Q3 map port
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Xenethyl
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Not entirely. I personally map for Half-Life 2 in GTK Radiant 1.4.0 and port the map over to Hammer for the final additions. It seems that brushes textured with certain textures, such as the terrain shader, do not make the port from Quake 3 to Half-Life 2 and nor do complex brushes, such as arches. However, GTK Radiant is vastly superior to Hammer when it comes to editing large maps and thusly, in my mind, makes your work flow easier if you build the basic geometry in Radiant and then open the .map file in Hammer. Of course, this is just my mapping method.
So, in short, it is possible to port your map over to Half-Life 2 from Quake 3, but not everything in your map will make the conversion.
As a side note, this link may interest you. It explains how to set up GTK Radiant to be compatible with Half-Life 2, enabling you to create maps for Half-Life 2 in Radiant. http://www.map-center.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5801
So, in short, it is possible to port your map over to Half-Life 2 from Quake 3, but not everything in your map will make the conversion.
As a side note, this link may interest you. It explains how to set up GTK Radiant to be compatible with Half-Life 2, enabling you to create maps for Half-Life 2 in Radiant. http://www.map-center.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5801
Limpet
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Thanks, Ill see if I can put that info to use.
I don't knowif you've ever played RtCW (return to castle wolfenstein) but there is a fairly big map in it call "mp_beach". Well I was going to try and convert that to a ctf type map for use in HL2: DM. So when I open up the .map file i get some of the larger chunks that are covered in "caulk", and some other textured brushes. It seems mostly random to me. I went in an replaced everything with a concrete texture hoping that hammer would pickup on the textured brushes, but it didn't.
I was also doing this with GTK Radiant 1.5, so Ill go get 1.4 and see if that works.
Im not used to Radiant anymore lol. I keep getting z and right-clicking mixed up.
I don't knowif you've ever played RtCW (return to castle wolfenstein) but there is a fairly big map in it call "mp_beach". Well I was going to try and convert that to a ctf type map for use in HL2: DM. So when I open up the .map file i get some of the larger chunks that are covered in "caulk", and some other textured brushes. It seems mostly random to me. I went in an replaced everything with a concrete texture hoping that hammer would pickup on the textured brushes, but it didn't.
I was also doing this with GTK Radiant 1.5, so Ill go get 1.4 and see if that works.
Im not used to Radiant anymore lol. I keep getting z and right-clicking mixed up.
Xenethyl
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Sure, no problem.
As far as switching to 1.4.0 I don't believe that it will solve your problems. It also seems fairly random for me as I have been porting one of my older maps over to Half-Life 2. Before I give an example I just want to describe how terrain works between the two engines. In Quake 3 each triangle that would normally be a section of the displacement map in Half-Life 2 is actually a 3-Dimensional brush. So, basically the terrain used in Quake 3 is a set of triangular prisms with angled tops that have the nodraw texture applied to all non-visable sides, which is everything below the surface. As for my example, I had a large terrain area in my map that was created for Quake 3 with the above method. When I tried to open the .map file in Hammer it did not load my terrain. So what I did was opened the original .map file that contained only the terrain, without any texture information, in Hammer. Oddly enough, it loaded fine. However, this is not a very good mapping practice for Half-Life 2 as a displacement map would be a lot easier to work with, but it is still an example of how some things decide to load and others don't. This occurance has led me to develop an idea that any brushes classified as anything other than the default worldspawn class will not make the port to Hammer. Of course, this is just a theory and I have not tested it by any means. However, it may be worthwhile to do a little experiment with various brush types. If this proves to be true then you would have the simple task of changing all the brushes in the map you are looking to port back to the worldspawn class. Lastly, I would advise you to check with the creator of the original map as porting it without the permission of the owner is not advisable. I'm not trying to scold you or anything, just letting you know that it is always a good idea to check with others before using their work.
It's times like these when I wish the game developers would get together and create some sort of universal mapping program. But then again, what fun would that be, right?
As far as switching to 1.4.0 I don't believe that it will solve your problems. It also seems fairly random for me as I have been porting one of my older maps over to Half-Life 2. Before I give an example I just want to describe how terrain works between the two engines. In Quake 3 each triangle that would normally be a section of the displacement map in Half-Life 2 is actually a 3-Dimensional brush. So, basically the terrain used in Quake 3 is a set of triangular prisms with angled tops that have the nodraw texture applied to all non-visable sides, which is everything below the surface. As for my example, I had a large terrain area in my map that was created for Quake 3 with the above method. When I tried to open the .map file in Hammer it did not load my terrain. So what I did was opened the original .map file that contained only the terrain, without any texture information, in Hammer. Oddly enough, it loaded fine. However, this is not a very good mapping practice for Half-Life 2 as a displacement map would be a lot easier to work with, but it is still an example of how some things decide to load and others don't. This occurance has led me to develop an idea that any brushes classified as anything other than the default worldspawn class will not make the port to Hammer. Of course, this is just a theory and I have not tested it by any means. However, it may be worthwhile to do a little experiment with various brush types. If this proves to be true then you would have the simple task of changing all the brushes in the map you are looking to port back to the worldspawn class. Lastly, I would advise you to check with the creator of the original map as porting it without the permission of the owner is not advisable. I'm not trying to scold you or anything, just letting you know that it is always a good idea to check with others before using their work.
It's times like these when I wish the game developers would get together and create some sort of universal mapping program. But then again, what fun would that be, right?
Limpet
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When you say, "without any texture information" what do you mean? Actually I ended up installing 1.2 and followed that tutorial. When I got to the end I realized it really wouldn't help me at all :upstare:
Also yes I think I will check with the creators of the map, good call :cheers:. Although I don't really know if I'll follow through with this or not. Or I might just design a level similar to that one because ingame it was pretty buggy.
Yeah it would be nice to have a universal mapping program, but in the end the way the maps are made and the way the map is stored might limit the capabilities of an engine (or future one), assuming the engine would be designed how a map gets stored and use, and it wouldn't be as fun for us mappers :rolling: :E
Also yes I think I will check with the creators of the map, good call :cheers:. Although I don't really know if I'll follow through with this or not. Or I might just design a level similar to that one because ingame it was pretty buggy.
Yeah it would be nice to have a universal mapping program, but in the end the way the maps are made and the way the map is stored might limit the capabilities of an engine (or future one), assuming the engine would be designed how a map gets stored and use, and it wouldn't be as fun for us mappers :rolling: :E
Xenethyl
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When I said that the map didn't have any texture information I just meant that every brush was covered in the default "notex" texture that Radiant uses while you map. This prevented any conflictions between textures that had shader properties applied to them, such as water shaders, and thusly (my theory here again) reducing the confusion experienced by Hammer when opening my map. Again, I'm not sure if leaving brushes in their default state (worldspawn, "notex" texture) will ensure a definate success rate when opening your .map file in Hammer, but it does seem like a possibility.
Yeah, creating a new map based on the layout of the old one is a better idea in my mind. If you start from scratch you won't end up with all the extra things included in the original .map file for the original game such as game-specific entities that won't be compatible with Half-Life 2. Starting from scratch also gives you the ability to personalize the map based on your own ideas, so I think you'll end up getting more enjoyment out of it. As you said, the original map was pretty buggy, so you would also have the chance to fix that.
I can see where a universal mapping program would cause some problems especially with coordination between the game developers and game engines but it would really be helpful if some company was to create such a program. Until then, I don't mind having a bunch of mapping programs on my computer.
Yeah, creating a new map based on the layout of the old one is a better idea in my mind. If you start from scratch you won't end up with all the extra things included in the original .map file for the original game such as game-specific entities that won't be compatible with Half-Life 2. Starting from scratch also gives you the ability to personalize the map based on your own ideas, so I think you'll end up getting more enjoyment out of it. As you said, the original map was pretty buggy, so you would also have the chance to fix that.
I can see where a universal mapping program would cause some problems especially with coordination between the game developers and game engines but it would really be helpful if some company was to create such a program. Until then, I don't mind having a bunch of mapping programs on my computer.
Limpet
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Ok thanks for your help. I dont think I'll start on it quite yet becuase I think I'll end up remaking the map from scratch and I already have a map in progress.
I'll keep those ideas in mind though, and if I find a reliable way to open q3 maps in hammer I'll post back here.
I'll keep those ideas in mind though, and if I find a reliable way to open q3 maps in hammer I'll post back here.
