Thanks for all the comments.

I am not clear about the advantages of md3 over mdl: I am only talking Quake1SP and the only engine I use is FitzQuake. I have tried boning-up via Google but so many links I come across are dead. Is there a simple statement to highlight the advantageous use of md3?

Meanwhile, the mistake I made with the first Scotch Egg was that I left the shell on. I fared a little better on the second one but it was a real sod trying to keep the yolk in place while I closed the minced meat around it. But hey, one lives and learns. 

You left the shell on? That's classic. :)

Anyway, a legitimate and all encompasing question.

Where do people think would be the best place to head to start learning the basics of doom3 mapping? I have fired up the editor and it scares the bejesus out of me, and figured people here might know where the most useful tutes are to be found.

Keep in mind that apart from using 3dsmax the most advanced thing I have used for game stuff is probably worldcraft. :) 

Finish TronDM3 first. 

Md3 features over mdl:
Supports a greater precision in storing the animations.

Probably has higher max limits on vertexes and triangles and stuff.

Allows you to do a proper UV map without having to seperate the faces on the mesh.

Supports 24 bit colour skins - although using all the colours for a model for Q1 will probably make it look out of place.

Support tags - markers inside the model that allow you to attach, for example, a weapon model to the tag. The tag can be animatited, so it could follow the motion of a hand throughout the animation.

Support multiple skins for a single model - so you could skin the head and the body on different textures, one 256x256 and one 128x128 if that's a better fit than all on one 256x256.

Supports some complicated method of changing the skins using .skin files. It's like multiple skins for quake, but more complicated. Not very handy in my book, for most quake 1 purposes anyway.

I think that's all the big differences. 

Where do people think would be the best place to head to start learning the basics of doom3 mapping?

Get your info direct from the developers at iddevnet: http://www.iddevnet.com/doom3/

If you get stuck, feel free to ask the gurus on this board, or in #terrafusion. DOOMEdit is pretty easy to get the hang of if you've used similar editors. (It took me about a week or two to feel fully comfortable in DOOMEdit after making the transition from WorldCraft/Hammer). 

fitzquake does not support md3. 

That's settled, mdl it is then. 

http://www.doom3world.org/index.php

Is the place to race.

Don't listen to the nay sayers, check it out for yourself 

Will there ever be a linux port of Fitzquake? I just converted to the ubuntu hippies and now I'm badly missing my favorite engine. 

Doubtful, becuase i don't have linux. 

 

if a Q1 trigger_counter is a point or brush based entity? There are many maps with either one, but it appears to me that it should be point based, just like trigger_relay.

In big maps the extra unnecessary brushes may put the engine over the bmodel limit. 

 

I noticed that your earlier maps used brush based ones and the later point based. My guess is that the WC fgd file suggested a brush based and that's why most WC created maps have brush based counters. 

Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing. 

and it's only good for servers, not for usual home puter... 

how to fugure out what brush causes a problem in terrain built by triangle method? Is is extended instead of its original size and covers all the floor in the room. It also wrote *** WARNING 03: Line 20930: Brush with duplicate plane.
But how to find that line 20930. I don't want to count from the top 

i use textpad.
you can skip to a line number. then look at the brush entry to find out what brush # it is, and then go into your editor, search for that brush number and delete it (or erase the brush entry yourself in the text editor). 

What necros said; use a text editor with line number handling like TextPad ( http://www.textpad.com ) and find the offending face and brush.

Some map editors include comments in the map file that can help you backtrack to the editor, otherwise you'll have to use the tex info and (if you're up for it) three-point face definition to find the brush in the editor.

However, I doubt that this particular face causes any trouble as it's just a duplicate plane and discarded by qbsp. It shouldn't cause any infinite planes. 

after 5th attempt I found that problem brush and deleted it. Though I still have no idea what was wrong with that brush.

And thanks for pointing me at textpad, downloading it right now 

has a genius, nay, a profound genius for creating bugs for Radiant that did not exist in previous packages.

I use 1.4 (I wont use 1.5 becaues it requires downloading and installing a WinXP .dll that screws up my system), and I've had minimal problems with 1.4 working on maps previously.

Tonight, I reset it to use the Quake2 settings, and the surface inspector does something really off the mark. Pressing 'S' to bring the surface inspector up works like a Control-Z combo reversing my previous texture work. This is, of course, less than useless to me.

I've never seen this happen before, so I assume it is unique to their Quake2 settings. Any suggestions? 

Y'know Quake, right?

Y'know e2m6, The Dismal Oubliette, right?

Y'know the room that lead down to the exit with the pillar in the middle and the slowly sinking floor where stuff teleports in as you go down?

What kind of thingy is the slowly dropping floor. Is it a slow lift/platform? or a "train"? Or some other kind of thingy entirely?

Thanks. 

Since it makes a door sound and all. 

i'm more than sure it's func_door
since it makes a door sound and all
(it might use negative 'lip' key to move that far) 

Yeah, it's a door.

It didn't occur to me that it might be a very big, very slow moving vertical door. :-)

Cheers, I owe you both one. (one of anything you desire...)