getting started - few simple questions

[guitar_monkey]

hello y'all
some might remember me, i gave up mapping a few months ago but i want to try again.
although i read some tutorials there are a few thigns that i can't find anywhere...
i can see the number of height in the very left screen, 0, 64, 128 and so on...
and the width and length in the grid screen thing

1)
how wide and how high does a door need to be so i can walk trough it?

2)
how high can a q3 character jump? and how small is he if he crouches?

3) how big should i build everything?
like boxes, water, lava, holes and so...
i know there are some maps that recreate things like a city or a kitchen where you feel reel small, i dont want that,
i just want a normal map.

and the most important

4)
how big should the box be where the map is in?
x 2000
y 2000
and z 500?
how big would that make the map?

i can make the basic shapes, stairs etctera, but i think these questions aren't answered anywhere.
and if so, im very sorry to take some of your time

[guitar_monkey]

the word for height and so is entities?

[Bliccer]

These numbers are not called entities but units.
1) Depends on what door you want. Just place an info_player_deathmatch somewhere on your grid. These are the heights you minimally need.

2) Max crouch height = info_player_deatmatch size (56units) - 8 = 48 units ( with this I mean 49 or 50 is possible too ofc), jump height was smth about 32units or 40..,. (?)

3) You have to build and try yourself. There is no "perfect" size.

4) Don't build one single box. Create "box" per "box" and fill it with details so it doesn't look like a box or better use 45degree walls.

[obsidian]

Open up some of the sample maps that ship with GtkRadiant. There you will find some id Software maps that will give you good overall values. Some mappers will also supply their map files as well.

Regardless, the best thing you can do is make a quick "alpha" of your map to try and test layout and scale. Because you didn't spend a lot of time detailing it, you can quickly make changes if anything ends up being too large/small.

A good exercise is to open up q3dm1 and take a long look at the layout and scale of the map. Then start a new map file and try to recreate the layout (just a rough layout, no details) and see how close you get. Repeat a few times and you should be able to zero in on the general scale of things.

[guitar_monkey]

thanks, i always get confused with entities and units,

very helpfull tips, only question i have left, how high do i need to make each step of the stairs?

[guitar_monkey]

how do i keep someone or something (like a rocket) from passing trough an area i dont want them to acces (like jumping or shooting trough a window)

[guitar_monkey]

i got the basic room, want to test it, found and fixed a leak but now i cant play it in q3, i did the sv_pure thing, devmap test but then it laods and brings me back to the main menu

[Eraser]

What does it say in the console after it boots you back to the menu?

[Eraser]

how do i keep someone or something (like a rocket) from passing trough an area i dont want them to acces (like jumping or shooting trough a window)

Create a brush in the area you want to be impassable and give it the playerclip texture found in the common folder to make it impassable for all players. There's also missileclip to make it impassable for rockets, grenades and BFG shots or weapclip to make it impassable for all other weapons. Finally there's also botclip to make it passable for human players but impassable for bots. You can of course create multiple brushes that occupy the same space but have different clip textures.

[tehSandwich]

1: The player uses a hitbox that is a square prism 56u high and 32u wide. Standard widths are 128 and 192 units wide but you need to have an idea of how big everything is first. Load one of the sample maps to do that.

2: Vanilla Quake 3 and Team Arena are FPS-dependent. That is, the jump height changes depending of your FPS rate. At the default speed of 90 FPS, you jump 44 units high. At the recomended speed of 125 fps, you jump 48 units high. Inmods that uses FPS-independent physics like CPMA, you usually jump 48 units high.

3: Depends, again, load one of the sample maps to get an idea how big everything is.

4: Try boxing individual rooms and corridors instead of making a huge box that holds everything unless you want to make space maps. Yet again, load the sample maps to know how id built their maps.

5: Step heights? 8 and 16 units are standard sizes. A player can climb steps up to 18 units high.

I really recommend using the grid to build your map.

[guitar_monkey]

i got it!!! it works!!!! :-)

[guitar_monkey]

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 1862_n.jpg

for the very first time im very proud!!!

[Bliccer]

Hu,
congrats on launching your first map. Now higher the ceiling and start to fill the room with nice ideas. Or better... go through the texture directories and find some neat combinations.
Do you know these tutorials? http://q3a.ath.cx/level_design/

[guitar_monkey]

it isn't the complete level,
the complete level will be a science fiction horror base
cross over between star wars doom and portal.
no haven't read the tutorial yet, doing it as we speak

EDIT:
i used this tutorial
http://www.1upclan.info/hosted/bubba-ma ... orial.html

[guitar_monkey]

can i create a real window with glass, or a glass like texture in it?

[Eraser]

can i create a real window with glass, or a glass like texture in it?

Yes you can.
There is a glass texture somewhere in a clean Q3 installation, not sure where exactly though.
But what I usually do is create a brush and give it the common/nodraw texture. Then I give the one face I want to act as glass window the glass texture.

[guitar_monkey]

great,
and custom WAV sounds?

[Theftbot]

base_wall/glass01

[Eraser]

great,
and custom WAV sounds?

Put custom wav files in the "sounds" folder (create one in baseq3 if it isn't there yet). It's good habit to create a subfolder for your map and put your sound files in there to keep things orderly. I do believe custom wav files must be recorded at 22KHz and mono.

You can then use a target_speaker entity to play these wav files.

[guitar_monkey]

okay, it's a taget, how do i trigger it?

for now in testing it's a complete song,
i am gonna cut it into pieces and make a nice loop of maybe the intro,
but that is something i do understand

[Eraser]

You can either tag the LOOPED_ON spawnflag, which will cause it to automatically start playing and loop.

You can also target it with a trigger like a trigger_multiple or func_timer or something. Read the description of the target_speaker entity for more info on how to set it up properly.

[Bliccer]

Sorry if I sound harsh now... but I thought you were reading those tuts I linked?

http://q3a.ath.cx/level_design/sound_intro/

[guitar_monkey]

i am using it, but since im using the latest radiant version it's a bit different, plus when i try it that way it doesn't work.
you're not harsh, you're just thinking that i don't read any tutorials and don't google or what ever.

[guitar_monkey]

although i have only added sound and want to try it in game, the bsp thing says that the map is leaked showing a red line from items i haven't touched since i last played it in Q3... wtf...

[Eraser]

The leak line starts at an entity and then flows to the void. It's up to you to spot where it passes through a gap in your map's hull and correct the mistake.