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OpenArena Contributions => Maps => Topic started by: killsac on January 12, 2009, 01:09:02 PM



Title: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 12, 2009, 01:09:02 PM
hi ppl, i've been toying around with gtkradiant, and - probably because i'm a mapping noob - ran into two problems which irritate me quite a bit. maybe you can help? first one is a render bug in gtkradiant, it's there absolutely every time i use gtkradiant.
(http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1042/radiantbugrb7.th.jpg) (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=radiantbugrb7.jpg)
the textures warp like this with every move of the mouse. the first 1-2 minutes textures are fine, then they start warping around. i got an ati radeon 9800 pro. is it a video card problem?
my second problem only occurs 90% of the time - when testing the map in openarena, 3/4 of the screen is blocked by a giant quad of screen buffer crap.
(http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/486/oabugxn6.th.jpg) (http://img383.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oabugxn6.jpg)
i would really appreciate any help, as these things drive me nuts. apparently i'm not smart enough for the right google search terms :/
thanks alot!
[uM]killsac

EDIT:I compiled dm4ish.map from the SVN today, and the screen in oa is blocked there, too. so i guess it's a problem with gtkradiant. could it be a wrong crosshair texture or something like that?
does nobody have oder has had any of these problems before?
EDIT2: Found a warning in the build log:
WARNING: Couldn't find image for shader textures/NULL
could this have anything to do with problem 2? If so, how do i fix it?


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Neon_Knight on January 13, 2009, 11:45:03 AM
NULL doesn't represent any problem. You can edit the map with some notepad (Notepad++ is my personal choice) and replace every NULL line with common\caulk ones.

Texture warping can be two overlapped brushes? Try to delete that and see.

That problem in the second screen occurs in every map or just yours?


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 13, 2009, 11:55:38 AM
thanks for the tip with the NULL texture. I will do that!
The texture warping sadly appears everywhere :( i tried switching texture render modes, to no avail. i watched closely when i openend up my map today, in the beginning textures were fine. i selected some brushes, switched to face select mode, and deselected everything by pressing esc repeatedly - after that all textures in the map are warping again.

the problem in the second screen appears only in maps(tested with mine and dm4ish) i compiled with gtkradiant, the normal game is unaffected. and in rare cases when testing the compiled maps are fine, too. i couldn't make out a pattern.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Neon_Knight on January 13, 2009, 12:25:25 PM
Which SO are you using?


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 13, 2009, 12:40:00 PM
I'm sorry, what's a SO?
I'm using gtkradiant 1.5.0, installed after tutorial on wiki, to build I'm doing "(single test) -vis -fast" and then "(single) BSP -meta"

I changed the NULL textures, coincidentally the map did fine 2 times after that, now I'm back to "normal"... no more NULL textures in it, though.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Neon_Knight on January 13, 2009, 01:06:48 PM
I meant to say OS, Operating System. My mistake. -.-


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 13, 2009, 01:12:56 PM
ah lol, np, im using win xp, no cygwin


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Neon_Knight on January 13, 2009, 01:35:50 PM
Great. ^^
I recommend you to use q3map2build (http://www.bobdev.com/q3map2build.php) front-end compiler instead of GTKR commandline presets. You build maps with GTKR, save them with .map extension, and then you use this program to compile them and to test themselves ingame. It's a frontend to Q3Map2, which is found at GTKR root folder.

Quote
# Q3Map2Build is a front-end application for Ydnar's Q3Map2 and was designed to be simple, small, and dynamic since switches for the map compiler change all the time. All the switch options are read from a file instead of hard coded, which makes shadowspawn able to change it without me recompiling each time. Some features: No dependencies past VB runtimes.
# ~60kb program file (no installer).
# Built-in listen server for logging. (And stand-alone included now)
# Pretty straight forward.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 13, 2009, 02:05:01 PM
thanks, i downloaded this tool and it saves some time, i'll use it often. The first time i used it, the map was ok, all other tries got me the blocked screen. it's really frustrating :/ but thanks that you try to help me! do you have some tips for command line options which could give a clue about what my problem is?


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Neon_Knight on January 13, 2009, 03:56:47 PM
One thing you can do is to post your .map file here, so we can see what the problem actually is.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 13, 2009, 04:46:33 PM
yes that's a really good idea =) i attached the map.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 14, 2009, 06:45:18 AM
problem 2 solved!
rofl... i feel pretty stupid. Turns out the second problem appears only when gtkradiant is running while I test the map in oa. at least it seems like that for now. I'm sorry for wasting your time... but who would have thought?? it doesn't even appear 100% of the time gtkradiant is running, just most of the time. really strange stuff! so now i have to close gtkradiant every time i want to test the map, which sucks a bit. but at least i can test properly now.  still accepting tips for the warping textures bug, though.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Neon_Knight on January 14, 2009, 07:19:20 AM
Well, my OA always run slower than ever when I have both GTKR and OA running. My PC isn't that powerful. :/

And I didn't see any warping textures on your map. :/


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Cacatoes on January 14, 2009, 07:27:07 AM
Also, what is your graphic card ? It could be a driver related problem.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 14, 2009, 07:36:29 AM
My guess is that problem 2 is caused because 2 applications want to use opengl and somehow get things mixed up.
The gfx card i have is an ATI Radeon 9800 pro, i'll try updating the drivers right away.

 the warped textures only appear in gtkradiant, in oa everything seems fine. It's also only in the render window, nothing in the .map file is actually warped. So i guess it is either a bug in gtkradiant or a driver bug. I'll let you know if updating drivers fixed anything =)


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: pulchr on January 14, 2009, 07:53:05 AM
i had the warping textures in gtkradiant. it feels very strange as the angle of the textures constantly change when you move around in the preview window.
the problem finally went away when i changed to a new graphics card. no idea what really caused it though :(


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 14, 2009, 08:39:19 AM
pulchr, seems like i need a new gfx card, too... currently, making maps is very trippy %)

the driver update didn't help. I'm planning on getting a new computer soon, so we will see. One thing is for sure: no ATI card. The update, ~5 months newer than my last one, tried to install an older version of their control center, failed, and tried to install a WoW demo without asking. They blow so hard, really. i managed to get the newer driver running, but it doesn't help with the texture warping bug.

so, in conclusion texture warping is probably unfixable, except through buying a new gfx card. screen blocking problem might get fixed through that, too, but right now i can test properly when gtkradiant is not running. Thanks for your advice, people!


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: pulchr on January 14, 2009, 01:45:59 PM
i don't think the texture warping is unsolvable since i didn't have the problem when i first began mapping in gtkradiant. i don't know why - but the problem occured several months later. i must've done something that wasn't liked by the editor. unfortunately it's very difficult to texture when the editor behaves like that.

also that wow demo install is annoying but it can be unchecked when installing the drivers.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: pulchr on January 15, 2009, 02:30:14 AM
if you can't get gtkradiant to work with the graphics you might want to try netradiant instead: http://icculus.org/projects/netradiant/
just an idea :)


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 15, 2009, 10:16:17 AM
wow nice, thanks =) somehow that one went past me... downloading right now! i hope i can texture well now. would be nice if it doesn't crash randomly like gtkradiant ;) if the preview window works nicely, i finally can get a map done...
is there an easy way to get a curved elevated path? i mean like create a block, thats less wide than long and bend it? and is there any way to subtract from a curve? that one would be really helpful...

EDIT: they warp in netradiant, too :( i'm frustrated...


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Neon_Knight on January 15, 2009, 11:15:09 AM
Wait until you buy that new PC and see if it happens again with it.


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: Cacatoes on January 15, 2009, 03:19:07 PM
Or install Linux, and try to run it from there ...


Title: Re: some mapping problems - any advice?
Post by: killsac on January 16, 2009, 08:08:40 AM
maybe i could try it in a VM, when i have some time. somewhere i got an ubuntu vm lying around... with my luck i'll have the same problems there, lol =)