10 November 2018

We are in Patreon

You can suport us in Patreon if you want and you will see topics that will be posted there only. Just click the upper right link.

22 July 2018

Randomly Generated Quake 2 Mazes usage and review

1. Copy 3 textures from Quark or from your .pak file. I used :
hrdrk081 as wall
hrdrk114 as floor
hrdrk122 as ceiling
2. Use you windows command line from C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
3. Write in it cd C:/
4. You are now in C:\> but if you want to go to E, type E:
5. Write cd bla to go in the folder bla, where your maze files are
6. Write java Maze -b -s xdim ydim
(xdim represents x and ydim is y for dimensions) 10 is the default, if -s is not used)





A .bmp file will be created
7. Write bmp2map maze10x10.bmp mazemap.cfg




 8. Write mapconv -toq2 -addpath e1u1 mazemap.map maze.map


 9. maze.map will be for Quake 2 and mazemap.map is for Quake 1
10. Quark will complain for missing textures. Click Search tab and ,,Search/replace textures...,,

For missing e1u1/SLIPLITE texture click the walls and on ,,Face view,, choose the other texture in the list or click the ,,Search/replace textures...,, e1u1/SLIPLITE with bricks/hrdrk081.
Paste the textures with Ctrl+V.
Choose ,,Whole map,, and click ,,Search/replace,,.

11. I do not know yet why the whole maze is leaned to one side, so chose all the walls, ceiling and floor and copy them to a new map to resolve this weirdenes :)
After that you can save the new map as a .qkm file with your chosen name. 
12. The placement of the lights are wrong. Chose all of them in the Entities and working in the top view, move all of them to the left, for around 10 moves for a 1 grid size.
Then for another 10 moves down.
Because it will ussualy have much to bigger radius on the map maze, select all the 4 Wall torch holder** prefabs lights and right click with your mouse button and select Multiple specifics... to edit the default 300 light radius to 150 or less. 
13. Add this lights for 16 Wall torch holder** prefabs.
I have found that i still have 4 lights that remained on their intersection, so to break the monotony of the map add them to another light prefab fixture, lets say the one that is standing on the ground (Torch holder floor**).
Do not forget to delete one of the lights, because the prefabs have a light in them.

Tip:

Move the prefabs in the side view where you want them to be, and if it helps lock ,,Lock views,, (the buton bellow the Commands button), so the side, top, and front view will move at the same pace.
Under addons tab button, click ,,Rectangular selection of ENTITIES,, button to choose a light, then click the empty space under ,,Entities,, bellow ,,worldspawn,, so it will highlight, finding it better this way.

14. Move info_player_start near the floor.
Delete ammo_rockets because this tutorial is for Dawn of Darkness.
Add all the items and monsters you want in your map.
15. If you have a compile error, and when you enter your map ther is nolight in it, give the maze walls a detail argument by going to Face-view - flags for this face - and tick detail.
You will not lose shadows by doing these.
Example of a maze part
                                                                        I won't sit on that chair !

Download from University of Rochester, New York :

19 July 2018

Ash from Evil Dead falling car test

You know Ash from Evil Dead ? Here is his car falling :)

Google Drive :

Ash car

Explanation :

- The car is a func_object made of polys
- The black shadow formed under the falling car is a poly with a black texture in a func_explosive.
- A few trigger_once are in front of the player.
- A trigger_once contact a func_explosive and spawn a shattered "terrain" effect.
- trigger_once triggers a target_speaker, with a broken glass sound. The car has now shattered glass effect

In Quark 6.6 beta 7 : 



16 July 2018

Web textures

How the textures look in Quark texture browser.
                                                                    ... Roarke has to stop teleporting to the future ...

Google Drive :

Web textures


If windows 7 ultimate doesen't open by default Quark 6.6 beta 7 .qrk, .qkm, .bsp or .map files

If someday in Quark 6.6 beta 7, when you double click a .qrk, .qkm, .bsp or .map file and windows 7 ultimate doesen't allow by default to open these files with Quark, go in regedit and delete the below instance (with its regedit Quark folder) :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\QuArK.exe

Next time when you double click a .qrk, .qkm, .bsp or .map file, windows 7 ultimate will ask you again to choose a default program. Choose alway open with, at your Quark.exe and will work, the above instance will write itself in regedit.

01 July 2018

If you have problems downloading from Google Drive

Remember that you don't have to be sign in (no sign-in required)  to download my files, textures for example. I my upload them to somewhere else too.

Grass texture



In Quark editor, with mist and trans33, with grass texture applied to two faces, the rest of the faces being the transparency texture.

In Quark editor, with mist and trans66, with grass texture applied to two faces, the rest of the faces being the transparency texture. You can leave the grass texture to one face on the poly, if you see a double texture effect.

How the texture look in Quark texture browser without the white margin :

Google Drive :
Grass1 texture

Remember that when you make other textures, they must have a non-specific name. If you name it Grass1 and imported in Quark this way, you will not retain soft properties etc., like in sftwd008 texture. But Grass1, having mist and trans66, can be left like this, if you want

Let's make textures - introduction : words and abbreviation used for textures and arrow behavior 


30 June 2018

The movie Coroana de foc (1990) and if DoD should have been made in a movie


A scene from the movie a drawn long time ago ...

Coroana de foc (1990) by Sergiu Nicolaescu, was a historical fantasy type movie. If the mod DoD should have been made in a movie, Coroana de foc (Crown of fire) had almost all the ingredients from romanian folkore and warriors to go with it.

Coroana de foc (1990) movie

24 June 2018

13 June 2018

Let's make textures - Paintshop pro 7 with photo (part 4)

How the image originaly looked

 Decrease color depth

Resize the image

Resize canvas if necesary

 Before palette applied

Palette applied to image without transparency (no, my cat is not evil, yet ..)


Save it as a .png file without clicking any other options and than as a .wal file trough Paintshop pro 7
The photo will look good sometimes
For the images made from scratch, go here :

Errors :

error if your image is not multiple of 16 

 
If you try to resize a bigger image which has 256 colors. Resize it when it is a 24 bi image




10 June 2018

Transparency.wal in Quake Army Knife editor

Use this when working with Quake Army Knife. It is for using on all sides of the polygon, beside the one that you don't want. Remember to click on the Face Flags for this to work.
transparency.wal

Edited lets make textures (part 3)

Edited by adding two images and explanations (check the first image and the last image in the topic) :
lets make textures part 3

09 June 2018

Wally icons functions


I made a screenshot of Wally, showing the icons explications. This is just to show the program capabilities.

02 June 2018

Trying to fix Paint Shop Pro 7 .wal file Plugin error

I made a topic about Paint Shop Pro 7 error when trying to save a image as a .wal format. Below are the paths and where file should go to, if  author of ,,history,, text for .wal plugin is corect.
I know that .wal plugin is for PhotoShop only.

In the end, id din't work, but lets make textures part 3 paintshop pro and wally tutorial works !
You can still use PSP 7 for editing images especially for textures and use Wally after. PSP 7 doesen't save as a .wal file directly.
quake2.act for me was not like below, was in Plugins\Formats. If optimized colors folder will not work, i will move quake2.act in Presets.

In Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\Presets\optimized colors folders :

quake2.act

In Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\Plugins\Formats folders :

wal.8bi

In Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\Palettes :

Quake2.pal

PSP 7 error :
llets make textures part 1 errors
I'm trying to fix that.

Let's make a sky (skybox) with SkyPaint and Quake Army Knife editor

 A skybox is a texture in a closed space with up, down, right and left coordinates (your map or bsp in Quake Army Knife, bsp in Quake 2 or DoD).
After you open SkyPaint program (links on the end of this topic), you have the option to modify the preferences or if you want the default sky or just save the default scene as tga and pcx (more about Quake Army Knife editor usage later).
SkyPaint will have a doc offline file from the program, if you click the book icon.
When you install SkyPaint, .8bf files will be in your folder. In the plugin path put their path, in Paint Program, i put Paint Shop Pro 7 path.

 TGA and pcx files are saved from SkyPaint. You can close SkyPaint for now.
From Paint Shop Pro 7, go to File-Preferences-File locations-Plug-in Filters. In the box, put your SkyPaint path.
Now, when you make a image in Paint Shop Pro 7 and click Effects, you will see Plug-in Filters-SkyPaint.
 Open SkyPaint, click paint this view, 256 and 256, and it will open Paint Shop Pro 7. SkyPaint will close by itself.
 The Plug-in Filter, from where you can move left, right, up and down in skybox ,,frames,,
Do something and from The Plug-in Filter, launch SkyPaint again.

Save you image. It will save in multiple images (TGA and pcx) with abbreviations for up, down etc.

Now you can use your Quake Army Knife editor and a program that opens a .pak file (a archive type file with folders inside that have sounds, maps etc.) I used PakScape.
Copy and paste a existing pak file that has env folder in it.
In pakscape, delete all folders and insert only the env folder with only your pcx and tga files, which are images for sky parts, made with SkyPaint.
I saved the work in a pak4 file (before was a different pak3 file used for something else).
In Quake Army Knife editor, double click worldspawn and write the word which represent your sky, in my case green, don't write green_ or greenup.
Double click sky
Click the box pointed by the green arrow in the image and write 12000, representing the light intensity. More may be neccesay, but it is up to you.

In the game, the sky will show, but the room you are in will be black, if you don't put some light in it
Yes, the pointy thing is the knife :)

After you followed the above tutorial, read this link to make your sky have shadows on the ground :
Quark sun light tutorial


More info about skyboxes :
gamasutra skybox
SkyPaint program :
skypaint
SkyPaint program download :
skypaint download
More info and programs :
developer.valvesoftware
PakScape :
Is used to import/export/delete files, folders from the opened pak file, which is some sort of a archive. You can rename the .pak file to .rar and vice versa but it cannot always work. Quake Army Knife can open pak files, import files, but cannot make folders easily.
PakScape

28 May 2018

Links for texture making programs

You can get paintshop pro 7 from here :
OldVersion
About the above :
wikipedia
Pixly :
pixly
Wally link with some other tutorials :
telefragged
Wally download (click on either Draconic's site or HQH's site, the other two are down in archive site) :
Wally
Wal plugin in your Paint Shop Pro 7 folder :
Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\Plugins\Formats
The plugin, which works for Paintshop pro 7 (PhotoShop .wal plugin) :
tastyspleen panjoo
Or get it from below, but copy the download link in https://archive.org/ (PhotoShop .Wal Plugin):
quake2.com
Another place :
idgames2
Beside the above link, check my older link :
programs i use for making textures

Let's make textures - Paintshop pro 7 and Wally (part 3)


You can make a texture from scratch and only prepare it with Paintshop pro 7 ! You will save it in the end with Wally.
Make sure the image is 8 bit image (256 colors) in Paintshop pro 7 or decrease it.


                                                                  Leave it like this, run optimizer


                                                            Pallete based, 0 dithering, 256 colors
                                            Use ,,Existing palette,, if you make a texture with a program with another palette
                                            (you will apply Quake 2 palette later, in the end and be sure to be 256 colors)


                              Single color transparency, existing image or layer transparency

                        Leave it non-interlaced, click ok, if you overwrite it, close the image and open it again
                   Now the backround pink type color which is transparent in Quake 2 and DoD looks bright
                   Bright vs how the image should be
If the image has a transparency, tweak your RGB with Paintshop pro 7 by clicking colors, edit palette and double click the pink color, be sure to be index 1 or 2 or at least choose the right pink. For a easy way, click Sort order By Hue
Tweak your RGB and after you put the right numbers, 159  91  83, you can click add to custom, for further remembering
Click ok and ok on Edit Palette
It is ok in Wally if the image looks bright, save it as a wal file with the size of 16, 32, 64, 128, 256. 


In Quark editor and in the game, for the transparency around the texture to appear, click mist and trans33 or trans66 in FaceFlags. If you look very close, the texture has a transparency effect too, but not from the distance.