Thanks for the info. I just scanned through the text file and found the following options for anyone that is interested:

-addmin = makes the minimum light additive.
-range # = scales all lights by #
-globrange = scales sun lights by -range (afaik)
-light/-maxlight # = minimum and maximum light levels. Can also be set in the worldspawn.

I'm posting this because a lot of the useful stuff is contained in the changelog info, which is a little bit time consuming to sort through.

I'll have a play with it and see if I can improve things. 

-globrange should be avoided (and is default off unless requesting other tool compatibility). -maxlight is also not very useful, use -lightcap instead to limit strong lights (but is less effective if you use "wait" keys).

The main global tweak options are -light, -addmin, -range and -dist, combined with -sunlight options.

More detailed descriptions are at the end of the readme, after the changelog. 

... and if you feel adventurous, try the global -anglesense # option. It can seriously change the lighting in a map ... 

http://www.bspquakeeditor.com/ 

seemed to make a massive difference to the lighting. Even range 1.05 make the level a lot brighter. What are the values I should be using? I tested 0.5 and nothing really happened.

The bit at the end of the readme doesn't contain any information on distance scaling (search for -dist) and -range is only mentioned in the changelog, so that's why I mentioned certain commands before.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I will have a play with the -dist command tonight and see how it affects the lighting. 

and -dist are from the original id Light tool, I assumed most mappers would know about them thoroughly ... ;)

Anyway, the default for -range is 0.5, therefore 1.05 is more than double intensity. Default -dist is 1.0, lower values means lower attenuation and therefore brighter.

To get a more even lighting, you typically lower range and dist, for more contrast (more digital on/off lighting) you typically increase range and dist.

To understand more about how various options affect the total lighting in a bsp, use the BspInfo tool: bspinfo -lightstat3 mymap >bspinfo.txt.

You'll then get a histogram over the total light distribution, it's basically like a DNA fingerprint for the map. 

now I understand why it looked the same at 0.5 ;)

I will try 0.75.

Thanks for the information about the histogram thing too. Sounds interesting. 

I'm not sure if it's worth your time, but I don't think the original tool parameters were every really explained in a manual or text file, so it would probably be useful to add a section to your text files explaining all the original compiler features that still exist in your tools. 

...this sketch is getting silly.

They are clearly item_rockets in the map view of the editor, and they are clearly item_rockets in the .map file after I've saved it.

So why are they poxy spikes in the game? I need rockets. If I didn't need rockets, I wouldn't have put rockets in the map. But I need rockets.

Why... who, is changing my item_rockets to item_spikes. Come on, own up. I am no longer amused.

Will some clever clogs kindly tell me WTF is going on? 

I have a brief explanation for each option (with default values) if you run Light without parameters. 

Does this happen after loading a saved game? If so, you might've run into the mixed models progs bug. It typically happens when you have random precaching order of models. 

No, it's straight from a fresh compile.

It's got to be something in the spawn qc (can't blame anyone else if that turns out to be the case!) but I'll check it tomorrow. 

OK, I checked the CCTV and now know what happened.

My house was broken into and someone started-up my computer, changed one line of code in items.qc, saved the file, shut-down my computer and left the house. I've asked the police to arrest Cut N Paste and bring him to justice.

How does one write maniacal laughter? 

Harharharrr!!! Hahahahahagahkhahaha!!! 

i thought it was 'muahahaha'? 

and Spirit's version is Pirate-Rapist,

for maniacal, you need something twitchy and indiciative of a loss ofcontrol.

Like a, 'he. he he. heh?!? HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA AAAAHHHHHH'

Far from perfect, but a little Joker and a little Stewie mixed in and it should be right. 

qc-code one night in the SinglePlayer area, and it ate all my progs.dat 

I like WC 3.3, but there are two small problems that are making me fucking pissed off.
1: the monitor I'm temporarily on is fucked up and dark - is there a way to increase texture brightness?

2: I like that the brushes are different colours. that's nice. but I hate that when you clip a brush it turns black. So much in fact that I group any brush I clip to avoid the sitution. I don't mind losing all the colours if I don't have to deal with the blackness.
Can this be changed?

Thanks 

I've downloaded 3D Exploration today with the intention of converting some brush work into an .mdl. There is a 30 day free trial for the software.

When I tried this earlier today it worked fine: open .map in 3DE, export to .dfx, import into Qme and save as .mdl. Easy.

But now 3DE crashes as soon as I try to open any .map file. I don't know why and the error log is not very helpful.

I don't want to have to try to recreate this brushwork directly in Qme, so does anyone know of any other way to convert brushwork to .mdl using freeware? 

you can convert the map file to Quake2/3 format with Sleepwalkr's map converter and then create a bsp with Q3map2 and run Q3map2 a second time with the -convert option and it will create an .ase model. From that you can load it in a model program like Blender (will need a script you can get from Q3Bits site) and then convert to .dxf or
.3ds. 

Those processes are so convoluted it cracks me up. :) Sorry, I've had to do some incredibly obtuse file conversions before, but nothing that involved. Where's the step where you convert it to XHTML so you can view it in IE? :) 

done using a QBasic script after your put the model through an assembly language decompiler.

Mike, another converter utility that may be helpful, BitUrn.

http://mirex.mypage.sk/index.php?selected=1 

Thanks for the info. But... er, um... perhaps I won't go down that route after all. 

the blocks I am referring to in part 2 are in the 2d view, obviously.
Question 1 will be sorted out soon, because I'll be moving back to my original comp, but question 2 is important. It's the biggest problem I have with WC 3.3. 

the drew is finally back for good? oh, my dreams have come true! (at least the g-rated ones :P)