Q3Radiant Editor Manual

Tools 7: Miscellaneous Commands

Feedback & Read-outs

The bottom border of the map window holds four clusters of feedback information.

Z-Axis Layers

If you are using any window layout that includes the Z-axis scale, you can see the vertical relationships between components with this function.

Cursor Coordinates

These three coordinates, found to the left of center, report the xyz position of the cursor in the 2D map window.

Brush & Entity Counter

This readout is located at roughly center position. It reports the number of brushes (including brushes forming brush entities) and the number of non-brush entities (items, spawn spots, lights, etc.)

Pushing the Limits This is a good place (as any) to talk about limits. Quake III Arena has an upper limit of 2048 entities (including entity lights!!) and while it's not an upper limit, staying under 8000 brushes is a pretty good idea.

Selection

This readout temporarily replaces the Brush & Entity counter when a map component is selected. The numbers represent the dimensions of the selection.

Origin

This readout temporarily replaces the Brush & Entity counter when a select map component is moved. The numbers represent the origin point of the selection (and track it as it moves).

Cursor Travel Distance

These three coordinates, found to the right of the brush and entity counter, report the distance that cursor has traveled from the point where the user has clicked on the 2D map window.

Control Settings

In the lower right corner of the editor window, you will see a string of letters and numbers that might look something like this:

Each of these letter/number combinations represents the setting for one of the commonly used tools.

G Grid. Here, it's set to 8 units.

T Texture Tweak. This the increment in pixels that a texture will shift. Here, it's set to 16 pixels.

R Rotation. This is the amount of increment, in degrees that a texture or brush will rotate.

C Cubic Clip depth of field. When cubic clip is set, this is how far, in terms of 64 unit blocks that you can see into the map. Here, the setting of 10 would allow you to see 640 units into the map.

L Texture Lock. If M is showing, then it is locked for moves. If R is showing, then it is locked for rotations.

Viewing, Seeing, Not seeing, and Hiding

This group of commands all relates to what you see in the map and how you see it. Some are designed to reduce map clutter. Others are designed to improve editor performance.

Toggle…

Camera View

Console View

Entity View

XY (Top)

YZ (Side)

XZ (Front)

Z View

Center

Centers the pitch (up and down) angle of the user view.

Up Floor

This is a shortcut for moving up between "floors" in map. It changes the user's Z height in the camera and map views. The view moves to a point where it appears that the user is "standing" on a "floor" (a brush with "air" space directly above it) directly above the user's current position in the map.

Down Floor

This is a shortcut for moving down between "floors" in map. It changes the user's Z height in the camera and map views. The view changes to a point where it appears the user is "standing" on a "floor" (a brush with "air" space directly above it) directly below the user's current position in the map.

Next (XY, YZ, XZ)

Cycles the content of the XY map window with the other views (side and front).

Layout

XY (Top)

Zoom

If the XY Top window is changed to display either XZ front or YZ side the XY commands below function the same way relative to the window, zooming in and out as commanded.

XY 100%

XY Zoom In

XY Zoom Out

Z 100%

Z Zoom In

Z Zoom Out

Cubic Clip Zoom In

Cubic Clipping

Cubic Clip Zoom Out

Cubic Clipping

Show

This is a pop-up menu with checked toggle functions for each of the features on the list. If a feature is checked, all map components of that type will show in both the Camera window and the Map windows. If the feature is not checked, all map components of that type will be hidden.

Names

Blocks

Coordinates

Entities

Paths

Lights

Water

Clip Brush

Hint Brush

World

Detail

Curves

Caulk

Design Tip: When you optimize detail brushes by caulking unseen brush faces, isolate the detail brushes in a region then turn off Caulk. Brush faces that need caulking will show up clearly as you move around the brushes.

Angles

Hide/Show

This is an immensely powerful and useful tool. It lets the user temporarily hide map components that may be in the way of working on other brushes. Hidden components are not affected by CSG actions.

Hide Selected

Show Hidden

Entities as…

The editor can show model entities (referring at this point only to Misc_Model entities) in several formats. Note: More detail in a model shown in the Camera and map views will affect the ability of the editor to display the map. If the editor responds sluggishly, try reducing the level and/or type of detail shown for models.

Bounding Box

Wireframe

Selected Wireframe

Selected Skinned

Skinned

Skinned and boxed

Cubic Clipping

This command toggles on (checked) or off when selected. Cubic Clipping may be the most effective way to improve editor performance. When turned on, only those map components near the player are displayed in the Camera window. Any map components beyond a certain depth of field will not be displayed in the camera window (it has no effect on map windows). As the user moves through the map in camera view, map components will pop into being as the point-of-view (POV) draws closer and disappear as the POV moves farther away. The shorter the distance "seen" in the camera view, the better will be the editor performance when moving through the map. Use the Cubic Clip Zoom commands (see above) to modify the depth of field seen in the camera view.

Open GL Lighting

This feature is not fully implemented yet. It toggles on (checked) or off when selected. When it is finished, all planes facing a particular direction will shade the same way (curves will shade like brushes) and the overall quality of the camera view will be better. It will be slower however.

Tip:

Show Brush/Patch Dimensions

When you select a brush, the hi-lighted image in the map window shows its dimensions, in game units. If multiple patches or brushes are selected, the size will be the dimensions of the grouping. If any kind of non-brush model entity is included in the grouping, the dimensions are not shown.

File Management Commands

New Map

This creates a new map file. If the current map file contains any unsaved changes, the editor will offer the option to cancel.

Open…

This opens up the Maps folder as defined in the preferences. It will show all valid map files in that directory. User may browse to other directories from here. Double clicking on a map file icon or hi-lighting that map and selecting Open will open the map. The user may also type in a map file name. Be sure to add the ".map" or ".reg" extensions or the editor will not find the file.

Save…

Saves a new map file to the default Maps directory. A reopened map file will be saved to its source directory. Note, that it is usually a good idea to save the map into the directory used by the compiler as the source of its map data. Remember to give the file a name. The compiler doesn't like to work with files called Unnamed Map.

Save As…

Opens the default directory for maps and prompts the user to give the map a filename.

Save Selected…

The selected brushes are saved as a map file. This is not the way to make prefabs, though.

Save Region

If the user has "regioned off" a subset of the map, this command will save it as a separate file. It is grayed out unless the user has created a regioned area. The editor prompts the user to enter a file name before saving.

Reopening Maps

(ALT+1 to 6 when File menu is held open)
OK, There isn't actually a command called this. When you open the File Menu, you will see (after you've done some work on maps), the path/file names for the last six maps that you worked on. They are listed here for easy opening access).

Projects and Preferences

New project…

Make a new project file. This allows you to set up different preferences.

Load project…

Make a new project file. This allows you to set up different preferences.

Project Settings…

Change pathnames and add, remove or modify commands.

Miscellaneous Commands

Map info…

This gives a readout of brushes (including curve patches) and entities in the map, including the total number of brushes that are not part of entities. There is also a breakdown, by type, showing the number of entities in the map.

Entity info…

This gives a read-out of the entities in a map by their type. It allows you to select an entity, which hi-lights it in the XY Map. Good for locating lost entities.

Preferences

This opens the window for setting or modifying the parameters, paths and features of the editor. Preferences are discussed in the Installation & Set Up section earlier in this document.

Opening Menus from the Keyboard

These are the keyboard shortcuts that open up the menus. If you continue to hold down the ALT key, many of the commands in that menu may be activated with an ALT+ keystroke command.

File (ALT + F)

Edit (ALT + E)

View (ALT + V)

Selection (ALT + S)

Bsp (ALT + B) Note: Toggles between BSP & Brush. Hit enter to open selected.

Grid (ALT + G)

Textures (ALT + T)

Misc (ALT + M)

Region (ALT + R)

Brush (ALT + B)

Curve (ALT + C)

Plugins (ALT + P)

Help (ALT + H)

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G	Grid. Here, it's set to 8 units.
T	Texture Tweak. This the increment in pixels that a texture will shift. Here, it's set to 16 pixels.
R	Rotation. This is the amount of increment, in degrees that a texture or brush will rotate.
C	Cubic Clip depth of field. When cubic clip is set, this is how far, in terms of 64 unit blocks that you can see into the map. Here, the setting of 10 would allow you to see 640 units into the map.
L	Texture Lock. If M is showing, then it is locked for moves. If R is showing, then it is locked for rotations.

File	(ALT + F)
Edit	(ALT + E)
View	(ALT + V)
Selection	(ALT + S)
Bsp	(ALT + B)	Note: Toggles between BSP & Brush. Hit enter to open selected.
Grid	(ALT + G)
Textures	(ALT + T)
Misc	(ALT + M)
Region	(ALT + R)
Brush	(ALT + B)
Curve	(ALT + C)
Plugins	(ALT + P)
Help	(ALT + H)