Quick Guide: q1 map to q3 bsp

Discuss the construction of maps and the tools to create maps for 3D games.
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Nahuel
Posts: 495
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:42 pm
Location: mar del plata

Quick Guide: q1 map to q3 bsp

Post by Nahuel »

Hello Forum, in this quick guide I will explain a metod to port a quake 1 map to a playable q3bsp. This guide is oriented to the modders that use darkplaces engine.
now, why use q3bsp instead of q1bsp ?
q3bsp has some advantages:
Quoting LordHavoc
Now some facts about q3bsp compared to q1bsp:
Physics - no differences, except that modders can add things like crouching (which never works right in q1bsp because it only understands bullets, players, and shamblers).

Lighting - q3map2 has much nicer lighting features than any of the lighting utilities for q1bsp, it even has optional radiosity.

Vis - detail brushes are a better alternative to func_wall for keeping down vis times, you can easily have vis times under 1 second if you build most of a map out of detail brushes, the structural brushes only need to define the room shapes for vis. You can also do hint brushes to tweak vis behavior a bit (rather than using various visible brushes sticking out into a hallway to cause an intentional bsp split, you can use invisible hint brushes for the purpose).

BSpline Patches - curves can be more convenient than making a lot of brushes, they should be used in moderation however (when overused they become merely a gimmick, serving no useful purpose), they can be useful for terrain because they are easy to edit.

Models - the ability to embed models and have them be properly lit and shadowed by the light utility is quite cool, they can even be made solid with a spawnflag in the misc_model entity, allowing you to model large pieces of architecture that would be more difficult to build/texture as brushes and stick them in a map, they render really fast too.

Model lighting - as mentioned any models you embed in the map are properly lit, but that is not all - dynamic models are lit by a q3bsp technology known as the lightgrid which applies directional shading (a big visual improvement) and works properly for airborn entities, curing the 'very bright player while jumping over a lava pit' problems in q1bsp.

Q3 shaders - FTEQW supports Q3 shaders fully, DarkPlaces supports some very basic features of q3 shaders such as:
blendfunc - you can make 'light cones' by simply making a brush with a gradient texture and blendfunc one one, also known as blendfunc add.
deformvertexes autosprite - makes a brush face look at the viewer at all times, a sprite.
deformvertexes autosprite2 - similar but stays upright, like doom sprites, useful for torch flames.
Several others are also supported, but those are the most useful Q3 shader features supported by DarkPlaces.
Well this citation is pretty old ( 2005 http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thr ... 30&end=154 ) and now I can say : the deluxemapping is a great advantage too.
Darkplaces has some stuck problems in many q3bsp but this problem was solved in the latest versions. So you need to use
a 20140513 version or posterior.

1 PART Installation and the first room
so you need:

darkplaces engine
http://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/download.html

Quark QuArK 6.6.0 Beta 6 in zip
http://sourceforge.net/projects/quark/f ... 0Beta%206/


my custom files for quark and darkplaces modding
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cl5eovd4dovod ... pfiles.rar


pak0 and pak1 from quake

1- download the three files
2- extract the files in three different folders :P
3-create a directory: "c/program files/darkplaces", put the darkplaces engine (darkplaces.exe and the dlls etc...) here
4- move the folder "Darkplaces" and the file "Defaults.qrk" from my custom files to the "addons" directory of quark-win32-6.6.0Beta6
5. move the "id1" and "tools" folder in "c/program files/darkplaces"
6. put a copy of pak0 and pak1 (and maybee the content of your mod) in "c/program files/darkplaces/id1"

Well, if you follow the instructions my custom files are ready to work and correctly configured.
Open quark, select the "darkplaces" , after press the "new map" button

here you have the default room, you can test the configuration. Press Darkplaces->Complete Rebuild
if the compiler doesn´t show errors press Darkplaces->Run Darkplaces

well, this is the first part of this minu tut!! i will continue tomorrow :)
hi, I am nahuel, I love quake and qc.
toneddu2000
Posts: 1395
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 4:39 pm
Location: Italy

Re: Quick Guide: q1 map to q3 bsp

Post by toneddu2000 »

wow thanks Nahuel for this tutorial! I never used Quark, I'll try it out!
Meadow Fun!! - my first commercial game, made with FTEQW game engine
ajay
Posts: 559
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:44 am
Location: Swindon, UK

Re: Quick Guide: q1 map to q3 bsp

Post by ajay »

Brilliant, thank you, very informative
drm_wayne
Posts: 232
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2012 5:47 pm

Re: Quick Guide: q1 map to q3 bsp

Post by drm_wayne »

Quark is the biggest crap i ever seen...
Also for some reason that stupid tool switches to "Quake 1" mode when importing a map, wtf?
Nahuel
Posts: 495
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:42 pm
Location: mar del plata

Re: Quick Guide: q1 map to q3 bsp

Post by Nahuel »

if you dont like quark, dont use it ;)
hi, I am nahuel, I love quake and qc.
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