Map2dif

#21 Ok, I rebuilt the maps, and renamed all the textures, but I still get the parser 2error. I'm building these map files in a quake3 editor (gtkradiant), could that be causing the problems? I can import them into worldcraft no probs, (which is useless, seeing as how worldcraft won't recognise my wad files), so I'm assuming they're the same map. format as the quake2 maps. There are no entities involved at all, both maps are simple buildings (without an interior, just solid brushes in the shape of a mage tower and an orc tower), so I don't understand why there's a problem. If I can't sort it by the weekend, I'll upload them for someone else to take a look at if they like.

#22 @Robert:

I might be mistaken but I think the format GTkRadiant uses is not the same as the one Quark and Hammer is using.

#23 Do you use the -q3 tag when you export the map ,othervise map2dif thinks its a valve 220 format .

#24 Radiant makes me sad. It's such a good editor, but oh-so expensive to use.

#25 @ Stefan: you're right, it is a different map format to hammer ..I just exported a map from hammer, after importing it fm gtk, and it's a smaller map file.
@ Billy: I didn't export it per se, just drag and dropped it into the hammer folder.
@ Dave: Don't panic, this is just my first attempt at getting an object into my first mission, so I figured I'd use a couple of prefabs from a mod I was making for rtcw...I've been mapping for too long to try to use someone elses' property for my own gain. Unfortunately, it's proving to be more trouble than it's worth :(

I downloaded quark the other night, and started looking at it last night...do any of you guys use it regularly? Apart from a convoluted folder system, with the wc4torque plugin, it doesn' look too bad. If I could figure out why Hammer won't open my wads (built with buildwad), I'd be using that, but alas, another roadblock. Thanks for the input fellas.

#26 @Robert Sjollema:

Try out Wally (search on google, you'll find it) to compress your .wad's, that's what I use and it works perfectly.

Now, when you export the map.. make sure that the textures are in the same folder as the rmf file (or rather the map file). The WAD files are merely for viewing in the actual editor than anything else when you edit maps for Torque in Hammer.

#27 Stefan, thanks again for your reply :) I must be doing something wrong (hell, so far I seem to be doing everything wrong!), with the buildwad.exe, because the wad file is only 12 bytes in size when I put all of the demo textures in it. I would like to try Wally, but I can only find the option to merge wads, not build new ones....how do I access it? Btw, I gave quark a serious go last night, and that has to be the most convoluted editor out there, as well as very slow. When I opened one of my maps in it, it looked like it had been turned inside out and upside down...I think I'll give that a miss...each to his own I guess.

#28 I remember having a similar problem, so I'd recommend to give this a try:

1) make a very simple map, like creating a box
1) your .map should look very similar to this:

{
"classname" "worldspawn"
"mapversion" "220"
// cube1 
 { // begin object
  ( -256 0 0 ) ( -256 64 0 ) ( 0 0 0 )  tex03 [ -1.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0 ]  [ 0.00000 1.00000 0.00000 0 ]  0 1.00000 1.00000
  ( -256 0 -256 ) ( -256 64 -256 ) ( -256 0 0 )  tex03 [ 0.00000 0.00000 -1.00000 0 ]  [ 0.00000 1.00000 0.00000 0 ]  0 1.00000 1.00000
  ( 0 0 -256 ) ( 0 64 -256 ) ( -256 0 -256 )  tex03 [ 1.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0 ]  [ 0.00000 1.00000 0.00000 0 ]  0 1.00000 1.00000
  ( 0 0 0 ) ( 0 64 0 ) ( 0 0 -256 )  tex03 [ 0.00000 0.00000 1.00000 0 ]  [ 0.00000 1.00000 0.00000 0 ]  0 1.00000 1.00000
  ( -256 0 -256 ) ( -256 0 0 ) ( 0 0 -256 )  tex03 [ -1.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0 ]  [ 0.00000 0.00000 1.00000 0 ]  0 1.00000 1.00000
  ( -256 64 0 ) ( -256 64 -256 ) ( 0 64 0 )  tex03 [ -1.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0 ]  [ 0.00000 0.00000 -1.00000 0 ]  0 1.00000 1.00000
 } //end object
} // end worldspawn

where tex03 is any other texture.

3) I prepared a small batch file to help with the typing, that looks like this:

map2dif_DEBUG.exe -t C:\Torque\game\data\interiors\deled -o C:\Torque\game\data\interiors\deled test.map

(this was taken from the .map exporter for DeleD) It describes where the textures are and where the map file goes to.

At least your map2dif process should work ok, then.

Does it?

#29 @Robert Sjollema:

I don't use Quark either. I honestly can't understand it :P

Actually, I've never gotten around to creating .wad files in Wally the "real way". I just create a new empty file and name it whatever I like. Ex: Robert.wad

Then I go into wally and open the empty file up.. and add files to it, save.. and there we go.

- Start Wally.
- Create the file.
- Go into the menu called "Package"
- Add Images
- Chose Wildcards (I use *.png)
- Mark "Open Package" and chose your file.
- Convert
- Done!

Other than that, Dirk gives quite a nice Troubleshooter.

#30 Thanks for the replies gents. I finally managed to get a wad. file made using wally, and now I can actually try and build a map in worldcraft, and use the map2dif exe as part of the compile. I will let you know how it turns out.
@ Dirk, thanks for the batch file, you can rest assured I'll use it if the worldcraft effort doesn't work ;)

#31 Well, it worked! I finally got the editor set up correctly, and at last I have the dif. files in torque :) Once again, thanks for all the help fellas, I couldn't have done it without ya!

#32 No problem, just make sure you use WorldCraft and not Hammer if you want to release anything, as the EULA was changed shortly before Hammer was released and forbid using the editor for anything else than Valve's products.

#33 Regarding my solution, i found that i was just doing a typo :S

#34 Hey, i've been having that parse error as well. Wheelbarrow, could you perhaps say what was wrong? I can't figure it out for the life of me.. :(

#35 Jacob, I assume you're referring to my first post on this thread when I was still trying to use the map2dif command in the dos window? If so, I never found out what was causing the error message. I found it infinitely easier to use worldcraft 3.3 (type that in google and it will list several download sites). I used the GG documentation here to set worldcraft up, and use it do all of my map building, and when I'm done I just press F9 and it produces a dif file. I would highly recommend using worldcraft rather than the command window. Quark is another option, but I found it extremely confusing and slow to use (purely a personal opinion). Hope this helps.

#36 Well, the guy makin maps for me tried a simple one and i loaded it in the command window, didn't work. Then i loaded it in quark and tried to export a dif with that, still didn't work. I looked at the lines it was causing errors, it was right on the closing bracket of the brush 0. Any ideas?

#37 If you still can't get it work, mail the map to me.

#38 Alright, mailed it off.. thanks! :D

#39 Works here.

Please mail the exact error message.

#40 Got it working. It was casue i was using the debug build, for some reason it didn't want to work. Release build works fine, all is good. Thanks! :D