Your fav level editor?

[dghost77]

Hi gang!

Sorry if this question is not new but I am curious about which editor you are using for mapping for Quake 3. When I tried mapping a couple of years ago, I started with worldcraft for Quake 2 and when Quake 3 was released, I went with QERadiant from ID. Then I switched to GtkRadiant when it was also released. For the moment I am working with ZeroRadiant (or GtkR version 1.6).

Now after a couple of years without following/checking the level editor, I come back to the scene and find some new ones, like NetRadiant, and some old that got better like Quark. There are even some that I never heard of, like... Quest..? I've tried NetRadiant, Gtk 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 and ironically, the one still in beta - 1.6 is the most stable for me out of these 4 versions of GtkRadiant. The other one that I should give a try is Quark since the development for it is still very active.

I was wondering today what would be the most popular editor for mapping today. Do you take your pick because you create level for a specific game? Or maybe you just go for your personal preferences?

It's like... there is too many FREE choices!

[Silicone_Milk]

GtkRadiant 1.4

[deqer]

GtkRadiant 1.4

[themuffinman]

Gtk 1.4.0 for Q3 and irritating-as-hell NetRadiant for Q2 (since I can't get 1.4.0 to work for Q2).

[tehSandwich]

NetRadiant, since I started actually mapping with it.

[dghost77]

I agree, after 15 minutes with NetRadiant, I started to find it irritating also. Configuration is different compared to the other ones and a lot of config has to be done. But I guess that I wouldn't mind if I started mapping with it from the beginning. Anyone working with Quark? Or tried it?

[Hipshot]

I used QuArk for every level I made for Quake and Half-Life. It has great functions, but it didn't really work for Quake3 and all the patch functions back then, probably do now...

[themuffinman]

Net is based on Gtk 1.5.0 but is only slightly less irritating than it. 1.5.0 completely ruined the viewport (can't select brush groups, can hardly see selections highlighted, etc) and the whole interface (can't even use Tab in the surface inspector). They somehow even managed to bastardize vertex manipulation by making vertex points jump around when you're moving a point on the opposite side of the edge. Some awesome bro who made 1.5.0 also decided to remove the z-view on the left of the screen and change/remove hot keys. Even texture shifting on patches is broken (at least on both of my computers it is).

[Ouija]

Started with 1.4 but currently, Rad 1.5. Used it since the release, and I'm just used to it. Too lazy to revert.

[fKd]

i use 1.5

[Theftbot]

I switch between all but quark.

[Eraser]

Had all sorts of problems with Gtk 1.5 so I'm using Gtk 1.4 like I've done for ages.

[Fjoggs]

Betatested 1.5 for spog, and havent swapped since. :P

[dghost77]

I think that answer my question for Quark, seems to be good for mapping with a lot of games, but may not be the best one for Q3A.

[4days]

good decision.

I switch between all but quark.

not sure you could even if you wanted to.

have found quark far more usable/friendly that anything else, but the fact that you can't save a map in quark and open it in radiant is a dealbreaker. that floating point stuff is bloody useless for q3 anyway,.. having said that, i should probably bring it up on the mailing list instead of just being silently annoyed by it.

[Eraser]

Quark does floating point coords as well? I remember that Qoole did the same (it was a Quake 1/2 level editor). It was really stupid because sometimes leaks occurred because Qoole floating point values were rounded incorrectly and 1 unit wide gaps appeared between brushes. And this was invisible within the editor.

[MrLego]

GtkRadiant 1.4 as well.

The custom tools from the Splashdamage version alone is worth the download.

I used Qoole as well - and Quest from the Doom 1 & 2 days.

Back then everything began with a "Q"

[GtkRadiant]

GtkRadiant 1.4 is the only one I've tried and I couldn't imagine using another program.

[ShadoW_86]

GtkRadiant 1.4.

[Theftbot]

Then there is ÜberRadiant

[IveGotPenisEnvy]

GTKRadiant 1.4, 1.5 isn't very nice to me.

[dONKEY]

Betatested 1.5 for spog, and havent swapped since. :P

Same here.
I still use GTK 1.4 for the odd function that I either can't do in 1.5, or probably more like it was too lazy to work out how to do in 1.5

I hated D3edit and the Q4 version. Buggy piece of crap, seemed to memory leak all the time and crash randomly when working with patches. Not to mention grid snapping worked really badly. If you clipped brushes on a lower grid setting, after saving or compiling and re-opening the map file, ever thing was off grid. The few levels I did for Q4 I used 1.5 and compiled directly in game, and never open the map in the in-game editor without having saved a gtk 1.5 only back up.

[dghost77]

I can't remember if it was Q3Radiant or QERadiant, but the grid size was very limited and you couldn't make a big map with it. I started a map with it and when GtkR was released I imported my old map in it, the original grid size was also imported. I basically had to redo everything because I wanted to scale up the size of my map and the grid size was limiting it. Old time, old software... So far I am very happy with ZeroRadiant, even tough it's still in beta.

[Eraser]

I can't remember if it was Q3Radiant or QERadiant, but the grid size was very limited and you couldn't make a big map with it. I started a map with it and when GtkR was released I imported my old map in it, the original grid size was also imported. I basically had to redo everything because I wanted to scale up the size of my map and the grid size was limiting it. Old time, old software... So far I am very happy with ZeroRadiant, even tough it's still in beta.

If with grid size you mean the maximum boundaries of a map, then that's probably due to GtkRadiant being updated to reflect changes in the then current patch (1.27). When Team Arena was released (and consequently the 1.27 point release) the maximum size for a map was increased so that maps like Distant Screams are possible, even though Distant Screams doesn't even get near to the maximum size now.

[obsidian]

Couldn't you select all, copy, new map, paste?