Had a moment of nostalgia.

This never got released.
Still pretty impressive for 1995 tech,
directional stencil shadows and smooth animation,
kind of looks mocapped.

http://youtu.be/GDYRahM_GQM

Here's the file, I haven't gotten it to run inside Dosbox.
Screen stays black for me. Bummer.

http://www.filewatcher.com/m/ITSDEMO.ZIP.3446059-0.html 

Can I force Darkplaces to reload a bsp file with a single console command?

I want sometimes to try out and playtest several ideas in rapid succession, and it is possible to do so with a small map that I keep tweaking, recompiling and replaying many times. It would be convenient if I could just reload it to Darkplaces with a single console command or even something bound to a key, but I can't figure out how to do it.

If I try to reload a map I have open, it apparently uses a cached copy. I have to explicitly load another map and then reload the map I want to see the new bsp file in action. Oddly, putting these two map commands on the same line in the console separated by a semicolon didn't work either.

The problem with not having a single command to reload the new bsp is that after editing and compiling it, I might simply forget to do it properly. And I really don't want to bother with closing the whole DP engine and restarting it every time I change a test map. Is it possible to get it to reload a bsp with a one-liner?

My exact process is this. I edit the map, then compile it in the working directory where I keep the map and wad files. I copy the resulting bsp to the maps directory where DP loads maps from. I then want to reload it in the DP engine that I keep open.

This is more of an annoyance than a serious hitch in my map dev process. It does annoy me enough to ask, though. 

I found a way to get the effect I want, kinda, except not really. I discovered that changing between fullscreen and windows mode forces DP to reload the bsp file. I even get to continue from the situation I was in the old file.

Now, this is probably a bad thing to do if I change the actual geometry of the level while playing in it. I only tried changing some wall textures between the two bsp files, but I kinda expect changing more than that will only lead to crashes or corrupting the game state.

To be clear, this is what I did. Started a game on my simple test map. I looked at a wall that had texture rock-something. I changed it to cop1_1 and recompiled the file and replaced the bsp in the maps directory. I toggled the DP from windowed mode to fullscreen, and that wall texture changed to cop1_1 right in front of me. (I wonder what would have happened if I added a brush at my location. Ended up inside it and stuck I guess.)

And toggling between fullscreen and windowed mode is still not one simple quick operation I wanted. Darn.

Do other engines behave differently? Should I try another engine for testing my maps?

Heh, I guess I should get back to working on the map. I'm still in learning stages actually :) 

I believe that darkplaces is odd-one-out here, and that most engines will reload the map from disk if you use the "restart" command in console.

I've not tried checking this for darkplaces, but there's a useful command in normal engines called "flush" which forces the engine to reload all the other models off the disk. This can be useful if you're working on a new model/skin instead of a map. Perhaps darplaces has adapted the flush command to affect the world instead/as well, or has a command with a similar name... 

some map loads can be expensive. not reloading everything can reduce load times when you die.
I doubt dp supports the flush command. even if it does, that command never traditionally supported the bsp, just mdl and wavs.
try:
bind p "disconnect; vid_restart; restart"
binding something to vid_restart on its own will probably also work, but be careful about entity changes as they will generally not happen.
if it still takes a while, disable all the bumpmapping stuff so that it doesn't have to be reloaded too. 

Spike's suggestion works well for me. The load times are pretty much negligible with the size and style of maps I am using to test things out, so I'm good.

Thank you for the help. 

In my excitement I forgot to mention the suggested command did not work as given. The restart command failed in that context, because "Only the server may restart." I replaced restart with "map test", which is kind of naff, but workable. I'll just have to always name my test maps test.bsp after compilation, but that's something a simple shell script can do for me.

I'm still good. It's enough to have a command that works for this particular purpose. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhsuZd6_myo 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f_DPrSEOEo 

recent Matthias Worch presentation: meaningful choice in games and leveldesign, Doom, Dead Space 2, Biology, Psycology
https://t.co/v9AYjVqg4q

must read if you are into gamedesign 

 

Someone please hide some eggs in id1 maps. 

I mean actual eggs, so one can search around and collect them all. If you need suggestions for places to hide in, contact me. :) 

what? o_O 

like e1m1red but with eggs in really hard to find places 

Has eggs in really easy to find places...

And when I say that I mean that she puts out... a lot.

And when I say "Puts out" I mean that she really, really likes to have sex with a lot of men, and women, and animals, and plastic toys.

Or not... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been insulted by the best... or at least they tried. I have too much of a thick skin and a sense of humor to match so pretty much everything rolls off of my back like water off of a duck.

Now then, back to your mom... Yet again, as usual. 

Your hidden zombie is called Frank, right?

I was thinking to hide him in my current map.

And, of course, your mother said it was a great idea. She gave me a lovely cup of tea and a biscuit. 

And, of course, your mother said it was a great idea. She gave me a lovely cup of tea and a biscuit.

And when he says "Cup of tea" he means that she "Cupped" something else and "Biscuit" is code for... well, you know.

Sorry Spirit, you do know that I'm kidding right? But lets face it, if all moms in general didn't like to get banged, a lot, (sorry I couldn't resist) you probably wouldn't be here and neither would I for that matter.

I'll stop with the your mom is a slutty whore jokes though. I don't want to overplay it.