Quick question for those of you that map with id tech

[o'dium]

Ok, just a quickie really.

When you map for any id tech based engine using any editor, what functions do you find yourself using most of the time that you really wish were a more simple button? i.e. it could be a key press, or ir could be something burried in the UI that really would be better off as a simple easy to spot button.

Cheers ears.

[obsidian]

The automated build map button would be neat.

GtkRadiant is pretty intuitive, so there aren't any deep menus or anything. I suppose some sort of improved texturing tools would be nice, shader editor, built-in compile options, and some sort of way to extrude face geometry.

[IveGotPenisEnvy]

Yes, I wish they didn't have to make BSP's. It's stupid, they should've done what Unreal done and just let you save the map and run it.

[Theftbot]

I would like a set of buttons to change the texture scale on the fly.(default q3 maps is .5, in my high res maps i use .125) Also a switch for view from textured/solid/wireframe would be cool too.

[obsidian]

Yes, I wish they didn't have to make BSP's. It's stupid, they should've done what Unreal done and just let you save the map and run it.

You had to compile maps all the way up to Unreal Engine 2.5. If you're comparing UE3 to Quake 3, that's almost a decade of difference with massive technological differences. id Tech 4 does nearly instantaneous loads like UE3.

[IveGotPenisEnvy]

Why is it that I just had to click "save" then in UnreadlEd just to create a map? Didn't have to go through compiling shit, all I had to do was make the map and save it.

[obsidian]

Are you using Unreal Engine 3?

[Bliccer]

That's why I think the GTkRadiant is one of the best editors ever. It's easy to create simple brushwork and you also have all necessary shortcuts on the keyboard.
But maybe it would be awesome to implement a button which compiles the map with all set parameters (ticked boxes somewhere) and start the game with all necessary settings (sv_pure 0, sv_cheats 1 etc.). Of course you could do that over a bat, but one button in the menu could save the time, creating the bats.
It would also be cool to jump through the entities with one or two keys.
For example I had too edit several light colors. For this I had to go through the entity list but only could select one. Close the entity list, press k, change color or n for settings. So maybe it would be cool to have every window connected? Entitylist, color & entity settings. So go fast forward through the light entities by pressing some key and meanwhile have an autoupdate in the setting display.
I hope you get what I mean

[ShadoW_86]

You still need to compile BSP in UE3. You still need to make it every time you change bsp geometry or add a new one. The thing is, in UE3 you don't use BSP at all, or almost at all. Don't be mistaken about that. Like Obsidian mentioned there is a decade of technology differences, and just take a look at idtech4 - bsp compile process is just as quick there as in UE3.

[neoplan]

- Buttons for filters could be useful. Like filtering, patches, entities, models.
- Button for loading\unloading portal files (.prt)
- Adding buttons for most common used entities like trigger_multible, target_position, info_player_start - the right-click menu can be pain in the ass sometimes.

But anyways, if you really work with a program - you mostly use shortcuts.

[obsidian]

For example I had too edit several light colors. For this I had to go through the entity list but only could select one.

Select one of the lights, SHIFT+A to select all of common type, N for entity inspector, change settings, done!

(won't work if you have different coloured lights, but you could select all lights, invert selection and hide everything else and it'll make it easier to select all of the same coloured lights in the map)

[deqer]

I would like a set of buttons to change the texture scale on the fly.(default q3 maps is .5, in my high res maps i use .125) Also a switch for view from textured/solid/wireframe would be cool too.

Similar to this, I think a nice feature would be to change the default scale and also when you change default scale it can automatically change all textures faces(that were not modified) in your map to use the new default scale. Doesn't sound like a solid feature, but something like that. Can do it in a text editor, but it's not as friendly.

[Eraser]

I'm missing a center 3D camera view on selection. You can center 2D views on selection but not the 3D camera. At least, no that I know of.

[tehSandwich]

If anything, I would like a per-surface lightmap scale thingy as well as a lightmap grid view mode.

[mazk1985]

I would like a set of buttons to change the texture scale on the fly.(default q3 maps is .5, in my high res maps i use .125) Also a switch for view from textured/solid/wireframe would be cool too.

Similar to this, I think a nice feature would be to change the default scale and also when you change default scale it can automatically change all textures faces(that were not modified) in your map to use the new default scale. Doesn't sound like a solid feature, but something like that. Can do it in a text editor, but it's not as friendly.

I don't know about previous versions but 1.5 has a default texture scale in the preferences:

[Theftbot]

Not exactly a hotkey button-HUH

[fKd]

thread has branched off topic it seems... but imo, buttons? meh, shortcuts or nothing lol

[mazk1985]

my bad. i guess a hot button key for that would be cool yeh xD

[EmeraldTiger]

For texture lock to work on flipping in addition to movement, rotation, etc. I don't understand why the coders for GTK (at least 1.4) decided to not implement support for texture locking on flips... I mean it's so simple really, is there really any technical barriers preventing this from happening? Is it a brush-primitives only feature?

And yes it is a big problem for CTF map makers... if you want to mirror a map as opposed to rotating it, guess what? You'll have to re-do all the textures on the other side. If the GTK coders took that little bit of extra initiative to implement texture lock on flips, it would have saved several hours of work for several mappers.

[Delirium]

I find that the shortcut buttons are enough, maybe you could have "programmable buttons" where you could choose what the setting would be.
I think an add func_model button would be handy, or make a brush detail/struc.

[Theftbot]

A layers system would be 1337(for seperation of structural/detail, weapons, entities)

[lightmill]

What editors are we talking exactly, GTK 1.5\netradiant? Then what about bringing back the old handy features from 1.3 that were cut for no good reason?

offset for cloning
ctrl+click whole brush texturing in 3d
shift+click face texturing keeping face coordinates
ctrl-alt-click entire brush ent or func_group selection
working 'invert selection' when you have groups selected
-func_groups not counting as entities with filters
-alt+drag face shearing
...and something else I forgot
and vert manip splits surfaces, but thats not interface thing

wouldnt mind groups\layers either - thats probably the #1 crucially important feature absent from Id`s tools

or just give me CoD4 radiant for Q3 and Doom3 ))))

EDIT: Oh, and if Im wrong and those mentioned features can be enabled in netradiant - dont hesitate to tell me where\how, Id be very greatfull.

[obsidian]

Great list and all, but it doesn't help that there is a shortage of active developers for GtkRadiant so we aren't seeing any progress.

I wonder, will any features of Doom3 Edit will be useful to port over to GtkRadiant? I *think* the source for D3E is part of the Doom3 GPL release.

[^Ghost]

hotkey for func_group find it incredibly annoying to have to pull down the menu everytime.

[Eraser]

Perhaps a bit OT, but is there a function for selecting all brushes that are part of an entity in GtkRadiant 1.4?