I know this is probly in here somewhere, but...

Is there a guide / howto for editing quake maps in valve source sdk? Is this possible or should I just be using hammer 3.4 (3.5?)? 

Although search for Baker's Quake Adapter for hammer 3.3 - maybe I'm misunderstanding what you want to do. 

My goal was to be able to edit maps in the new hammer, export them somehow, compile for quake with the new tools. I figured I'd ask here first in case there was a tut somewhere.

If it's not doable I am gonna fire up hammer 3.4.

It's been a few years (and a few computers) since I had a mapping environment setup. ;) 

I've been meaning to do it myself since the latest beta version can apparantly show model meshes inside the 3d window. 

It works in Fitzquake, but it doesn't in Qrack.
Why could that be ? 

Could be the engine is Qrap.
What are you trying to killtarget and how? 

Shambler = dead = open gate
The gate was previously closed by another trigger. I want it to re-open (or disappear, that's good enough for me) when the monster is dead.

Qrap or not, it's got nice shiny stuff, I like ;)!

But what I really want is a level that can be played in multiple engines. Except Darkplaces, I've given up on that one, it is not accurate with the placing of items or monster spawns. 

The problem is there's a glitch (or oversight) in the code that prevents monsters from using the killtarget field just like that. You have to give the Shambler a dummy target field for the killtarget to work.

You could probably also just set the "toggle" flag on the gate and make the Shambler target it normally.

Issues with item and monsters in DP often indicate improper placement, e.g. too close to a wall, that other engines ignore. For regular custom maps, any newer DP build should work flawlessly. 

----- TyrLight v0.99e -----
extra sampling enabled
colored output format: lit
BSP is version 29
1128 entities read, 956 are lights.
************ ERROR ************
TestLineOrSky: tstack overflow


Thats a bit of a grim looking one isnt it!?!?

Anyone here have any idea what that means? Had lit like 95% of the total faces when it spat this error :(

Please help! 

Can't help I'm afraid.

How much compile time to see the error? 

AguirRes light tool works though. Doesnt give any clues to the problem. It will have to do for now. 

If you have the C code, you should have a look into it to figure out what's hapening: this is the first time I hear about this particular error... 

a hack to raise/lower the HP of Quake monsters? I think someone mentioned it before, but I am suffering from some intense mental fog at the moment. 

armor, check the progs.dat thread. 

armortype 1
armorvalue xxxx <-- however much extra health you want. 

 

(L4D2 / Swamp Fever / Plantation level)

A question - anyone have any advice /examples on how to make a spiral? Not a helix but a spiral as seen in SPoG's Q2 map (vertical spiral lift bars).

If I figure it out first then I'll post a .map. 

it's not quite SPoG standard but here's a pic of an old speedmap i did years ago: http://isoterra.co.uk/images/qspiral.jpg

basically for that i started with a 12-sided hollow black cylinder (128 units high in that pic), which each 'side' split diagonally (i started with one brush, split it first, then vertexed & copied it round to form the cylinder, making sure the split always went the same way. i then cloned the whole thing and stacked another on top; then it was just a case of deleting half the brushes & a little more cloning upwards

if you can master that then it shouldn't be too hard to work out how to do different shapes & sizes. there is also a much messier way of doing it by fusing 6 4-sided shapes together to make a cuboid and then vertexing the resulting cluster any way you want, but qbsp tends to get upset at large amounts of those! 

dont bite the hand that feeds you (my map)

Find it on the quaddicted.com website, in the singleplayer maps section, type Ricky in the search field. thehand.bsp

The very first corridor you come to the cieling is 1/4 spiral. Infact Slave To a Machine has a spiral in the generator room.

So two maps I made with a spiral. If you look at the maps I jave the .rmf and the .map source availaible if you like. Just email me or message me here and I will send you the sources 

rj:

nice spiral. also as or the 6/4 side cuboid technique - better just make one cuboid into two triangular prisms, then you cant go wrong ;) 

4 sided shapes but got the offset wrong - will give the stack method a try - sounds alot easier tbh. 

It was the cylinder as an offset reference I was missing.

Problem was I didn't want to make an actual spiral but more something like a drill or screw.

Might well have a go at something a bit more ambitious with this. 

A drill might be tricky to do, assuming it's not the size of a room, because the smaller you get, the more difficult (or impossible) the technique becomes. 

rj:

nice spiral. also as or the 6/4 side cuboid technique - better just make one cuboid into two triangular prisms, then you cant go wrong ;)

oh you can. i have done anyway ;p

that's essentially what i ended up with above; it can just be a bit of a headache working out which way to split them sometimes; there are still several four-sided faces that need to keep intact

a full 'vertex block' (unofficial name i've given for the 6x4 brush thing) however can literally be bent anywhere on any axis, providing the result is at least concave. works great for natural terrain.. but probably isn't to be abused too much in minor architectural detail 

was actually in that speedmap pictured above; instead of leaving it as a pillar i tried to make it a full-blown arch with the spiral curving around. i got my head in a mess at the time & ditched the idea but on hindsight it should be easy if you build the curve before subtracting the negative brushes. might try it... i was actually wanting to do a big spirally setpiece as a finale for e2 :)