The best option is to use a func_button, because it lets you use the button textures which change when the button is shot. func_button is quite simple to set up, you just need to set "target" with the same value as the "targetname" on the destination entity.

You got it right using a func_door for the moving wall. If you want it to move back up when you shoot the button again, Try applying the TOGGLE spawnflag to the func_door, and see if that helps. If you want it to close automatically after some time then set "wait" to a positive value. 

And for the button to be shootable it needs to have "health" set to some amount. Setting it to 1 is usually good unless you want the player to have to use a lot of ammo to "kill" it. 

Tragedy!

I sealed my map to test vis times and so on, and suddenly my light tool started to crash!
I'm using ericw's tyrutils v0.15.5, I tested with the original tyrutils and there was no crash.

Here's some evidence, if it helps anyone:
http://puu.sh/pXDTr/40c285c6ce.zip
http://pastebin.com/L7Vtx2m7

The zip file includes two versions of my .map, one which is unsealed and doesn't crash, and one which is, and does crash. There are also pictures showing what I changed.

The pastebin is an example of my console output when running qbsp.exe and then light.exe. When it reaches the "2." point, light.exe crashes, as shown in that log.

Does anyone have any advice on how to fix this? I've tried sealing the map in various different ways around there, which has lead me to believe it is not that specific spot that causes the crash, but rather some issue with the sealed bsp as a whole. 

... we have found a lost soul.. So repent sinner, repent !! And read the Holy Quake Mapping Bible...

http://web.comhem.se/bjp/tooltips.txt

Hoped it helped :) 

I don't think that covers a complete crash of the light.exe 

For what it's worth, it worked for me. I'm not using the latest and greatest compiling programs on this computer though.

The 10 warnings from BSP are way more than I'd want to see.

TxQBSP 1.13 ( XT build 260513 ) -- Modified by Bengt Jardrup
-- Further mods by Baker, mh, rebb
-- Original Detail/Hint code by Alexander Malmberg <alexander@malmberg.org>

Inputfile: bad.map
Outputfile: bad.bsp

------ LoadMapFile ------
17422 faces
2633 brushes (0 detail)

325 entities
102 miptex
2261 texinfo
WARNING: No valid wadfiles in worldmodel

Building hulls sequentially...
Processing hull 0...

<snipped>

------ MergeAll ------
5576 mergefaces

------ FinishBSPFile ------
WriteBSPFile: bad.bsp
6930 planes 138600
17617 vertexes 211404
8593 nodes 206232
2261 texinfo 90440
15092 faces 301840
11659 clipnodes 93272
4631 leafs 129668
19642 marksurfaces 39284
68937 surfedges 275748
35710 edges 142840
0 textures 0
lightdata 0
visdata 0
entdata 36592

Skipped 0 surfaces
10 warnings
Elapsed time : 0:23.87
Peak memory used : 21.0 MB
_____________________________________________


---- light / TyrUtils ericw-v0.15.1 ----
running with 2 threads
BSP is version 29
Colored light entities detected: .lit output enabled.
325 entities read, 144 are lights.
0....1....2....3....4....5....6....7....8....9....
Lighting Completed.

lightdatasize: 470313
7 switchable light styles
Writing BSP version 29
19.0 seconds elapsed 

Pritchard emailed me the bsp, it was indeed a crash bug in light.exe (tyrutils-ericw 0.15.5), will fix in the next update. 

I do wonder about those warnings. I ended up switching to the tyrutils qbsp rather than txqbsp, which a) makes the map compile a lot faster and b) gets rid of all of those errors.
Are they being suppressed, or is the tyrutils set just better at handling my shoddy brushwork?

Also, thanks again to ericw! He was really quick in replying to my emails. :) 

Anyone got any good resources for designing good monster fights? It can be hard to come up with something unique each time. 

With careful monster placement.

Anything by CZG is a good starting point. 

Start with Terra. 

Start with Terra. 

Seconding ijed. Sluggy's maps have the best combat pacing of anything I've seen in quake. 'Honey' being the high point imo. 

But Terra had more experiments I think - more weird stuff just being tried out for the hell of it.

Thinking some more, Negke's speedmaps are full of oddities as well that might help get you thinking about placement differently. 

Be sure to not forget a big final arena battle with at least three waves of monsters porting in because that's not been done to death yet. 

... the comment of the Beast! 

Hey!

Any good source information for advanced lighting and making shadows? I want to make really dramatic lighting to a iron bars, that shadows of bars shows really clearly on the other side.. simply just placing light entities right behind them doesn't do anything.. then I tried to capsule it inside two wall brushes that where attached to close to bar I wanted to focus on.. Light was weak and it wasn't long sharp, instead it tried to always be square (ball shape) maybe because it is spotlight and spotlights works that way.

What is the origin of the spotlight, is it the in middle of the entity box? Angle of the entity describes the direction where the light goes? What about light from top or bottom?

If I want to light get some help from temporary brushes I place around lights to give some wierd/interesting results.. is it possible to disable those brushes when the map starts? Does the effect of those brushes still exist, or will it not count them if using func_wall Toggle off for example?

Sky_texture reflects the light? If it possible to make it invisible too? How to actually use sky box to make shadows?

I'm really noob when it comes to quake lighting & shadows.. and I really want to learn how to make my upcomming map look good* I prefer using really dark/dramatic lights and dark corners but still having some contrast between scary/dark and playable/lighter areas without using too strong spotlights. I want to make lighting feel.. some what natural. 

Where can I download .ent file for Scourge of Armagon? 

First of all you need to specify which light compiler you are using as this greatly affects the type of lighting you can create in Quake. I think everywhere here would not hesitate in recommending EricW's tools ( http://ericwa.github.io/tyrutils-ericw/ ) as they can create fantastic results.

Most of the questions you are asking are answered in the docs for the tools above, and you can see visual examples on the page as well.

As for creating some cool shadows on vertical bars, a good starting point would be simply raising the light value of the light entity so that the shadows cast will reach further. Then for more advanced and natural looking effects you can start messing with the wait and delay values (combined with reducing the light value) to get the desired effect. 

hope here is what you need. 

fgd is no ent file 

yes :) need ent 

Hello,

just wanted to make an elevator moving downwards - so i had to do it with a func_door moving down. No problem.

But func_door uses different sounds than the elevator. I selected the default sound for an elevator in the func_door. This works, but Quake says that the sound isn't precached and an error message occurs.

Is there a way to eleminate the error message and to precache the sound file while map loading? 

 

... just so easy ;D

Thank you!