Trech Boom Quake map editor. Brand new and MODERN tool design / fucntionality!

Skiffy · Mar 2013

This just rocks!

http://kristianduske.com/trenchbroom/

http://player.vimeo.com/video/60789206

Brand new map editor for the quake series!
The tools are amazing to use, everyone should check it out.

Just imagine what we could have done with this back when the original quake shipped.

The Author will be working on adding quake 2 and 3 map support as well. Quake2 has a soft spot in my heart. I cant wait to make some new Single player maps with this. Oh and of course using the KMquake2 version for extra hot sauce!

http://www.markshan.com/knightmare/

Makkon · Mar 2013

Can you export these in other formats, like OBJ? It'd be great to design and test layouts in this, and then export them and fancy them up for other engines after you know it works.

Also, wish we had something like this for Source.

WarrenM · Mar 2013

No, it's a Quake editor through and through.

I love it. I've been tinkering with it for a few days now and this is what I always wanted Quake editing to be.

It's a cool experience since he's taken a hardline on some things like no ortho views ... and it works! Brilliantly, even.

It has a bunch of things missing and stuff can be improved here and there but he's actively working on it so I expect it will all get worked out. Grab if it you ever liked editing Quake levels ... you'll be working on a level within 5 minutes of downloading it, I swear.

fmnoor · Mar 2013

Yea this is super impressive and looks fun. Would be cool to see it roll out to newer Quake games at some point.

Torch · Mar 2013

Makkon wrote: »

Also, wish we had something like this for Source.

Isn't a Source 2 currently in Production?

cholden · Mar 2013

I used to make quake maps. This looks outstanding!

aivanov · Mar 2013

Torch wrote: »

Isn't a Source 2 currently in Production?

That's absolutely no guarantee Valve has updated it's development tool paradigms. For all we know, it'll be Hammer *yet again*, but with even more cluttered and obscure entity work for all the cool new effects.

Vrav · Mar 2013

I'm having loads of fun with this. Let's make some maps!

CrazyMatt · Mar 2013

aivanov wrote: »

That's absolutely no guarantee Valve has updated it's development tool paradigms. For all we know, it'll be Hammer *yet again*, but with even more cluttered and obscure entity work for all the cool new effects.

Source 2 has been confirmed by Gabe himself, and for those who've been, or are licensees of Source. Will know that valve's creative departments have been long fed up with the need for creating qc's and vmts for various parts of visual production and pipeline integration.

Which is why .DMX format was their first step torwards a more streamlined production pipeline using various tools not yet provided for much info from their in-depth Maya artist pipeline.

Baddcog · Mar 2013

ugg, maya pipeline for source 2? Say hello to Y up model issues...

Vrav · Mar 2013

For Windows usershere are some batch file commands I've written to make building and testing superfast for a map created in TrenchBroom. (btw, the title to this thread is madly typo'd)

To use this you will want hmap2 and darkplaces. hmap2 is in the utilities section.

I'm sure you could do something similar in any other Quake engine, but this is for dp, my personal engine of choice. It has a lot of advanced graphics options, but is super performance friendly on old quake maps and has a bunch of other options to retroify if you so please. (For example, you can turn off texture filtering with the console command GL_TEXTUREMODE GL_NEAREST. r_viewscale is another fun one to play with. The console also has full, documented tab completion.)

build_and_play.bat (thanks to LordHavoc for the hmap2 suggestions)

@echo off

SET MAPNAME="%~n1"

SET HMAP2=path\to\hmap2\hmap2.exe

%HMAP2% -darkplaces %MAPNAME%
%HMAP2% -vis %MAPNAME%
%HMAP2% -light -extra8x8 %MAPNAME%
pause

cd path\to\darkplacesdir\
START darkplaces.exe -nohome -quake +skill 2 +map %MAPNAME%

Edit the paths to your respective hmap2.exe and darkplaces directory and the .bat should be good to go, for dragging a .map file onto. Of course you can choose not to use -nohome, different skill level, etc. The nohome option basically tells darkplaces not to use user directories, rather read the config files from the current install directory for darkplaces (ie yourinstalldirectory\id1) etc. Keeps things local and clean.

This file is placed and ran from the maps directory, ie id1\maps. If you don't want to drag and drop the file every time, make a shortcut to the batch file and add yourmapname.map outside the quotes in the shortcut's target path. Super handy.

I (and likely several others!) can provide meager assistance here if you guys do start making maps and have trouble, so feel free to ask. It is a bit tricky getting everything set up with the id1 data copied over to dp, maps directory created, positioning a texture wad for the map editor and compiler, etc. Maybe we could make a P&P thread for PC Quake mapping... it could happen!

Somehow darkplaces makes even my random tinkering look pretty. And it's so quick to whip out in this mapping tool. *_*

(shots with r_shadow_bouncegrid 1 and r_shadow_bouncegrid_spacing 32, id1 textures)

Skiffy · Mar 2013

Fixed the lovely typo. Was posted at 1 in the morning my time :P I was too happy in spreading the news. As for folks wanting to revive quake map authoring I am all for it! It is a bit worrying though with finding good tutorials now though... Site that used to host them have been falling like flies

It is very tricky to find a good solid collection of info on proper Singleplayer Map creation tutorials for the older quake games. Or maybe I just cant find them in the forgotten dark corners of the internet...

If somebody could point me in the right direction to any good sites that are still up then I would gladly go there. The help files that come with Trenchbroom are focused purely on the program itself and does not go into anything related to triggers or level linking / events / mover brushes or buttons setups and all the other

For those wondering about other quake titles being supported fear not! Quake 2 and 3 have been requested numerous times and the Author said he will get to work on those ASAP because of the high level of interest.

WarrenM · Mar 2013

skiffy

The active mapping community for Quake 1 mostly lives here:

http://www.celephais.net/board/forum.php

I'm on there as "Willem". The TrenchBroom author is there as are a few other guys who are doing cool projects.

Justin Meisse · Mar 2013

oooh, I'll have to check this out, it's been a long time since I messed with Quake modding. It would be interesting to do a Quake Challenge after everyone recovers from Escape.

Vrav · Mar 2013

This will help you a lot in Quake mapping: Quake MAP Specs

Justin, we think alike!

Alphavader · Mar 2013

I did many maps for Duke Nukem 3d.. give it a try ... thanks alot

leilei · Mar 2013

Oh wow I can finally abandon Worldcraft 1.1a

Looking forward to the maps here!

ambershee · Mar 2013

Must. Have. Quake III. Version

Skiffy · Mar 2013

Hmm a quake mapping contest with each version of the game could be epic... quake 1 map contest followed with quake 2 and 3... lets revive the oldschool awesome!

This is a pretty nice and sweet port / quake 1 exe update.

http://directq.codeplex.com/

This adds a bunch of nice mod features as well. Can also be combined with ENBseries

sinistergfx · Mar 2013

Used to dabble with Q1 mapping back in the day! Definitely want to try and jump back in. I've forgotten just about everything though.

Quick one: how do you group brushes?

WarrenM · Mar 2013

You can't really. You can add them to a func_group entity at the moment but that's about it. Proper grouping is coming in a future version...

JamesWild · Mar 2013

I did a LOT of mapping for Quake-III based engines back in the day. Always liked the 1:1 visuals:physics matchup, no ambiguity as to what's there at all. This looks pretty sweet, though I have to question the wisdom of removing the 2D viewports altogether.

Hey, let's add brush sculpting and bring this into the 21st century a-la Blender dynamic topology sculpting.

WarrenM · Mar 2013

You'd be surprised how much you don't miss the 2D viewports.

There's been a definite shift over the years. 2D viewports used to be where all the editing happened and the 3D view was sort of a preview of the level. Now most editing (and modeling, sculpting, etc) happens in 3D where 2D is only used when precise tweaks need to be made.

He's trying to make this editor work 100% in 3D and I'd say he's done it. It's damned nice.

JamesWild · Mar 2013

It's fine for outdoor maps and buildings, but for anything either made out of modular pieces (which doesn't apply to Q1) or anything highly structured like a spacecraft interior not having 2D viewports is infuriating. Currently working with the Cryengine, which seems to have non-functional 2D viewports which are only capable of drawing meshes'/brushes' bounding boxes, and it's a pain. For most purposes though just having the 3D is fine.

eld · Mar 2013

JamesWild wrote: »

It's fine for outdoor maps and buildings, but for anything either made out of modular pieces (which doesn't apply to Q1) or anything highly structured like a spacecraft interior not having 2D viewports is infuriating. Currently working with the Cryengine, which seems to have non-functional 2D viewports which are only capable of drawing meshes'/brushes' bounding boxes, and it's a pain. For most purposes though just having the 3D is fine.

Solved with hotkeys for going ortho and pointing the camera towards different angles, it's how most modern editors do it.

hobodactyl · Mar 2013

Thanks for the .bat Vrav, it works great! Where do I put my texture .wad file, though? I can see it in Trench Broom, but in-game it just shows as a checkerboard.

WarrenM · Mar 2013

If it's a checkboard in the game it's because QBSP couldn't find the WAD. When you add it to TrenchBroom, tell it to use the full path. That should fix it. Textures are baked into the BSP file in Quake so there's no external dependency once compilation is done.

Vrav · Mar 2013

Yeah, full (absolute) path was needed on my end to help the compiler find the wad.

Anchang-Style · Mar 2013

Wow beeing too young (with 27 that is) to have played or modded anything before Q3 i still can see this beeing awesome, fantastic work.

WarrenM · Mar 2013

Anchang-Style wrote: »

Wow beeing too young (with 27 that is) to have played or modded anything before Q3 i still can see this beeing awesome, fantastic work.

Memory · Mar 2013

Anchang-Style wrote: »

Wow beeing too young (with 27 that is) to have played or modded anything before Q3 i still can see this beeing awesome, fantastic work.

I'm 28 and I played Quake 2 for a total of 7 years, with plenty of Q1 mixed in. To this day when people say they know the program 'Quark' I still think they're talking about Quake Army Knife (QuArK.) Quakeworld ruled my life, loved the impact rune

hobodactyl · Mar 2013

@ WarrenM and Vrav: Thanks, that did the trick!

I'm 27 and I modded the hell out of Doom even :P

Trech Boom Quake map editor. Brand new and MODERN tool design / fucntionality!

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