I'm extremely confused.

[Xev]

Sorry if I sound really noobish.

Ok, so I'm sort of new to mapmaking. Well, I've tried to forever, but nothing ever works for me. Anyway, I've been playing Quake 3 for a long time and I want to make maps. The thing is, I've been trying to for a couple years now. Could anybody, please, ANYBODY give me some help with q3map2? Every single link I tried was either to shaderlab (which never works) or to the dumb Telefragged thing. I finally downloaded it on quakeunity.net. I did everything the readme told me to. Didn't work. How do I access q3map2 after setting it up? All the tutorials I see assume you already have it.

Um, that seems to be my main problem right now, but I'll probably annoy you with more.

Anyway, thanks for the help (if you can), this whole thing's been confusing me from the start.
-Xev

Oh! And my version of GtkRadiant is 1.5.0, if that changes anything.

[dichtfux]

Q3map2 is a commandline program, you can access it in different ways though:

1) from within Radiant
Radiant 1.5 comes with q3map2, no need to mess with it on the commandline in the beginning. Just select "build" in the Radiant menu bar and click on one of the listed options.

2) from the commandline (Click "Start" "Run Command" in Windows, enter "cmd" and hit return). If you insist on using q3map2 on the commandline, try this guide (won't hurt even if you're using it from within radiant):
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Q3Map2

3) you install a frontend for q3map2. There's some of them around for win32, but someone else will have to answer that for you, I'm not that into win32.

EDIT: corrected an error: you need a frontend for q3map2, not for Radiant of course

[obsidian]

Q3Map2Toolz Frontend

4) The best way is using a batch (.bat) file. A batch file is a Windows script file that you write in a text editor and then save with a .bat extension. It's basically all the commands that you typed into the command line, but saved so you can re-execute it without having to type them in again each and everytime you need to recompile. Frontend programs like Q3Map2Toolz basically just generate a batch file for you and then runs it.

For a full compile, Q3Map2 needs to be executed 3 times for each of the 3 compile stages:
BSP, VIS and LIGHT

There is also a very long list of compile switches that can be used to tap into the power of Q3Map2. The wiki and readme file are good places to brush up on those.

[Xev]

Thanks guys. I'll try out q3map2toolz, and be sure to submit any maps that I happen to make to ..::Lvl.

Oh, and go easy on me, I'm only 13.

Edit: Wow, thanks for that. I probably would have never downloaded q3map2toolz! But now I know how to use bspc and all that crap. Thanks a bunch!

Edit again: Dang. nothing ever works for me. When I press 'build,' does it actually compile the map? And which files should I compile? And, I can't get bspc to work either. I choose 'normal' for the bspc menu and compile that, but isn't it supposed to make an .aas file? I need desperate help.

[hotwheeler]

hey Xev, I feel your pain!.... I've been trying to get my Q4 MP maps online for weeks now... nothing ever works for me either. I used to build Doom (1) and duke nukem 3d levels... but those editors are childs play compared to these new ones. they didn't play with light, and only had "sprites" and .gifs for fire and enemies.... this is very diferent.!