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mapping:cawe:porting [2006-04-30 18:53]
Thrawn Sounds up to date now again
mapping:cawe:porting [2013-01-07 12:07] (current)
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 ====== Importing Maps from other Games/​Editors ====== ====== Importing Maps from other Games/​Editors ======
  
-If you have already made worlds for other games (e.g. Half-Life ​or Quake 3)+If you have already made maps with other editors for games like Half-Life ​1, Half-Life 2, Quake 3 or Doom 3
-you possibly wish to convert ​them for a Ca3DE MOD, like the //Ca3DE DeathMatch MOD//. +you possibly wish to use them with CaWE and Cafu as wellFor this purposeseveral importers ​are provided that can load such maps directly into CaWE.
-You save a lot of work by doing so, and in general, porting "​foreign"​ worlds to Ca3DE is easily done. +
-Most likelythere are only two problems you will encounter: texture and entity mismatches.+
  
-The following list summarizes what you have to know and consider about porting:+{{mapping:​cawe:​importmaps.png |The "File Open" dialog also imports maps from other games and editors.}} In order to import a foreign map, just activate the **File -> Open...** menu item or press **CTRL+O** in order to open the file open dialog.
  
-  ​* Because the existing entities in your world were defined and made for another game, they will mismatch with the Ca3DE MOD entity definitions! Note that there are two kinds of mismatch: +The drop-down box near the bottom presents a list of all file types that CaWE can directly load or import. 
-    - Some entities exist both in the other game as well as Ca3DE (for example translucent brushes, ladders, ...), but their names and/or their properties differ. +Just choose the desired file type and proceed to open a map file of that type as usual. 
-    - Other entities only exist in the other game and Ca3DE has no equivalent entity at all, or vice versa! For example, ​Ca3DE DeathMatch has different weapons, but unfortunately lacks of many of the advanced entities of other games. I am very sorry, but at present you have to find some kind of work-around in such cases. However, I am doing my best to improve the situation in the future.+ 
 +After the import, there are normally two additional problems that you may encounter: material and entity mismatches. 
 + 
 +//Material mismatches//​ are caused by the fact that the material systems of all game engines are different from each other. While we can create new materials in Cafu under the same names as those that occur in the imported map, converting the used textures and other material details is generally not feasible. Some importers therefore substitute all material occurrences in the imported map file with native Cafu materials that are valid, but have different names. 
 + 
 +In all cases, you'll have to re-texture the imported map manually with native CaWE materials. 
 +This is recommended and frequently desired for best results anyway. 
 +Employing the powerful [[mapping:​cawe:​editingtools:​editfaceprops|Edit Surfaces]] tool and the [[mapping:​cawe:​dialogs:​replacematerials|Replace Materials]] dialog gets the job quickly and conveniently done. Making use of the "Only show USED materials"​ checkbox in the [[mapping:​cawe:​materialbrowser|Material Browser]] is also helpful. 
 + 
 + 
 +The following list summarizes what you have to know and consider about //entity mismatches//:​ 
 + 
 +  ​* Because the existing entities in your world were defined and made for another game, they will mismatch with the Cafu MOD entity definitions! Note that there are two kinds of mismatch: 
 +    - Some entities exist both in the other game as well as Cafu (for example translucent brushes, ladders, ...), but their names and/or their properties differ. 
 +    - Other entities only exist in the other game and Cafu has no equivalent entity at all, or vice versa! For example, ​Cafu DeathMatch has different weapons, but unfortunately lacks of many of the advanced entities of other games. I am very sorry, but at present you have to find some kind of work-around in such cases. However, I am doing my best to improve the situation in the future.
   * Here are some suggestions to fix the entity mismatchings:​   * Here are some suggestions to fix the entity mismatchings:​
-    - It's probably the safest (easiest, but most expensive) to simply delete //all// existing entities from your world, and only keep the geometry. Then, recreate them from the Ca3DE (DeathMatch) entities.+    - It's probably the safest (easiest, but most expensive) to simply delete //all// existing entities from your world, and only keep the geometry. Then, recreate them from the Cafu (DeathMatch) entities.
     - In many cases it might be preferable to simply open the **Properties** dialog for each entity, and to reset their properties there. Just make sure that you actually check out each individual property tag.     - In many cases it might be preferable to simply open the **Properties** dialog for each entity, and to reset their properties there. Just make sure that you actually check out each individual property tag.
     - If you are very experienced,​ you might solve many mismatchings directly by loading the ''​map''​ file into a text editor.     - If you are very experienced,​ you might solve many mismatchings directly by loading the ''​map''​ file into a text editor.
-  * Although ​Ca3DE ignores unknown entities (e.g. entities left from other games), and fills-in default values for unknown properties, it is still best to do the conversion carefully in order to avoid unexpected results. For example, be specially careful with ''​func_wall''​ entities: you'll have to reset their //​rendermode//​ properties (translucent,​ blue becomes invisible, ...) //​explicitly//​! +  * Although ​Cafu ignores unknown entities (e.g. entities left from other games), and fills-in default values for unknown properties, it is still best to do the conversion carefully in order to avoid unexpected results. For example, be specially careful with ''​func_wall''​ entities: you'll have to reset their //​rendermode//​ properties (translucent,​ blue becomes invisible, ...) //​explicitly//​! 
-  * The worlds have to be //​re-textured//​. Re-texturing can either be done with the "​Replace"​ tool of CaWE, or (if you are very experienced) directly within the ''​map''​ file with a text editor, or even with a Perl script. +
-  * Porting models and textures from other games to Ca3DE is copyright violation. That for, you should attend not to use copyrighted materials but only your own level geometry (brushwork).+
mapping/cawe/porting.1146415986.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013-01-07 12:07 (external edit)