compile problem?

[Rath]

Hey dudes and/or experts

I started making a Q3 CTF map day before yesterday, with no experience with GTKRadiant whatsoever, and now finally ran into problems.

When I compile the map in Q3map2Build, no errors, except from the very obvious graphics glitches (see screenshot). Batch file below:

Code: Select all

"C:\Program Files (x86)\GtkRadiant 1.5.0\q3map2.exe" -fs_basepath "D:\Games\Quake III Arena" -fs_game "baseq3" -debuginset -debugsurfaces -draw -flares -fulldetail "D:\Games\Quake III Arena\baseq3\maps\beta.map"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\GtkRadiant 1.5.0\q3map2.exe" -fs_basepath "D:\Games\Quake III Arena" -fs_game "baseq3" -vis -merge "D:\Games\Quake III Arena\baseq3\maps\beta.map"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\GtkRadiant 1.5.0\q3map2.exe" -fs_basepath "D:\Games\Quake III Arena" -fs_game "baseq3" -light -border -cheap -deluxe -filter -patchshadows -shade -super 5 "D:\Games\Quake III Arena\baseq3\maps\beta.map"

Any idea what stupid thing I'm doing wrong?

Cheers, Rath

[Foo]

The level has to be completely contained on all sides with brushes, even space maps.

What you're seeing is 'void'. use r_clear 1 at the console to get it to turn bright pink (makes it easy to spot areas you haven't plugged).

Bots won't compile until you completely seal the level.

Technical nonsense explanation
Because there's nothing for Q3 to render in the 'void' space, what you're seeing is just areas of the video buffer left over from previous frames. This is why it produces a kind of smearing effect as you move around. The r_clear command tells Q3 to clear the buffer before each frame, hence replacing the hall-of-mirrors effect with delicious electric pink.

Why doesn't Q3 clear the buffer by default after every frame? Because there's a performance hit in waiting for the memory area to be zeroed. Plus I believe there are a few graphical effects you can implement that depend on the previous frames contents being left in the buffer. I can't remember any examples, though.

[Rath]

The whole level is contained within a hollow with the texture 'invisible' - that's the only black texture I could find, but I guess I'm seeing through it to the void?

EDIT: nice typo.. it's the whole level, not the hole level

[Foo]

Ah, yeah. The texture you want is textures/skies/blacksky

It'll probably show up as 'not found' in the editor, but it should work in-game.

You can see an example by opening up q3dm17sample.map in radiant.

[Rath]

Nice, that took care of that problem. Now I can actually see the problems I have with lighting and whatnot.

BTW, I have glitches in brushes where they're clipped (flashing black lines, but no space between the brushes). Think you can give me a pointer on that as well?

[Foo]

Can you up a .map file as an example, or a screenie?

Sounds like 2 brushes overlapping on the same plane, and fighting for which order to be drawn in (z-order)

[Rath]

there you go..

[Foo]

Odd.

Select all the brushes, set the grid size to '4' (press '4'), then press CTRL-G.

This'll force the edges of all the brushes to match the grid.

Also check they're all the same height, too. The CTRL-G thing should level them out.

[Rath]

well, that didn't work. I've upped the map too in the previous post.

I'm thinking that as the platforms are hollows (brainfart from my side) this causes some conflicts of some sort or the other. Maybe. Whaddaiknow.

[Rath]

well this is kind of embarrasing. some of the debug options (probly the surface one) in the BSP compiler may have caused the lines. Well, learned something there then

Thanks alot anyway, think I'm good to go for making the final adjustments now.. Cheers!

[axbaby]

flashing black lines could indcate 2 brushes sharing the same space.
try to not let brushes overlap into each other

[obsidian]

You have a bunch of nonsense in the compile switches. Don't use a switch unless you actually know what it does.

For a quick test compile just run:
-meta
-vis -saveprt
-light -fast -patchshadows -bounce 2 -gamma 2 -compensate 4

And for a good final compile, change the light settings to this (takes longer):
-light -fast -patchshadows -samples 3 -bounce 8 -gamma 2 -compensate 4 -dirty

[deqer]

NECRO ALERT

---

Never heard back from this guy, and I still have an UNREAD message in my Outbox from 2010-03-11. I messaged him "don't give up."

Either he's a little bitch and gave up, or he released his map and decided to stop and leave the q3 scene suddenly without talking about his release here.

I'm going to go with the "little bitch" option.