Hi everyone, I'm trying my hand at Quake 2 modding and I was hoping someone here could help me out.

So far I'm trying to use Blender, I installed scripts for importing .md2 files but I'm struggling because the .pcx skins aren't supported by Blender... I converted them to .tga but I can't change the .md2 file's header to use the converted skin instead... :\

Any recommendations would be welcome. 

if you can't rename the pcx, rename the tga instead and hope the reader goes by contents instead of some random part of the filename. 

It didn't work, but meanwhile I did a lot more tests and I think I understand what's going on a bit better.

I still can't get the skins to show up in Blender, but I guess that's just because they have poor support for old model formats. I could get it to work in Misfit Model 3D, but I'd still like to have a way to explicitly edit the md2's headers, which I couldn't do with anything so far.

BTW I love your work! You did a great job with FTE, it's already my favourite port for Quake 2. The only reason I don't use it more is because it's still a bit unstable on my system. 

Should I run VIS each time I compile? I noticed that it still looks "vised" without running it and even new geometry doesn't stick.

P.S. there was a place on a map, that got a hole after VIS. But after I compiled it without VIS the hole was gone. 

firstly, never embed fence textures into the worldmodel. tools can't cope with that yet.

in theory, vis is purely an optimisation. in practise there's a few sideeffects like avoiding excessive network bloat or insignificant stuff like checkclient returning world instead of the qc then using a traceline that's doomed to failure.
In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter all that much, but be sure to vis before release. 

In regards to Quake's music, I hate it. Hence I do not have it installed and do not ever bother with setting a track number. But I want to know how to best make my maps for a broad audience.

1. What happens if worldspawn doesn't have a track number set?

2. Which track is the most, er, generic and best suited as a default track? (Ya ya conflicted opinions incoming)

3. Is it possible to set a track number to null so that no cd music plays such that I can play my own scripted music sequences from ambient_generics (think Half-Life style)? I have a certain project that I would like to make more immersive through ambient sounds, triggered music events, and eerie silence in places. 

In regards to Quake's music, I hate it.
Absolute heresy. Get the cross and torches.

1. What happens if worldspawn doesn't have a track number set?
The track number will default to 0, which doesn't exist and so won't play anything. Some ports will print an error message in the console when this happens, i.e. Quakespasm with external music enabled prints couldn't find a cdrip for track 0. 

Vanilla will continue playing whatever track it was already playing. QS will stop completely. Or in other words, its engine-specific behaviour so good luck with that one...
You can be anal about it and get some mod to send a 'cd stop\n' stuffcmd, but that takes away the user's choices and doesn't really matter that much anyway. 

See void() ExitIntermission = in client.qc ... for a example.

WriteByte (MSG_ALL, SVC_CDTRACK);
WriteByte (MSG_ALL, 2); // <-- Set this --- Track number
WriteByte (MSG_ALL, 3); // (unused in Quake engine)

I would set SVC_CDTRACK to 0 replacing WriteByte (MSG_ALL, 2) to WriteByte (MSG_ALL, 0) to stop music.

It's the best you can do and would work
Quakespasm.

I think track 0 should mean no music. All of the original Quake maps have cdtrack set.

Trying to stuff cmd music commands is evil. Engines shouldn't permit it.

Case in point: If you want to be jerk, stuffcmd "cd eject" every frame. 

I agree, stuffcmds can be pretty evil when used wrongly:

"showpause 0;save quick;cd eject;pause;pausable 0\n"

Stuff dat. No really please don't. Everyone should backup their cfg file. 

Well if you don't like the default music you can package your own. If you worry a lot about copyright you can just go on youtube and search "royalty free (insert genre here)", Teknoaxe makes some decent quake style tracks, I am thinking abouy using one of their songs for a map I am working on 

Numbered tracks need to die, at least for new content. If the server stuffcmded 'cd loop $world.sounds\n' instead then a) it would be functionally the same as svc_cdtrack. b) the field could be parsed specifically and replaced with an actual string.
This would avoid conflicts between maps picking the same track number, and allow mappers to be explicit about the music's filename extension.

This assumes that noone tried 'streamlining' an engine by stripping out compat, and that noone failed to support faketracks properly... 

99 sound tracks ought to be enough for anybody.

Is numbered tracks perfect? No.

But svc_cdtrack works and is Quake compatible.

There is not really a meaningful problem to be found here.

/One opinion 

But I think just using track 0 is simplest. Turns out I've always done that so ha! Thanks guys. 

I made two small seperate maps with availabe doors.
In Quark6.6 I make a copy of one map.
Then I load the second and paste the first one.
II made sure the maps are on grid and close tight to eachother.

When I try to enter from the first to the second,
there is no visible bar but, I can't get through. 

Rogue clip or skip brush? Some bounding box in the way? What if you delete the brushes around the map transition? 

I have no idea where to search. I remembered I have met the error earlier. Then it were misaligned brushes.
In this case all brushes are on grid.
xmirror 

Have you actually snapped all brushes to the grid? This is important especially when working with Crocodile Dundee-type of editors like Quark.
Also be sure to use up-to-date versions of the compilers, not the old ones that come with Quark. These for example. Using them, the map leaks, but it appears the corridor in question is accessible. Might be some odd floating point/degenerate brush issue.. 

The Axe_Ogre would not walk over gaps of 32 units. I left in a microbrush on the floor.

Why won't the Ogres cross 32 units?
They are big enough I think so. 

Monster movement code uses hull 0 instead of hull 1 or 2 for checking the floor. This means any small gap deeper than step height will be a barrier to monster pathfinding. 

 

Will find myself in Gulliver once I reach Hull.
I have to tag that movement code better.:P 

Which tool do you guys use to create sprites for Q2? How can i create an sp2? 

Quake1 uses FirmG to handel sprites. It has a lot of output extentions. Don't know if you can view q2 sprites with it. Quaketastic has a Firmg 0.2 under tools.

I'm not familiar with q2 sprites. It seems there's a program called:
Quake 2 Sprite Builder, but I couldn't find it.