Error starting my first self made mission

[galore19]

I found this game and have always wanted to design. I read some tutorials, made a room, did the dmap prompt with no errors in red. When i try it out, I get to a screen where I click objectives, which is blank and then the screen just flashes. I get the error message below

0 0 1920 1080
----- idRenderModelManagerLocal::EndLevelLoad -----
    0 models purged from previous level,     3 models kept.
---------------------------------------------------
Regenerated world, staticAllocCount = 0.
Shutting down sound hardware
idRenderSystem::Shutdown()
Shutting down OpenGL subsystem
...wglMakeCurrent( NULL, NULL success
...deleting GL context: success
...releasing DC: success
...destroying window
...restoring hardware gamma: success
...shutting down QGL
I18NLocal: Shutdown.
------------ Game Shutdown -----------
ModelGenerator memory: No LOD entries.
Shutdown event system
--------------------------------------
Couldn't load map maps/

 

All other missions load so before I quit this, wanted to see what I am doing wrong.

Thanks

[nbohr1more]

The game cannot find the map file under /darkmod/fms/name_of_mission/maps/

Perhaps you have the wrong folder design or you packed your mission with the parent folder included in the pack?

[STRUNK]

@galore19 Welcome first of all!!
Did you try loading your map by entering: testmap yourmapname
in the console (where you do the dmap)? (You can also launch it from within DarkRadiant).
I never came to building a complete mission only maps that I explore with the testmap command.
There are certain things you have to do to load your map as if it's a finished mission, so from the darkmod menu.

Something that seems to be quite hidden; a list of video tutorials:
https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=DarkRadiant_Video_Tutorials

By the way, the general topic for questions about map making and such can be found here:

 

Edited August 29, 2025 by STRUNK

[demagogue]

Yes, on first sight it looks like you didn't get the mission packaging right.
So that's what you can look up. 

I'd say the first time through every aspiring mapper really ought to just follow Fidcal's A to Z tutorial straight, doing exactly what it says. https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php/A_-_Z_Beginner_Full_Guide_Start_Here!

Then you know you've covered every step from start to finish. But of course everybody has different approaches that work for them. 

Ok, I guess I'll add a little more. As you probably already know, there are two ways to run a mission, from inside DR, where you need to package everything directly into TDM's folder structure (some people even make a separate install for editing), and from inside the game, where you package up a .pk4 and run the mission from that, although that might be seem a little less efficient. I recall doing it both ways, making periodic landmark .pk4 versions, and then doing little changes running them through DR, until it felt like enough had changed that I'd pack it into a new .pk4. I think some people only make the .pk4 at the end, and I imagine some people run off .pk4s every time. Just learn how to package missions both ways and figure out what works for you. 

[thebigh]

1 hour ago, demagogue said:

I think some people only make the .pk4 at the end, and I imagine some people run off .pk4s every time.

 

I pack it up into a pk4 at the end. Doing that over and over again during development seems like too much hassle for me.

[boissiere]

I can more or less reproduce the OP's behaviour if I use 'start mission' rather than executing the map command from the console. This won't work if there's no startingmap.txt file telling TDM the name of the map.

As others have implied the surefire way to make this work is to do it all from the TDM console. If your map file is called m1.map then you should enter

dmap m1

If that is returns success then enter

map m1

It should show the default TDM map loading screen and then the usual "Press 'Attack' to start mission" message.