Zircon Engine - a "DarkPlaces Mark V" project mod for Quake

Quake 3 Map Compiler Upgrade (Download: Zircon Beta #58 - Win64)

Q3MAP2.exe (the Q3 map compiler) will not load scripts/*.shader files that are not listed in scripts/shaderlist.txt -- meaning one must manually edit the .txt file as an extra step to use a new .shader file. Zircon and DarkPlaces load all .shader files in the scripts folder. (Quake3_Quake1 Tutorials)

New: q3map2.exe loads all .shader files in scripts folder (Download Q3Map2 No ShaderList.Txt).

Q3Map2.exe 64-Bit For Windows (June 8 2024) - Features

• Does NOT use scripts/shaderlist.txt, instead uses EVERY .shader file in the scripts folder. It does NOT search pk3 files for .shader files.
• Unlike most q3map2.exe compilers, supports the Valve 220 map format meaning it can be used to compile maps made with the J.A.C.K. map editor.
• 64-bit means it can compile some truely large maps because unlike the 32-bit version that comes with J.A.C.K. it can access more than 2 GB or 4 GB of memory during map compile time (the limit for 32-bit applications on Windows varies but is always 4 GB or less and is normally 2 GB or less).
  
  
• It stores the q3map2.exe compile command line into the map as a worldspawn key. There is nothing more frustrating than revisiting an a map you made, say, 6 months later and then not remembering what q3map2.exe command you used. This will never be a problem with this compiler. (In Zircon, type "map" with a map loaded and it will print out the worldspawn keys.)

I use the J.A.C.K. map editor, but this Q3MAP2 compiler should work just fine with TrenchBroom or the traditional Q3 map editor.

Various Notes About The Quake 3 Map Format

Here is a map that is huge. It is 15 percent of the size of the largest Q3 map I have created.

Q3: Light Reflection Data Into Map (Deluxe Mapping)

With DarkPlaces, this would like textures/texturecan/checkerboard_gloss.jpg or such.

Q3: Patches - Non-Brush Collidable / Lightmapped Polygons

These can be in a func_door or func_illusionary - they can move.

AFAIK TrenchBroom does not support patches at this time.

Q3: Curved Surfaces: They Are All Patches

Any curved edge you see in a Quake 3 map is a patch.

Every "curved" brush here is NOT a brush at all. It is a patch.

Q3: Zircon Can Do Quake 1 Buttons Where Texture Changes

DarkPlaces cannot at this time, but I communicated the method I used to the DarkPlaces dev team.

This func_button uses a shader specifying the texture for frame 0 (unpressed button frame) and for frame 1 (pressed button frame):

textures/trak5x_sh/button
{
	{
		framemap textures/trak5x/misc_button1.tga textures/trak5x/wall_wall7a.tga
	}
}

Q3: Animated Textures

Link: Animated textures in Q3 article from July 2023

Q3: Can a Quake 3 Map Do Quake 1 Action? (Yes)

A mini-campaign playable tech demo: Link: Quake3_Quake1 Tech Demo Download (Open Source/.Maps)

Q3: What Compiler Command Lines Look Like?

The -game nexuiz enables extra Q3 map compiler features that DarkPlaces supports. "-meta" must always be used for BSP. -mv and -mi are increased limits. -fs_game "id1" or -fs_game "quake3_quake1" is gamedir.

BSP:

C:/Program Files/J.A.C.K/quake3/q3map2_64_light_auto.exe -game nexuiz -fs_basepath "C:/quake/" -fs_game quake3_quake1 -meta -v -mv 1000000 -mi 6000000

VIS:

C:/Program Files/J.A.C.K/quake3/q3map2_64_light_auto.exe -game nexuiz -fs_basepath "C:/quake/" -fs_game quake3_quake1 -vis -saveprt -fast

LIT:

Quick light ...

C:/Program Files/J.A.C.K/quake3/q3map2_64_light_auto.exe -game nexuiz -fs_basepath "C:/quake/" -fs_game quake3_quake1 -light -deluxe -faster -cheapgrid -filter -gamma 0.7

Good light ..

C:/Program Files/J.A.C.K/quake3/q3map2_64_light_auto.exe -game nexuiz -fs_basepath "C:/quake/" -fs_game quake3_quake1 -light -deluxe -fast

The Quake 3 is massively more efficient with vertex and triangle counts compared to the Quake 3 map format, which chops up every surface for the WinQuake software renderer that no one uses anymore.

Q3: Terrain Blending

I am not a master of this. There are tutorials written by Sock (Arcane Dimensions author).

Those tutorials are available at link: Web.archive.org

Q3: Vegetation and The Vertex Animation Shader

If you look carefully, the leaves are moving a bit. It is not the model, it is the shader.

Q3: .fgd Definition File For J.A.C.K. (TrenchBroom can load .fgd files)

There is one in Quake3_Quake1 Demo (open source with .maps) in the quake3_quake1\scripts folder. It should be fully Quake compatible and additionally knows the Quake 3 extra worldspawn keys, the Quake 3 special entities and fields (this .fgd has extra capabilities for the Quake3_Quake1 also).

Q3: Textures

These textures DO NOT use shaders at all <-- !!!

They are from TextureCan.com and I renamed the _Normal_OpenGL to textures\texturecan\ something_norm.jpg and the ambient occlusion to textures\texturecan\ something_gloss.jpg. The ambient occulusion does not fully equate to _gloss so this may or may not yield perfect results.

The _norm gives it depth. The _gloss gives it light reflection/refraction.

There are also textures at AmbientCG.

r_glsl_deluxemapping 1 must be on. This is the map "park.bsp" in the Intermap Demo. The source code for that is available in the download.

Q3: Embed Models Into A Map (.OBJ, .MD3)

This rock is part of the .bsp -- it is lightmapped and every crack and nuance of the rock collides perfectly -- but it is not a brush. It in .obj model from Link: OpenGameArt.

I happened to convert this model to .md3 with Link:Noesis. Noesis is one of the most useful tools for model conversion, scaling, centering, rotating, etc. Blender can also be useful. As are online model converters which occasionally can do jobs that Noesis can't (like real weird model format to .obj conversion).

{
"classname" "misc_model"
"model" "models/outdoors/rock_03.md3" // <------- that compiles entirely into the map
"angles" "0 30 0"
"spawnflags" "6" // Flag 2 is solid (otherwise non-solid), Flag 4 is lightmapped = 2 + 4 = 6
"modelscale" "7" // Which is scale, this model has 7x magnification of size
"origin" "5043 4544 -641"
}

Embedded models have visibility just like the area they are in. For instance, an .obj or .md3 sink in a bathroom will not draw when you cannot see any part of the inside of the bathroom.

However, embedded models do not have their own visibility -- for instance you could not import a house model and expect that if inside the house.obj that it would work like inside a house made from brushes.

They can be a func_wall or func_illusionary, just like patches.

Q3: Structural Vs. Detail

Brushes can be structural or they can be detail. (All misc_model are effectively detail no matter what, and also patches).

Detail is an attribute you apply to brushes that are not walkways or walls or major surfaces. The excludes them from interfering and needlessly complicating visibility calculations, makes the map compile faster, makes it smaller.

Q3: Decals

Decals can be a flat brush near the surface or a patch. Decals can be animated, it is possible to make something that looks like a window shadow or a rotating fan shadow. Decals can be part of a func_plat or door.

Q3: Liquid Brushes (Water, Etc.)

Quake 3 BSP is incredibly lax with these. Also, there are shaders that can make the water level rise a bit and then recede a bit, in addition to the more commonly seen effects.

Q3: Embed Models - Let's Talk About This Bathroom

The sink and the bathtub are .OBJ (Kenney) embedded in the map as misc_model. The toilet here actually is a Quake entity (that means box collision so you cannot throw a grenade behind the toilet).

However, because the sink is misc_model as part of the map, there is actually a bottle of pills in the sink that perfectly collides and that bottle of pill spawned above the sink and fell into the sink.

Quake 1 BSP cannot do sizes. It knows 3 sizes -- player, shambler and point. It is impossible to make a tiny Shambler running around or a giant Shambler running around because those sizes cannot collide and you will actually see mods with dragons or such where the mapper boxes the entire area that the dragon is in with clip brushes to entrap the dragons because the dragons cannot collide correctly with the world.

Note: Eventually ...

I found a higher triangle count models (but still within reason) for a sink and toilet model ...

This is the map "park.bsp" in the Intermap Demo.