I made a map in radiant then used worldcraft to compile it, when I did it saved over the map in some crazy valve format that radiant can't read, is there any way to bring it back? 

Use TxQBSP to make the .map into a .bsp

Use WVis to do the vis process

Use Light to do the light. 

but how do I get the sucker back into worldcraft? 

 

it says it's saving it as a game map, when I open it in notepad++ data is formatted differently and when I open it in radiant it says it was expecting a # instead of a [ 

AFAIK - although I heard mention of a script that strips out the extra texture information that WC adds.

Essentially it adds a few numbers to every brush to describe extra texture information - which is how WC3.3 manages to have so many more controls for alignment.

Not familiar with Radiant but if it refuses to read a WC3.3 level then maybe another editor will allow you to convert it back. Beware though, since you could well lose all texture alignment using either a script or editor to bring it back. 

WC saves in Half-Life / Valve 220 format. Someone posted a converter program at quakeone.com once, but I don't remember who or when. It might have been Scrama...

http://scrama.3dn.ru/tmp/MapConverter.zip

I haven't tested it.

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-help/servers-coding/3997-half-life-bsp-q1-8.html 

it worked. 

Nice. (This means Worldcraft can theoretically be used for q3bsp/rbsp/fbsp mapping, too.) 

In a map editor, would it be useful to be able to create new textures out of multiple brushes without having to go into a 2D editor? 

A lot of the textures people make are combinations of existing textures done in order to reduce r_speeds. This would be great for trims etc.
It doesn't take that long to do in a 2d editor though, and obviously you can do more. 

Most of the textures I make are things I can't do with brushes.

What I do wish is that I could swap textures in a wad while Radiant is loaded and refresh the wad when desired. 

Not that making textures in editor would be a bad feature if it could be added. 

 

You mean arranging brushes so that the texture looks different? I do this already quite a lot.

Do you mean capturing such a configuration and saving it out to a 2D format? 

The latter.
I do the former all the time, but it tends to waste vertices and inflates clipnodes and visleafs. 

Combine textures to combine brushes. Would this also help the lightmap?

Highlight multiple faces create the texture then merge brushes apply new texture. Is that the idea? 

Pretty much. It's kind of like, you'll be mapping and making your trims as usual. You realize you'll probably have the same trim + texture layout everywhere so you just make a new texture right there on the spot, inject it into the wad and keep going. 

This is pretty much how I created most of the textures for my MOD, In The Shadows. Once I had a brushwork template I liked the look of, I did a print screen of the brushwork and then painted over it in PS. Added the new texture to my WAD and then tested the texture on the brushwork. After that it was a simple case of brushwork cut and paste.

I also re-used sections of the texture for variety detail and odd angles, so each new texture could be used multiple times and still be consistent.

This approach can create a consistency with architectural shapes and textures. It will also make a map feel like a designed location rather than a haphazard combination of brushwork and texture. 

" After that it was a simple case of brushwork cut and paste. "

Ah, the joys of proper texture lock that works.
Not really sure why I still use wc1.6a. 

In 3.3 you lose cross-editor compatibility and have to convert the textures to wad3?

...I still use it though :) 

Sock uses an old version of Radiant, I don't know how it works there, but the texture lock in new(er) versions produces decimals in the offset values which are not supported by standard QBSP. This can lead to textures getting misaligned by 1 unit in-game while looking perfectly right in the editor. Got to keep this in mind. 

When I say 'cut and paste brushwork' I do not mean texture lock/rotation. If you look at the architecture of my maps they are consistent, each arch, door or pillar is the same size because I cut and paste the brush shapes and then apply the texture afterwards.

I created the textures based on the brush shape so I only need to nudge the texture surface until it fits. This approach really makes a room/area feel like it is designed to fit together. When the texture and architecture are in harmony, the scene looks and feels better. 

Coming back to this after 9-10 months.

Anyone know how long the netradiant site has been down? http://dev.alientrap.org/wiki/7

My version is dated march 1 2012, but there is a bug with the 3-point clipper that crept into that version. Just wanted to know if there had been a newer build since then. 

Move to the latest version, it has better support and there is a coder actively working on it. They are always looking for people to offer feedback and get stuff fixed.

http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=48330&sid=590f6d83bfd40da9dfdae6ea9aedaa98