Gmax VT's out!

[afecelis]

I just finished writing my new set of tutorials on how to use Gmax along with Micahel's GLB tools in order to get a map file exported, compiled and ready for Irrlicht. The good thing is that you don't even need quake for it. Just a frontend I'm icluding and version 2.5.10 of q3map2, so instead of doing it from a dos console I used this frontend and everything came into place. For testing the level we use the Irrlicht engine. I thought it would come in handy in order to promote Michael's tools in the Irrlicht community as well as give them a basic startup on the potential Gmax and Glb have got for the Gaming community, and also because there's been a huge discussion on lightmaps, an dthe lack of alternatives to get them.

It's pretty basic, but you may find some interesting info in them as they involve several different aspects of working with the Irrlicht engine. And best of it is you get a Quake 3 map loaded without even using Radiant or quake.

so get ready to download almost 300 mb of info!!!!

sample app and tools:
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/IrrQ3.zip

Vt01-intro
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT01.zip

vt02-setting up glb tools
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT02.zip

vt03-2d lines for our level
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT03.zip

vt04-Extruding walls
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT04.zip

vt05-mapping-texturing-material creation in Gmax
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT05.zip

vt06-lighting and exporting the level
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT06.zip

vt07-tweaking and compiling the map
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT07.zip

vt08-creating the app in Irrlicht
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT08.zip

vt09-final map tweaks, colored lightmaps
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/video/GmaxVT09.zip

I just started uploading them, so please give the server some time to upload everything.

enjoy, and as usual; comments are welcome!!!

cheers!!

[afecelis]

One recommendation:

remember to scale up the level since it ended up being a bit too small,. or download this source fileand replace the one that comes in the package:
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/files/main.cpp

and grab this version of the map file to recompile in the frontend:
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/files/irrq3.map
(light energy increased to 50, and added a color to each light RGB)

cheers, and don't be so shy to post a comment!!!

[jikbar]

this looks AMAZINGLY useful, especially since i dont have quake and cant afford 3ds max

too bad i cant get gmax onto my windows machine since it doesnt have an internet connection and Discreet is obssessed with registration

[afecelis]

Thnx for the comments Jikbar. Please check the PM I sent you for more info.

btw, here's a ss of the las map file in Irrlicht:



cheers!

[tip]

GREAT !!!
complete, clear, handy...
thanks!
just a note : your tool directory miss a intl.dll for your version of Q3map2; i downloaded a complete version 2.5 on http://shaderlab.com/q3map2/ to be able to make it run.

[afecelis]

thnx, thnx, and thnx!!!!

glad they helped!

[tip]

and for me, it doesn't want (and crashes) if i try to load the bsp in a zip with textures. i need to put the .bsp alone and the textures files apart to make it run.

i think it's just a problem with directory, i'll fix that later if i can...

[afecelis]

hehehe, life is ironic sometimes. But it's all a matter of trial and error to suit each one's needs.

ps. try renaming your .zip as .pk3 and change the zip reader line in the source from zip to pk3 and seeif it works

ps2. Thnx also for the error report. Dunno why but the latest version of Q3map2 doesn't work on my system. There are a couple of things not working properly on my system lately and I guess it's because I'm still using Win2k and not WinXP. But in case anyone else has this problem please follow Tips link to download the missing files.

cheers!

[afecelis]

better yet, grab the missing dll from here and place it into the Q3map2build folder:

http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/files/intl.dll

cheers! and thnx to Tip for reporting the missing file

[afecelis]

Ok, following Tip's tip I got a newer version of Q3map2 (2.5.15) to work with the tuts. Grab the new set of tools here (updated from 2.5.10):


http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/fi ... 2.5.15.zip

the latest version in shader lab is 2.5.16, but it gave me a lot of problems. 2.5.15 is the newest working version on my system (it's the one that comes with the latest Release of GTk).

cheers!!
oh, and finally, grab a modified version of the gmax level, and the exported map here for testing purposes (uncompress into maps folder):
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/files/maps.zip

screenie:

[afecelis]

final touch!!!! skybox!!


Here's how I did it: get this file first and uncompress in "baseq3", overwrite files if needed.
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/files/baseq3.zip

when you uncompress you'll have the following new stuff:
1. 6 textures copied in your env/Irrq3 folder for the skybox
2. a "caulk" texture copied in textures/common
3. A new gmax file for our map.

Since Quake3 doesn't use the "sky" texture anymore (only until Q2 was used) because of the use of shaders, I had to figure out a way to have a box container to be non-textured in Irrlicht and that wouldn't leak the compilation. That's why when you open the gmax file you'll see a normal flipped box textured as caulk. The Irrlicht engine interprets this as invisible and shows the skybox instead.

Uncomment the skybox lines in my source and set the paths properly.

Remember to change the map's texture path to the "caulk" texture in the "common" folder (check the map in text mode).

have fun!!!!!

ps. I added an extra light above the level with a tone of blue and an intensity of 600 to simulate skylight.

[afecelis]

Final touch: glass

http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/sc ... /glass.jpg

having fun yet?

[DarkWhoppy]

Looks nice I don't know anything about GMAX but the screenshots look nice.

[afecelis]

thnx Darkwhoppy. Well, Gmax is a very powerful modeler that follows the same modeling procedures and techniques as 3dsmax. It's been more used for modeling characters and stuff, but it's also got a lot of potential as a level editor. The videos cover very basic shape creation, but you can add your stuff and try more complex geometry thu vertex/face manipulation.

But it's also important to try one thing at a time. For instance, all geometry must be convex (one of the map format limitations) so don't be surprised if when exporting your map you get that warning message. So there r still a lot of limitations. The idea is to create something that looks like a million with only some cents

If you haven't gotten involved any 3d package, Gmax is a great start point.

cheers!

[nitroman]

great tutorial pal!

I will re-start to use q3 maps now that I know how to compile them and use them with irrlicht.

With your method, is it possible to use shaders? I wanted to use shaders to make for example sunlight... but I never succeed to use them.
Is it possible to use shaders with gmax? could you make a small tutorial?