Compiling using BAT files is really the way to go. I tend to tweak a lot of command-line options of my Quake compilers (compilation progress bars, skylight, minlight, other light options, transparent water, etc) so I just have 3 BAT templates that have my favourite compiler settings and I can just drop the map filename into the BAT and it works. Why 3 BAT files? For quick test compiles, "medium" and absolutely-best-quality full compiles. 

You can actually do all that from within WC's compile options. Selecting 'Expert' allows you to create a set of compile 'templates', edit them and choose them from a list; it's just editing the batch files from within WC.

I use template batch files now too.

Either way is fine. 

1. is it possible to use the item functions with an info_notnull in order to give the player ammo etc. upon touching a trigger?

2. lights with a 'style' key can't be switched on/off?! can this be circumvented through qc? or is it an engine restraint? 

I use it. It is easy and gives you the possibility to switch of this or light or vis without editing batch files.
You can prepare any configuration you want (similar to creating a batch file) and then you can alter this configuration very easy if you want.
I usually use Alt-B to export changes to map, then press F9 to open the compile window and then I can choose what tools and options I would like to run. I have never encountered any bugs with this. Here is an example.
http://republika.pl/quake_1/WCadvanced.jpg

Drew shouldn't you copy the compiled file to the quoth directory?
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "C:\QUAKE\ID1\maps\smblood.ma... "\smblood.map" 

Triggers that give ammo are possible with the notnull trick. Make a brush entity with these fields

classname info_notnull
think InitTrigger
nextthink 0.3
touch ammo_touch
weapon 2
aflag 30
netname nails

Weapon determines the ammo type, 1 to 4 for shells up to cells. Aflag is the amount of ammo to give. Netname is the text that goes after "You got the" that's printed in the top left, it doesn't have to correspond with the usual phrase. If you wanted to print "You got the ammo pack", that would work.

This trigger will only work once. If you want it to be reusable, then you'll need to do a bit more. Add these fields

targetname ammotrigger
use SUB_regen

Then have something target the ammotrigger once it's been used to reset it. You can have a trigger_relay targeted by the ammotrigger that targets it back after a delay to replicate respawning as in deathmatch, for example.


I think you can get around the style toggling restriction with QC if you are careful, but it's not easy. Quake has 64 possible light styles, controlled by a command like so:

lightstyle(3, "aja");

The first number tells the engine which lightstyle to change, and the string defines a kind of "animation" of the light. Each character in the string sets the brightness of the light for one frame, a being the darkest and z lightest. So this command would make any light with style 3 flicker on and off rapidly.

The style key you can set on a light gives it one of a predefined set of styles from world.qc. But any light that you make switchable is also assigned a style from 32 - 62 by the light program. The way the light is toggled is by changing the style between:
lightstyle(self.style, "a");
and
lightstyle(self.style, "m");
So if you were to toggle one light with a predefined style, you'd in fact turn off all lights with the same style. So to get round it, you'd need to make sure that your light gets toggled between off and the correct style.
The way I'd do that is something like:

void() light_use =
{
if (self.spawnflags & START_OFF)
{
lightstyle(self.style, self.netname);
self.spawnflags = self.spawnflags - START_OFF;
}
else
{
lightstyle(self.style, "a");
self.spawnflags = self.spawnflags + START_OFF;
}
};

/*QUAKED light (0 1 0) (-8 -8 -8) (8 8 8) START_OFF
Non-displayed light.
Default light value is 300
Default style is 0
If targeted, it will toggle between on or off.
*/
void() light =
{
if (!self.targetname)
{ // inert light
remove(self);
return;
}

if (self.style >= 32)
{
if (!self.netname)
self.netname = "m";
self.use = light_use;
if (self.spawnflags & START_OFF)
lightstyle(self.style, "a");
else
lightstyle(self.style, self.netname);
}
};

Replace the corresponding bit of code in misc.qc with that chunk of code. Then make the targetable light as normal without setting a style, but set the light's .netname to the sequence of lights you wish to display. You'll probably have to look these up in world.qc, for instance to get style 3 set

netname mmmmmaaaaammmmmaaaaaabcdefgabcdefg

The added bonus is you aren't restricted to the preset styles, you could define a new custom light style in this way, and it could be toggled. 

and does the item trick work with health and armor (possibly artifacts), as well? if it does, how can the different sizes be determined with touch_health and touch_armor? 

The same kinda trick works with health_touch, the important fields are:
healamount 20
healtype 2
noise items/health1.wav

along with the ones for setting up the weapon touch, the think and nextthink ones should be as before. Healamount is the amount of health that should be healed. Healtype 2 means the healing ignores the maximum 100 health, like a megahealth does, and will rot down again afterwards. However, be warned that the entity is now keeping track of when to count the player's health down, so don't allow it to be touched again/do anything else until enough time has passed for the health to rot away, ie 1 second for each hp you give the player plus 5 seconds start time. Setting healtype to anything but 2(including 0) will result in normal healing - none if the player is at full hp. Noise should be a sound that's already precached somewhere else.

Armor_touch cannot be exploited in this way, as the function relies on the classname of the entity, and there's no way round that if you're using an info_notnull. Key_touch is wide open, but doesn't make a lot of sense. Sigil_touch will also work.

Interesting aside...if you set flag one on a trigger_multiple, you can give it a touch field and not have it reset when it spawns. I can't see any obvious advantages of this over just making an info_notnull trigger, except that this doesn't use the think field. But somebody might be able to use this creativly... 

regarding the triggerable trigger_changelevel trick czg posted in the progs.dat thread:
can a similar method also be applied to other triggers? e.g. to activate a trigger_once for a teleport ambush in an area the player has already passed before. 

This is possible. Make an brush entity info_notnull with the following fields

touch multi_touch
wait -1
targetname trig
use InitTrigger
target event

This trigger will not be spawned until trig is targetted. From then on it will act like a trigger_multiple when touched, although things like shootable triggers or triggering by targetting(like a trigger relay) will not. You can add all the usual fields like wait time. If you want sounds, you can't set the sounds field like usual, but if you set noise to the sound you want, it'll work assuming something else precached it.

You can probably adapt this to work for other kinds of trigger as well, not sure exactly which are possible though. 

I've figured it out. thanks for all the help. 

thanks again. how could we ever map without you... 

where can i find senn's green textures? seems like daz has used them in his crdm3 map 

I've just downloaded some prefabs for Q2, HL, Q3, and I would like to convert them in Q1 map format. Is there a tool that can do that ? If yes: where can I download it ? 

It's been a while since I messed with Q3:A, but was tonight just for fun.

How do you rotate textures on a patch or a bevel? I've searched all over the place but have come up with nothing. 

FYI...

After a quick look to the 4 prefabs .map I downloaded yesterday, it sounds that one of the Q2 model has a problem of map format... Normally, a brush face is described like this (it's a copy paste of http://www.gamers.org/dEngine/quake/QDP/qmapspec.html part 2.1.2...)

{
( 128 0 0 ) ( 128 1 0 ) ( 128 0 1 ) GROUND1_6 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( 256 0 0 ) ( 256 0 1 ) ( 256 1 0 ) GROUND1_6 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( 0 128 0 ) ( 0 128 1 ) ( 1 128 0 ) GROUND1_6 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( 0 384 0 ) ( 1 384 0 ) ( 0 384 1 ) GROUND1_6 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( 0 0 64 ) ( 1 0 64 ) ( 0 1 64 ) GROUND1_6 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( 0 0 128 ) ( 0 1 128 ) ( 1 0 128 ) GROUND1_6 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
}

That's probably just a bit confusing when you first see it. It defines a rectangular region that extends from (128,128,64) to (256,384,128). Here's what a single line means:

( 128 0 0 ) ( 128 1 0 ) ( 128 0 1 ) GROUND1_6 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
1st Point 2nd Point 3rd Point Texture


Now, you're probably wondering what those last five numbers are. I've listed what they do below:

x_off - Texture x-offset (must be multiple of 16)
y_off - Texture y-offset (must be multiple of 16)
rot_angle - floating point value indicating texture rotation
x_scale - scales x-dimension of texture (negative value to flip)
y_scale - scales y-dimension of texture (negative value to flip)


But taking a look to the Q2 map file I found 8 values after the 3 parenthesis section, instead of 5 as described above ... o_O ... I can understan a 6th value if the texture has been rotated differently on its 2 axis, but 8 !!!.. What does it mean?? So I heavily suppose the issue is coming from there: i.e I have a TxQBSP error stating map file have an error... and it correspond to the line where the first brush coordinates is written...

Well, the prefab has only 26 brush, so I think it's not a big deal to change it manually in any text editor.... and made a quick test to see if I'm right or not... ;) 

is here:
http://rem.fov120.com/rem/projects.projectDetails.action?id=3 

can also be made using my ConvMap utility or QuArK. If you just want to compile a Q2/Q3 map, just add the -q2map qbsp option. 

Thanks ! I will try all the stuf this evening ;) 

Select the patch, bring up the patch inspector (shift+S) and hit the rotate up/down thingy. That's for gtk1.4, but other radiant versions should behave the same. 

I'm making a quoth map, and I've got a counter triggered by 2 "bob"s. They don't seem to trigger it, and I'm not sure why. I have the same problem at another part of the map where an Ogre is supposed to trigger a door. And he doesn't...
Anyone have any ideas as to why this is? 

[nt] 

i need help! every time i try to do a quake level, i get as far as 3/4 rooms or so. i have tons of unfinished shit lying around. i tried more than 100 times to put these chunks together into one fucking map, but i cant do it! im stuck.

sometimes i get all these ideas or im really inspired, but i still cant finish anything. i only got one map finished, a really small base map. and i got reviewed! hehe but man, i cant do this! :-'(

what should i do? give up? destroy and smash? like hulk? gahea?E? 

you're right one track! ^_^;

seriously, i have maps that i started a year ago that are just sitting until i can get the urge to finish them.

i think, as a purely hobby mapper, that this is usually how things go.

if you're doing it for a job, well, then, you don't get that kind of luxury. :P

in fact, i'm kind of curious:
pro mappers: how much do you throw away and restart, and how often? or are time constraints so tight that you can't even afford to do that, and have to continue something that you'd rather restart? 

Also, I wonder... what about my question. I'm feeling woeful and uncared for. 

I've got a counter triggered by 2 "bob"s.

I just built this setup. Twice; one in GtkR using the .def and one in WC using the .fgd
Both worked fine.

Could be the "count" value you used..?