MOD config files always get overwritten by baseoa config file

[BarryMead]

I am using open arena 0.7.7, but I confirmed that the bug is still present in 0.8.5.
I installed the original Quake3 game as a MOD directory under the /usr/share/games/openarena directory as instructed by the HOWTO's and forum posts.
Every time the MOD is loaded open arena copies the q3config.cfg file from the baseoa directory into the MOD directory destroying what was there.
Even if you write protect the MOD/q3config.cfg file after it has been properly configured, it does no good, because open arena completely ignores what is
in q3config.cfg file within the MOD directory in favor of the one from the baseoa directory.

The proper behavior IMHO should be:  Look in the MOD directory to see if q3config.cfg exists, then use that file if it does.  If it doesn't exist, or it exists, but
exhibits a fatal error in interpreting the config file ONLY THEN it should make a fresh copy of the config file from the baseoa directory.

As a result of this bug, One cannot ever load the original Quake3 game as a MOD with open arena, without having to unlock the levels every time with the
console cheat code /iamacheater.  Every time you exit the game it forgets which levels you unlocked or played through.

[Gig]

What? Did you place "baseq3" folder under OpenArena? Uhm.. I never thought about it. I tried it with DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/ModCompat/Team_Arena]Team Arena (and it seems to work, even if it was only a test and I can't assure there are no configuration-overwriting problems), but I never tried with baseq3.

Where's the howto you mentioned?

[BarryMead]

Here is the HOWTO that I read telling how to install an open arena mod.

(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Using_mods

I really like Open Arena, but wish it behaved better when running the original quake 3 program.
For those who are not willing to tolerate unlocking the levels every time they play (like me).
I have a modern OS solution which allows Quake 3 and Quake 3 Arena to operate exactly as
they did when originally released to the linux community.  Just follow these simple instructions
to install Quake 3 with the ioquake engine.  Download linuxq3apoint-1.32b.x86.run and
ioquake3-1.36-7.1.i386.run from where ever you can find them on the internet.  Then as
non root user type:)

xhost +

(Then change the POSIX version to overcome the
incompatibility with the old loki installer
become root user & type:)

export _POSIX2_VERSION=199209

(Then install the old quake3 apoint release type:)

sh linuxq3apoint-1.32b.x86.run

(Now get rid of that POSIX version type:)

export _POSIX2_VERSION=

(Then install the modern ioquake release type:)

sh ioquake3-1.36-7.1.i386.run

(Copy all the .pk3 files from the /usr/local/games/quake3/baseq3
directory into the /usr/local/games/ioquake3/baseq3 directory.
Ioquake does not include these files, but won't run the original quake3
without them which is the only reason we installed the old  quake3
apoint release. The old quake 3 directories can now be deleted type:)

rm -rf /usr/local/games/quake3

(Copy the PAK0.PK3 file from the original Quake3 CD into the
/usr/local/games/ioquake3/baseq3 directory.  Now you can exit root
mode and the ioquake engine will run the original quake3  program
perfectly.  If you want to add Team Arena, then copy the PAK0.PK3
file from the original Team Arena CD to the /usr/local/games/ioquake3/missionpack
directory.)   Enjoy


To enable single player cheat codes for a level do this:

From the level select menu,
Open the console with the ~ key & type:
/devmap q3dm11 (or whatever map you want to play)
Reopen the console with ~ & type:
/g_gametype 2
/map_restart
Wait for the countdown & Reopen the console with ~ & type:
/god
/give all (or whateve cheat code you like)

For a good list of cheat codes see this web site:
http://quake.freakygaming.com/pc/action/quake3/cheat_codes.html

[Gig]

I wrote the "Using mods" page on the wiki, and it talks about using mods designed for Q3A under OA, not about using the whole Q3A as a mod....

I'm not saying it is not possible, but that I haven't tried this yet. Probably because I can't image where's the advantage in doing this (my limit)? If you purchased Q3A, why don't simply use it? To take advantage of the ioquake3 features, one may simply apply it to Q3A, isn't it? http://ioquake3.org/

Anyway, when I will have some time, I will make a try to use baseq3 as a mod under OpenArena, and will tell you if it gives me problems with configuration. I use Windows... but here around should be some Linux users that may do the test there...

PS: I'm not a developer... maybe Sago007 could be more helpful.

[Gig]

Excuse me... try this: Delete the q3config.cfg file of the "DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Homepath#Configuration_files_and_automatic_downloaded_files_path]homepath"/MOD folder (where MOD is the name you gave to baseq3), then launch the game and the mod, change your player name, finish a map in singleplayer mode (without cheating!), then close OpenArena. Launch it and the "MOD" again. Are you sure that the map looks like never used and the player name returned to the default?


And are you sure that there isn't a q3config.cfg file also under your installation/MOD folder? It's just an idea that maybe the presence of a configuration file created by the original game may give some problem to OA, and so it recreates it from scratch each time? It's just an idea, I didn't notice this problem with "real" mods.

[Gig]

I've just done a quick test.

I'm using Windows XP.
I simply copied my "baseq3" folder (without removing the q3config.cfg file there) into my OpenArena folder. Quake 3 was already patched to PointRelease 1.32c. Then I launched OpenArena and baseq3 from the mods menu. The player name was the same I had under Q3A (this means OA reads that cfg file under the installation folder), but all tiers appeared locked (they were all unlocked under Q3A). I played a singleplayer match in q3dm0 (noticing some error messages in console and few textures appearing different than usual), unlocking the first "real" tier. Then I went back to the main menu and exited the game. Then I launched OpenArena and the "mod" again, and the first "real" tier is still accessible. The game created a q3config.cfg under %appdata%\OpenArena\baseq3.


----------
Are you sure the user that runs OpenArena has got read/write priviledges on your baseq3.cfg file?

[BarryMead]

It has something to do with the number of levels in the original quake3 game and the number of levels in the Open Arena game.  I believe that the orignal quake3 has 25 levels, and the Open Arena has 23 levels or something like that.  When Open Arena detects that there are more than 23 levels it corrects the config file and overwrites it with 23 levels (not 25).  When that happens, and you re-run the game with Quake3 as a mod, then Quake 3 sees that there are the wrong number of levels 23 not 25 and it marks all of them as locked again.     All of these tests were made using a linux installation, where the master baseoa directory and config is in root space and the user config files are under the /home/$USER/.openarena/baseoa/ and /home/$USER/.openarena/$MOD/ directories.

Perhaps it works properly in the windows environment, I don't know.  I only run linux, to keep the virus's out of my computer.