New Wiki Article: Mapping for Dummies

[blondandy]

yay  

mattn: I had run the plugin, but running the plugin and then tweaking a brush worked.

zark: red, selected. that was it.  :oops:

thanks, everyone.

[H-Hour]

Two questions about the "Prepping the software" section of the tutorial.

1. When I unpack the .pk3 files (into the same folder) and move them out of the folder, UFORadiant no longer loads the textures. Did I do something wrong? If I move them back, the textures load fine, but I suspect it needs to be able to read unpacked textures if I'm to use any custom ones that aren't packed up.

2. It says to go to the "Build" menu and choose customize to set the Final Build settings. My UFORadiant doesn't have a "Build" menu. Is this ([ufo2map] -bounce 0 -extra "[MapFile]") supposed to go under the engine path in the preferences setting?

I'm using UFORadiant from the latest full game .exe put up by Destructavator in the forums. Thanks.

[Mattn]

hi

i've updated the wiki articles to reflect the latest version of uforadiant - i hope i haven't missed anything, please reread the articles and let me know if you have any other problems. the articles were written against the no longer supported gtkradiant.

[H-Hour]

Thanks Matt. Working my way through now. Here's my observations:

1. When I browse to specify the path to ufo2map, it doesn't actually put the path in the field. If I type it out manually it stays there, though. Wiki might also mention that it's in the /tools/ folder.

2. Several of the textures mentioned in the tutorial are no longer there. Not a big deal.

3. Many of the key shortcuts mentioned have not worked for me. They often say, press [key] to bring up [this window]. But pressing it does nothing for me and the windows are usually just something over on the panel on the right. Am I missing something or is this related to GTKRadiant?

4. I'm having trouble setting the map lighting at this part of the tutorial. First, it looks like maybe you've changed the way day and night lighting are done, as they have their own key's now.

Second, if you look at the attached screenshot, the keys and values don't seem to be going in right. I got the maxlevel going fine, then added a light_night. When I tried to add the value to light_night, the key name disappeared and I no longer had the ability to select and edit the key. I tried adding a new one and ran into the same problems, and sometimes putting in one value or selecting one key would erase or replace values for another one.

Anyway, please don't read these as complaints. Just trying to give feedback as I move through the tutorial. Thanks!

[H-Hour]

I bypassed the final problem by reloading UFORadiant a few times to delete the wayward keys. I then made sure I completed each entry by hitting ENTER and that allowed me to input everything correctly. I guess I should have taken the tutorial literally there!

[H-Hour]

Ok, got my test map in-game. All is well. Couple things:

1. There's no build menu as mentioned in the wiki. I tried compile>compile the map, but it threw an error:

Code: [Select]

GLib-WARNING **: passing a child setup function to the g_spawn functions is pointless on Windows and it is ignored**-WARNING **: exec_spawn_process - failed to spawn process [19] [Failed to execute helper program (Invalid argument)]
2. I compiled by running ufo2map, but had to move the file into the Radiant folder (couldn't find DLLs). Is this right and should I modify wiki with a note about this? Don't want to go changing instructions the wrong way.

[Mattn]

1. When I browse to specify the path to ufo2map, it doesn't actually put the path in the field. If I type it out manually it stays there, though. Wiki might also mention that it's in the /tools/ folder.

It isn't in the tools folder...

2. Several of the textures mentioned in the tutorial are no longer there. Not a big deal.

Which ones? Maybe i've missed some.

3. Many of the key shortcuts mentioned have not worked for me. They often say, press [key] to bring up [this window]. But pressing it does nothing for me and the windows are usually just something over on the panel on the right. Am I missing something or is this related to GTKRadiant?

Yes, this is still for GTKRadiant, UFORadiant is doing things a little bit different - we are using that sidebar.

4. I'm having trouble setting the map lighting at this part of the tutorial. First, it looks like maybe you've changed the way day and night lighting are done, as they have their own key's now.

Second, if you look at the attached screenshot, the keys and values don't seem to be going in right. I got the maxlevel going fine, then added a light_night. When I tried to add the value to light_night, the key name disappeared and I no longer had the ability to select and edit the key. I tried adding a new one and ran into the same problems, and sometimes putting in one value or selecting one key would erase or replace values for another one.

Anyway, please don't read these as complaints. Just trying to give feedback as I move through the tutorial. Thanks!

Thanks for reporting. I hope Destructavator will release new installers from time to time - as we are constantly working on adding the fixing stuff radiant. The entity inspector issue e.g. might already be fixed (or you've found another one )

and yes, we've splitted the day/night light values. If you add a new key to the worldspawn, only those that are valid will be shown there.

You can also have a look at base/ufos/entities.ufo to see an overview. The wiki must still be adopted for this - it's been a long time since the articles were written.

Please a) report those wiki 'errors' or b) (it's a wiki) fix them while reading it (you just need an account)

Thanks and greetings
Martin

[Mattn]

Ok, got my test map in-game. All is well. Couple things:

1. There's no build menu as mentioned in the wiki. I tried compile>compile the map, but it threw an error:

Code: [Select]

GLib-WARNING **: passing a child setup function to the g_spawn functions is pointless on Windows and it is ignored**-WARNING **: exec_spawn_process - failed to spawn process [19] [Failed to execute helper program (Invalid argument)]

Looks like there is something broken in the radiant installer - the helper program to spawn a process is missing, i will have a look at this. https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2882150&group_id=157793&atid=805242 here is the bugreport for this, if you want to follow the process.

2. I compiled by running ufo2map, but had to move the file into the Radiant folder (couldn't find DLLs). Is this right and should I modify wiki with a note about this? Don't want to go changing instructions the wrong way.

Your map should just be inside of base/maps and you should be able to run ufo2map with the parameter maps/yourmapname:

Code: [Select]

ufo2map.exe maps/yourmapname

sorry for all the inconvenience, but uforadiant is still in the mid of development - we will try to fix your reports asap. So please continue to report problems and glitches (and try to be as verbose as possible so we are able to reproduce them)

[H-Hour]

No worries about the inconvenience. I got everything working in the end. I can work on modifying the Wiki as I go along, but I don't want to make changes if my information isn't correct. For instance, you said ufo2map.exe wasn't in the /tools/ folder, but that's where it installed to for me (see attached). I found success by copying it into the /UFOAI-2.3-dev/ folder. If that's how it's supposed to go I can update the Wiki accordingly.

[Mattn]

that is really strange - did you compile on your own, or did you use an installer?

[Mattn]

ah, found it - it will be fixed with the next installer.