Quake .map format versus .Map 220 format

[negke]

Yes, more of a missing editor feature, indeed. I can't think of any editor that has properly-working & stress-free texture lock. In Quest, I would never use it, because it screwed up the originally clean offset (not noticable after compiling but awkward for further in-editor use), and it wouldn't work with rotation at all. In Radiant, locking textures for rotation works, but it resorts to using floats for offset and angles which qbsp can't interpret and thus rounds, so it still requires manual work.

Keep in mind that WC3.3 isn't meant for Quake mapping originally (and, to a lesser extent, neither is modern Quark). I think people only use it because they like how WC works, but prefer whatever technical improvements 3.3 has when it comes to certain features that are still relevant for Quake mapping (=nothing map format-specific).

[goldenboy]

@ Worldcraft fans.

So what we have here is ease-of-use versus closed source + incompatible map and wad formats.

You are basically giving the finger to anyone who needs to work with your map sources ("convert it yourself if you want it").

I bet you also toss your junk out of the car window.

I recently was trying to debug pushables in RMQ. The problematic entities were in a map using Valve 220 format that wasn't even created by me, but tasks such as this usually end up on my "desk" in our team. So there I was at 3:30 AM with Spike in an IRC channel, and he told me the origins of the problematic pushables. Well great, I couldn't even open the map.

Die in a fire, Valve 220 format. I say this from a real-world teamwork gamedesign perspective where it is entirely possible that I need to open other people's maps for debugging problems. Are we on the same page?

I guess if you're mapping for yourself in your bedroom, then it doesn't matter.

[Baker]

[r00k]

I might have just skimmed this thread but there seems to be the complaint about roatating brushes and opps the textures are unaligned ? I used (the new one) and just holding shift+LMB draging the texture i can re center on the brush, unless im just off of what u guys are talking about.

[Baker]

Well there is sort of the sub-argument going on about how closed source map editors suck and have no future.

Quake is changing. And some of the map editors in use cannot adapt to any type change since they are closed source, therefore a tombstone sits atop their markings.

[leileilol]

Kind of ironic with your stance about it when it was you who encouraged the use of hammer with that one adapter thing.

[Baker]

[SleepwalkR]

Baker, you can't really convert from 220 to standard format, you will always have a different texture alignment. The problem lies in the way texture coordinates are computed from the texture info in the map files. In standard Quake, the texture axes are always contained within one of the XY, XZ and YZ planes - this is why textures get distorted on slanted faces. The 220 format allows the texture axes to be contained within the face's boundary plane, hence the textures do not get distorted. If you convert from 220 to standard format, you'll end up with distorted faces where there weren't any before. The other direction is fine though, you can just store the texture axes as Quake would have computed them in the texture axis data in the map file.

I think the point of the 220 format is that it allows true texture lock in the editor. In standard Quake, you can get reasonably well working texture lock (much better than what all current editors have), but you'll always have the texture distortion. I have implemented texture lock in my editor so that it always aligns textures with the X texture axis. If you arbitrarily rotate a brush, you'll get texture distortion on slanted faces, but at least the texture pixel at the center of the face remains invariant and the texture remains aligned with the X texture axis.

See here for a demonstration: http://vimeo.com/29137304

[Baker]

Thanks for info SleepWalkr, back around 2008 Avirox, Scrama and I had in depth discussions of the Half-Life map format and Scrama unearthed some utility to turn map format 220 back into regular .map format ... however this utility had no source code (and I'm not really sure who made it) so I at least thought it was possible to do properly. Apparently not.

Heh, so you are making a map editor. Cool.

[ericw]

I just had a need to convert a valve 220 map to vanilla quake. Tried a couple of converters (MapConv.exe, MapConverter.exe, TrenchBroom 1.1, Quark 6.6 beta 4). Quark produced the best output (looks flawless), the others had misaligned textures in places or failed entirely. So, if anyone else needs to do this, try Quark!

This is how you do it:
- Set quake 1 game mode (Games -> Quake -> Quake 1 in the menu).
- Open the valve 220 map
- Go to Options -> Configuration, select Games -> Quake 1 on the left pane. Set "Output Map Format" to "Classic Quake"
- Go to File -> Save as file... and select "Quake .map file" in the file type box.

[xaGe]

Good tip, thanks for sharing.