KomagTutTDM – Komag Tutorial for Dark Mod editing, by Komag (Ben Ramsey)
Current version – 0.06 (July 1, 2008)
http://www.shadowdarkkeep.com/darkmodbeta.htm - download everything you need here
http://modetwo.net/darkmod/wiki/index.php/Main_Page - find many other tutorials and instructions at the Dark Mod WIKI
How to make a Dark Mod Fan Mission – Beginning to End!
USING THIS TUTORIAL
1) AS MUCH OR LITTLE AS YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE
a) The tutorial is designed to be followed completely in order, all the way from start to finish, but you can skip around or do whatever you want.
2) NEVER TYPE IN THE “QUOTES”
a) If I say to type in “c:\games\doom3”, you would not type the quotes, just c:\games\doom3
INSTALLATION AND PATCHING OF DOOM 3
3) UNINSTALL OLD DOOM 3
a) Not always essential, but it’s a good idea to make sure you have a clean start. If you have Doom 3 already installed on your system, uninstall it.
- Uninstall the Resurrection of Evil expansion first (if you have it).
- Advanced computer users can avoid uninstalling by messing with registry and other things, but I won’t go into that here.
- I’m not sure if you really need to, but it may be a good idea to restart your computer now.
4) REINSTALL DOOM 3
a) Install Doom 3 to a folder with no spaces or caps.
- For example, use "c:/games/doom3" but NOT "C:/Program Files/Doom 3" or "C:/Games/Doom 3")
- Reinstall Resurrection of Evil now if you want to, though it is unnecessary for The Dark Mod.
- We preach to avoid capital letters here and in many other situations (always a good rule of thumb), but in this case it may actually be okay to have capitals (but still no spaces). So for example "C:\Games\Doom3" would probably not have any problems.
b) Apply Doom 3 patch 1.3.1.1304 (required for the mod), downloaded from Shadowdark.
5) ADVANCED NOTES
a) You may be able to skip some or all of these steps.
b) The Dark Mod requires that your Doom 3 installation path doesn't have any spaces, so if when you first installed it you already removed any spaces, then you're all set as far as that goes.
c) If you have any Doom 3 mods installed you may want to remove them, depending on the mod and what it does with the system. If you have a lot of mods all jumbled in, and you are not an expert at sorting it out, you may just want to do a full fresh re-install.
d) FYI, the 1.3.1.1304 patch is usually referred to simply as the 1.3.1 patch, and is sometimes loosely referred to as 1.3 on some websites, which just adds to the confusion. If you somehow patched to only 1.3, you can just apply the 1.3.1.1304 patch on top of it. To make matters worse, there is a 1.3.1 patch out there which is really 1.3.1.1302, and that won’t work for the mod, you need the 1.3.1.1304 version.
DOWNLOAD FILES
6) DOWNLOAD PATCH
a) If your Doom 3 is unpatched or only patched to 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3, you need to download and apply the latest patch, which is 1.3.1.1304 (The Dark Mod will not run without it)
- You can get it at the Shadowdark web page linked at the top.
- If you patched to 1.3.1.1302, I don’t know if you can just patch the 1.3.1.1304 over top – you may have to do an uninstall/reinstall. So try to avoid that.
7) DOWNLOAD DARKRADIANT
a) Download DarkRadiant (0.9.7pre10 is the latest snapshot release at the time of this writing)
- You can get it at the Shadowdark web page linked at the top.
- To check for the very latest version, see http://darkradiant.sourceforge.net/snapshot.php.
8) DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL TORTOISE SVN
a) Email or PM Sparhawk, letting him know a password of your choosing.
- You will use it later to download the mod.
- He’ll then set you up with account access and email you back a Username.
b) Download TortoiseSVN from Shadowdark or from http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads
- The latest version is 1.5.0, from June 21, 2008, 17.7 MB
- This is the SVN connecting program (sort of like FTP) you will use to download the mod and keep it updated with periodic small downloads. You can also use it to upload and download files in the betamapper repository.
- You will be using TortoiseSVN to download the main mod.
- There are other SVN clients besides Tortoise (such as RapidSVN), but Tortoise seems to be the best one, and it’s just a good idea for everyone to use the same program anyway.
- If you visit the Tortoise site, you don’t need the md5 file (checksum), just the main msi file (installer), most likely the 32 bit version, unless you’re running Windows XP 64 or Vista 64 bit.
c) Install TortoiseSVN
- Double click the install file “TortoiseSVN-1.5.0.13316-win32-svn-1.5.0.msi” and click on Run to start the installation.
- Follow the simple installation instructions
- You can install it to the default directory “C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\” if you want, or anywhere else you want (but not in your doom3 folder). In this case it doesn’t matter if you have spaces or capitals.
- It will ask you to restart your computer, so go ahead and save anything you need to and do the restart. You can always select the option to restart later, just don’t forget to and then wonder why the next parts aren’t working for you!
9) USE TORTOISE SVN TO DOWNLOAD THE DARK MOD
a) In your main Doom 3 folder, right-click somewhere (not on a file or subfolder) and select “SVN Checkout…”
- This will open up a small “Checkout” window
- In “URL of repository:” enter “https://darkmod.homelinux.com/svn/darkmod/trunk”
- In “Checkout directory:” enter “c:\games\doom3\darkmod” or change it depending on your exact installation path. It should already start with the path to the Doom 3 main folder, so you can just add the “\darkmod” at the end.
- Leave the check boxes empty, and the “HEAD revision” selected.
- Click OK, and when it asks to create the new “darkmod” folder, click Yes
- If you get an “Error validating…” message, click “Accept permanently” (or “Accept once” if desired).
b) Enter the authentication information from Sparhawk (your Username he gave you and the password you chose, which he may have modified), selecting “Save authentication” if desired, and click OK
c) Wait FOREVER for the full mod to download (a few GB)
- You will see a growing list of “Added” files in the window. The list will get VERY long.
- You only have to download the full mod once. After that you just do updates, explained below.
- It’s likely you won’t finish this first time, and that’s okay. It personally took me a few days to get it all, with many starts and stops. If you cancel or close the window, you can finish later without starting over. Be patient, it may take you many days.
- If the download seems to die out or hang at “0” download speed, you can close it and start again to refresh the connection. I personally had to do this many times.
d) Now when you look in your “doom3” folder you should see a small green circle with a white check mark on the “darkmod” folder.
e) To continue the initial download or to update the mod, just right-click on the “darkmod” folder and select “SVN Update” and it should start cooking.
CREATING NEW SHORTCUTS
1) MAKE A NEW SHORTCUT
a) Create a new shortcut somewhere (such as on your desktop).
- For this it's easiest to copy the already existing shortcut used to play Doom 3, if you made one during your Doom 3 installation.
b) Rename it "Dark Mod Windowed" (or whatever you want)
2) OPEN THE PROPERTIES
a) Right-click on it and select "Properties" at the bottom.
- You may now want to click "Change Icon...". In doom3.exe I like the grey "Q" gear over the green panel.
- Later, after installing Dark Radiant, you may desire to change to its icon instead. It's up to you.
3) EDIT THE TARGET
a) Edit the text next to "Target", with the path of course pointing to wherever your doom3.exe is located, and add " com_allowConsole 1 +set r_fullscreen 0 +set fs_game darkmod".
- If your main Doom 3 desktop shortcut had this for the Target:
C:\Games\doom3\doom3.exe
- The new shortcut line should read:
C:\Games\doom3\doom3.exe com_allowConsole 1 +set r_fullscreen 0 +set fs_game darkmod
- It will be too long to fit in the viewing area of the line, but that's okay.
4) MAKE ANOTHER SHORTCUT
a) Create another shortcuts (by copying the new shortcut, then altering it):
- Call it "Dark Mod FullScreen" (or whatever you want) with the command line:
C:\Games\doom3\doom3.exe com_allowConsole 1 +set r_fullscreen 1 +set fs_game darkmod
- You should not need this shortcut much, but it’s handy to have.
5) COMMAND LINE NOTES
a) Here are some notes about what each part of the command line means:
- "com_allowConsole 1" is what allows you to press ~ (tilde, to the left of 1, above Tab) to pull down the console to type in various useful commands, such as loading a map while in game mode.
- "set r_fullscreen 0" (that's a zero, not the letter O) makes game mode in a window, which works better when jumping in and out of game mode while editing, allowing you to multi-task much easier.
- "set r_fullscreen 1" makes game mode full screen, like normal, which is what you want when just playing the game.
- "set fs_game darkmod" tells Doom 3 to start in the darkmod folder (which you'll install soon) and thus load all the darkmod specific content and system files.
b) By the way, if you have Resurrection of Evil, its shortcut Target might be this:
C:\Games\doom3\doom3.exe set fs_game d3xp
- You can see the "set fs_game" part here is like the darkmod one above, except here it's loading d3xp (Doom 3 Expansion)
6) EDIT DOOM 3 SHORTCUT
a) You may want to edit your main Doom 3 shortcut so that when playing Doom 3 it's fullscreen and not windowed (Doom 3’s config file retains the most recent "r_fullscreen" setting from any shortcut)
- If your main Doom 3 desktop shortcut had this for the Target:
C:\Games\doom3\doom3.exe
- You would simply add "set r_fullscreen 1" so that the new line looks like this:
C:\Games\doom3\doom3.exe set r_fullscreen 1
b) Notice you don't need a "+" in front of the "set" because it's the first and only additional instruction after the path.
c) You may also want to rename your main Doom 3 shortcut to "Doom 3 FullScreen", but it doesn't matter.
d) You may wish to similarly adjust your Resurrection of Evil shortcut if you have it.
7) ORGANIZE SHORTCUTS
a) You can drag and drop these shortcuts to someplace on your Start Menu or Taskbar or elsewhere for organization's sake.
THE DARK MOD SETUP
1) START THE DARK MOD
a) Click on your "Dark Mod Windowed" shortcut ...
- ...and get a big huge error message with red blinking title "couldn't load game dynamic library".
- For me, clicking "quit" or trying to close the error window doesn't work at all, so...
b) If necessary, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, select the "Processes" tab, find "Doom3.exe", right-click, "End Process" (click Yes on warning)
2) INSTALL DLL
a) Go to the "darkmod" folder within the "doom3" folder, find the file "DevIL.dll", and copy it to your "C:\WINDOWS\system32" folder.
3) START THE DARK MOD FOR REAL
a) Click on "Dark Mod Windowed" shortcut again, voila!
- You've just started up Doom 3 with The Dark Mod set as the main folder. You should see the starting screen and menus.
4) TEST A MAP
a) To test a map real quick, hit ~ to pull down the console, and type in "map mapname" to play a map. (try "map city_area")
- Don't worry if the map all went to heck or if it crashed or if you can't figure it out. It doesn't really matter at this point.
b) If you at least got it to start up okay then we can move on to setting up Dark Radiant.
DARKRADIANT SETUP
1) RUN THE INSTALL EXE
a) After downloading “darkradiant-0.9.7pre10.exe” (or the latest version from http://darkradiant.sourceforge.net/snapshot.php), click on it and follow the installation instructions.
- When you later download updated versions of DarkRadiant, you will want to first uninstall the previous version. It’s always a good idea to back up your maps if you have any, but usually not necessary since you will be saving your maps in a different folder.
2) START DARKRADIANT (I haven’t re-tested this part in many months, may be different now)
a) To get started, click on the shortcut or find DarkRadiant in your Start Menu somewhere.
- Dark Radiant loader window will appear along with a small "Global Preferences" window.
b) If the two check boxes aren't checked already, check them, and the selector should say "Doom 3". Click OK.
c) If you get an "Engine Path Not Found" window (which may say for "Engine Path" "C:/Program Files/Doom 3/", forward slashes and all), just type in your real path, such as "C:\games\doom3" (or you can click the "..." and find your "doom3" directory and click "Open"), and click OK.
- Notice that here you just put your main Doom 3 folder, not the actual doom3.exe file.
3) STARTUP DETAILS
a) Notice that in your taskbar (in Win XP) the editor tab is called "unnamed.map". Later when you save your work, the tab will be called "the path to the save file" (whatever that is)
b) Others have reported that everything looks all white - if you see this hit "P" to open "preferences", and then click OK. I have never seen this myself though.
c) At this point you might try test loading a map, but it's not necessary.
- If you do, you will see lots of “missing…” textures all over, this is normal for now.
4) LOAD DARK MOD ASSETS
a) Right now you can't see any of the Dark Mod assets if you loaded a map that uses them or if you try to look at textures or something.
- Click on "File" - "Select Game"
- Game: Doom 3
- Your engine path: c:\games\doom3 (or whatever yours is)
- fs_game: darkmod
b) If you had a map open with all the blue "missing..." notes all over the place, now it will take a moment and update it all to the correct textures. Otherwise, though you may not notice anything, now all the Dark Mod assets are available for your use (which is a good thing).
EDITING
THE EDITOR – DARKRADIANT
If you look around you will probably see some thing that make sense to you, and others that will be a total mystery. I won’t describe everything right now, because you’d just forget most of it. Instead, I’ll cover a couple things at a time as we work along, and hopefully you’ll grow more comfortable as you progress with each new section, learning more and more details until eventually you are a mean green editing machine, flinging out fully fledged maps left and right and in your sleep!
One of the first things to tackle is the editor window layout. There are a number of overall options to choose from, which can then be further tweaked for your own preferences. I personally like the layout that is similar to the classic Thief editor Dromed, with the 3D view window fixed in the upper left quadrant, the top-down overhead view in the upper right quadrant, and the front and side views in the lower quadrants. I also typically adjust the window sizes so that the 3D and Top views are much larger than the front and side views. Another quite popular layout choice is the floating windows option.
The three “graph” or 2D views that you do your mapping work in are called the “orthographic” views. You’ll sometimes read in other tutorials to click on “the” orthographic, as though there is only one, but this is because some other layouts in fact only show one of the views (which you can toggle between top, front, and side).
BASIC CONTROLS
To choose your layout, open “preferences” by pressing “P”.
Preferences – P
MOVEMENT
I find moving around in the editor very quick and intuitive.
The most basic movement is to hold RMB within an orthographic (a 2D view), and move the mouse to drag the map around. At the same time, you can scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the view.
Move map in orthographic – hold RMB and move mouse
Zoom in/out – mouse wheel
You will also be moving around in the 3D view a lot. The default controls for this are the arrow keys on your keyboard. Much smoother movement comes, however, when you RMB in the 3D view, as this toggles “mouse look” so that you can just move your mouse and use the arrow keys almost like you’re in “game mode”. As a speed boost you can also roll the mouse wheel forward while moving forward. I personally never move in the 3D view unless I’ve clicked RMB and am moving with mouse look; I just find it works better that way for me. Simply click RMB again to go back to editing mode.
Move camera in 3D view – arrow keys
Move camera in 3D view smoothly – RMB in 3D view, arrow keys, RMB again to exit
OTHER
To create your first brush, hold LMB within an orthographic, drag out a box, and let go. This is a solid brush. It is now selected, which you know because it’s glowing red. Press “Esc” to clear the selection. Repeat this five more times (not in the exact same spot mind you), making six brushes total.
Create a brush – hold LMB and move mouse
Clear selection – Esc
Select one of your solid boxes by clicking Shift-LMB on it. It should light up red. To move it, hold LMB somewhere within the brush and move the mouse.
Select something – Shift-LMB
Move something – hold LMB within object and move mouse
To resize the brush, hold LMB somewhere outside the brush and move the mouse. If you clicked directly to the side of the brush, you will only be able to resize it in that direction (which you may want, to avoid accidentally resizing the other way). If you clicked to the side and above or below the brush, you can resize it in both directions at once.
Resize brush – hold LMB outside brush and move mouse
Move and resize your six brushes in such a way that they form a large hollow box. Since the editing world is all open space, you need to make enclosed areas to play in, and they have to be perfectly sealed without any “leaks” for the map to work. It’s easy to perfectly seal a simple box, but when your map starts to grow more and more complex you may start to get leaks that you’ll need to track down and fix.
To add a light to your room, click RMB and select “Add Light” from the small pop-down menu. This is the same menu from which you can add entities, models, and more. Move the new light so that it is centered within your room.
Add a light or object – RMB, select from list
Select all of your brushes by Shift-LMB on each of them in succession. Now they should all be red. Open the texture window by pressing “T”. Search for and select a brick texture. Now all the walls and floor and ceiling should be brick. You can close the texture window by pressing “T” again or just by clicking the red X.
Select many things – Shift-LMB each of them
Open the Texture browser – T
Now that you have a small room with textures and a light, it’s time to see what it looks like in game mode. To get a preview of this, simply press F3 and wait a moment. You should now see the more realistic lighting in the 3D view. Press F3 again to go back to the regular view (with full brightness). Right now both views should be smooth and fast if you move around, but as your map grows the game mode lighting will start to go slower depending on a number of factors such as how many lights you have in an area, the shadow complexity, the scene complexity, etc.
Game lighting preview – F3
PLAYER START
To make a player start, you RMB somewhere on your map and select "Create Entity...", then in the huge long list scroll to find "info_player_start". (Adding "player_tdm_thief" is not the right one for this)
ADDING SKY
File – Load Prefab…, select “tdm_sky_starry1.pfb”, move the big bunch of stuff way off to the side and above your map building area, deselect it to park it there.
Then in rooms you want to see sky, texture the surface with “portal_sky” (only texture the surface the player will see, not the whole brush – select single surfaces with Shift-Ctrl-LMB)
TESTING A MAP IN GAME MODE
- Click on your "Darkmod Windowed" shortcut to open Darkmod game mode, (which you can Alt-Tab out away from, leaving it open).
If you get the following error message:
Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Runtime Error!
Program: C:\Games\doom3\DOOM3.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information.
That means your Doom 3 isn’t properly patched to v1.3.1.1304, and you just need to apply the patch and it will work properly after that.
- While editing, do these steps whenever you want to test in game mode after making changes in DarkRadiant.
1) Save your map in DarkRadiant.
2) Alt-Tab to your already open Darkmod (Doom 3)
3) In the console (~ if it's not already down), type in "dmap komag01" (with "komag01" as your map name) and give it some time to compile.
4) When it’s done compiling, in the console type in "map komag01” (for a quick method you can hit up arrow, then left arrow over to the “d”, then delete it and hit enter)
5) Play the map in the window.
6) When you're done testing just leave it running (or hit Esc to go to the menus) and Alt-Tab back to DarkRadiant.
- If you want to open a map that you haven't changed, you can just type in "map komag01" and skip the dmap compiling step.
- If you want to test a map you have changed, and you have recently tested it before, the next time you can just hit the “Up” arrow key instead of typing the “testmap…” command again, and the command will show up (since it’s the last one you typed in) and you can just hit Enter. You can press Up multiple times to recall all the recent commands.
----- ADVANCED -----
- There is another interesting way to test your maps (but I never use it myself).
- Edit your "Darkmod FullScreen" shortcut properties (or a new shortcut) to point to “C:\Games\doom3\doom3.exe com_allowConsole 1 +set r_fullscreen 1 +set fs_game darkmod +dmap komag01"
- When you want to test:
1) Save your map in DarkRadiant.
2) Click on your shortcut and wait for it to load and compile.
3) After it compiles you’ll still need to type in the console "map komag01”
4) When you're done testing, Esc to the main menu and “Quit” the game.
- Using this method you don't Alt-Tab, because the re-compiling of the map happens when you start up Darkmod with the shortcut
- The upside is that you don't have to type the first dmap console command and you get to test in nice full screen mode
- The downside is that you still have to type in the map console command and it takes a bit longer to switch than simple Alt-Tab’ing.
ADVANCED CAMERA CONTROLS
<FROM GREEBO>
You can Ctrl-MMB anywhere in the orthoview, the camera gets positioned there
You can define what the camera should point to by a single MMB click at the target (orthoview).
You can drag the camera around with Ctrl-MMB (orthoview).
You can store and recall these map positions 1-10 (Ctrl-Alt-1 through Ctrl-Alt-0)
You can position the camera to the center of objects by clicking them with Alt-RMB in the camview.
Doesn't exactly fit here, but I'll mention it anyway: You can select objects in the orthoview and hit Ctrl-Tab to switch viewtypes. The orthoviews will get re-centered to the selection. If nothing is selected when switching views, the camera is used as new orthoview center.
</FROM GREEBO>
AMBIENT LIGHTING
It’s not a good idea to have areas of total pitch blackness, so you’ll want to add some low ambient light to your mission, light that’s just there and doesn’t cast any shadows or have any brighter or dimmer areas, etc.
Make a light somewhere in the middle of your map, and stretch it’s size to fill the whole map. Open up the light inspector (“L”) and change the “Texture” to “lights – ambientlightnfo”. Click the big button under “Colour” and in the color selector set the RGB (Red Green Blue) to 15 15 15 (it will show up as 0.06 0.06 0.06 in the entity inspector). This is a good amount of dim light to see decently in if there are no other lights nearby.
If you want the player to have hardly any light, just slightly more than none, try toning it all the way down to 8. Most people will want something more than that though, and also realize that different monitors handle low levels of light very differently, so I would suggest at least 12, or even up to 20. Also, some textures light up more than others with the ambient light, so you should just see how it works with your map.
If you want to have different colored ambients for different parts of your mission, you can make ambient lights whose sizes only fill those parts of the map (instead of making one light for the whole thing), and adjust the RGB numbers, such as 25 10 10 for a low reddish glow. You can use the color wheel thingy as well.
OTHER NOTES
SOME CONFIG SETTINGS
Edit your c:\games\doom3\darkmod\DoomConfig.cfg file
- To make lighting work properly, allow normalmap compression: seta image_useNormalCompression "2"
- I also prefer toggle crouch: seta in_toggleCrouch "1"
- You can set run as default (then hold SHIFT to walk): seta in_alwaysRun "1"
- And player shadows on: seta g_showPlayerShadow "1"
- Also, for better performance, lower anisotropic filtering from 8 to 4: seta image_anisotropy "4"
- Move too slow? Go faster: seta pm_walkspeed "90"
While “90” is somewhat quick I think its pretty good for editing/testing. When you are later testing guard interaction and detailed gameplay, you will want to revert to the standard movement speed (which is 60 I believe).
- If you hate the view bob (it can be especially annoying when testing in game with the “noclip” console command to fly around), you can turn it off by creating a text file called “autoexec.cfg” (not autoexec.cfg.txt) in your darkmod folder (the same place as your DoomConfig.cfg file), and adding the following lines:
set pm_runbob "0" //default is 0.4
set pm_runpitch "0" //default is 0.002
set pm_runroll "0" //default is 0.005
set pm_walkbob "0" //default is 0.3
set pm_bobpitch "0" //default is 0.002
set pm_bobroll "0" //default is 0.002
set pm_bobup "0" //default is 0.005
set pm_crouchbob "0" //default is 0.5
These lines contain // which just tells Doom 3 to ignore the text afterwards, where the “defaults” are noted. If you wanted to keep some view bob but tone it down, you could adjust the numbers to something between 0 and the default value.
If you just add the lines to the DoomConfig.cfg and not in the separate autoexec.cfg, they will work once but then get automatically deleted after you exit the game.
EDITOR VIEW DISTANCE
Set Dark Radiant grey view distance to further away
Press CTRL – (control minus)
Or select View – Camera – Far Clip Plane Out
Or select Edit – Preferences – Settings – Camera – (uncheck) Enable far-clip plane
HANDLING OBJECTS
<FROM WIKI> http://modetwo.net/darkmod/wiki/index.php?title=Bindings_and_User_Settings
- Press Frob to pick up and drop moveable objects
- Press Attack to throw an object that you've picked up. The longer you hold attack before releasing, the harder you throw it. Throwing is based on mass so you can throw lighter objects farther. The vanilla D3 mass settings are not realistic so you'll notice some things fly all over. That will be fixed by setting better mass ratios and air friction values in our TDM objects.
- Press and hold zoom to enter "rotation mode"
While holding zoom:
Move the mouse up/down to "pitch" an object (if straight ahead of you is X and up is Z, this would rotate around the Y axis)
Move the mouse left/right to "roll" an object. This would be rotating around the X axis that comes out straight ahead of you. (I think we really need some visual illustrations for this... oh well)
Move the mouse left/right while holding RUN to "yaw" the object around the Z axis (straight up). Image you're holding a coffee can right side up and you want to read the label on the other side by turning it toward you. This is what you're doing.
(Note: Holding run and moving the mouse up/down does nothing different)
</FROM WIKI>
TEXTURING TIPS
<FROM SNEAKSIEDAVE>
1. Inspectors window, have the Media tab opened. MMB a brush. DoomEd automatically scrolls to that texture in the texture hierarchy.
</FROM SNEAKSIEDAVE>
TEXTURING BRUSHES AND PATCHES
<FROM WIKI> http://modetwo.net/darkmod/wiki/index.php?title=Texturing_in_DarkRadiant
In DarkRadiant there are quite some texturing tools available. In order to yield the best results, it's of course useful to know how these tools work, which is what this document is trying to cover.
Brushes vs. Patches
There are some texturing commands that work differently for brushes and patches, because of the way these primitives store their texture information. So beware that using the same command on a brush doesn't always yield the same result when used on patches, although DarkRadiant tries to do its best. Read here to gain some insight about how patches and brushes are technically textured.
Natural
Natural for one works differently for patches as for brushes. Basically it tries to apply an undistorted texture with the default scale on the target. This is of course more easily accomplished for brushes (because their textures are always undistorted) than for patches.
Texture Copy & Paste
These are the most powerful texturing tools in DarkRadiant. There are several of them available, all can be accessed via the MMB:
----------------------------------
MMB: Copy Texture to Clipboard
This command is available via the MMB (click into the cam view) or the Menu > Edit > Copy Shader. When using the MMB to select a texture, the shader of the clicked object is loaded into the ShaderClipboard. Once you picked your texture the name of the texture appears in the status bar and it's highlighted in the Media and the Texture Browser.
The shader is memorised until you pick a new one from any other object, so this can be used to texture multiple target objects with a few clicks.
Behind the Scenes
What actually happens in the code is the following: When you pick an object with the MMB, the object is memorized, not the shader itself. It's just a reference to the source patch or brush face that gets saved and is taken to retrieve the shader information when you click on a target
The ShaderClipboard gets cleared as soon as you load a map, start a new map or undo an operation.
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Ctrl-MMB: Project Texture from Clipboard onto Target
This command is useful to texture patch caps or brush faces that are adjacent to each other. It can be accessed via Ctrl-MMB and the Menu > Edit > Paste Shader command. Let's have a look at the following example:
The left shot shows two brushes and a patch that has been created with the "cap selection" command. The rightmost brush is considered the "source" brush, so we copy its shader by middle-clicking it. The shader is now in the clipboard.
Now hold down the Ctrl modifier and click on the other three objects with the middle mouse button. The texture is pasted onto the target objects so that the transition between the objects is seamless - technically spoken this is a projection. Imagine that you project the texture using a video projector, it's more or less the same mechanism.
Note: It's important to note that this only works from brushes to patches, as only brush faces can be used to project textures. Patches have no uniform scale and rotation and can't be used to retrieve a plane to project the objects onto.
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Shift-MMB: Paste Texture Natural (undistorted and seamless) onto Target
Sometimes it's not enough to project a texture from a brush face onto other objects, if the targets are bent and their normals are not facing into a similar direction as the source face normal does. The screenshot should illustrate the problem:
This is the starting situation: We have a brush at the right (the "source brush") and the target patch on the left, which is heavily bent and it's definitely not lying in the same plane as the brush face. Let's try and project (Ctrl-MMB) the shader from the brush face to the patch:
As easily observable, the patch texture is distorted because of the projection. Some patch areas are nearly perpendicular to the brush face we're copying from and therefore the projection does not work. A small section of the source texture is projected onto a large section of the patch, hence the ugly stretching.
The Paste Natural command (Shift-MMB) was written to address this issue (just Shift-MMB onto the target, assuming that you still have the source shader from the face in the ShaderClipboard):
What happened is the following: the patch is virtually straightened out by the algorithm before the texture is projected. It's ensured that the patch is virtually sharing the same plane as the brush face with the vertex distances being preserved (so that no stretching occurs). This is also working with patches that are perpendicular to the brush face. Just experiment a bit and it will be easy to see how it works. (This is the most sophisticated texturing method, it was quite some headache to set it up, believe me) :)
The command is available via Shift-MMB and Menu > Edit > Paste Shader (Natural). There is no pendant to this command in DoomEdit.
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Alt-MMB: Clone Texture Coordinates (Patches only, must have same dimensions)
This command works only from Patches to Patches and is available via the Alt-MMB. The source and target patches must have the same matrix dimensions (e.g. you can only paste the coordinates from 5x3 patches to another 5x3 patch). The shape of the target patch stays untouched, it's just the shader coordinates (U/V) that get cloned. See this example:
The left image shows two patches with equal dimensions (3x3). The left patch is considered the source patch - after clicking it with MMB the ShaderClipboard memorizes this patch. After clicking the right patch (the target) using Alt-MMB, the U/V coordinates get cloned from the left to the right. I've used an 2x2 texture tiling layout to illustrate the workings. As stated above, the shader itself stays untouched, it's just the "internal" coordinates of the target patch that get altered.
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</FROM WIKI>
LOGFILE FOR ERRORS AND INFO
The Dark Mod creates a “d3modlogger.txt” file in your root “C:\” folder. You can open this to see lots of recent logged stuff, which may be helpful if you are having problems or getting errors. You can customize the types of information that get logged by editing the “darkmod.ini” file found in your “doom3/darkmod/” folder.
DARKRADIANT MENU COMMANDS
<FROM WIKI> http://modetwo.net/darkmod/wiki/index.php?title=DarkRadiant_Command_Reference
File Menu
New [NewMap] Clears the current map and creates a new one.
Open [OpenMap] Loads an existing map from disk.
Save [SaveMap] Saves the current map to file. If the map is still unnamed, the user is asked to specify a name.
SaveAs [SaveMapAs] Saves the current map to a different file. The user is asked to specify a name.
Load Prefab [LoadPrefab] Loads a Prefab file .pfb into the current map.
Save selected as Prefab... [SaveSelectedAsPrefab] Creates a Prefab (.pfb file) out of the current selection.
Save selected... [SaveSelected] Saves the current selection to a .map file.
Save Region... [SaveRegion] Saves the current region to a .map/.reg file. This takes every "regioned" object and saves it to the specified file. Six brushes are automatically created to seal the region off from the void and an info_player_start entity is placed at the current camera location.
Refresh Models... [RefreshReferences] Reloads the model resources currently used in the map.
Project settings [ProjectSettings] Opens the dialog to specify which Doom3 mod should be used. This dialog appears at the very first DarkRadiant startup as well. See DarkRadiant - Quick Installation Guide for more information about the right settings for The Dark Mod.
Pointfile [TogglePointfile] Loads the Pointfile containing the leak information created by Doom3's dmap command. This draws a red line to the first offending entity and is useful for finding leaks in your level geometry.
Exit [Exit] Quits DarkRadiant, as the name states. If the current map has been modified (marked with an asterisk in the title bar), the user is asked whether the changes should be saved.
Edit Menu
Undo [Undo] Makes the last change undone. This does NOT apply to selection changes, but to most other actions like object deletions, texture manipulations and transformations. The number of undoable steps can be changed via the Preferences.
Redo [Redo] Reverts the last "Undo" command.
Copy [Copy] Copies the current selection to clipboard. If a Face is selected (not a whole brush) the Shader of the selected face is copied to the ShaderClipboard.
Paste [Paste] Inserts the clipboard content to the map. If Faces are selected (not whole brushes), the Shader from the ShaderClipboard is pasted onto the selected Faces.
Paste to Camera [PasteToCamera] Pastes the clipboard contents to the current camera location. The centroid of the inserted objects is calculated and translated to the camera origin.
Duplicate [CloneSelection] Duplicates the currently highlighted objects. The objects are not dislocated (like DoomEdit does).
Delete [DeleteSelection] Deletes the current selection. Can be undone.
Parent [ParentSelection] Takes the currently selected primitives and turns them into children of the last selected entity. At least two items have to be selected and the last selected item has to be an entity.
Copy Shader [CopyShader] Copies the shader of the current selection to the ShaderClipboard. A reference to the selection is stored internally. This requires a single face or a single patch to be selected to work correctly.
Paste Shader [PasteShader] Pastes the shader from the ShaderClipboard to the selection. This works with multiple selected objects of different types as well. If pasting from a brush face, the shader gets projected to the target primitives, which is the equivalent to pasting the shader using Ctrl-MMB.
</FROM WIKI>
SWIMMABLE WATER
http://modetwo.net/darkmod/wiki/index.php?title=Swimmable_Water
THANKS:
Greebo, Fidcal, New Horizon, Sparhawk, Domarius, SneaksieDave, Nyarlathotep, others...
SOME OTHER NOTES:
PATCHES
<FROM MODWIKI> http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/Patch
A patch or patch mesh is a procedural surface defined by a number of control points which can be manipulated in three dimensions to form a multitude of simple or complex shapes. Curved patches are used to build pillars, domes, vaults, pipes, railings, columns or bevels, whilst more simple flat patches are used to apply decals.
Patches have two important properties when compared with brushes.
Patches cannot be used to seal the void. If a patch is used on a wall, ceiling or floor, a brush with the caulk texture must be placed behind it to prevent leaks.
Patches can only be viewed from one direction (unless the twoSided keyword is active in the material), so it is necessary to ensure they are placed the correct way round (inverting them if necessary with Ctrl-I).
Contents [hide]
1 Creating a simple patch
2 Adjusting the control points
3 Subdividing patches
4 Thickening patches
Creating a simple patch
A simple patch mesh is a basic rectangular patch with no initial curvature, and a user-selectable number of control points. Simple patch meshes can be used as-is to apply decals, or modified through vertex editing to produce common architectural shapes such as arched doorways and roofs.
Select the appropriate view with Ctrl-Tab. The patch will be created facing the viewport, so if the patch is supposed to lie flat on the ground, make sure you create it in Top view.
Click and drag to draw a brush. This will become the boundary of the patch (since patches are infinitely thin you do not need to worry about the third dimension of the brush).
From the Patch menu choose Simple Patch Mesh...
Select the desired number of control points (minimum 3) in each dimension, and click OK to create the patch.
[edit]Adjusting the control points
Select a patch and press V to enter vertex editing mode. In this mode you can move any or all of the control points in three dimensions to control the shape and curvature of the patch. You can select more than one control point by dragging a box around them with the mouse (unlike with brush vertex editing), or by shift-clicking on a control point which alternately selects the whole row or column.
Subdividing patches
As with all surfaces, patches must be converted to flat triangles before being rendered by the graphics card. Although this is performed automatically by Doom 3, the default number of triangles used is quite high. In many cases it is advisable to reduce the number of polygons used through the subdivide patch functionality.
Select a patch with Shift-LMB
Hit S to bring up the Surface Inspector.
Enable the Subdivide patch checkbox, and use the sliders to choose the number of divisions to make in each direction.
As subdivided patches are still smooth shaded, it is often possible to subdivide them into 3 or 4 sections without losing visual quality. Subdivided patches can also exhibit less texture distortion than non-divided ones.
Thickening patches
A newly-created patch is infinitely thin. For architectural detail such as arches or beams, a patch needs to be made into a three-dimensional object which can be viewed from all directions. The thicken tool is used for this purpose.
Create the first patch which will define the shape of the object. For an archway or curved beam, this might be the front face of the shape.
With the patch selected, choose Thicken... from the Patch menu.
Enter the distance in editor units that the patch should be extruded, and choose whether or not to create "Seams". If seams are not created, only the front and back patches will be generated, otherwise a complete extrusion (front, back and side faces) will be performed.
Choose OK to create the thickened patch
The thickened object is a func_static grouping of patches, which can be selected and manipulated as a single object. Individual patches within the object can be selected by cycling through them with the TAB key.
</FROM MODWIKI>