of
the point where you clicked, and the Z coordinate is the red line's Z
coordinate. If this leads to a 3D points which is inside a
polyhedron, then the polyhedron is selected and shown darker.

You can move a polyhedron by dragging the little black handle or by
changing the "center" value at the left. This will not cause any
distortion to the polyhedron. To do so, you have to select one
particular side by clicking on one of the other handles. Each of
these handles is the center of a side. The selected side is shown
with a white handle, a normal vector, and yellow lines from the
handle to each vertex. You can move the plane containing the side by
dragging the handle. You can change the side's orientation and
leaning by dragging around the normal vector's handle (gray circle).
The selected side's texture name and parameters are shown at the
left. For any side, you can choose any texture and any texture
offsets, texture rotation angle, and texture scaling factors. You can
also pick a texture from the texture browser; see below.

Adding a new side to a polyhedron is probably one of the most
difficult operation. First, select an existing side and choose "split
up this side". This will split up the side into as many triangles as
the original side had vertexes. Then, if you didn't want so many
sides, delete some triangles. Finally, move and rotate triangles into
their final positions. Note that the number of vertex of a side is
not fixed ; it will change accordingly to the distortions you make.
The last step, if required, is to put the last triangle back into the
position of the original side.

New in this version : you can cut a polyhedron in two parts along a
plane. This gives you an easier way to do some operations like cutting
just a corner of a cube, adding a door throught a wall, digging a
hole, etc. To cut a polyhedron, you have to choose the plane you'll
use as separation plane first. To do so, select a side of another
polyhedron. Selecting a side automatically tags its support plane as
the next cut-plane. Then, select the polyhedron to cut and choose
"Cut along plane" in the menu or in the context-menu. I know that the
operation of selecting another polyhedron and one of its sides before
selecting the concerned polyhedron is not very intuitive, but I
found it easy to use.

Try menu commands and context-menu (right-click) commands by yourself;
their meaning should be obvious enough. Try right-clicking anywhere,
there are a lot of different context-menus : for entities, for
polyhedrons, for sides, etc.


* Textures *

To use textures functions, you first have to be sure you have a
"gfx\" subdirectory, which should already be the case if you're using
QBSP. This directory is to contain .wad texture files. If you choose
"Textures" in the "File" menu, the contents of the file whose name is
in the Specific "wad" of the entity "worldspawn" will be displayed.
You can extract textures from other .wad or .bsp files and put them
into this file.

To directly apply a texture from the texture browser to the side of a
polyhedron, right-click on the handle of the side or on the "Texture:"
scrolling edit box, and choose "Texture..." in the context-menu. The
same dialog box appears, and if you select a texture and choose OK, it
will be applied to the selected side.


 * Conclusion *

NO WARRANTIES. This software is provided "as is". Use at your own
risk. The author cannot be held responsible for any damage, neither
direct nor indirect, caused to your computer or its data.

Author : Armin Rigo, [e-mail]
Any comment / bug report is welcome.