The Last Outpost

So I let the cat out of the bag this evening, that I was planning to stream a map making class on Twitch. After that, I fielded map making questions from 3 members.

As a result, I'm gonna start moving forward now :P





1. Install RPG-X
2. Place the "mapextras.pk3' file in the Baseef folder of your RPG-X install.
3. Open the Netradiant Zip file, and extract the contents somewhere easy to find.
4. Open the Netradiant addons file and extract the "games" and "stvef.game" folders to the root of the netradiant folder.
5. Open Netradiant, and follow the gui setup to select "Star Trek Voyager Elite Force" as your game and point the editor to your RPG-X install.

Congratulations: Netradiant is installed - now what do you do with it?!


I'm very picky with how I have my interface. Largely because it's how I learned to map :P. So, This next part revolves largely around choice, trial and error and just playing around with things (which is 93% of mapping anyway). I'm going to help you get setup like I have mine.

1. Press "P" to open your preferences.
2. Under interface, select "layout" - I choose the third option from the left (second to last). The four square layout makes life easier to see when you're dealing with the 3D Axis.
3. Scroll down to Settings, and select "Brush" - make sure that "Always use caulk for new brushes" is checked.
4. Select "Orthographic" and make sure 'Display size info" is checked
5. Press OK and proceed.

Note - the changing of the layout will result in a need to restart the program.

And just like that - Your radiant install looks just like mine. Now you're ready to begin


Will and Ant's Map Source files are on this page (http://www.iwantstudios.com/) (Will and Ant were responsible for a LARGE chunk of RPG-X's original maps, including Poseidon-B, Atlantis, the STRP-HQ series and MANY MANY more.)

(More to come later)

So I think this is going to start this week. Anyone Interested in learning how to map - Hope to see you all Friday!.

As a note, we're going move very slowly. And I recommend following along with what I build as closely as possible. I'm going to Channel my inner Bob Ross (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw5ETGiiBRg) through the whole expedition.

Don't worry if it's not 'perfect' - This is your canvas. Mapping is as much an expression of self as any other form of art - so have fun with it!

There will be lessons on building, texturing, entities, even some info on how to compile a final copy of your map. Stick with it! And ask questions :)


Anyway, see you Friday

Link to my Twitch Channel is right under the image on the top - just fyi

I think this is a great idea.


I wanted to get into mapping a while back but could never figure it out.  Do you know what time on Friday you'll be streaming?  I'll hopefully try and be there.

Around 5pm EDT

I know it's late on your end, but it seemed my best window at the moment :)

Anyway - I hope to see you there (and totally hope I can make it interesting and fun :) )

ill be tunning in too

I'd have loved to tune in but i noticed i missed this message (im not on the forums as much as i used to). If you do this again some time id love to hear your take on mapping!

Quote from: Martin Thompson on July 29, 2017, 03:57:33 AM
I'd have loved to tune in but i noticed i missed this message (im not on the forums as much as i used to). If you do this again some time id love to hear your take on mapping!

Certainly!

This week, we built a box, textured it and got some basics on how to use the interface of Netradiant.

Next week, we're going to build another room, take on doors, and maybe a couple other basic entities :)

This sounds amazing. :D* Will these sessions be recorded?

Quote from: Telex Ferra on July 30, 2017, 12:05:05 PM
This sounds amazing. :D* Will these sessions be recorded?

if I can remember to hit the record button, yes

if I can't then I'll sit down first chance I get, and re-record (Which is what's going to happen for this past Friday)

Lesson 2 should kick off tomorrow

I'm taking tomorrow off work, so I *may* have the time to re-record lesson 1, but even if I don't, this week will build from last week, while at the same time serve as a recap. so the only thing we'll really miss from last week is the setup of radiant (But the first post here has that already...)

I added a link to Will and Ant's source files.

Some of you may be familiar with the first map I ever released, Iwo-Jima. This was a re-hash of Will and Ant's STRP_Defiant. I used their source files (with their permission) to release that map - but I also went on to learn a TON by reverse engineering what they had done. So, it may be worth looking at their maps in editor (may do that a bit tonight) and just seeing what we can learn from them.

That was really nice Klaw. Sorry if i cant keep my mouth shut haha im just really enthousiastic to see you pick this up and going with it. It makes me want to share my own knowledge aswell haha

Quote from: Martin Thompson on August 04, 2017, 05:47:16 PM
That was really nice Klaw. Sorry if i cant keep my mouth shut haha im just really enthousiastic to see you pick this up and going with it. It makes me want to share my own knowledge aswell haha

Please do!

The whole purpose of this is to learn, so if I can teach you - Great, and if you can teach me - Even better!

Uploading this week's video to twitch right now (for anyone who may have missed it)

I think I may have covered things well enough to ignore week one :P, but if you have a question about mapping in general - Let me know!

Net radiant? not heard of that one. I have a lot of experience with uberradiant for stef2.  I could never get gtk radiant working.

Going live in about 35 minutes :)

Hope to see you all there

Will there be more today?

Quote from: Martin Thompson on August 18, 2017, 01:55:21 PM
Will there be more today?

That's a good question, with everything that has happened this week, I kinda forgot about this (I'm a bad person...)

I *just* got home from a funeral, I'm currently decompressing - so I'm going to probably take this week off.

I hope nobody is too disappointed in me :(

However, this would be a perfect time to catch up. I uploaded videos from weeks 2 and 3 to my Twitch Channel. If you missed something, they're there - right around 30 minutes, and it can help catch you up with where we'll be going next week.

I am sorry for the lack of forethought about this. I promise, I'm usually better about this.

Quote from: Klaw on August 18, 2017, 03:18:31 PM

Quote from: Martin Thompson on August 18, 2017, 01:55:21 PM
Will there be more today?

That's a good question, with everything that has happened this week, I kinda forgot about this (I'm a bad person...)

I *just* got home from a funeral, I'm currently decompressing - so I'm going to probably take this week off.

I hope nobody is too disappointed in me :(

However, this would be a perfect time to catch up. I uploaded videos from weeks 2 and 3 to my Twitch Channel. If you missed something, they're there - right around 30 minutes, and it can help catch you up with where we'll be going next week.

I am sorry for the lack of forethought about this. I promise, I'm usually better about this.

No problem Klaw. My condolences for your loss. From the looks of it you've had a rough week so it's understandable you didn't got around to it. I was just watching part 3 and hope to see more in the coming weeks!

Next week for sure, I'll take a little walk through the models - and some different things that can be done with them, may even start playing a little with Skyboxes too.

*sigh* I should try and find the free time to pick this back up...

HI Klaw,
Just wanted to say: I'm really enthusiastic about this class, BUT I will probably not be able to make the live stream.
I'm going to review your videos, enjoy your Bob Ross impression and work along but behind you.

Thank you for doing this.

"If you like, put a happy little Klingon in there..."

You haven't missed much - and I haven't had the time to pick it up. but that is likely about to change - at least for a couple of weeks :)

Getting caught up on your videos, they're well put together, nice and logical. I cut my teeth on UnrealEd, so Radiant is VERY different.
Will you be doing any advance tutorials? I'm really keen to learn the trick for "comms windows". There's a map (forget which one) where you can call down to the engineering office (I think) and see the other character in real time. Is that something you can put on your list to cover?
Another question, which affects my planning: can you change/ modify skyboxes? If I want to simulate a map moving from one sector of space to another, is that possible? Can you have two skyboxes, if you want a combined ship/ planetside map?

Thanks again.

It's been too long...

looking at possibly reviving this a bit. keep an eye out, may have some new content this weekend (if I don't stream it :P)

I'd like to see this back!

jspaced, I missed you questions - I'm sorry about that!

To answer both of your questons, yes.

The camera thing is something I have mixed success with, but it's something 'm using right now in a map I'm working on, so far - it's behaving :). I do plan on touching on that semi-soon.

As for skybox - I did this trick on Nova, by using a target_alert. The trick here is to make sure that you have a solid box that isn't affected by the entity (and I'll go into more detail, and can certainly touch on that a bit too soon-ish).

Quote from: JSpaced10 on October 24, 2017, 09:42:38 AM
Will you be doing any advance tutorials? I'm really keen to learn the trick for "comms windows". There's a map (forget which one) where you can call down to the engineering office (I think) and see the other character in real time. Is that something you can put on your list to cover?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I made that on the Dauntless v1.2 map. I could also assit with that if you require help setting that up.