Topic: Creating Quake 4 levelshots and map list entries

[kat]

Quake 4's 1.1 and 1.2 updates appear to have changed something in relation to how loadscreen and map list thumbnails work, so if you're finding that for some reason you can't seem to get them to appear correctly try the following.

In your development directory add a 'textures' folder if you've not already go one. Inside that add another called 'splash', and inside that one add yet another folder called 'addon'. This should give you;

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textures\splash\addon\[mapname.tga]
Place a copy of the full 512x512 TGA screenshot from the guis » loadscreen folder in to this new 'addon' folder making sure it uses the same name as the original. Once done you should find the loadsceens displays correctly.

This editing tip deals with the load screen and thumbnail image as used in the original Quake 4 map def files. For detail on setting up a custom map to be properly listed in Quake 4, post 1.2 update click here.

The set up for getting a loadscreen level shot and a map to appear in the map list for Quake 4 is different in structure to the way Quake 3 did it, it's still uses a screenshot and a map 'info' file but they're in different places now. Level shots - the picture that displays during your map load - should be to be 512x512 *.tga images (uncompressed); a *.dds version of the image can also be included but is optional; it potentially helps to keep load times down.

The levelshots should be placed into a folder called 'loadscreens' as follows;

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q4base\gfx\guis\[b]loadscreens[/b]\[levelshot_name].tga
You can also create a 'thumbnail' image (the picture that shows in the map select list) but again this is optional; if the thumbnail isn't there it gets generated on the fly. They should be 128x128, or at least no bigger then 256x256, a dds version is optional as per above. The 'thumb' goes in a folder called 'mainmenu' as follows;

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q4base\gfx\guis\[b]mainmenu[/b]\thumb_[imagename].tga
Once you have these in place you need to create a 'def' file for the map. These are basically the same as the Quake 3 *.arena files and hold a similar amount of info. Map def files need to be placed in a folder called 'def' as follows;

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q4base\[b]def[/b]\[mapname].def
The sample file below can be copy/pasted to a text file and saved as [your_map_name].def in the 'def' folder; it's best to name the def file the same as your map name to save confusion and potential overwrites of other custom files or default content.

Design note: if you're building a map to run under Quake 4 unpatched, i.e. straight out of the box, then follow the mapDef instruction below. If a map is to be run with the latest Quake 4 update patch then you need to use a different system, the addon.conf, as outlined in this editing tip here.

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mapDef mp/[mapfile_name]
{
"name" "[maps name]"
"DM" "1"
"Team DM" "0"
"Tourney" "0"
"CTF" "0"
// XBox360 tags
// The info below is for the XBox360
// version of the game and can be
// removed or left in place without harm
//
// "Gametype_Deathmatch" "1"
// "Gametype_TeamDeathmatch" "0"
// "Gametype_Tournament" "0"
// "Gametype_CaptureTheFlag" "0"
// "Gametype_ArenaCaptureTheFlag" "0"
//
// XBox360 tags
"loadimage" "gfx/guis/loadscreens/[levelshot]"
"mp_thumb" "gfx/guis/mainmenu/thumb_[levelshot]"
}
Once you've got everything in place you should find that you map will now be listed in the maplist screen, if it's not double check your file names and paths to making sure you have no typos or that you've put the files in the wrong place.