Musing On Map Compilation

[New Horizon]

I've been tossing and turning an idea around in my head. Being a non-coder, I have no idea if it is feasible...so forgive my ignorance.

 

Just to be clear, I'm not making a proposal to do the following...simply airing my thoughts and looking to hear feedback from those who are far more knowledgeable than I.

 

I'm annoyed that we will have to lean on D3Ed to compile our maps and that got me wondering...might q3map still be close enough to dmap? Might it have the potential to be updated to work with DR so we could compile our own maps? We have the source code, and from what I could see in my internet sleuthing...it does a good bit of what dmap does. The file formats for d3 maps appear to be fairly open, although I'm damned sure it would be a LOT of work to get all the missing pieces working...perhaps impossible.

 

Ahh well, just a thought. If anyone here thought it were even a remotely good idea, I would try to find another coder or two to work on it. Only reason I bring it up is because the q3map source code is available and seems like it could be worthwhile.

 

I see the aas source is in the doom 3 sdk...so that would already be taken care of I guess. Hmmm. I'm an idiot. lol

[Komag]

Can DoomEdit be opened but minimized, the map loaded, compiled, saved, all automatically? If it's all in the background it's almost as good right

[New Horizon]

Can DoomEdit be opened but minimized, the map loaded, compiled, saved, all automatically? If it's all in the background it's almost as good right

 

It probably can, and I've suggested something similar in the past...but it would be ideal to eliminate the need for having to open Doom3Ed at all. My ultimate desire for Dark Radiant is for it to be fully independent of Doom3Ed....but that might have to wait until the Doom 3 source code is released. Hopefully there will be someone to integrate it into DR at that time. I'm just curious if we could actually take what exists in q3map, adapt it and even improve it.

 

I'll wait to hear what our guys have to say. If there is a glimmer of hope, I'll see if I can recruit someone to at least look into it and see how big of a task it would be. It might turn out to be a viable option.

[greebo]

...it does a good bit of what dmap does. The file formats for d3 maps appear to be fairly open, although I'm damned sure it would be a LOT of work to get all the missing pieces working...perhaps impossible.

I don't know how hard it would be. You really had to get it absolutely right and I think there is some shadow pre-calculation going on as well. I doubt that the q3 would be of too much help, maybe a bit for the collisionmodel calculation, but anything Doom3-specific will be hard.

 

Reverse-engineering that stuff will be quite a task, I reckon. But I don't think it's too vital, as the dmap command is available in Doom3 itself and you have to start the game anyway. At least I as a non-DoomEdit user never missed the in-editor compilation, but that's of course just me.

 

Ahh well, just a thought. If anyone here thought it were even a remotely good idea, I would try to find another coder or two to work on it.

Well, one or two more coders - that would be nice at any rate, wouldn't it?

[sparhawk]

I guess that question should be asked on Q3world. But as greebo said, you have to start the map in Doom3 anyway, and at that point you can compile it. Still, looking for leaks might be a pain though.

[OrbWeaver]

A possibly little-known fact: the proc file is text-based and commented, not (as I had previously assumed) an opaque binary format.

 

That's an interesting idea regarding using q3map, it depends how different the Doom 3 map format is and whether the necessary information can be figured out and added to q3map's base.

[New Horizon]

A possibly little-known fact: the proc file is text-based and commented, not (as I had previously assumed) an opaque binary format.

 

That's an interesting idea regarding using q3map, it depends how different the Doom 3 map format is and whether the necessary information can be figured out and added to q3map's base.

 

I figured it was worth a shot. It's possible that we could even improve things a bit more.

 

I downloaded q3map and took a look at it for fun...not that I would know what to do with it. lol I can put it on the ftp if you guys would just like to take a quick look at it.

[SneaksieDave]

The way I've done it is just run TDM windowed, alongside DarkRadiant. You do your construction, and save as normal. Then just pop over to the TDM window and compile at the console, and you don't need DoomEd open at all (technically speaking).

 

With DarkRadiant's recently fixed/revived implementation of regions, you can even selectively compile portions of a map, instead of the whole thing. Make a map 4 square miles (or km if you prefer), and just compile a single room in a few seconds to check it out in-game.

[New Horizon]

The way I've done it is just run TDM windowed, alongside DarkRadiant. You do your construction, and save as normal. Then just pop over to the TDM window and compile at the console, and you don't need DoomEd open at all (technically speaking).

 

 

Yeah, that's probably the best solution at present. I'm just thinking in ideal terms and that DR would be fully meeting its purpose if it were able to handle all elements of building the map....especially if there were any optimizations possible in the map compilation process.

 

I sit and think about things like this far too often. lol

[greebo]

Please put it on FTP, I'd like to take a look at the source. Or is it easy to find in google? Then I can do this myself of course.

[New Horizon]

Please put it on FTP, I'd like to take a look at the source. Or is it easy to find in google? Then I can do this myself of course.

 

It's included in the Quake 3 Arena source code, but I'll toss up the q3map source onto the ftp...so you don't have to download the whole thing.

[New Horizon]

Here is a link to the Quake 3 source. I just uploaded the entire package, as I wasn't sure if there would be other pieces that might be needed if we were to go forward.

 

http://newhorizon.veledan.com/quake3_source.zip