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hi y'all,

first off, sorry if this question is a complete nonsense - I'm not even a noob at mapping.
I am just trying to figure out if it could be possible to create a complete map in GtkRadiant/NetRadiant by using only MD3 (or other) map objects like pre-made floors, walls, bridges, etc - basically avoid using NetRadiant brushes.
If feasible, I am guessing this kind of mapping would result in a poorly optimized map and could give a map that is very heavy on the CPU/GPU to process?
And I believe texturing would still need to be done in NetRadiant?

I guess I could search the net and try creating a map myself but am hoping you could help me out with this and save me some time?

Cheers

Yep, it's possible, but you still need to block out the map with caulked BSP.

Here's a tutorial: http://www.leveldk.co.uk/q3tut_model.htm

Here's the OA Wiki article about that: (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Mapping_manual/Appendix_C:_Modelling_a_map

I wouldn't recommend MD3 due to its precision problems and lack of large size support. Use ASE instead for this purpose.

It's also possible to do it with an autoclipped model, but that would lead to many many thin clipbrushes which bspc (bot .aas compiler) will not like very much as there's an excess of hollow area to process.  Sock's modified BSPC seems to work better for this

I think this q3map2 fork (https://github.com/paulvortex/BloodMap) is intended to work with "model maps" better though I never tried it myself.


I should mention I have a modelh/map hybrid level in progress I haven't worked on in awhile.  The mountains/cave are models and they really raise the compiling time despite how low poly they really are.

 :) great stuff! many thanks to you both! much appreciated.
reading the tutorials and keeping in mind to use ASE format for models...
Cheers!