🚀 go-pugleaf

	My last post was about my frustration at not being able to get Q3 
Arena to run the game senarios I had created with the Q3Radiant level 
editor. Thanks to a web page tip, I was able to solve this enigma by 
learning that "/sv_pure 0" disables the defaults and then allows one to 
execute their own level. Seems simple enough, but I will include the 
following step by step process for the informationally challenged (which 
includes myself at times):

1.) Purchace the Q3 arena game package. It includes a Quake III and Q3 
team arena CD. Simply installing the Q3 arena CD will load most of 
what's necessary for the following steps.

Note # 1: My home computer has a 1 GHz pentium CPU chip, 512 Megs RAM
          and 64 Megs Video RAM. My office computer runs at 20% the 
          speed with 10% of the memory and no video RAM. Q3 radiant will 
          run on either system but I don't run it often on the office 
          computer. Can you guess why?

2.) C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\Tools\q3radiant.exe is the default 
location of the Q3Radiant editor loaded along with Quake III. The game 
will have its own icon on the desktop; locate the editor and place 
another shortcut on the desktop. One will be switching between editor 
and game quite alot when building levels, so desktop shortcut icons are 
a great help.

3.) Fire up the editor by double clicking the icon. What one gets is a 
toolbar at the top of the screen chock full of esoteric and mysterious 
function buttons, a big blueprint grid under it to the left and two 
smaller windows displaying a black void. Build the level, compile it and 
more often than not the editor will close and you will be back on the 
desktop.

4.) Now double click the game icon and just prior to all the shouting, 
wall smashing and other opening nonsence, press the escape key. This 
gets the attention of the game engine itself. Type:

		/sv_pure 0

to tell the engine that you desire to use a different server than the 
default. As far as I know, one has to type this every time one starts 
one of their own games. Next, load your own level by typing:

		/devmap XXXXXXXX

Of course the "XXXXXXX" stuff is the actual name of the level one just 
created with the q3Radiant editor. By default, the location of this file 
will be C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\baseq3\maps.

********************* level editing notes ***************************

	I have worked with a Parallax editor and it came as no real 
surprise that the Id editor worked along the same lines. Simply stated, 
level creation consists of "DMAACC":

a.) Draw a big box. The geek term for "box" is "brush". Really.
b.) Make the box ("brush") hollow.
c.) Add at least one player.
d.) Add a light so the player (aka "YOU") can see when the level starts.
e.) Cover the box with a texture so you will have something to see.
f.) Compile your design and run the level through the game engine.

Its a simple process actually but one common mistake is not realizing 
the player frequently gets created halfway inside/outside the box. This 
can make for some bizzare results after things get compiled and run. 
(You can't move and everything looks like you've done way too much LSD, 
dude!) 

FYI: The default player is 7 feet tall. One might want to trim his
     height a bit (see below) if they are modeling real world objects.

Understanding virtual space helps solve many problems. Basically one 
works with an XYZ, 3D coordinate system. The Z axis is the "UP" 
direction, therefore if one wants to look down from on high and gauge 
the square footage of one's binary real estate, use the Z axis. I 
normally use the Y axis to get an idea of height and the X axis to gauge 
width.

One uses the mouse to physically manipulate objects. Move things by 
clicking and dragging them around using the right mouse button. Box 
construction begins by right clicking and dragging the mouse in the 
design grid window. This creates a 2-D rectangular region. Drag the 
rectangle around by right clicking inside the rectangle. Resize the 
dimensions by right clicking outside the box and pulling or pushing a 
particular wall. Height is achieved by switching to either the X or Y 
axis view and click/dragging the upper box surface up or down. Once one 
is finished, hit the escape key to "deselect" the rectangle.

**************** the golden ratio *************************************
The design view grid is a repeating square pattern, each square made of 
an 8 X 8 array of smaller units. Each of these smaller units corresponds 
to 1 foot in the real world. Very useful for modeling one's bedroom.
***********************************************************************

The keyboard is used to work the camera (aka your unblinking, 
disembodied eyeball floating about in virtual space). The left/right 
arrow keys are very useful for moving the camera around (and through) 
things to get a better look. Other invaluable keys include:

The D key: moves the camera "up". Perhaps "up" is the geek term for   
           "down".
The C key: Yup, moves the camera down.
The A key: Looks up without moving. Its a good idea to reorient one's 
           gaze straight ahead when one begins moving again by pressing
The Z key: Lookd down without moving.
Periods and Commas: These sidestep   

Insert/Delete keys: They zoom the design window view in/out.

Most of one's actual work will take place in the design window. This 
will appear as a large square area to the bottom left of the screen, 
distinguished by its blue grid. One will be looking down on the XY plane 
by default and the camera is displayed as a small, dark blue V shape. 
One can see the camera move when the arrow keys are pressed. Just to the 
right of this window is the camera view, normally void until one draws 
something within visual range of the camera. Yes, it is possible to 
construct an entire ivory castle in incredible detail and not see a bit 
of it because the castle just happens to be behind the camera.

Note #2: It is possible to "fly" the camera around in the camera view 
         window by clicking and dragging using the right mouse button. 
         My advise is not to try this if one has never attempted it 
         before. Its incredibly easy to suddenly loose control and have 
         the camera suddenly fly off into the far flung regions of 
         space. Best to practice this skill with something one is not
         currently editing. If editing, using this technique in the 
         design grid works fairly well but mearly moves the grid, not 
         the camera itself. Catch up using the arrow keys.  

The texture window is right below the camera view. Like the former, it 
is dark unless a texture has been applied and then goes on to display 
all the textures used in a particular project. Goof about on the main 
menu until "textures" is found, click n' pick a category and the texture 
window temporarily displays all the choices. Aim the camera appropriatly 
and select a particular box wall by holding down on the shift key and 
clicking the desired object in the camera window. The desired patch 
ought to turn pink. If one misses their mark, hit the escape key and try 
again. More than one object can be selected at once by repeatedly right 
clicking in the camera window. Once everything is chosen, click the 
desired texture in the texture window.

BTW: Players are added by right clicking inside the box and choosing 
"info/player_start". A pink rectangle ought to appear. Choose "light" in 
the same way. Remember to hit the escape key afterwards.

There one has it. This of course only scratches the surface and probably 
contains several errors but I trust one won't blow up their computer and 
might just be able to compile and run a simple 1 room level. As of Nov 
2002, an excellent WEB tutorial series can be found at:

http://planetquake.com/bubba/tutorial.html

Good luck and happy editing!

Roger L. Sieloff