Using Blender to make Quake 3 maps

[goldenboy]

[leileilol]

What if I block out the map collision in QuArK (ew but I can't learn Radiant) and then export that to .obj with Noesis and import and model? Will the scale match when I export individual objects from that, origin corrected?

[goldenboy]

Can't see why it wouldn't, if Noesis does its job correctly.

[leileilol]

Alright, now i'm attempting Q3 mapping with Quark (ew!) and Blender.


ASE exporting with specifying shadernames as materials is very convenient. I've busted out like 7 new mapobjects so far

I also got the hang of the (ew!) terrain maker stuff (with huge 512 unit terrain surfaces) and learned q3map2's alphaMod stuff - though I am only using the volume shader to make grass on surfaces.

Not going to make pyramid of magician-level stuff though, still targeting P2 300 with this map.

[ceriux]

are your hills and stuff already triangulated before you export it to .map? to make hills ect in hammer/worldcraft. you have to use triangles/pyramids. so if they're still quads. that could be the problem.

[leileilol]

Quark has terrain maker 'helper' functions that allow manipulation by pulling vertices which has an effective offset. It will also handle subdivision automatically.

[toneddu2000]

I don't know if original thread's author is still interested but today I found . I used it and it works ok. It does not export materials but it's fine for my intent. For those interested you have to create a io_scene_map folder in your blender-XXX\2.7X\scripts\addons and put the 2 scripts (__init__.py and export_map.py) in there

[Tr3B]

Thanks for the link. I have been thinking about replacing the Doom 3 Radiant entirely with a new Blender workflow.
I still need to find a way to expose the entityDef entity key value pairs to the Blender GUI.

[goldenboy]

If you use a .map exporter, you will be limited to shapes that would be legal brushes. Much of Blender's potential will be unusable.

In other words, if you inted to export to .map and compile to BSP, you might as well use Radiant.

[toneddu2000]

[goldenboy]

That's about right.

It's really not that hard. You make levels exactly the same way as for Unity etc.

- Create level geometry in Blender, UV unwrap and texture it

- Create simplified collision mesh in Blender, in case of FTEQW apply a meshcollide shader, not sure about DP

- Import both into Radiant as misc_model, place so they overlap exactly

- Seal the map in Radiant (caulk hull, can be a box)

- Place your entities in Radiant

- Compile with q3map2

[toneddu2000]

yep thanks gb I forgot about sealing the map. In unity and UDK it's maybe easier because you can just create modular pieces, create prefabs (half staircase for example, that includes 10 modular pieces) DIRECTLY in editor and use them to compose the level. But the beauty of Blender pipeline is that you can create exceptional levels with a technology that is 20 years old!

[LITTLEOFFTOPIC]@gb: what abou SJ? did you find the engine you're going to use for the game? Such a pity you dropped FTE[/LITTLEOFFTOPIC]

[goldenboy]

@toneddu: Currently aiming for UE4, doing art and design, saving up money. UE4 has high minimum system requirements.

Although if motorsep keeps drooling on about Unity, I might pop one of my levels in there and see how it goes.

Both Unity and UE4 are pretty cool engines.

[toneddu2000]

I see..well UE4 seems best engine avaible to everyone these days for its features. It just seems.. always work in progress.. functions / classes names change often, procedures change (I've seen youtube videos that explain something that now it's feasible in a completely different manner). But it's an awesome engine, no doubt! All the best gb!

[gnounc]