Getting started

[Jonathan]

IMPORTANT: As with any aspect of the Doom alpha, your mileage may vary. All of this may not work at all for you, or it may work perfectly. Also, all information is purely AFAIK, I may well be wrong on some or all of it, please provide any corrections you can.

-- RUNNING THE EDITOR --

Okay, so you've been to the depths of the juarez abyss and obtained a copy of the Doom 3 alpha. You've wandered the around the three example maps and had your breath taken away by the beauty, the terror, the incredibly low fps. Okay so maybe the alpha isn't fantastically playable, but it does at least mean we can get a head start on editing Doom 3 prior to buying the full game. So how do we go about it?

Well fortunately id have decided to include a full editor built right into the Doom 3 engine itself, DoomRadiant, based on the popular Q3Radiant they used to design Quake 3 Arena. This editor is included with the alpha version of doom.exe as well and with a little work can be used to create and edit levels.

Prior to running DoomRadiant you'll need to create the directory scripts inside the base directory of your doom 3 alpha installation. Into this new directory you'll need to place a file called doom.qe4. The file should contain something similar to
the following:

{
"basepath" "c:\doom\base"
"rshcmd" "c:\doom\base\"
"remotebasepath" "c:\doom\base\"
"entitypath" "c:\doom\base\def\*.def"
"texturepath" "c:\doom\base\textures"
"autosave" "c:\doom\base\maps\mre\"
"bsp_Relight" "!kpbsp -onlyents $ && !kprad -gamedir c:\doom\base\ $"
"bsp_Entities" "!kpbsp -onlyents $"
"bsp_FullVis (qrad -extra)" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis $ && !kprad -bounce 4 -extra -gamedir c:\doom\base\ $"
"bsp_FullVis " "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis $ && !kprad -gamedir c:\doom\base\ $"
"bsp_FullVis (norad)" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis $"
"bsp_FastVis" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis -fast $ && !kprad -gamedir c:\doom\base\ $"
"bsp_FastVis (bleed)" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis -fast $ && !kprad -nostopbleed -gamedir c:\doom\base\ $"
"bsp_only (novis/norad)" "!kpbsp $"
}

However you'll have to change the paths such as "c:\doom\base" to those appropriate for your system. Okay, you're now (hopefully) ready to launch the editor.

To run DoomRadiant first run doom.exe. Do not load a map, stay in the console on the menu screen. First you need to change the resolution, as whenever DoomRadiant is ran, it runs at whatever resolution you have Doom 3 running at, which is normally 640x480. To change resolution you can use the console command "r_mode x" (without quotes), where x is one of the following resolutions:

1 - 320x240
2 - 400x300
3 - 640x480
4 - 800x600
5 - 1024x768
and so on...

Most people will want either mode 4 or 5, whichever they use for their normal windows desktop. Once you have changed the value of r_mode, you will probably need to run the command "vid_restart" on the console to switch to the new resolution. The final step is to launch the editor itself, this is done by simply entering the command "editor" at the console. Doom should then switch out of fullscreen (if it is being run fullscreen) and a windows gui application with the title "DOOMedit" should load up.


-- EDITING LEVELS --

The Doom 3 editor is based on Q3Radiant, so anybody who has used that editor should feel at home. Personally I haven't so I can't provide detailed instructions on using the editor. However, there are numerous tutorials available on the web for Q3Radiant much of which will be applicable to DoomRadiant. There are some important things you'll need to know though:

Doom alpha levels are contained in several separate files. For a level called "example" we would need:

example.map - This is the map file which is made by the Radiant editor. It should be saved into the /base/maps directory of your Doom 3 alpha installation.

example.cm - This is a file containing "collision data". The exact make up of the file isn't important as Doom 3 will generate this file if it can't find it when it loads a map.

example.proc - .proc files contain the Doom 3 equivilent of BSP data. They must be generated by the user after you have finished making or altering a map. To generate a .proc file go into the Doom 3 console and enter the command "dmap maps/example.map. Note that unlike when we run a map, we must tell Doom 3 the full path from the /base directory and we must include the .map extension. Once this command is entered Doom 3 will generate a .proc file in the same location as the .map file.

example.aas32 and example.aas96 - These files apparently contain information needed for the monsters to operate properly. To generate these files, once the map has been compiled to a .proc, run the command "runAAS maps/example.map"

Once all four types of file are made a map should be playable. They can be run simple by going into the console and type "map example" if our map is called example.

[myk]

Heh... h4x0ring doom3 already

Hmm, 640x400 instead of 640x480... Why did they do that? Just so it's like DOOM's (as a reference of sorts I mean)?

[Jonathan]

myk said:

Heh... h4x0ring doom3 already

Hmm, 640x400 instead of 640x480... Why did they do that? Just so it's like DOOM's (as a reference of sorts I mean)?

Oops, no its 640x480, I always get those two resolutions mixed up, and it is 3am, Heh.

[Arioch]

props to all pinkfishes

[mewse]

man this is so illegal

[Lord FlatHead]

Thanks for the info, mate. I've got a problem though : none of the world textures show up when I load the map. Character and weapon skins work just fine, all the lighting's there, just no textures. This is my doom.qe4:

{
"basepath" "D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base"
"rshcmd" "D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base"
"remotebasepath" "D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base"
"entitypath" "D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\def\*.def"
"texturepath" "D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\textures"
"autosave" "D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\maps\mre"
"bsp_Relight" "!kpbsp -onlyents $ && !kprad -gamedir 
D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\ $"
"bsp_Entities" "!kpbsp -onlyents $"
"bsp_FullVis (qrad -extra)" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis $ && !kprad -bounce 
4 -extra -gamedir D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\ $"
"bsp_FullVis " "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis $ && !kprad -gamedir 
D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\ $"
"bsp_FullVis (norad)" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis $"
"bsp_FastVis" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis -fast $ && !kprad -gamedir 
D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\ $"
"bsp_FastVis (bleed)" "!kpbsp $ && !kpvis -fast $ && !kprad -
nostopbleed -gamedir D:\Doom3_E3Alpha\Doom_III\base\ $"
"bsp_only (novis/norad)" "!kpbsp $"
}

Also, the runAAS command won't work. It complains about "couldn't load def/aas32.settings".

Any ideas ?

[mod]FORUM BREAKER![/mod]

[Jonathan]

Yes :P

The editor is programmed with a list of all the textures available to the id editors, but only a few of these are included with the demo. You'll need to activate the materials browser (by pressing 'm'), find the list of textures and browse through it looking at which textures are there. You'll need to apply these to different blocks and surfaces that you create, you're best reading a Q3Radiant tutorial to understand how to do that properly. Once you have applied new textures to an object you'll probably need to press F7 to updatre the view in the camera window.

The aas32 and aas96 stuff is a bit more complicated than I realised when I wrote the original message. You will need to create two additional files, in your /base/def directory, aas32.settings and aas96.settings. They should be given the following contents:

---def/aas32.settings contents---

settings
{
bboxes
{
(-16 -16 0)-(16 16 82)
}
usePatches = 0
writeBrushMap = 0
playerFlood = 0
fileExtension = "aas32"
gravity = (0 0 -1050)
maxStepHeight = 14
maxBarrierHeight = 32
maxWaterJumpHeight = 20
maxFallHeight = 64
minFloorCos = 0.6999999881
tt_barrierJump = 100
tt_startCrouching = 100
tt_waterJump = 100
tt_startWalkOffLedge = 100
}

---def/aas96.settings contents---

settings
{
bboxes
{
(-48 -48 0)-(48 48 96)
}
usePatches = 0
writeBrushMap = 0
playerFlood = 0
fileExtension = "aas96"
gravity = (0 0 -1050)
maxStepHeight = 14
maxBarrierHeight = 32
maxWaterJumpHeight = 20
maxFallHeight = 64
minFloorCos = 0.6999999881
tt_barrierJump = 100
tt_startCrouching = 100
tt_waterJump = 100
tt_startWalkOffLedge = 100
}

-------------------------------

(Note thanks to a message posted by Myrggy on a site I guess I can't link to for this information).

Fortunately I also discovered that theres an easier way to compile you maps data. When you have finished editing and saved the map in the editor, simply go to the Doom 3 console and type "testmap mymap" where mymap is the name of your map. This will compile the .proc, create the aas32 and aas96 files and recreate the .cm if needs be.

On a rather more unfortunate note, it has been discovered that there is a rather serious bug in the version of Doom Radiant supplied in the alpha. It seems that whenever a level is saved, all the texture formatting information such as scale, x and y coords etc is wiped which means whenever a level made in the editor is played in game its texture is simply a washed out colour rather than its intended texture. As of yet there is no known true fix for this problem and their may well never be one.

[Lord FlatHead]

Thanks !

[Jonathan]

Hey, re. the problem I mentioned in my last post about there being a problem with texturing, it has been solved! Simply put the line

"brush_primit" "1"

into your base/scripts/doom.qe4 file and Doom Radiant will save all the texture information correctly, hurrah!

[Lord FlatHead]

/me kisses Jonathan

[GazzaQ]

BABIES, BABIES, BABIES IM GOING TO HAVE YOUR BABIES