This would only be worth doing if all the maps returned you back to the gateway map when you finished them - which they don't. Unless you hax0r the .bsp to change the trigger_changelevel, (and it's never a good idea to muck around with a map like that without the author's permission).

You'd probably want to contact the map authors before you release their stuff in a big compilation pack too. 

I'm only suggesting this for maps which say "you can redistribute the bsp as long as you include the readme.txt" or "you can do whatever with this for non-commericial use" or "this map make freely be distributed over the internet"

About 75% of all custom maps I have seen, and I've read a lot of readmes, say one of the 3 terms listed above.

>Unless you hax0r the .bsp to change the
>trigger_changelevel, (and it's never a good >idea to muck around with a map like that
>without the author's permission).

I can write a program to scan maps to determine the "next intermission map". The operating gamedir folder would have a clone of the gateway map as start.bsp or e1m5.bsp to eliminate this problem. 

if it's going to be a seperate mod directory, you might as well include a custom progs.dat at that point -- it's cleaner than what you're suggesting. 

I had not thought of that. That would be much smoother.

A concept: if such a map had screenshots of the map above every teleporter and maybe a texture indicating the name and author (much easier to identify one map from another than having to walk up to each teleporter) ... how many colors are available to work with?

256? Or is it more, or is it limited to the Quake palette (assuming hi-res textures are not used, or making their use optional so this concept would work in any engine, even the WinQuake types)? 

256? Or is it more, or is it limited to the Quake palette (assuming hi-res textures are not used, or making their use optional so this concept would work in any engine, even the WinQuake types)?


Take a look at this -- it may help answer the question.

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/903/evillairsample5ex.jpg

There are two textures in this picture. The one on top is the original from Evillair's e6 texture set. The second is the same texture with the Quake1 indexed palette applied in Photoshop6. There is a bit of quality degradation, but it is still a usefull texture that would look good in Quake.

What I am saying is, the palette does not limit you to just 256 colors. The application that you use is limited to 256 colors to build the picture into a more or less accurate representation of the original. Depending on the process the application uses, you get better or worse results in the translation. The palette colors are used in close combinations that fool the eye into seeing them as a greater degree of colors than is in the original palette. A process called dithering. 

is half the size of the original texture, so there is more degradation of quality here than you would normally get in PS6. (CS2 is fucking amazing at doing this). 

I think I'm going to try to make a (not very good) simple, ugly flat map with screenshots of maps above each teleporter.

But, I've never tried to make a map before, but I'm very solid with most the Quake fundamentals:

What's the best map editor available? Worldcraft 1.6? What do the speed mappers use?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Especially a link to a good "first map" link.

I'm going for function over form. I just want it to work and do it's job, not trying to do any architecture, just a blocky map that serves the purpose. 

Yeah, I'd say you should go for Worldcraft 1.6. I've made most of my speedmaps in Valve Hammer Editor, which is a later version of Worldcraft, basically. Hammer is better but it needs some fiddling to get running with Quake maps.

So I'd recommend WC 1.6 for getting started the fastest, but if you want a more modern editor, you should get Valve Hammer from here:
http://collective.valve-erc.com/


Heres some longwinded advice to getting it working:

you need to get Qonverge, a utility set from Riot:
http://www.icculus.org/homepages/riot/
http://www.icculus.org/homepages/riot/qonverge.zip

you need you run the 'wadconv.exe' program on your textures from the command line like "wadconv -wad2hl idbase" to input a wad called idbase.wad and export a half-life format wad called idbase.hlwad in the same directory. This is because hammer is for editing Half Life. You might have to rename your idbase.hlwad file to SOMETHING.wad so it shows up when you browse for textures to add new Wads.

You also need to get a Quake.fgd file from somewhere. The one in your worldcraft 1.6 folder will do fine. You choose it in the game profile page that pops up when you first start Hammer. 

wc is ok'ish, use czg's .fgd file (czg.spawnpoint.org) and aguirre's compile utils
(user.tninet.se/~xir870k/).
The worldcraft inbuilt help tutorial is good for your first simple map.

Then there's gtkradiant that I think has a somewhat larger user base here. 

You won't have any problems making screenshots look perfect as a small texture in game (so long as you light them sensibly) because of the obvious fact that all the screenshots would already be using the quake palette.

Unless I am missing something obvious? 

As long as you take the screenshot in software quake (dos or winquake), then yes, the shots will be 8bit images in the q1 palette. 

even if the screens have been taken in a GL engine, that the pre-AA texels are based on the palette means they'll convert pretty well anyway. Assuming you don't seriously fuxx0r with them first. 

this will be a real hard work :) but if u going for it :p good luck will be great!!! another thing add a close teleport wend map is finish... :) 

If you go with WC 1.6, and you may as well since it probably has the greatest variety of Quake tutorials with the possible exception of BSP, then you will probably want to check out this site sometime:

http://www.planetquake.com/worldcraft/index2.shtm

I've never used WC, but even so I've found it useful as a reference, plus it appears to have extensive tutorials for WC. 

if this will be the only map you build
if it doesn't need to be technically perfect
if you don't mind getting used of a weird but supereasy editor

then go for QuArK. I think it is much easier to map with this :>
But I also wish to have never started playing with that editor since switching to a "professional" one is really hard. Make sure to disable "floating point coords" in the options ;) 

to him.

(it's a trap ^_~) 

I think switching between -any- editors is difficult. The only switch I ever managed was DeathMatch Maker to Worldcraft, back in 98. If any of you ever used DMM you'll understand why.

I've tried my hand with Radiant and QED but nomatter how many tutorials I read I just can't get comfortable with either. I guess certain editors just click with certain people. 

Worldcraft seems less stable (crash-prone) than Hammer. However, some people have a difficult time overcoming the removal of the in-editor texture brightness slider.

Is anyone here familiar with the legal ins and outs of mapping for Q1 with the various versions of WC/Hammer? Is Radiant a better choice based on legal technicalities? 

That's a lot of useful information, the tutorials being the most important. Thanks.

(Heh, and more feedback than I had expected so soon.)