Some engines in some machines don't like 0-255 values for fog, you have to use 0-1 (like 0.2, 0.5, etc) for best compatibility 

 

fog was already set on 0.3. It showed OK on Quakespasm but somehow not in DP.
A light key of 170 was still active in worldspawn, so I deleted it, just like the lit file (which I deleted once when my lighting problem occured, but it changed nothing).
Now though, after compiling (with the -addmin key still in) now everything is flat-litted (which is brigther than the initial value of 1170, so I assume it went back to 300), even the skill chamber.
What now? 

Dont use the worldspawn "light" key. Ever. It is better to start with a totally dark map.

It seems you have problems in doing what i adviced you to.

Are there any surface lights you may have overlooked?

To make this more clear. A map with no lights and a worldspawn "light" set to 0 should be rendered fullbright when loaded in engine.

So, assuming you deleted all lights and that worldspawn key, plus lit file, you should now see a fullbright map in the engine.

Now,as a test, put one torch in, and recompile. Report back. 

It produces light and shadows as usual, and the rest of the map is pitch black. Water is fullbright but I guess this is a quake feature to allow liquid brushes to be recognizable no matter the light values.
Are things good now? 

I set fog to 0.3, but fog color like "64 192 255". Worked in MarkV at home, but gave me a white screen (like overbright fog) at every other machine. I changed it to "0.25 0.75 1" and now it works in all systems. 

this sounds good.

The waterlight issue is being worked on atm, this is standard quake light behaviour.

Glad to help! 

You can "bypass" the "issue" of fullbright water by using an external 24bit texture. 

with DP? Search in this thread for #15623 and try compiling with the tools linked in that post. 

Hello there, I have been recently playing with Quake mapping and have absorbed a lot from these forums. I find myself stumped and would like to ask for assistance from the many experts here!

Following Preach's NM skill detect map hack I am receiving a crash on map load. Now I thought adding "ai_stand" "SUB_Remove" as a key-value pair would solve the issue but it does not.

I am probably missing something but any insight would be appreciated so I can cater Nightmare to my liking! >:)

Thank you! 

 

Ah I suppose that would help!

CALL0 986(?)
AI.QC : FindNewEnemy
AI.QC : AI_Run
Shambler.QC : SHAM_RUN1
(NO FUNCTION)
NULL_FUNCTION
HOST_ERROR: PROGRAM ERROR


That's the text I get when trying to load the map. For further details I am using an info_null and changing its classname to sham_magic11. 

your info_null is running AI functions which look for th_run (which isn't set) hence the 'NULL_FUNCTION' error.

Check your stuff over... 

That does seem to be the issue but as far as checking stuff over I merely followed the Preach maphack article regarding NM skill detection.

It states that you should get a crash and the fix is to include the ai_stand key with SUB_Remove value in order to "appease" the game since a function is running.

The article does say to use an info_notnull while I am using an info_null but that's the only one I see of the type. Since I am changing the classname is that a moot point?

Thanks for the replies! 

i don't know this hack, but 'ai_stand' as a key makes no sense. maybe he meant 'th_stand'? 

Okay so having the "ai" instead of "th" was certainly the issue. The article states ai_stand so naturally that's what I entered! The map loads!

Thank you Necros! 

Okay,

So the th_stand key did work as the map loads. Now the issue is I do not believe the sham_magic11 (The unique cast of lightning only on skill level 3) is firing. Here is what I have:

info_null
classname: sham_magic11
th_stand: SUB_Remove

trigger_once
health: 1
target: ammo

shotgun shells with targetname: ammo

I have the sham_magic11 entity aimed to shoot towards the origin (0,0,0?) with the trigger_once in between.

The trigger works if I touch it/shoot it but the lightning does not appear to shoot off. I do check that skill is set to 3 before trying as well ;)

This is what I am using as reference: https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/nightmare-skill-detection/

I want to figure this out! 

Must have misjudged the origin point and my trigger.

I encased the origin point with trigger_onces' instead of my strong estimated single trigger and BAM things happen!

Apologize for the redundant post but hopefully it may assist someone else that hits a snag with this brilliant map hack.

I am really glad a community still exists for this game and such a great resource exist.

Thanks 

From preach's article:
1) Make sure the shootable trigger is earlier in the entity list than this lightning entity, or the lightning will shoot at something that�s not there. 2) ensure either that both shootable target and lightning are later in the entity list than everything you�d like to remove (or put a short delay on the shootable target); otherwise you�ll try to remove entities before they are spawned.

most likely the entity order is wrong.

the thing is, when you set a classname, when quake loads the map, it begins spawning entities in the order they are declared in the map file.
when an entity is spawn, quake checks all the functions defined in progs.dat and if it finds one which matches the name of the classname, it immediately runs that function. (if it doesn't find the name, then it just removes the entity).

this means that the lightning is being fired while the level is load so if the trigger is declared at a later point than the lightning, then it doesn't exist yet when the beam goes through.

you can try this:
classname: info_notnull (this is important, info_null entities are removed by light.exe because they are only meant for spotlight targets and become meaningless afterward)
th_stand: SUB_Remove
nextthink: 3
think: sham_magic11

no guarantee if that'll work or not, but this will make it fire 3 seconds after the level loads. i think this number could be 2, but i put 3 to guarantee it works.
between 0 and 1 seconds, entities are being loaded into the map, ammo boxes are being dropped to the ground, etc etc... 

i think more likely when you moved the trigger, it re-ordered the entities when the editor updated the map file. :P 

Thanks for the additional information Necros.

Yeah I was trying to make sure the trigger_once was before in the entity order by editing the .map file in a text editor before compiling. (Is that how you do it?)

The fact that info_null might be dead before the level loads is another great possibility. I will try the entity you defined today and see if it works!

For some reason I swear my test worked one time which is why I posted such but now it refuses to work...entity order and timing are probably the factors.

I will certainly not give up on this! 

It depends on your editor. In sikkpin 's editor I could just cut and paste and it would place that entity at the start of the list.
No t sure about TB or jack/hammer 

Tried your not_null entity with the think keys and it works like a dream (Or should I say nightmare!)

I was able to spawn in an extra enemy and remove ammo ONLY if the skill level was 3. The only caveat is the number of kills on Hard mode will always be greater than the available monsters. But since this is also a pretty crazy hack to begin with, I will not complain!

I tested think at 1 and it acted without delay. I understand if I have any issues I will just up the number to 2 or higher.

Either way I am ecstatic that this is working and is consistently working! Thank you Necros for your help I greatly appreciate it. I do try to search this thread for help before posting but this one I would have never figured out on my own.

Oh I use TrenchBroom as my editor. I was editing the .map file with a text editor and then compiling to change entity orders. But with this think key I can bypass all that.

Cheers 

Thanks to necros for sorting this out while I was away, I've corrected th_stand in the blog post down.

Bonus idea: if you're worried about kills in nightmare, why not try killing off the monsters instead of using killtarget on them? The easiest way to do that would be to telefrag them, have some teleport triggers around them which you fire in hard to make the monsters smoosh together and die. In nightmare, you killtarget the teleport trigger so teledeath doesn't occur. You could even use the gibs for bonus decoration in hard... 

Thank you for the great blog posts, they are very useful!

Well the way I am doing it is having a monster with targetname "nm" with a delayed spawn.

The trigger_once that the sham_magic11 hits targets "nm"

I should have mentioned I am using Quoth haha. The telefrag plan is a good idea but I think if I actually have the full map pack finished I'll worry about the kill count. ;)

Much appreciated.