[Tutorial] Making Maps.

Again, no credits to me. I'm just posting these TUTs from other websites to help you guys.

PART I

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Installation
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Step 1.
Download and install GTKRadiant.
http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/files/radiant/GtkRadiant-1.5.0.msi

Step 2.
Download the GunZ Online plugin for GtkRadiant

Mirror1: http://rapidshare.com/files/60960809/GtkRadiant_GunZ_gamesettings.zip.html
Mirror2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3NQSOX0H

Extract the files in the zip to C:\Program Files\GtkRadiant 1.5.0\ (Overwrite)

Step 3.
Download the basic config files for your gunz map:

Mirror1: http://rapidshare.com/files/60970384/GunZ_gamedata.zip.html
Mirror2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L66DNE98

Extract these files to C:\gunzmap\

Step 4.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gzmap
Download Legions map compiler and extract the zip to
C:\Program Files\GtkRadiant 1.5.0\

Step 5.
Start GtkRadiant and select GunZ Online as your target game.

Set the Engine path to C:\gunzmap\

It should open a new window, once your in same immediantly. Call it the title of your map.


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Configuring GtkRadiant
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Before we get down to creating a new map, we need some textures to work with. I have a setup a download link for some basic GunZ textures that can be downloaded here:

http://files.filefront.com/gunzrar/;9471118;/fileinfo.html (by virus)
http://files.filefront.com/Texturesrar/;9517490;/fileinfo.html (by Aziz)


Extract the folder in the textures.rar to C:\gunzmap\
Were not finished yet, when you add new textures you have to define them in a special file called shaderlist.txt located in C:\gunzmap\data\scripts the file should contain the following

Code:

textures
gunz

Alright lets get started, now that we've put in some custom textures we have to restart GtkRadiant so it can read the new textures. Open your map up and lets get started!

If you don't see this exactly, not to worry. Follow these steps to configure GTKRadiant to appear and operate like mine (which is, of course, superior to every other possible way). Go to edit, then preferences, and in the list, under Interface, click on layout. Set your layout as mine is... I prefer this to the other layouts for ease of use.



PART II

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Creating your first map
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Alright guys time to get started! In here we're going to begin building the room. This tutorial will cover creating the walls, floor and ceiling, as well as some very basic texturing.

Some useful commands to know before getting started

Code:

F1 - Brings up the help menu
Insert/Delete - Zooms in/out of a window
Escape - Deselects any selected brushes/entities

Shift-leftclick - This selects or deselects the brush/entity you click on
Numpad keys - Changes the grid size
ctrl-c - Copy the selected entity/brush
ctrl-v - Paste the previously copied entity/brush
t - Brings up the texture-picker.
ctrl-shift-leftclick - Selects just the face of a brush (one at a time)
ctrl-shift-alt-leftclick - Selects/Deselects the faces of a brush (as many as you want)
d / c -Move the camera vertically

Okay lets begin!

Now for the floor. Click and hold the mouse button at the -256,256 mark (top left of the window) and drag down to 256,-256. This should create a large square as depicted in the following picture.



The Floor

Congratulations, you just created your first brush. What is a brush? A brush is a surface inside quake3 arena levels. Basically, everything we're going to do here will revolve around brushes or entities. We'll get into entities later, but just know that if I'm talking about a brush, I'm talking about THIS. Now that you know what a brush is, let's move it some.

Click and hold your mouse button in the center of the brush, in the bottom left window. This is a side view. You could also do it in the bottom right window, which is the front, as we're just going to drag the brush down a bit. Now, drag it so that the top of the brush is even with the 0 line. The following pic will illustrate what I mean.



Moving the floor down a step

Does it have to be at the 0 mark? No. However, we're putting it here for the purpose of demonstrating the movement of brushes (very important) as well as making it easier on ourselves later.

Okay before moving on lets set GunZ spawnpoints. It's important to set these locations otherwise your map will crash (duh) Before creating a spawnpoint we must de-select the current element (the floor) or else the spawnpoint will actually replace the floor, and we don't want that to happen. The below picture will give you an example how to add a spawnpoint:



Inserting a spawnpoint

Take a good look at that pink rectangular object, thats how big your gunz character is relative to the map.

Okay obviously we can see that our floor is too small lets stretch it out a bit but first we must select the floor again. De-select the spawnpoint by hold shift and clicking it, then click the floor it should highlight pink. If you look below you should be able to see the three dimensional panels and your selection should highlight red on them. To stretch an object in the x, y direction click and hold your mouse in the top right panel just above the box which is highlighted red and drag it, it should start to grow.



Stretching your floor

Okay lets texture it! just press "T" on your keyboard to bring up the textures menu and select any texture you want for your floor.



Floor

Alright its almost time for us to compile and test our map ^^

Next we have to create a large box around our plateform make sure its air tight, otherwise the map will have errors. It's like accidentally opening something up to the vacuum of space, everything gets ****ed out.... Anyway you get the point all levels must be surrounded by some sort of a barrier.



It doesn't matter what the outer barrier of your map looks like were going to make it invisible later on in the tutorial.

So lets test it right now! goto the top and hit BUILD compile using NOLIGHT

Once its compiles check in C:\gunzmap\data\maps your looking for the zipped copy of gunzmap, your going to extract the following files and move them to C:\MRS\gunzmap

Code:

WinZIP:

gunz (folder)
gunzmap.RS.BSP
gunzmap.RS
gunzmap.RS.COL
gunzmap.RS.LM
gunzmap.RS.XML
spawn.xml

Now to get a visible sky working for your map we have to do a couple of manual editing. Your going to take your your Town.mrs file and decompress it and steal some sky animations :3

Code:

Town_obj_sky_daylight.elu.ani
Town_obj_sky_daylight.elu

Then place them in C:\MRS\gunzmap

now we want to open up gunzmap.RS.XML and add the following lines:

Add in <Dummylist>

Code:

<DUMMY>
  <POSITION>55267160891140097000000000000000.0000000 0.0000000 0.0000000</POSITION>
  <DIRECTION>0.0000000 0.0000000 0.0000000</DIRECTION>
</DUMMY>

Underneath </MATERIALLIST> add

Code:

<OBJECTLIST>
  <OBJECT>
  </OBJECT>
</OBJECTLIST>

Okay so great! We now have a sky above, but... we surrounded our entire map with giant walls! Not to worry theres a little tag that lets us make them go away ^^ add the following lines in gunzmap.RS.XML

Code:

<MATERIALLIST>
      <MATERIAL>
         <DIFFUSE>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</DIFFUSE>
         <AMBIENT>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</AMBIENT>
         <SPECULAR>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</SPECULAR>
         <DIFFUSEMAP>gunz/Floor013.tga</DIFFUSEMAP>
      </MATERIAL>
      <MATERIAL>
         <DIFFUSE>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</DIFFUSE>
         <AMBIENT>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</AMBIENT>
         <SPECULAR>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</SPECULAR>
         <DIFFUSEMAP>gunz/Box009.tga</DIFFUSEMAP>
      </MATERIAL>
      <MATERIAL>
         <DIFFUSE>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</DIFFUSE>
         <AMBIENT>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</AMBIENT>
         <SPECULAR>1.00000000 1.00000000 1.00000000</SPECULAR>
         <DIFFUSEMAP>gunz/Sky003.tga</DIFFUSEMAP>
         <USEOPACITY>
      </MATERIAL>
   </MATERIALLIST>

The UseOpacity tag lets our ceiling become almost invisible so we can see the sky animation ^^



Now to test your file! Compile gunzmap folder and put it in your maps directory.

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Caulk
No one likes fps lag. No one.


One way to actively reduce fps lag is to use the caulk texture on your map.

"But Hymn, what the hell is 'Caulk'?"

Well my young one, caulk is a texture that tells the compiler not to register that surface in game.

"Oh, so why is that a good thing?"

It allows you to have brushes that are missing sides, because you don't need those sides in game. GTKRadiant doesn't understand a "halfbrush" but it surely understands two textures on a single brush.
Ok, lets use an example. Lets say that this platform is the bottom of your map. All this really means is that the players on your map will only see one side of it.



Now, if you left it like this, the compiler will compile 6 sides, meaning that your players will have to process 6 faces. Thats 6 times as much as needed. To fix this, we apply caulk to the sides that wont be seen in game.

Applying caulk is easy.

1. Select the object(s) you wish to apply caulk to.
2. Select Faces (or F for a shortcut)
3. Click on all the faces (easier to do in the 3D mode) you wish to apply caulk to.
4. Press T and find caulk and apply it.
5. Press ESC 4 times and voila, you have caulk on your structure.



After following these instructions, you've reduced the amount of fps lagged caused by this object by 83%.


Heres a few tips and tricks to help you along with your caulking:

1. When creating an object, make the starting texture caulk. Then create the shape of it, and add the textures you want to the faces that need it. Then later compile the map and check to make sure you did a decent job.
2. You can use caulk to make your "map box", or that box you enclose your map in.
3. If your really an elitist, you can split brushes into multiple brushes to make the most of caulking your object. The only problem with this is that GTKRadiant only supports 36000 brushes (if you exceed that number, it crashes the game).

Stickied + fixed links + added pics + fixed codes + added Caulk part

Wow