gtkradiant/docs/manual/Q3Rad_Manual/ch07/pg7_1.htm

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<title>Q3Radiant Editor Manual: Page 7.1</title>
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<h1 class = "MsoTitle">Q3Radiant Editor Manual</h1>
<hr>
<h1><a name = "tools4">Tools 4: Working with Textures</a></h1>
There are three skill and knowledge components to working with
textures as they regard <i>Quake III Arena</i>. They are Texture
creation, Texture Manipulation, and Texture Application. Only the
third, Texture Application, is absolutely necessary for making
maps. You need not master all three.
<h2><a name = "brushprim">Brush Primitives: A New Format</a></h2>
With the release of version 192, the Q3Radiant editor takes a
new direction in the way textures are mapped to the surfaces of
brushes. The texturing format will roughly be the same as the way
textures are handled on curve patches. While there are no changes
to the user interface within the editor, you should see a change in
the way textures behave on brushes during transformation operations
like move and rotate. Because textures are mapped to the S
and T coordinates of a brush (as they are with curve patches),
locked textures will now maintain their positions on brushes when
they are moved or located. Even complex rotations should now be
possible without the textures going askew.
<p>Checking the Brush Primitives checkbox turns on this feature.
<span class = "menu">(Menu: Project Settings&hellip; &gt; Use brush primitives in map
files)</span>. Once you change a map to Brush Primitives, you cannot go
back to the earlier method of texture mapping with that map. The
prudent mapper makes backups before making major changes to
projects.
<h2><a name = "newtex">Texture Creation: Making new Assets</a></h2>
This is covered earlier in the manual.
<h2><a name = "texman">Texture Manipulation: Shader Overview</a></h2>
Technically, each texture already has a default shader that
passes it through the pipeline to appear much as it does in the
graphic program that made it. A shader is a short script,
separate from the texture file, that the game engine uses to make
further adjustments to the texture's appearance or function. The
shader is to <i>Q3A</i> what the surface properties flags were to
<i>Q2</i>, only ever so much more powerful. If you plan on creating
your own textures, you should get to know and understand how
shaders work. The Q3A Shader Manual contains the information you
need.
<p><div class = "subheading">Shaders and Multi-Pass Texture Effects</div>
(<i>Drawn from an original essay by Small Pile of Gibs</i>)
<p>Shaders give the mapper control over special graphics effects
that require multiple redrawing passes before they are finally
displayed on the game screen. Every shader that changes the visual
component of a texture uses these "Multitexture" effects.
Multitexture is ON by default in <i>Quake III Arena</i>. It is
turned off with the cvar, "set r_ext_multitexture 0 (entered in the
console or bound to a key) - see the Debugging section in this
document for more details.
<p>To understand how multitexture works, you need to understand how
the <i>Quake III Arena</i> graphic engine renders a scene. All the
faces you see in <i>Quake III Arena</i> are made up of triangles -
you can see this by using the cvar command "r_showtris 1."
Initially, each triangle adds one to the "tris" number in r_speeds
(the numbers that are used to estimate whether a scene is too
complex). With every frame that <i>Q3A</i> "paints", it draws
triangles onto the scene in layers, starting at the back of the
scene and drawing every triangle visible until it reaches the
front. It takes time to draw each triangle. If a triangle is
painted with a texture that is "see through" in some way (either
transluscent, transparent, or containing cut-outs), any triangles
seen through that triangle must be redrawn one additional time for
each stage in the the shader. If a single transparent triangle
takes up the whole screen, for example, a glass window - The whole
area of the screen has to be redrawn. Each triangle of glass takes
an entire screen worth of "overdraw" and each extra stage on the
glass adds another screenful, which is why glass can be such a big
framerate hit.
<p>The simplest form of multitexture is a Lightmap. In most cases,
the Q3A engine first draws the lightmap (precalculated light and
shadow information). Then, on top of that, it adds in the
information from the texture art specified for that triangle using
a special effect (blendfunc filter) - which blends the lightmap
with the texture to make areas of the texture look light or dark.
Using the cvar command "r_vertexlight 1" (Vertex Lighting
instead of Lightmaps) stops Q3 from drawing the lightmap triangles
(which is why many gamers use vertex lighting to gain additional
playing speed).
<p>Every extra stage in a shader is an extra triangle drawn over
and blended with the first triangle in a special way. Like the
lightmap example above, each additional stage requires an extra
triangle to be drawn for each frame. On certain 3D accelerator
cards (like the TNT - TwiN Texture), the multitexture effect
cancels out the real cost of the first pass of blending. The
blending for the first additional stage is done before the triangle
is drawn. However, if the shader takes 3 stages (like all the shiny
metal effects) it costs an extra triangle for every triangle it is
used on. Every extra triangle used adds a triangle to the r_speeds
triangle count. Because there are cards that don't automatically
handle this first blending pass, the map maker needs to
occasionally check his r_speeds with the multitexture turned
off.
<h2><a name = "texapplic">Texture Application: Texture Handling
Tools</a></h2>
These tools manipulate textures within the editor. They do not
create textures or shader scripts.
<p><div class = "subheading">Escape (ESC)</div>
This is the all-purpose deselect key. Use it to back out of
operations you don't want to complete or to stop working on a brush
face, a brush, a patch, or a group of brushes or patches.
<p><div class = "subheading">View Textures</div>
<div class = "menu">(Shortcut: T)</div>
This is only used in the four-view and floating windows modes
(as set in Preferences). It brings up the Texture selection window
(also accessible from a folder tab). If the Entity window is open,
you may need to click on a map view window first for the "T"
command shortcut to work.
<p><div class = "subheading">Show in <u>U</u>se</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Show in <u>U</u>se)
<br>(Shortcut: U)</div>
This command affects the content of the Textures window. It
filters the contents so that only those textures currently in use
in the map are displayed in the window.
<p><div class = "subheading">Show <u>A</u>ll</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Show <u>A</u>ll)
<br>(Shortcut: CTRL + A)</div>
This command affects the content of the Textures window. It
"un"-filters the contents so that all the texture directories
previously loaded during the mapping session are re-displayed.
<p><div class = "subheading">Surface Inspector</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Surface Inspector)</div>
<p><img src = "../Q3Rad_Manual_files/image035.png" width = 287 height = 376>
<p>This brings up a pop-up dialogue box. This is one of the more
complicated interfaces used during map development and may take
some getting used to.
<p><strong>Texture</strong>
<br>This is the path/name (beginning in Textures directory) for the
texture. You can copy from this field or paste into it. If you know
the pathname of a texture, you can enter it here. It will load
without having to first load the entire directory that contains
it.
<p>The next five commands work on both patches and brushes.
However, the results of applying a Horizontal Shift to a brush and
to a patch may be substantially different. When working with
patches, the numbers in the fields do not change &hellip; although
the texture on the map component may be changing.
<p><div class = "tip"><b>Design Note:</b> When a curve patch butts flush up against a
piece of solid geometry, as if it were an extension of that
geometry, it may be difficult to align the textures exactly. In
fact is often <i>extremely</i> difficult to align a texture on a
patch with the texture on an adjacent geometry brush. It works best
when the dimensions of the patch are an exact multiple of the
dimensions of the texture being used. Otherwise, you may want to
consider designing your architecture in such a way that it is
logical for a new texture to begin at that point. Use your
judgement.</div>
<p><strong>Horizontal Shift</strong>
<br>This allows you to change the Horizontal texture offset
(position of texture on a surface). You can type an offset value
into field or use the scroll buttons on the right to shift the
texture. If "Snap T to Grid" is set in Preferences, the scroll
increments will move a number of pixels equal to the grid size.
<p><strong>Vertical Shift</strong>
This allows you to change the Vertical texture offset (position
of texture on a surface). You can type an offset value into field
or use the scroll buttons on the right to shift the texture. If
"Snap T to Grid" is set in Preferences, the scroll increments will
move a number of pixels equal to the grid size.
<p><strong>Horizontal Stretch</strong>
This allows you to change the dimensions of textures as they are
mapped into the world. You can type a size value into field or use
the scroll buttons on the right to enlarge or reduce the texture.
The default value is 0.5. This gives a presentation in the game
world of two pixels for each game unit. A Horizontal Stretch value
of 1.0 would double the amount of area covered by a single repeat
of the texture. Of course, doing that also reduces the apparent
resolution of the texture by half (can you say blurry?)! Making the
stretch value a negative number horizontally flops the texture's
normals (i.e.; flops the texture left to right).
<p><div class = "tip"><b>Design note:</b> Textures are "projected" onto brush
surfaces. This means that if a surface is angled, the texture
stretches to fit the space upon which it is projected. To make the
texture look "unstretched" you need to change the dimension so that
it looks correct when stretched. Example: If you want to map a
texture on a 45-degree angle, it should be scaled to 0.35 along the
direction perpendicular to the axis of the angle.</div>
<p><strong>Vertical Stretch</strong>
This is the same as for the Horizontal Stretch, but along the
vertical axis. Making the stretch value a negative number
vertically flops the texture's normals (i.e.; flops the texture up
and down).
<p><strong>Rotate</strong>
This rotates the texture around the center point of the brush
(or patch). If the texture is not centered on the map component,
the rotation will not necessarily look correct. The increment of
rotation is set by the value given for the Rotation Inc field on
the Preferences window. The default value is 45 (degrees), roughly
1/8 rotation around the axis.
<p><strong>Value</strong>
(This <i>Quake 2</i> function is not used by <i>Quake III
Arena</i>)
<p><strong>Texturing</strong>
<p>This next grouping of commands in the lower left corner of the
window provides two separate sets of buttons. The top set deal with
texturing geometry brushes. The lower set is for texturing curve
patches.
<ul><strong>Axial (Brush)</strong>
<br>Realigns texture to the X and Y axes (removing the effects of
rotation)
<p><strong>Fit (Brush)</strong>
<br>The texture is stretched to fit the dimensions of the brush. The
width and height fields to the right are the number of repetitions
to be used in the S and T dimensions (S corresponds to X on
the actual texture and T corresponds to Y on the actual texture).
The default value for the height and width fields is 1. You can
type a size value into field or use the scroll buttons on the right
to enlarge or reduce the texture. Only integer values can be
entered (meaning that you can't enlarge a texture 1.5 times).
<p><strong>CAP (Patch)</strong>
<br>This function is most often applied to patches used to fill in
the gaps between curves and solid geometry. It can also be applied
to flat patches so that the texture doesn't appear to follow the
arc of the patch. You may need to use the SHIFT + CTRL + N command
to normalize the texture on the patch.
<p><strong>Set&hellip; (Patch)</strong>
<br>This command functions almost like the "Fit" command above for
brushes. The texture will be fit across the patch based on the X
and Y values given. However, there is a notable difference. The X
and Y fields will accept non-integer values (e.g. 6.4 x 3.8). It
may take some experimentation to determine which dimension of your
patch is considered to be "X" and which is thought to be "Y". If a
value of 1x1 is given, the texture will be "fit" to the
patch.
<p><strong>Natural (Patch)</strong>
<br>The engine does its best to map the texture onto the patch in a
"natural" appearing manner. This means that the texture will curve
and flow with the curves and bends in the patch. Unless you are
texturing a cap, this should be your first choice when applying a
texture.
<p><strong>Fit</strong>
<br>The texture's coordinates are mapped to fit the patch
(with no repeats).
</ul>
<p><div class = "subheading">Find / Replace</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Find / Replace)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
This feature allows the user to replace a texture within a
single brush, a set of selected brushes or globally throughout the
entire map. Selecting the command from the menu opens up a dialogue
window. The top line is for the texture path and name of the
texture to be replaced. The second line is for the texture to be
used for replacement. Several checkboxes allow fine control over
what, exactly, is to be changed. This command does not respond to
UNDO. If you accidentally mistype a texture name in the replace
line, you will need to enter it again (as mistyped) on the find
line and then enter the correct texture on the replace line.
<p>Texture replacement is global (throughout the map) unless the
selected checkboxes state otherwise.
<ul><b>Replace within selected brushes only.</b> Only the hi-lighted
brushes that contain the texture to be replaced will be
affected.
<p><b>Force replacement (ignore current texture name).</b> <i>
All</i> textures in the map will be replaced. Best if used with <b>
<i>Replace within selected brushes only.</i></b> Be very careful
with this one.
<p><b>Live Updates from Texture/Camera windows.</b> Using
Live Update the user can find and replace textures with a fully
point and click interface.
<p><strong>Texture Replacement using Live Updates</strong>
<br>Click on the Find box, then click on any texture in either the
Camera window or the Texture window. The texture path/name for that
texture appears in the box. Next click on the Replace box and click
on the replacement texture. That texture's path/name appear in the
Replace box. Select "OK" and the replacement will occur.</ul>
<p><strong>Step-by-step for replacing a texture on a brush face
(if live update is not used).</strong>
<ul><li>In the Camera window, hi-light (CTRL+SHIFT+mouse1) the texture
to be replaced.
<li>Open Surface Inspector. If the name of the texture is not
hi-lighted, then hi-light it.
<li>Press CTRL+C to copy the texture name.
<li>Open the Find/Replace window.
<li>Paste (CTRL+V) the name into the find window.
<li>Hit ESC to deselect the texture in the CAM winow.
<li>Open the Textures Window. Find the texture you want to replace
with and select it.
<li>Open Surface Inspector again.
<li>Copy the texture name there.
<li>Open Find/Replace again and paste the new texture into the
Replace box.
<li>Select OK. Replacement occurs and the dialogue window
closes.</ul>
<p><div class = "subheading">Texture Lock</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Texture Lock)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
Opens Pop-up window with two options for "locking" texture
shifting during brush or patch movement. <b>NOTE:</b> If you have
selected the BRUSH PRIMITIVES option under Project Settings&hellip;
then Texture lock will always be on.
<ul><strong>Moves</strong>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Texture Lock &gt; Moves)
<br>(Shortcut: SHIFT + T)</div>
When this option is checked, textures stay locked in position on
the brush as brushes are moved around the map. If unchecked, the
texture appears to shift across the brush, because they are fixed
to the world, not the individual brush. On small brushes and small
textures (such as the small square lights), some "creepage" may
occur, with textures shifting 1 or 2 units off their locked
position.
<p><strong>Rotation</strong>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Texture Lock &gt; Moves)
<br>(Shortcut: SHIFT + R)</div>
When this option is checked, textures stay locked in position on
the brush or brushes as they are rotated around the map. If
unchecked, the texture appears to shift across the brush, because
they are fixed to the world, not the individual brush. On small
brushes and small textures (such as the small square lights), some
"creepage" may occur, with textures shifting 1 or 2 units off their
locked position.</ul>
<p><div class = "subheading">Load from List&hellip;</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Load from List&hellip;)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
Opens a dialogue box listing all texture directories currently
recognized by the editor. Hi-light a directory title then
click on the "Load" button. The textures in the selected
directory will be loaded into the Textures window.
<p><div class = "subheading">Shaders</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Shaders)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
This command pops up a Pop-up window with two shader-related
commands.
<ul><strong>Load All (Reload)</strong>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Shaders &gt; Load (All) Reload)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
This command loads or reloads all the .shader scripts recognized
by your shaderlist.txt file. When you change and save a shader
script, execute this command, then reload the affected texture
directory to see any changes.
<p><strong>Show</strong>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Shaders &gt; Show)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
When checked, this command surrounds all shader-manipulated
textures in the Texture window with a thin white border.</ul>
<p><div class = "subheading">Flush</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Flush)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
The flush command frees up texture memory and should improve
editor performance. Exactly how much is flushed depends on your
choice of commands.
<ul><strong>Flush All</strong>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Flush &gt; Flush All)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
This command flushes all the texture memory, restarts OpenGL and
reloads the map from the last saved copy.
<p><strong>Flush Unused</strong>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures &gt; Flush &gt; Flush Unused)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
This command flushes all UNUSED textures from memory.</ul>
<p><div class = "subheading">Texture Window Scale-</div>
<div class = "menu">>(Menu &gt; Textures &gt; Texture Window Scale)
<br>(Shortcut: none)</div>
This affects the size of the texture images displayed in the
Textures window. Clicking on the menu entry opens up a pop-up
window with the following size selections: 200%, 100%, 50%, 25%,
and 10%. Adjust it to suit your liking. If seeing the detail in the
textures is important to you, set the size to 100% or larger. If
you know your way around the textures without having to see each
pixel, set it for smaller.
<p><div class = "subheading">Texture Directories</div>
<div class = "menu">(Menu: Textures)</div>
This is not a command. The entries on the Textures Menu below
"Texture Window Scale" are the names of the available texture
directories (all whose filenames are listed in the shaderlist.txt
script). Clicking on one loads the contents of the directory into
the Texture window.
<p><div class = "subheading">Texture Shift Key Shortcuts</div>
A brush, brush surface, or curve patch must already be selected
before using these shortcuts. This feature closely copies the
function of the Texture Shift fields and scroll bars on Surface
Inspector pop-up window. If Snap to T is selected in preferences,
then the texture shifts in pixel increments equal to the current
grid setting. Shifting textures on curve patches may produce
unexpected results.
<p><table class = "menu">
<tr>
<td>Texture Shift Down</td>
<td width = 50%>(SHIFT + DOWN ARROW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texture Shift Up</td>
<td width = 50%>(SHIFT + UP ARROW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texture Shift Left</td>
<td width = 50%>(SHIFT + LEFT ARROW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texture Shift Right</td>
<td width = 50%>(SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><div class = "subheading">Texture Rotate Key Shortcuts</div>
A brush, brush surface, or curve patch must already be selected
before using these shortcuts. This feature closely copies the
function of the Texture Rotate field and scroll bar on Surface
Inspector pop-up window. The texture rotates in degree increments
set in Preferences. Rotating textures on curve patches may produce
unexpected results.
<p><table class = "menu">
<tr>
<td>Texture Rotate Clockwise</td>
<td width = 40%>(SHIFT + PAGEDOWN)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texture Rotate Counter-Clockwise</td>
<td width = 40%>(SHIFT + PAGEUP)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><div class = "subheading">Texture Scaling Shortcuts</div>
A brush, brush surface, or curve patch must already be selected
before using these shortcuts. This feature changes the scale of the
texture (the amount of area that a single instance of the texture
covers). The texture scale seems inconsistent, except that opposite
directions appear to cancel each other out. The amount of increase
delivered by the first use appears to be about a ratio of 1:15.
<p><table class = "menu">
<tr>
<td>Texture Scale Down</td>
<td width = 50%>(CTRL + DOWN ARROW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texture Scale Up</td>
<td width = 50%>(CTRL + UP ARROW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texture Scale Left</td>
<td width = 50%>(CTRL + LEFT ARROW)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texture Scale Right</td>
<td width = 50%>(CTRL + RIGHT ARROW)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2><a name = "interactex">Using Interactive Textures</a></h2>
Interactive textures are the shader-manipulated textures that
have an effect on game play, not just the appearance of the map.
There are two classes of Interactive Textures: Special Content
Textures and Texture Entities. For more detail and
instructions regarding shader manipulation of textures, refer to
the <i>Q3A</i> Shader Manual.
<p><strong>Special Content Textures</strong>
Special content textures are textures where the "surface"
parameters of the texture actually change the physical nature of
the geometry brush and in so doing, affects the play of the
game.
<p><strong>Water</strong>
<br>Water is a content parameter that allows a player to "swim"
inside a geometry brush, causes a pulsing visual distortion of the
underwater geometry, and prompts the game engine to draw bubbles as
projectiles pass through it. A player can only remain under water
for a short time (without a battlesuit) and then begins to
drown.
<p><strong>Water usage rules:</strong>
<ul>
<li>A water texture is defined by the presence of surfaceparm water
in the shader that creates it.
<li>Because water is typically a "transparent" surface, the shader
passes used to create surface effects on water are added to the
shader passes of textures seen through the water surface. This can
significantly increase the number of redraw passes necessary to
draw the game world and may negatively affect performance.
<li>If you place water brushes side by side, the touching sides must
be marked with the common/nodraw texture.
<li>Both the top and the bottom surfaces of a water brush must be
water texture.
<li>Water brushes cannot be stacked so they touch another water
brush vertically, only set side by side.
<li> If you want to be able to exit water easily, keep the
distance from the top of the water brush to the adjacent "shore" or
pool edge at no more than 16 game units. Somewhat less is actually
better.
<li>If fog is to be used as a part of a water volume, the water
surface should not deform.</ul>
<p><strong>Fog</strong>
Fog content is used to block or diminish player vision and
provide "atmosphere" for a level. Like water, fog can affect game
performance, especially if one can see additional shader effects
within it. The following information is taken from the <i>Q3A</i>
Shader Manual regarding fog creation and usage.
<p><strong>fogparms &lt;red value&gt; &lt;green value&gt; &lt;blue
value&gt; &lt;distance to Opaque&gt;</strong>
<br>This surface parameter (or "surfaceparm") defines the contents
of the fog.
<br><b>Note:</b> you must also specify "surfaceparm fog" to cause
q3map to identify the surfaces inside the volume. Fogparms
only describes how to render the fog on the surfaces.
<p><b>&lt;red value&gt; &lt;green value&gt; &lt;blue value&gt;</b>
These are normalized values (number range from 0 to 1). A good
computer art program should give you the RGB values for a color. To
obtain the values that define fog color for <i>Quake III Arena,</i>
divide the desired color's Red, Green and Blue values by 255 to
obtain three normalized numbers within the 0.0 to 1.0
range.
<p><b>&lt;distance to opaque&gt;</b> This is the distance, in
game units, until the fog becomes totally opaque, as measured from
the point of view of the observer. By making the height of the fog
brush shorter than the distance to opaque, the apparent density of
the fog can be reduced (because it never reaches the depth at which
full opacity occurs).
<p><strong>Fog usage rules:</strong>
<ul>
<li>If a room (or rooms) is to be filled completely with a fog
volume, it can only be entered through one surface (and still have
the fog function correctly).
<li>The fog volume can only have one surface visible (from outside
the fog).
<li>Fog must be made of one brush. It cannot be made of adjacent
brushes.
<li>Fog brushes must be axial. This means that only square or
rectangular brushes may contain fog, and those must have their
edges drawn along the axes of the map grid (all 90 degree
angles).
<li>If a water texture contains a fog parameter, it must be treated
as if it were a fog texture when in use.
<li>Additional shader passes may be placed on a fog brush, as with
other brushes.
<li>If a light-emitting fog brush is placed beneath normal brush
geometry, the light may cause light artifacting on the solid brush
surface. Use with care.
<li>Brush models (trains, doors, rotating objects, etc.) within, or
partially within fog volumes will have drawing priority problems
against the fog. It is best not to place these entities in
fog volumes.
<li>There are unconfirmed reports of moving entities being made with
fog shaders.</ul>
<p><strong>Lava</strong>
<br>Lava content, for most practical purposes, is a variation of
water content. The damage that it does to players in contact with
it is defined by game code and cannot be directly affected by the
map designer.
<p><strong>Slime</strong>
<br>Slime content, for most practical purposes, is a variation of
water content. The damage that it does to players in contact with
it is defined by game code and cannot be directly affected by the
map designer.
<p><div class = "subheading">Texture Entities</div>
There are a number of shader-manipulated textures that are used
in an entity-like fashion. The shader files that manipulate the
textures are what give them their game properties. These are
the ones that id used and their relevant properties.
<p><strong>Areaportal</strong>
<br><b>Color:</b> Opaque Red Orange
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/areaportal)
<br>The bsp tool uses areaportals to create hard, visual breaks
between areas in the map. Until triggered, the areaportal blocks
geometry behind it from being drawn or seen. The area portal brush
should be a thin (2 to 4 units thick) brush. It should touch all
the brushes that form the hull of the opening being portalled. It
must be placed inside a door. The opening of the door triggers the
portal function. The closing of the door returns it to its former
state. The areaportal texture must completely seal off a volume
from another volume (although this can be in conjunction with other
areaportals). If a door is being used to block off an area from
view, consider placing an areaportal brush inside the door. Example
in Quake III Arena: All the doors out of the central courtyard in
Q3DM12, The Dredwerkz, are areaportalled.
<p><strong>Caulk</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (common/caulk)
<br><b>Color:</b> Opaque Pink
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Caulk, the miracle texture. It blocks vis.
It seals the world off from the void. It doesn't draw (so it
doesn't add to triangle counts). It keeps curves from competing
with textures behind them. It looks like hell if you see it in your
world. From the View menu (View &gt; Show &gt; Caulk), you can
toggle on and off the display of caulk brush sides.
<p><div class = "tip"><b>Design Tips:</b> When you build a brush entity (a.k.a.
b_model), mark all the brush sides that you will never see with
caulk. Otherwise, the game draws every one of them. Even if you're
only making a one-piece door, mark all the non-viewed sides with
caulk. The same holds true for detail brushes. If you can't
(or won't ever) see a brush face on a brush that's been marked as
detail, paint it with caulk. Next, whenever you build a curve, try
to build the brush geometry immediately behind it out of caulk.
Finally, look around your map for brush faces that you suspect are
being drawn, but are never seen: door pockets, bars, underneath
bridges or very low railings and so on. It may sound like work, but
attention to detail like this buys you both the appearance of
greater geometric detail in the map AND faster game running
speed.
<p><b>More Design Tips:</b> Finally, and this should be used with
great care, a caulk brush can be used to create an invisible
support for entities. If you place a very thin caulk brush floating
above a surface that would otherwise not support an entity
(example: a grate made of clip brush), the brush will not draw in
the world, but will support the entity. The reason for this is that
SUSPENDED entities are not "seen" by bots unless they can be
reached by a jump pad.</div>
<p><strong>Clip</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/clip)
<br><b>Color:</b> Transparent Red
<br><b>Game Function:</b> If you look at a professionally made map,
quite often you'll see that nearly every bit of wall surface is
covered in a transparent red texture called "common/clip." Clip is
a nondrawing texture that blocks player movement. Clip does not
block weapon fire. Entities, such as ammo or weapons, are not
supported by clip brushes. If placed or dropped on a clip brush,
they will pass through them.
<p><div class = "tip"><b>Design Tips:</b> Place clip brushes to smooth the passage of
players through the world. This could mean creating a slope that
allows the player to slip past a piece of architectural trim, or
filling a window to keep players from getting into it. It can be
used to create an artificial ceiling that prevents players from
flying or jumping too high.</div>
<p><strong>Cluster Portal</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/clip)
<br><b>Color:</b> Translucent lavender
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Works like an area portal, but for the bot
navigation file only. Cluster portal is used by the bspc utility to
subdivide the map into smaller areas for calculating bot
navigation. Appendix C: Bot Navigation Files contains the specific
details for using cluster portal texture entities.
<p><strong>Cushion</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/clusterportal)
<br><b>Color:</b> Translucent pale aqua
<br><b>Game Function:</b> A player falling on this does not take
damage. They also don't make a "landing" sound, so use with
caution.
<p><strong>Do Not Enter</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/donotenter)
<br><b>Color:</b> Transparent Pale Orange
<br><b>Game Function:</b> It is a tool used to solve bot navigation
problems. Use it like a clip brush, but sparingly. When you observe
bots doing stupid things in your map, try to block off the area
with this texture. The Bot Navigation Files appendix contains the
specific details for using the Do Not Enter texture entity.
<p><strong>Hint</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/clusterportal)
<br><b>Color:</b> Transparent Yellow Green
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Helps determine the vis portals. It is
used as a suggestion to the compiler during the vis phase, when the
world is subdivided. Generally speaking, they are used to correct
vis problems, whose chief symptom is the "hall of mirrors" effect
seen during game play. These can often be corrected by careful
placement of a hint brush. If you fill the volume where the
error is seen or the volume adjacent to it, the problem may be
corrected in the next compile. This is really more art than
science.
<p><strong>Invisible</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/noimpact)
<br>Color:
<br><b>Game Function:</b> This was used to create a surface that
would be marked by weapon fire, but would not be drawn in the
world. This was created specifically to resolve a problem where
func_static brushes were being used to replace floor textures that
marked the location of weapons in Q3DM8. Because the rocket
launcher was located in different places between the team and the
deathmatch games, the designer wanted to make floor markers that
would not only change between game types, but would be marked like
adjacent floor pieces.
<p><strong>Nodrawnonsolid</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/trigger)
<br><b>Color:</b> Opaque light yellow
<br><b>Game Function:</b> This is the same as nodraw.
<p><strong>Noimpact</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/noimpact)
<br><b>Color:</b> black
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Used to create a surface which does not
block weapon fire.
<br>Weapon fire will pass through this. This usually used as a
shader key on other textures.
<p><strong>Origin</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/origin)
<br><b>Color:</b> Opaque Orange
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Used to create origin point in moving
b_models, such as trains, plats, and rotating objects. This
texture, applied to a square or rectangular brush, is used to
create the point of origin for moving b_models, such as trains,
plats, and rotating objects. It is used by func_trains as the point
that passes through path entities and the source for sound
attachment
<p><strong>Skip</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/skip)
<br><b>Color:</b> Transparent yellow
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Do not use in Q3A. This texture was used
in Quake 2 maps to discard sides of hint brushes. It is
nonfunctional in Q3A.
<p><strong>Slick</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/trigger)
<br><b>Color:</b> Translucent Pale Blue
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Not stick coating for map surfaces.
Reduces friction. Use like a very thin clip brush over surfaces you
want to be low friction.
<p><strong>Trigger</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/trigger)
<br><b>Color:</b> Transparent Dark Yellow
<br><b>Game Function:</b> Used to make trigger brushes.
<p><strong>Weapon Clip</strong>
<br><b>Location:</b> (textures/common/weap_clip)
<br><b>Color:</b> Transparent Red
<br><b>Game Function:</b> This version of the clip brush only stops
weapon projectiles from passing through it. No marks are left on
the surface.
<br><b>Design Tip:</b> Use to create clip surfaces for map object
models.
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