Mapping in ET for beginners

What do I need?
You need a mapping program called gtk Radiant.
You can download it here: Gtk Radiant 1.5
In my oppinion is Radiant 1.5 the easiest to learn mapping. Many mappers still prefer Gtk Radiant 1.4.
If you want Gtk Radiant 1.4, download it here: Gtk Radiant 1.4

Brush work
Lets start
Put your grid at 8 (Grid -> 8) or just press 4.
Move your mouse over the left screen to make a big box.
Now give it a texture called "Caulk". You can find it in textures -> common -> caulk
Press the "hollow" button. (It makes your box "hollow", you can walk in it now.)
Result


Texturing
Texture a brush
In the 3D view just press shift (hold shift) and click to select the brush (a wall for example).
Press F. Now you see little green squares on the walls. Hold shift and press the square you want to texture.
Open the textures menu and choose a texture. (In the tutorial we choose egypt -> egypt_wall_sd, egypt_floor_sd.)
In the texture view (under the 3D view) click the texture that you want to use.
NOTE: If you have no textures in the textures folder, then press P and look if you setted the correct path to the textures
Result


Entities
What are entities?
Entities are little functions in ET. (Like a door, rotating item, spawns)
Add spawns
First we add the place wheire a spectator has to spawn. Right click in the left window -> info -> info_player_deathmatch.
Put the info_player_deathmatch entitie IN your box.
Then we add the place wheire the axis has to spawn. Right click in the left window -> team -> team_CTF_redspawn.
Do the same for team_CTF_bluespawn. (Thats the place wheire the allies will spawn.)
You can change the angle of the spawnpoints by holding shift and pressing the entitie. Then press "n" and typ:
Key: angle
Value: 90 (I use 90 for example, you can use 180, 200, ...)
Result



Mapcoordsmax and mins
Info
Mapcoordmax and mins are the size of the the flags, objectives, ... in the command map
How?
Press L to open the entity list, then click on worldspawn and then press "n". Now you will see an entitie window.
Now in the "key" field type mapcoordsmins and in the value field type in the lop left coordinates of your map (can be found in the grid view).
For example we add 512.
Key: mapcoordsmins
Value: -512 512
And for the mapcoordsmax we will use this:
Key: mapcoordsmax
Value: 512 -512
Result



Compiling
What?
To play a map in ET, it has to be .bsp! When you save your map in Radiant it is a .map. Here you will learn how to create a simple .bsp file to make your map working in ET.
How?
Save your map. File -> Save As. In this tutorial we save our map as: tutorial.map
Press build (in radiant) and click Q3Map: (single) BSP -meta. Now a console window will open and your map will be created.
Go to the folder wheire you saved tutorial.map and you will find theire a new file called: tutorial.bsp
Create a new folder in the folder wheire you saved tutorial.map and call that folder: maps
Copy/paste tutorial.bsp to the folder maps
Now create a new zip file called: tutorial.zip
Put the folder maps (tutorial.bsp is in that folder) in tutorial.zip
And at last rename tutorial.zip to tutorial.pk3 (Pk3's are zip's with another extension.)
Note
A few computers just sees the tag: .pk3 as the name of the zipfile. The whole name is then tutorial.pk3.zip and its still a zip file so the map wont work.
Use packscape to create your pk3 if you got that .pk3.zip problem.
Packscape can be downloaded here: PackScape.
Or you can change the settings of your windows. Open "my documents" and go to extra -> mapoptions. Change it theire.
It looks like this:


Testing
To do
Open ET (click ET.exe) and write this in the console:
/sv_pure 0
/g_gametype 2
/devmap tutorial
The map will load now and you will be able to play.
I made a little .bat file that is much easier to test your map. This is the code of it:

Quote

SET /P map=Mapname:

start ET.exe +set fs_game etpro +g_gametype 2 +sv_pure 0 +devmap %map% +sv_hostname "^7Map: %map% "

Creating a .arena
Info
A .arena gives the info of a map in the loading screen
How?
Example

Quote

{
map "mapname without .bsp (for example: tutorial)"
longname "full mapname (for example: Snake's Mapping Tutorial)"
type "wolfmp wolfsw (type of map: campaign - last man standing - ...) (This is correct for a map so don't change it)"
timelimit 30 (the timelimit of the map)
briefing "Tutorial's FTW (Info of your map - A * after a sentence gives a new line)
axiswintext "Axis won, nice job (The winning text for axis)
alliedwintext "Allies won, nice job (The winning text for allies)
}

Copy/paste it in a notepad file and edit it if you want.
Now save the file as: tutorial.arena
Create a 2nd folder called "scripts", in the same folder wheire you saved tutorial.map. Put tutorial.arena in the scripts folder.
Now put the "scripts" folder and the "maps" folder in your .pk3

Levelshots
Info
Levelshots are the little pictures left above in the loadingscreen, a preview of the map.
How?
Create a new folder in your folder wheire you saved tutorial.map and call it: levelshots
Now make a picture with size: 256 x 256
Put the picture in the levelshots folder and add the levelshots folder to your .pk3.

Pk3 structure
Now that we done this all, the pk3 structure should be like this:


Done
Your map should look like this map: tutorial.map
If you cant download it click here: FTP and click right mouse on tutorial.map -> save as.

Contact
If you still have questions, contact me in #lotus on Quakenet.