My general recommendation for people starting out mapping would be to use the compile tools in the command line until you can get them to work. Although the batch stuff in hammer is nice once it works, it adds an extra layer of things that can be going wrong. So export the .map from hammer and type "cmd" in the run dialogue, then see if you can make the map compile like that.

I do have one Hammer specific suggestion though if you're having trouble with paths. Is Hammer installed to your c:\ drive, and are all the .wad/.map files on that same drive? Hammer has some issues with being on a second hard disk if I remember right. This may be fixed with the 3.5 version, but of course that's no good for quake. So if it's practical and not already the case, try putting everything on that drive. 

Ricky beat me to the first suggestion, and described it in much more detail. So just imagine I backed up his suggestions 100% in the first place. 

its worth setting it up so you can use Worldcraft's excellent texturing mode. The "nomapversion" program removes the line "mapversion" "220" from the map file.

This 220 format is incompatible with Quark because it's not standard map file data. So a lot of qbsp utils wont work with it either. But AguirRe's TxQbsp (which came with Quakeadapter) does. It's the only tool I would use.

As for setting up Worldcraft there are two key point here:

1 - worldcraft must be installed in c:\program files\worldcraft\ for it to work with the Quakeadapter.

2 - I would save all files and run all of the tools from c:\quake\id1\maps\ so that the programs dont get confused and loose the files.

http://user.tninet.se/~xir870k/

This is a place with LOADS of info. On most of the technical stuff a mapper would ever need to know. Its also where AguirRe posts all of his tools. BspInfo is also a very usefull tool. And his engine - whoah! This engine is a mappers tool. It runs broken maps (the only engine which will run a lot of broken maps) and wit will tell you where the problems are.

Andy3012 - if you read up the thread you will see that I am repeating the same info to deifferent people over and over again, and those people before me, and the people before them and the people before them, and people explaining it to me and over and over and over and over and over.......

;P 

you can create the batch file eg. compile.bat
with the command line(s) something like this:

qbsp [options] mapname
light [options] mapname
vis [options] mapname
copy mapname path(eg. c:\games\quake\id1\maps

after all just run your batch file

but make sure that your compile utils are placed in the same dir as your compile batch file 

I would recommend running vis before light, sometimes the light data can confuse Vis. 

This is especially important if you're using Q1Rad, since that tool will use the portal information in its calculations. 

thanks guys for the help guys, i'm gonna make a start on mapping now :) 

What exactly is the rule on releasing wads containing textures from other games? I've noticed that games like Hexen2, Heretic2, Rune, Unreal, Daikatana all have wads made and released. Is this not illegal? Is it legal because the wads only contain textures from the demos(I don't know this, I'm merely assuming)?

The reason I'm asking is because I've made complete wads of the above mentioned games(excluding Unreal & Daikatana) as well as RTCW, ET and Wheel of Time, in both full and half resolution, and they are going to waste just sitting on my hard-drive. 

I think those wads are probably illegal, but I don't think anybody's ever been prosecuted over something like that so whether or not you release them depends upon your personal scruples more than anything else. 

Yeh, they're completely illegal, but it's Q1, hardly competition for these games...

Only time I've known it to actual cause an issue was the Q3 textures being used in a custom map for the UT of the time. The author got a cease and desist from iD iirc 

That was kinda my look on the situation. But what does everyone think about releasing wads that are complete (minus few textures that just wouldn't work in Quake)? Do you think that may be going overboard? 

Some people will tell you that you are an unethical immoral bastard and should be hung by your manly parts. (See http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=60207&start=1&end=19 but do not let the "loud dogs" bite you).
Others will highly appreciate your work and the possibility of using/see fresh great quality textures in upcoming maps.

It's always been done, it's always been great. Please release them. :) 

I think sikkpin's comment was more based on the practise of releasing every texture from a game as a wad as opposed to generally releasing texture in packs.

I think releasing as wide variety of textures as possible encourages creativity (ie, all the textures from a given game). While it would possibly make more sense to organise the textures from a new game into thematic packs, it is a lot of work to sort an entire games textures and often the folder names create too fractured a set of wads. The only reason the dkt textures are organised by episode is that they were already sorted like that in the folder structure and happen to be fairly exclusive themes.

As for your point about the moral dimension, I don't believe it is any 'better' to release a few textures from a game rather than an entire set. Q1 is an old game now, it'd be a different matter if these games' textures were released for HL2 or UT3. While it is technically illegal so is taping a song off the radio, you don't see the RIAA going after home taping. Therefore it seems best to release these games' textures in their entirety to encourage creativity. 

I apparently have difficulty with the possessive singular 

You are a lacey bitch.

Good way of putting it with home taping paralell. 

too much credit. They fought the proliferation of
audio digital technology tooth and nail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape 

While it is technically illegal so is taping a song off the radio, you don't see the RIAA going after home taping.

It doesn't really work to start with the claim that all infringement is equal, and then use the fact that the RIAA only goes after some infringement and not others as support for your claim.

Regarding the actual point, some infringement is worse than others, and I think that the volume of sampled content is a major factor. In that vein, taking one or two textures from a game is less infringing than a wholesale rip of all textures.

Hell, there are even different degrees of murder, and some are worse than others, why wouldn't there be a spectrum of copyright infringement too? 

There a way to have monsters see through from an ordinarily blocked leaf into another?

So a fish or scrag can see the player through trnsparent water brushes, for example. 

Using a func_water entity, but don't want to break the edict limit if I can help it.

Wondering if anyone has a more efficient solution. 

I want to check that I understand the problem correctly. I think what you would like to have is a regular water leaf in your map, and for monsters to be able to trace line of sight through the water leaf and one or more open leaves about it. To achieve this, you need to modify the function visible() in ai.qc. The lines

if(trace_inwater && trace_inopen)
return FALSE;

tell the code to deny line of sight to traces which go through both. Commenting out this code will make all water boundaries visible. If you want some more complicated rules for who can see through what, it might be worth creating seperate visibility functions for different rules. 

Thanks Preach.

I was thinking to have this dependant on the water alpha somehow, or on distance, but that seems like overcomplication, when the map should be designed with this in mind. 

how do i compile with qbsp and tell it to load multiple wad files?

i have:
"wad" "wad1.wad; wad2.wad; wad3.wad"

but all it does it use the first wad. commas (,) don't load any wads at all, so what am i missing? 

i found out it needs to be:
"wad1.wad;wad2.wad;wad3.wad;"
no spaces and a closing ; :P 

so making a water brush into a func_illusionary looses the transparency...

is there any way to trick the engine into making a water brush non-solid but still have transparency? :P 

.alpha in the progs for illusionaries is the only thing that occurs, but then you'd still lose the 'animation' of the water texture and it would only work in engines supporting .alpha.