Map to model?

Discuss the construction of maps and the tools to create maps for 3D games.
Post Reply
ajay
Posts: 559
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:44 am
Location: Swindon, UK

Map to model?

Post by ajay »

Is possible to convert .maps to .mdl. I'm making a kind of complex map and I guess it would help if some of the architecture were models. Or would taking some aspects and "tie to entity" - ing them work?
I'd rather the map to model thing though.

Or is it the other way round; you can .mdl to .map? I'm sure it's one of them...

Ta.
neg!ke

Post by neg!ke »

it is possible but also fairly messy depending on the object you want to have modelled, and requires quite a lot additional work after the actual conversion.
quark has some model editing features; HeadThump once sent me a program called 3dexploration which could load maps and export them to a format readable by modelling apps; and a related tutorial (albeit for q3) was posted somewhere recently.

although, if you just need to bring down polycount, there are better methods you should try first, e.g. turning objects into func_walls, moving them 1 unit away from the adjacent surfaces, and upscaling textures.
Sajt
Posts: 1215
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 3:39 am

Post by Sajt »

Reasons to NOT convert maps to models:

- You lose lightmapping and gain really crappy gourad shading
- You lose collision
- You gain crappy frustum culling glitches
- In software, you gain crappy clipping and no perspective correction
- MDLs compress vertex coordinates to bytes, so unless you divide the models into 256x256x256 chunks or something...
F. A. Špork, an enlightened nobleman and a great patron of art, had a stately Baroque spa complex built on the banks of the River Labe.
Error
InsideQC Staff
Posts: 865
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:15 am
Location: VA, USA
Contact:

Post by Error »

I have a MDL->MAP converter...
Post Reply