Quake Live Mapping

[o0MrCheesy0o]

I'd like to get into mapping, and make a map for Quake Live. I have no idea what I'm doing though. What program/s do I need, and what do I need to know? I've very little experience and besides a few maps in Q1 using Worldcraft I've done nothing. I want to learn though

Is there a hub-site for multiplayer Quake mapping?

[cityy]

Making maps for Quake Live is not officially supported, though you can use Quake 3 and add QL support to your map.

You need:
- GTKradiant 1.4 : http://cityy.explicits.de/uploads/mi...0-Q3RTCWET.exe
- quakelivedec.exe (to decrypt/encrypt QL pk3s) : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15072710/QL/quakelivedec.exe
- Tutorial: http://gotdelirium.com/bubba/bubba.p...m/mapping.html
- Quake mapping community for questions: http://www.quake3world.com/forum/vie...64fc96d74dd8cb

To find out more about decrypting and encrypting QL pk3s use google or the forum search. There are quite a few threads about it. Hope that helps.

Edit: More helpful links here.

[ybl]

is it possible to edit the existing maps too? just asking, because there´s always the copyright issue. would be secure to edit the existing maps, so they work better in other game modes

[cityy]

It is possible but very difficult if you dont have the .map source file. If you decompile a .bsp the information about texture alignments gets lost and you have to readjust everything.
As you might have seen on winters edge it is even possible in QL to load different .bsp files for different game modes (e.g. the RG cave was "put on ice" in Clan Arena). However, you are probably better off suggesting changes if you think a map might profit from it instead of doing it on your own.

[ybl]

moah maps nao, esp 4 CA

meh!

[iSuckz]

is map making a object based thing, or is there coding involved?

[TheMuffinMan86]

If you decompile a .bsp the information about texture alignments gets lost and you have to readjust everything.

You can decompile to brush primitives with NetRadiant's version of q3map2. That'll keep the textures aligned perfectly, but you'll still lose all entity lights, map models and structural/detail information.

As you might have seen on winters edge it is even possible in QL to load different .bsp files for different game modes (e.g. the RG cave was "put on ice" in Clan Arena).

That was done using func_static's with gametype or not_gametype spawn keys. Same bsp. It's just bad for bot support since they don't consider whether surfaces have spawned or not.

is map making a object based thing, or is there coding involved?

Well map editors are just graphical interfaces to the map source files, which are just basic text files really.

[o0MrCheesy0o]

Thanks for your help cityy. I know it's not officially supported, but I just like making 3D play spaces :3 Hopefully one day id will take user submissions and put them into QL (if they're good, obviously), but until then people can at least play them in Q3 and in training games in QL

[cityy]

That was done using func_static's with gametype or not_gametype spawn keys. Same bsp. It's just bad for bot support since they don't consider whether surfaces have spawned or not.

Wow, I didn't know that - kinda insane.

[munyul]

So, if I understand this correctly, you can not play custom maps online? Only in the practice mode?

And, custom maps from the original Quake 3 Arena need to be "encoded" to be played in Quake Live? Nothing more?