Game Editing > General Content Creation

[blender][idtech4]creating a map

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gavlig:
Hello everyone!

John Carmack opened the source of idtech4 and inspired me on a big napoleonic plan - to create my own idtech4 based game :) I know about the amount of work and level of skills it consumes but nevertheless I will try to do it. At first i wanted to start with map to get something to work with and to "get the feel of engine"(may sound silly :)). So, i have a blender, doom3 content, darkradiant and compiled idtech4 which can run doom3. After watching a lot of tutorials(kat's tutorials also, ofcourse :)) i haven't found a solid solution on how to create a map in blender and export it to idtech4 so I'm asking for help about it.
this tut is fine but there is no .map exporter for blender 2.6. Using older blender is not a problem for me but i couldn't find an old exporter script neither(i think it's not supported anymore).

I'll be glad to "hear" any advice :)
cheers

kat:
The *.map exporter is an AddOn, you have to activate it  ;)

So.. making a map using Blender. The best way to do this is going to be to split the construction of the map itself into three 'categories' or type of mesh Object as this helps you organise your thoughts and the process as you work and all of which can be made in Blender with varying degrees of fiddling.

* Detail brushes - what the players generally see inside the level
* Structural Objects - caulk hulls and material not generally seen by the player
* ModelsAlthough Quake 4 et-al don't use "Detail" flagged brush volumes, you still build fiddly objects from collections of brushwork. If these type of items are placed in a separate layer you can better export and manage the scene. Same is true of your "Structural" objects. Again Q4 doesn't make the distinction between the surface types, but for you working in Blender it helps to place these 'block-out' objects on their own layer as well. Same goes for models.

As the tutorial linked to above mentions, you need to figure out before hand how you want to manage smaller objects, if they are to be models you'll need to export them to ASE (or MD5 if they move) as well as determining if you want to export a large object with everything in place, or single models which you have to place in Radiant - both have 'pros and cons'.

With regards to the map itself... if you're going to export the visible structure as a model then you'll need to make a caulk-hull to contain it, and that also means you need to consider 'optimising' the mesh by cutting it up into segments to reduce overdraw and other related issues.

Your primary concern will be to try and plan as much of your project before-hand, it'll save you a lot of time and frustration. The above will get you started. Everything you need to know is on the site but it's not necessarily in one convenient location because of the way the site has grown over time so you'll need to do a bit of digging around. Hope that helps (good luck and welcome by the way).

gavlig:
Wow, the answer was so close... awkward. Thank you, Kat, next time i'll try to avoid stupid questions and google more :) *went away to do some planning  8)

kat:
You might also find it helpful to do some basic design tests in Blender before you go full-throttle on building so you get an idea on what to expect when you start building proper. The process can be quite fiddly when you have to make everything in Blender.

gavlig:
Hello, it's me again with my ridiculous problem.

Tried to do this tutorial and got an error on exporting.

the error is about twosided texture face but i have no clue where to turn them off.

here is the .blend file -> map_tutorial.blend.html

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