Fog setting with 4 number works fine, so let's go for a "british weather" like map ;D 

would be rain, not fog. And plenty of it. 

I you can see the sky: it rain, if you cannot see the sky: there's fog ...doh !! Summer starts on 31 of july, and stops 1st of august... peraps you can see the sun by these 2 days, but not more in the year... doh !!! 

'kin' 'ell! I haven't seen fog that thick since I was a kid. 

here's what *seems* to work:

- export frame from qme (as lwo)
- import .lwo into milkshape (use the lwo thats the top most, theres a couple lwo import versions)
- rig and animate in milkshape. this is weird because you're animating with the model mirrored (enforcer becomes left handed, for example, i didnt notice this until necros pointed it out).
- export as quake2 .md2
- load .md2 into qme
- export new animation frames (again, using lwo)
- load existing model (enforcer.mdl in my case) in qme
- import previously-exported frames.
- for the new scene/frames, you have to scale bye -1 in x-axis, and also rotate -90 degrees on z axis.
- now a new animation is working and actually has the same mesh & skin as the existing id model.

Subject to change of course. Dxf is a horrible format and milkshape needs way better documentation. 

that is a lot of steps.

usually, what i do is:
-export a frame from qme
-import into 3ds
-rig, animate (and yes, i noticed the reversal too... not sure what causes that though.)
export each frame to dxf files (i don't mind them)
-import them into the model.

can you not export frames in milkshape directly to dxf or lwo or whatever? it seems a lot of extra steps saving as md2 and all that...

also, preach, thanks for the info about resetting the faces. i never ran into exactly the same problem myself as it was under different circumstances that the faces got reversed. :) 

can you not export frames in milkshape directly to dxf or lwo or whatever? it seems a lot of extra steps saving as md2 and all that...
Remember when i said it sounds more difficult than it should be? :|

If theres a way to export individual frames, I don't know it. I went through each frame, while in animation mode, and exported, but it only exported the first frame each time. Sigh.

Also for the record, I just tried rotating/mirroring the mesh in milkshape after the initial import, just to be able to animate non-mirrored and on the right axis as what it will eventually be, and that created a huge ungodly mess. I'll stick with what works for me at the moment, its only a few small animations I want to do anyways.

(and yes, i noticed the reversal too... not sure what causes that though.)
Probably the discrepancy between file formats and how they store data.

Whew! 

it seems like it would be easier to export all of the frames from milkshape into one folder, create a .qc file listing the frames, and compile it into a mdl with the original Id tools.

http://www.gamers.org/pub/idgames2/utils/graphics_edit/id_utils/util3d.zip 

Except you forgot the part where I said you can't export individual frames from milkshape. Hence exporting to md2. Thanks though 8-) 

you're reading the syntax for the fog console command. That's not the same as the syntax for the fog worldspawn value. I guess i never explained how to do it in the worldspawn becuase i thought i was supporting an existing standard. But maybe not... sorry. 

There's an option in qme preferences, under the import/export tab, called mirror x. Try toggling that on or off. It may not be helpful, as it'll happen on both the import and export, and two reflections will cancel out, and turning it on/off in between import and export is an extra step, which is as much work as mirroring the model. But it might be handy for the milkshape stage, as the model won't be left handed.

Also, in case you're importing/exporting all the frames in a scene individually, use the export scene from the menu, and shift select all the frames in the import dialogue.

But yeah, anything you're gonna do for models in quake is gonna need a fair few steps since three is no single good modelling tool with mdl support. 

Cool preach, will try that maybe.

By the by, I did manage to just figure out how to export directly to .mdl from milkshape, you need a control file like this one that i stumbled across:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jmichl/files/tutorials/mdl.qc
BUT, for some reason when I do this, milkshape for whatever reason removes 4 tris from the enforcer mesh, meaning the new exported model frames can't be merged with the existing .mdl. (MS3D mesh and original .mdl have 424, exported mdl has 420) Thats slightly annoying to say the least.

Oh well, back to animating :) 

has anyone ever seen this error?

CALL1 512(precache_sound2)precache_sound2()
shalrath.qc : monster_shalrath
(NO FUNCTION)
Pf_precache_sound: overflow
Host_Error: Program Error

the vore/shalrath has no modified code. if i remove the shalrath/vore then it happens with another monster.

does this mean the map uses too many sounds to be precached or something? 

You can only precache up to 256 sounds; after that you will get this error. 

that this is with a modified progs.dat. Correct? 

aww man.
yeah, it's a modified progs. it allows you to play any sound you want and i've got lots of machinery that all have unique sounds along with lots of new ambient sounds. i must have went over this limit at some point.

between maps, are precached sounds cleared, so that, say sounds that appear in one map and not in another don't carry over so that the 256 sound limit starts from 0 every map that gets loaded? 

the precached sounds get cleared between maps. 

I've just downloaded gensurf at office, and I would like to try it this evening. I'm currently using QuArK 6.4 (I know that someone here think it sucks... errr.. but it woks fine for me.. bleh.. anyway...), and I would like to know if there exists a cool tutorial/getting started for gensurf use with QuArK, or something like this... I didn't found anything relevant on the web... Thanks in advance.... 

I made a quick test on gensurf.exe at office, and it seems it doesn't support Quake.... but newer games (Q2/3, HL, etc..) Does it make sense to use it for Quake2, and import the generated map file into a Quake map ??? Or not ?? How do you use it in fact ?? 

I don't think using something like gensurf is recommended for Quake, probably better off doing the terrain yourself... I think most Quake mappers make it themselves anyways... no? 

I don't think so... Just aking a look at Kinn's "Marcher Fortress" map for example. I really don't think he build the outside castle terrain manually... ;P... So how did he do ?? 

I mean they for sure use a terrain meshing tool, but if it's not gensurf, what is it ?? 

Marcher's outside area is definatly doable by hand with a bit of patience, but he might have used a tool I guess, dunno. In most cases I wouldn't recommend it anyways for a game like Quake.
Just takes a bit of practice with vertex and edge manip... Then again if your using Quark, good luck, cause it's hell for that kind of stuff if I remember correctly.
<insert pimpage for radiant here>. 

kinn's map terrain was built using hands only 

OK, if you say it I trust you, because you have for sure much more experience than me... BTW, I've read many tutorial for terrain meshing, and it frightned me (due to the amount of work it seems to be while doing it manually..), and I'm very surprised that it seems no terrain tool exist for Quake... or perhaps I didn't know it.... Is there any terrain tool for Quake so ???