Sorry for the string of noob-ass questions, but I'd really like to be building something by tonight.

Do GTKRadiant users typically compile from a command line or do you go through the trouble of telling the editor where to find your compile tools? If you go through the trouble, how do you do it? Is it a hassle? 

not gtkr, but i use sikkpin's qe3 which is essentially very similar.
i never use the menu system, although i believe it's the same thing. i have one of those gamer keyboards, and i have a macro to compile my map bound to one of the keys.
before i started using qe3 (and before this keyboard) i was using gtkr1.4 and i'd just keep a command prompt open in the background and what i wanted to compile, i'd just switch to it and use the previous command button which would launch a batch file. 

As necros said, just use batch files for compiling, the in editor menu gets a bit trippy when compiling for Q1.

Also, you might want to try using GTK1.4 and mapconv, there's a tutorial how somewhere on necros' site [ http://necros.planetquake.gamespy.com/gtkrq1.html ], the interface/creation flow was changed quite a lot in 1.5, for the worse in my (and a fair few others') opinion. You may prefer the 1.5 interface, but I'd suggest trying out both versions and making your own call... 

I set up the in-editor menu. It's pretty easy, you just edit the XML file sitting in the q1.game folder. The one thing I can't figure out how to do is copy the BSP to the right directory and start the game up. So I need a command line open for that regardless...

Oh, and here's a story for the stupid. I set everything up last night and I made a small test room with a light. It compiled, loaded into the game, everything was grand. I then booted back into OSX to resize the partition I gave Windows because it was too small (FYI, 15GB is too small for Windows Vista and a Quake editor). While doing this, I misunderstood something and ended up killing the Windows partition entirely.

So ... I re-created it and reinstalled everything AGAIN. Only this tims I allocated 32GB. Let's hope that'll be enough. 

windows partitions need about 10gb (or more maybe, for vista?) just for the OS itself and then you're gonna want at least 2-4gb for your paging file.
you never really notice that when you're setting it up on a native windows machine, but when you're splitting between mac and windows, it becomes noticeable. mind you, mac isn't exactly a lightweight either; i spent a couple of days cleaning out all the useless software on my macbook, but i needed about 80gb for my macos partition to be able to work comfortably.

anyway, on the subject of gtkr, i personally hated the 1.5 version of the program. they changed fundamental UI stuffs in there which made it a lot slower to use (eg: operations that used to take 1 key press now would take 2), so even though 1.5 supports q1 natively, i found it harder to use than to just save a q3 .map and have a batch file that runs a converter first (aguirRe's, i believe, is the most up-to-date) and then compiles.

as for batch files, just make a bunch of them (for different compile levels) and put them on your start menu (or get rocketdock which is essentially the mac dock for windows) and you can just click the appropriate one and never have to touch a command prompt. 

My c: is 80gb 

Yes, I'm gonna keep on beating that dead old horse. 

I'm thinking about installing Quake and GtKRadiant on this new Linux box I've got.

Can anybody point me in the right direction? 

the gtkradiant based off 1.5 that the darkplaces/warsow? guys use. 

Is there a way to make it so I can launch FitzQuake to check out my level without it resizing every window on my desktop? Or is this just a Window wart that I have to accept? 

OK, I guess the answer is to run GTKRadiant in a non-maximized state. That seems to reduce the amount of swearing I need to do each time I test the map... 

if it's fitzquake 0.85, you can run it windowed but with a -height and -width equal to your desktop -- this will fill the screen completely but without your desktop actually switching modes, which might help. 

Ahh. that's something I hadn't thought of. OK, will try, thanks! 

setting sunlight?

good value for day time light?

I don't understand the angle situation. I've just never bothered to. Can someone give a simple explanation of how they'll work? 

No, but just read AguirRe's docs:

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

More and more concise information than you'll need. 

 

Thanks Ijed. I can't believe I haven't read through that stuff already!
Kind of confused about the implementation of 'second suns'.
My basic understanding is that I just put _sunlight2 in worldspawn with a lowish value and it will lessen ugly shadows? 

or take one sun and lighten those ugly shadows with a light.exe -light 15 so the deep darkened places keep their luminance for a degree of 15. Helpfull, while it diminish placing lots of extra lights.
^v^ 

it's really not _sunlight2, it's _sunlightarea_minlight.
it's a different minlight for areas that the sun hits. 

Thanks guys, I think I actually get this now. 

I confirm that this solution to Hammer 3d window selection issue works:
http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=4&start=8179

I have put this file into the hammer directory and the problem on my laptop is fixed.
http://rapidshare.com/files/138119760/atioglxx.dll

Great! I can continue now. 

I just wish there was a similar fix for Nvidia cards. 

It works, but if I look at a face and not all of its verticies are visible in the window then the projection screws up, aligning the last UV coordinate to any other visible vert.

That's a bad description. Basically the UV's are all fucked up. That's better.

And Orl, there will be such a fix for your card, AFAIK Nvidia is much better supported, although to be honest I didn't know there was a WC problem.

What the DLL does is disable stuff, you'll notice there wasn't one there beforehand. WC checks if one exists and if so uses it in favour of the onboard library.

Does anyone have the knowledge + inclination to make one that forces software mode on? In WC1.6a there was an option for this :P 

Maybe I don't understand the problem with UV's that you described, but try to enable Texture Filtering in 3d options window. After enabling this option the textures look ok for me. 

If it works my mapping time will double.