Quake 4 Radiant Help: Light, Multiplayer, Alpha textures

[Kev_Boy]

1) When I create a light entity, I set a key for color and assign it a colour via the little color picker but in the editor the little diamond remains white and in-game the light also still looks white. What's up?

2) I can't get the game to be for multiplayer, when I add multiplayer spawns it complains they're not valid and when I change the name to DM- it won't accept the hyphen and see it as a space and refuse to compile. Any thoughts on this?

3) I was wondering, are there any transparent grate textures?

Thanks In Advance

[primaltheory]

1) You need to move the color slider up from black to white (or whatever color is at the top) even if you have it picked in the circle

2)I can't remember right now

3)Yes, Have you tried looking :-P

[Lukin]

To run your map in mp mode you've got to:
a) place at least one info_player_deathmatch on map
b) type in console: si_map path_to_your_map/your_map [enter] and then type ServerMapRestart [enter]

[Geit]

2) I can't get the game to be for multiplayer, when I add multiplayer spawns it complains they're not valid and when I change the name to DM- it won't accept the hyphen and see it as a space and refuse to compile. Any thoughts on this?

I have found that Q4 always treats the hyphen as a space.

[primaltheory]

underscore ftw?

_ftw

[pjw]

1) When I create a light entity, I set a key for color and assign it a colour via the little color picker but in the editor the little diamond remains white and in-game the light also still looks white. What's up?

Hmmn. Are you picking the color in the light editor? (Select light, hit "J".) I usually use that, but I tried it with that and the little mini-button on the entity window and I can't get either way to not stick...

2) I can't get the game to be for multiplayer, when I add multiplayer spawns it complains they're not valid and when I change the name to DM- it won't accept the hyphen and see it as a space and refuse to compile. Any thoughts on this?

First, as was mentioned, make sure your map is in the right directory (q4base/maps/mp). This is just good practice. The easiest way I've found to start the game in MP mode and easily test a map is via a shortcut that points to a config. Under "Properties" for my "Test" shortcut in the "Target" blank is:

E:\Quake4\quake4.exe +seta com_allowConsole 1 +disconnect +exec maptest.cfg

You'll obviously have to change the path to match your install. The com_allowConsole simply allows you to pull down the console easily with the ~ key, and the "disconnect" skips all the intro stuff.

My maptest.cfg is a simple text file in q4base, and looks like this:

Code: Select all

seta si_pure "0"
seta net_allowcheats "1"
seta net_lanserver "1"
seta si_map "mp/pjw4dm1"
spawnserver

The si_pure allows custom content, allowcheats allows cheats ( ), net_lanserver basically forces the server you make to be local LAN only, so you don't have to worry about people jumping in. You'll have to change the si_map value to match your map...

This allows you to kill the editor and simply click one shortcut and be in your map.

3) I was wondering, are there any transparent grate textures?

All kinds. The best way to browse textures, IMO, is to go to the "Media" tab of the entity window, and double-click any folder under "Textures" in the tree. This will load the contents of that folder and you can then switch to your textures window and scroll through them. To get your textures back, use "Materials-->Show In Use" from the upper menus.

[SonicClang]

pjw, you're a great resource for this stuff! Who else to ask than someone who worked on the game? :icon31: When I start working on a level I'm sure you'll be answering many questions of mine. haha.

[primaltheory]

Are you serious? He worked on the game? Thats fucking sweet! lol!

[Kev_Boy]

Whew, replies are fast in here compared to Raven's own forums, to their credit they don't really have any seperate dedicated mapping subforum though. Thanks for the answers, they're very helpful, I do have some more.

To my first question, about the lights: Key/value doesn't work, but as been suggested the light editor did do the trick very nicely!

My second question seems to be solved aswell if I read the replies, however, will the end user experience any trouble? And how do I get multiplayer style ammo, weapons, health.. because it's all single player based. Perhaps (like in UT) it's all just 1 single entity and you control what needs to be spawn in the entity, but which entity?!

My third question: After looking some more I did find a great grate transparent texture (pun intended ) but can you have it so that machinegunrounds go through but nothing thicker, like plasma balls or rocket launchers. Perhaps rails could go through aswell.

I do have an additional question: Jumppads. How do you make them? I have the func_static model and the jumppad that's the target for the apex of the jump, but I need the actual boost upwards.. I can't find it

[KungFuSquirrel]

Answer to 2: All done automatically. A couple entities have variants with _mp at the end, but ignore those - the game switches them out automatically when running in MP mode.

Answer to 3: There's a large shot clip texture that blocks the bigger projectiles (those with "clipmask_largeshot" set to "1"). You can also add this key to custom materials, so if a texture doesn't have it that you think should, just make a new .mtr with a new entry using the "largeshotclip" key.

Answer to additional: There's a specific func_jumppad entity to use for this; target the apex point from that. The func_statics are just for visuals and are usually left nonsolid to keep any weird movement around them. Keep in mind the effect that plays when you hit the jumppad comes from the entity's origin, so moving that around might give better results.

the official raven forums probably need a massive overhaul if they're going to be much use, but if you have any major questions that asking around the community gives you trouble with, hit us up with an e-mail at the contact address we have listed at http://www.iddevnet.com/quake4/. I think at least 16 people are on that list now from various departments; we try to help as best we can and as quickly as possible.

[pjw]

stuff

LOL

Until I got to the last paragraph, I was thinking "Wow! This person knows a lot about Q4!

/me high-fives Andrew

[surgeon62]

My maptest.cfg is a simple text file in q4base, and looks like this:

Code: Select all

seta si_pure "0"
seta net_allowcheats "1"
seta net_lanserver "1"
seta si_map "mp/pjw4dm1"
spawnserver

... You'll have to change the si_map value to match your map...

This allows you to kill the editor and simply click one shortcut and be in your map.

Is there a way to set this config to prompt you for a map name? That would be nice. :icon25:

[KungFuSquirrel]

stuff

LOL

Until I got to the last paragraph, I was thinking "Wow! This person knows a lot about Q4!

/me high-fives Andrew

pizzow! (Also, excellent summary of the post; I need to work on being more concise )

[Kev_Boy]

Multiplayer works like a charm and the jumppads aswell, I used a target_null and that did the trick perfectly. Nice to see that the jumppad model automatically does that little effect and you don't have to set up the particles and trigger.

I just can't quite get that special texture to work, if I shift click on the face with that grate texture I don't have any real options apart from moving/scaling. Where would you do this exactly?

Also, how do you create a light that simulates outdoor lighting? In Half-Life 2 for example it was env_light I would presume there's something like this in Quake 4 aswell?

Really that's all (for the moment ) and you guys have been very helpful