Func_Msgboard: Random Map Loader

Posted by Barnak on 2016/01/12 18:55:11

Over the years, I've accumulated hundreds of very high quality maps from this place. Now, it is becoming a nightmare to select a map to play, since there are so much to choose. The maps list in Quakespasm is very long and scrolling the whole list is painfull.

To solve this problem, it would be very usefull to have a small bsp file : random.bsp, that do just one thing : randomly select and load a map from a list of map names stored in a text file. That file could be located inside the default map directory (next to the random.bsp file), and could be edited by the player, using his/her favorite text editor.

So each time the player call the map random.bsp from the console, the engine then loads a random map from the favorite list.

Now, I am not a programmer, and I don't know if this idea could be done for Quake. I think it could be very usefull if it's doable.

So what do you think ? Anyone knows how to do this ?

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#1 posted by Kinn on 2016/01/12 18:58:43

You'd be better off writing this as a separate map launcher program that fires up quake with a random map.

#2 posted by Kinn on 2016/01/12 19:00:50

Bollocks to that idea, you could even do this in a batch file.

#3 posted by Spirit on 2016/01/12 19:00:55

http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=60452&start=1055&end=1070

#4 posted by Barnak on 2016/01/12 19:01:35

Then it would be OS dependant.

The idea above is to load a random map from within Quake, using the console only. This would be usefull since the player doesn't have to leave Quake, and could load many maps one after another (while staying in Quake).

If the user doesn't like a random choice, he/she could just call the random.bsp map again, directly from the console.

#5 posted by Spirit on 2016/01/12 19:09:38

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3517460/is-there-anything-like-inotify-on-windows

Observation.

#6 posted by Kinn on 2016/01/12 19:12:51

Your proposal requires the ability to read info from a text file, so you are asking for an engine mod, nothing less.

If this has to work in game, then all you can do is pester the coder of your favourite engine to implement a console command to load a random map. No hacky random.bsp needed.

I'm On OS X

#7 posted by Barnak on 2016/01/12 19:18:44

To me, any solution that uses the OS instead of the Quake console isn't interesting at all.

My query here is to find a solution from within Quake, without modifying the Engine (I'm using Quakespasm).

So is it possible to make a bsp fake "map" (the random.bsp file) that could read a text file inside the id1/maps folder ?

#8 posted by Kinn on 2016/01/12 19:27:31

My query here is to find a solution from within Quake, without modifying the Engine (I'm using Quakespasm).

So is it possible to make a bsp fake "map" (the random.bsp file) that could read a text file inside the id1/maps folder ?

No that's not possible because you can't read text files without a engine mod.

I think you might be able to hack something similar with a QC mod though, but the list of maps would have to be hardcoded in a QC file, or stored in entities in the random.bsp

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