Poll: Who uses Cartography Shop?

#1 Yep! Got it, and like it way way better than Quark. There is even an "underground" patch somewhere for TGE to read the interiors produced

#2 Its a very nice program, never bought it tho, i've chose to go in a different direction.

#3 I can't use it on my Tablet PC. Many Blitz programs don't work either, so I'm sure there's just some funky DirectX call that went untested until it was too late.

But I liked the program a lot when I had it on a desktop.

#4

Quote:There is even an "underground" patch somewhere for TGE to read the interiors produced

Say Wha?? Are we talking about a different resource than the csm2map? If so, I'd like to hear about this, since I have a guy on my team that uses CS(stuff loooks good in the app, and when I tested it out, I was impressed at how easy to use it was compared to the other CSG modellers out there).

#5 @Thomas, "better than quark" is a bit vague. Would you mind elaborating a bit? I'm on the verge of prototyping a test level for my FPS and if there is something out there more "better than quark" I would like to know more! thx.

#6 I would have some more information on that, too. How many people really use the csm2map pipeline to build levels with CShop? Being a CShop owner, I know of several advantages and issues with it. But when it comes to ease of use (especially with TGE), I very much prefer DeleD.

#7 I would like to see more support for it on the chop end. Pure basic is kinda unique.
I answered on your DBPOLL as well.

Matt

#8 I think its John Kabus who has some patches so you get a csm2map for Cartography Shop 4.1 - I havent seen it online anywhere, so thats why I wrote "underground" - if its common knowledge and such, I apoligize for raising hopes.

The vague - "better than Quark" reflects on the UI being way more intuitive and productive. I'm a coder and not a power user of Quark, and I have a very very very very hard time getting to terms with that program. CS is just easy to use compared to Quark.

#9 John does have a new version of csm2dif, but it is still in a beta stage.

#10

Quote:The vague - "better than Quark" reflects on the UI being way more intuitive and productive. I'm a coder and not a power user of Quark, and I have a very very very very hard time getting to terms with that program. CS is just easy to use compared to Quark.

I'm in the same fix; a coder, not a level builder. Thanks for the input! 8^)

#11 Try downloading the demo of CS 4 and play with it - set out a goal to e.g. create a simple building with a single room. Try making it in Quark, and making it in CS and compare - you will immidiately know the difference. CS might not have all the nifty small advanced functions, but I dont know how to use those anyways so I do not miss them at all

#12 I tried both. One is an easy and surprisingly powerful tool for making maps the other one is QuArk.

#13 QuArK's not that bad if you set it up in a familiar format (four screens/dark background/etc). It's also more powerful overall, IMHO.

Worldcraft had better arches and was more intuitive for the new mapper--I'm sure CS has an easier learning curve as well.

More power to the guy, though. Now if we could just get a program that could load up whole torque levels and edit interiors directly in that. ;)

#14

Quote:
QuArK's not that bad if you set it up in a familiar format (four screens/dark background/etc).

Well that's the problem with QuArk... it's not bad if you know it and configure it to something reasonable to use. For those that don't it's a long and painful process. I was productive with CShop from the first seconds in the app.

Quote:
More power to the guy, though. Now if we could just get a program that could load up whole torque levels and edit interiors directly in that. ;)

A wink indeed. CShop 5 looks to be going that way.

#15 I actually submitted a resource to do just that (make QuArK more WC-like): WC2QuArK

Of course, QuArK itself hasn't been updated in months, which is bit of a bummer. QuArK's texturing was also a bit hard for me to grasp. It's nice that no WADs are needed, and it can import JPG directly. I don't know if CS still uses the WAD format or not.

#16

Quote:
I don't know if CS still uses the WAD format or not.

I don't believe it does. I'm trying to get Josh to make it a bit more friendly to use with Torque by allowing it to use textures from your torque folder directly without having to keep two copies around.

#17 The other concern I have is that QuARK is what, 3 years now without an upgrade? (Am I right about that?) If TGE wants to evolve to supporting level "features" (new stuff, who knows) beyond what QuARK is capable of, a new level editor is necessary. IMHO. Perhaps CS could be a fit...
Gads, I love to see a level editing tool where one could just sit down and DO a whole bloody level from one application.

#18 LOL No, not three years; About seven months.

I'm sure QuArK is a labor of love for the programmers, and as such often gets put to the side.

#19

Quote:LOL No, not three years; About seven months

Thx Eric, I stand corrected...

#20 That's my ultimate goal for my CShop plugins. To have one package that exports a mission, terrain, difs, and dts instances... like UnrealEd for Torque. CShop 5 will have all the pieces to do this (terrain, bsp, and instanced meshes) and i'm trying to work with Josh to make sure it is possible from his framework. Step one is just the DIF exporter which i'll be releasing in a beta this week.