Have textured models show for entities in the editor:

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-help/general-help/9998-how-do-i-see-actual-entities-gtk-radiant-1-5-a.html 

Are there any good tutorials to model/convert/and also program models for quake (with blender) ? 

The latest state-of-the-art blender conversion tool is this hacked together python-based thing:

http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/standalone-fbxtomdl/

To use it, make your model in blender, and then export one fbx file for each frame that you want to use. Extract the files in the fbxtomdl zip into a directory, then place all the fbx files into a subdirectory. Add all the fbx files to the directory, and add any skins in bmp, pcx or tga format. Then run the executable

fbxtomdl -d directoryname

General advice: make your model entirely from triangles, and skinmap your entire model in the same uv mapping - quake doesn't support different skins on different sections of the model. Be aware that the quake model format is not very accurate, so don't go overboard on the detail, and try to make sure that the model occupies roughly the same position in each frame. 

Does anyone, anyone at all have the source code for Worldcraft 3.3? Or even Hammer? Has anyone snuck into Valve and snuck back out with the golden gem of all mapping codery, the Hammer Worldbuilder Source Code?

Oh please say yes.... 

Main drawback of worldcraft, it can't be expanded with new functionality due to its closed source state.

I've never come across the source anywhere. 

I've managed to hit a very obscure glitch in tyrann's compile tools (it may be in others too)

*** ERROR 08: Internal error: map.nummiptex > map.maxmiptex


This says that the number of textures exceeds the maximum possible number of textures. The maximum number of textures is calculated as the number of faces in the map. My map is a cuboid, so that's 6 faces and a maximum of 6 textures. I have three textures, one of which is static but switchable (so 2 frames) and two of which are both switchable and animated (4 frames each). This makes 10 textures...

If you ever encounter this bug, the fix is to hide a smaller cube inside your brush: it will get clipped away, but it will raise the number of surfaces in your map to 12 for long enough to get all the textures. 

will definitely try it out! 

func_breakable

Is their a way to set how long the rubble will last? I'd like to have a custom rubble model hang around a minute or two. 

It's a fixed duration in the code. Not offering a guarantee lets us reuse the entities creatively - like replacing some of the rubble early if there's an explosion of gibs nearby and packet overflow is starting to occur. 

Use a func_door, func_train or something for your rubble that should stay around. Ideally I'd use a func_emitter (Extras/RMQ) for this, because it lets you set the particles' lifetime among other things, but I guess with Quoth you're limited to what's in the package. 

@Preach: Yeah, that's a bug from the original TreeQBSP on which my util is based. Pretty rare, but much more likely to happen on a tiny, tiny map. Good job on the workaround though - spot on! ;) 

http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/184783/the_metrics_of_space_molecule_.php 

That's pretty cool. I've been scribbling similar stuff for years without really putting further thought into it or thinking about how to make such sketches a stronger development tool.

Thanks. 

That's a pretty good article, but it should have harped even harder about the most important thing: The graph is 2D but your level is 3D. 

good article. 

Hey guys, I'm getting this error:

Bad texture axes on face:
face point at (0.000, 0.000, 0.000)

what is this error referring to... this website has a description that indicates alignments, but most of the textures (at the moment) have zero shift in their alignment... http://user.tninet.se/~xir870k/tooltips.txt

any ideas? 

Check for microbrushes maybe..
Did you use custom textures?
Which editor did you use? TB i guess.
Which light was used... Come on. 

I'm using the Egyptian textures from soegypt. I'm using worldcraft and am using TyrUtils Light v0.10

As for microbrushes, I actually don'r know what they are... 

try looking in the error report. You might find a bug 'texture axis perpendicular to face'. Just click the fix button.

Its sometimes caused by clipping brushes.

I dont think its possible to create microbrushes in wc. 

which are very small brushes, and a typical problem in quark and similar editors. 

thanks ijed, the error report fixed it...

sometimes the obvious answer is staring us straight in the face... another week-ish of polishing here and there and the map should be ready for consumption. 

Which bsp.exe is the one for me?

My current one: TXQBSP.EXE 1.12

What I need:
Support for small brushes. Small 16 sided cylinders get all messed up and end up more like 8 sided cylinders.

Support for liquid brushes that are one of the following: wedge shaped (4 or 5 faces), tied to an entity, completely or partially angled compared to the 3 planes (x,y,z), and/or micro-positioned (fractional units for a point like "263.4, 47, 18.9")

Specifically, doesn't think that there is a "Brush with duplicate plane on line: ####" when there clearly isn't!
Sorry Tyrann. TyrUtils v0.10 has these errors. It then proceeds to butcher my beautiful brushwork just like txqbsp.exe 

All compilers have some level of "tolerance" when it comes to whether a plane is duplicate or not, and the finer you make the detail the more likely it is that two planes you think of as distinct get merged for being "the same".

What rarely gets explained is why this is a good thing - why the compiler does it. Imagine that on the outside of your map - facing the void - you have two brushes which meet on angled faces. Because the map uses floating point to represent these planes, it's possible that the inherent imprecision of computer arithmetic makes one plane ever so slightly different to the other. If you don't have some way of treating approximately equal planes as being the same, then you get a leak between these two planes.

It's one of those things in engineering where there's a trade-off going on, and the compilers are configured to do the least bad thing. Like you could rebuild the compilers with the delta for equal faces being much smaller. But then you might have to rebuild your map so all the outer walls meet on axis-aligned joins...

PS: Check your map file in a text editor for line #### and see if there's another plane in that brush which is almost the same. If you can track it down, you might be able to slightly tweak the brush so that the planes are different enough to compile. 

Bottom line is: Quake is not the game (engine) for small, delicate geometry. 

If you really want those types of detail then map objects are the way to go.