Editing FAQ - Troubleshooting & How-To
Below are some common issues and questions mappers have had in the Editor's Guild forum with common solutions. Some of this assumes you've already gone through the A_-_Z_Beginner_Full_Guide_Start_Here!, Startpack_Mappers'_Guide, and Dark_Radiant_Must_Know_Basic_Intro.
Troubleshooting FAQ
Rendering & VisPortal Issues
Q. Some of my brushes have disappeared or turned black and won't render.
A. This can happen when two touching brushes around the seam are not perfectly flush with one another and the rendering hiccups for those brushes & brushes behind it, either there's a tiny wedge or overlap or gap or weird angle between them. The usual solution is to make sure the brushes are snapped to the grid and perfectly flush against one another, or more generally to simplify the brushwork around the seam of the disappearing brushes.
Q. My visportal is not closing like it should (you can check this with by typing "r_showportals 1" in the console).
A. A common reason for that is that the two areas separated by the portal are not hermetically sealed and there's an internal leak, either (1) there may be an unportaled gap between the two, possibly covered up by func_static (which do not seal) or possibly caused by an inadvertent hole created by the first FAQ question above, or (2) an internal leak can happen when all sides of the visportal are not buried in or flush against sealing brushes, and there's a gap between the visportal and brush, or possibly even a tiny gap just touching the visportal side is enough to break it. A way to check if there's an internal leak, and locating it if there is, is described here: Visportals#Trouble-shooting. Other reasons it might fail are also described there (such as accidentally changing a nodraw texture to something else).
Q. I can see other rooms behind a mirror (or any reflective surface) through it, instead of just a reflection.
A. The area behind a mirror should be in a separate leaf (visportaled area) behind a closed visportal so it doesn't render. This problem usually means the two areas aren't in separate leafs, the portal isn't closed, or there's an internal leak between the areas in front of and behind the mirror.
Q. Help! I'm having rendering & visPortal issues all over the place ... broken portals, sparkly lines, disappearing brushes, z-fighting, uneven walls, etc.
A. As a general piece of advice, messy brushwork leads to trouble one way or another. To keep your brushwork clean: keep snapped to the grid (Ctrl+G toggles) & stay away from small grid levels (Typing a number or Plus/Minus changes the grid scale; 8 is a good starting grid; staying at or above 2 or 4 is fine for most stuff; going below 1 is usually just for special situations). Make brush intersections perfectly flush. Stay away from unnecessary tiny brushes & wedges (leave detail work to func_statics; brushes are for closing off leafs and the void. Of course you can do fine detail work with brushes & convert them to a func_static). Don't use the "CGS Subtract" tool if it will shatter the brush into tiny slivers; use the cut tool instead (open by pushing "X"). You can use patches for uneven geometry with square brushes underneath textured with caulk. When rotating geometry, avoid weird angles when you can (where vertexes end up off the grid), and for multi-brush structures, build the whole thing first *then* rotate it all together instead of rotating & placing each brush individually. These aren't rules set in concrete if you want to do something special once in a while, but general rules of thumb that will make life a lot easier if you generally stick to them.
Crashes and Warnings
Q. My map has a leak in it, but a pointfile either isn't generated or doesn't make sense. (A pointfile is generated when dmap occurs and there's a leak, then you open DarkRadient and click File>Pointfile to see it. It normally runs a red line that ends in the void, pointing out the leak).
A. Make sure a gap isn't covered up with func_statics. If the origin of a model is in the void it will also cause a leak with a non-sense pointfile. Read more on the Leaking maps page.
Q. How do I scroll up through the console output to see what a problem was during dmap or map or in-game?
A. Use the mouse wheel or PageUp/Down to scroll through the console.
Q. I'm getting an error message "warning: aas is out of date" once my map has loaded. What does it mean and what do I do?
A. The AAS is for AI pathfinding. It usually means you changed brushwork and started a map without dmapping first. The solution is to dmap. If you dmap and still get the warning, delete your .aasxx, .proc, and .cm files in the maps folder and dmap again. If you're still getting a warning, then it could be a sign that something in your map is breaking the AAS pathfinding. Try monsterclipping tricky areas for the AI to path (like around objects and uneven ground) or clean up messy brushwork that might break the dmapping like sliver brushes.
Q. I have encountered a malloc failure error while dmapping my level. Instead of finishing with the dmap operation, it crashes midway with an error message.
A1. One solution to this is given in the Dmap wiki entry here: Dmap#Malloc_Errors.
A2. This is what I've done to fix this exact issue. Open the map in DarkRadiant, select everything, copy to clipboard. Open another instance of DarkRadiant and paste from clipboard. Save as new filename and dmap new file and that has worked 3 times now with random unresolvable crashes.
A3. GC and I have found correlations between visportalling and mAlloc errors. Time to re-arrange your visportals. In NHAT, we had many malloc problems until we retooled how each area was portaled. Originally, every other visleaf had tons of entities, while half had hardly any. That's not neccessarily bad, but it strains the dmapper when one or two visleafs are cluttered with entities that really bloat your mapname.proc file. We added a few more portals to even out entity distribution, and dmap was happy again.
Performance Issues
Q. My map is so slow. How do I improve performance?
A. See these wiki entries: Performance:_Essential_Must-Knows, Pathfinding (Monsterclipping helps performance), and Interleaved_Thinking_optimization (reducing AI think-time helps performance quite a bit). Other quick tips include breaking-up long lines of sight, improving visportal & leaf placement (so less architecture is rendered at a time), using fewer AI, converting ornamental brushwork into func_static, reducing the overlap of light sources on surfaces by adjusting their placement & reducing their light-radius, and setting objects and lights to "noshadow" if it won't be noticable to the player or affect gameplay (possibly in combination with low-poly shadow meshes or shadowy decals. Note that the properties "noshadow" has two jobs. Put on lights, it means that light will cast no shadows on any object. Put on objects, it means that object will not cast a shadow from any light.) There are also lots of other tricks out there if you check around the forums, including more advanced & optional tricks such as using the LOD system or SEED system, or even crazier tricks (cross-leaf func_statics, skybox architecture, Strombine lighting, Camera Cubemapped Visportal Patches, lots of crazy tricks out there), that you don't have to worry about if you're a new mapper but you can ask us about in the forum if you're curious. Generally speaking there are pros and cons trade-offs between performance & dazzle for many things (like lights or visportal placement); so it's good to think about the best performance-dazzle balance for your scene. E.g, lots of highpoly brushwork, lights, & AI can look good in a small or medium room, but may not be worth the performance hit in a big courtyard, and try to find ways to get better performance "for free" without the player noticing anything missing, like smart use of noshadows, monsterclips, and interleaved thinking distances.
Issues with Objects
Q. My streetlight, candle, lamp, light-creating object, causes a weird shadow I want to get rid of.
A. Put the spawnarg "noshadows" "1" on the offending object.
AI Issues
Q. My AI will not pass through a visportal no matter how I set up the path nodes.
A. Check that the sides of the visportal use the nodraw texture (except for the portal-face itself of course).
Q. How do you get AI to walk on complex terrain patches or func_statics?
A. You can always lay down invisible monsterclip brushes and the AI can walk on it. Overlay with a brush with a "material" clip texture so it causes the right sound for footsteps.
Problems with Patches
Q. I have 2 curved patches and they're not aligning. What do I do?
A. See this wiki page Patch_Troubleshooter.
Q. My patch is rendering strangely, like fractured into slivers.
A. See this wiki page Patch_Troubleshooter.
Issues with Lighting & Sound
Q. Some of the parallel lights I use for moonlight aren't giving off any light.
A. This is a known problem with parallel lights. For some reason in some arrangements you get no light at all. Just fiddle with it a bit - move it slightly, change the radii, move the vertex a bit - and it should suddenly work. Once you've got it working then it's stable. Likely the code chokes on certain values in its calculations. ... Also, to help optimize your moonlight, you should adjust the radius so it's only as big as it needs to be. You may also want to move the actual position of the little moon cube in the skybox to match the parallel light (and make sure to fix the texture on it if you mess it up - hint: lock textures before moving cube to make it easy)
General How-To Editing FAQ
Dark Radient Questions
Q. What are some basic units, scales, limits, maxs, and mins of various things when editing?
A. A list of all these things is here: Limits,_Max,_Min,_Stats,_etc.
Q. Can I manipulate brushes to resize and reshape them?
A. Yes. In DarkRadient you can select a brush and push "V" to select verticies to drag and resize, "E" to select edge(s) to drag and resize, and "F" to select face(s) to drag and resize. "Ctrl+#" makes a selected brush be #-sided. You can also use the Brush>Prism and Brush>Cone to convert a brush to those shapes.
Q. What are some common DR commands?
A. "H" hides selected items. "I" inverts selected. "Ctrl+I" inverts a patch's normal. "J" brings up entity list. "Ctrl+K" makes 1st-selected-entity "target" 2nd-selected-entity. "L" brings up light inspector. "Ctrl+L" brings up the Layers menu. "N" brings up entity inspector. "T" brings up texture browser. "X" go into clipper mode. Brush manipulation modes: are "R" rotate brush, "Q" free-move & resize, "W" translate-move.
Q. I screwed something up! What do I do?!
A. Ctrl+Z undos. Ctrl+Y redos.
Q. Is there a way to organize & simplify building, so I can build one section at a time without other sections getting in the way?
A. DR has a Layers function that lets you build one "layer" at a time (open with ctrl+L or View>Layers). It also improves DR performance, which is handy as the map gets bigger.
Q. How do I set up things like the pre-game shop, the player inventory, and an in-game map?
A. All these things are described in the Startpack Mappers' Guide: Startpack_Mappers'_Guide#Ammo.2C_Weapons.2C_Player_Tools.2C_Start_Inventory, Startpack_Mappers'_Guide#Purchase_Shop, Startpack_Mappers'_Guide#Adding_an_In-game_Map_to_your_FM
Q. How do I put spawnargs on def_attached entities?
A. You can put spawnargs on def_attached entities by using the spawnarg "set SPAWNARGNAME on ATTACHMENTNAME" "value" on the base entity. Here's an example of setting a color property on a flame attachment to a torch "set _color on flame" "0.2 0.2 0.9". Read more here Combined_light_entities#Setting_spawnargs.
Q. How do I see all the default properties on an object?
A. In the entity inspector there's a checkbox near the top that says "Show Inherited Properties". Click that box.
Console Questions
Q. How do I open the console? What's a list of all the Doom3 Console Commands and CVars?
A. Open the console with ctrl+alt+~ in a normal game, and just ~ when playing through "map". A list of all commands & Cvars is here [1]. Darkmod Cvars are listed here Cvars_in_The_Dark_Mod.
Q. What are some useful console commands and cvars for editing?
A. Commands:
"dmap <name>" compiles a map, "give <name>" gives the player an item, "map <name>" loads a map to play, "noclip" lets the player go through objects and walls, "notarget" let's the player be invisible to AI, "reloadDecls" will reload material defs without having to re-start TDM, "reloadimages" does the same for lights and "reloadSurface" for surfaces, "saveRagdolls" saves the positions of all ragdolls to the .map file (see the FAQ under Handling AI), "spawn <name>" spawns an entity, "teleport <name>" teleports the player to an entity.
Cvars (1 turns on, 0 turns off):
"com_showFPS 1", "r_showLightCount 1", "r_showPortals 1", "r_showTris 1".
Q. How do I scroll through the console output?
A. Use the mouse wheel or PageUp/PageDown.
Objectives
Q. How do I set up a put-object-here objective?
A. Instructions are here [2]
Q. How do I set up a "ghosting" objective (e.g., you are busted if you are seen.)
A. Instructions are here [3]
Handling Objects
Q. How do I attach a door handle to a door?
A. Just position the handle and input "bind" and the door entity ID/name as a spawnarg.
Q. How do I make an object into loot?
A. Instructions are here [4]
Q. How do I make an entity frobable?
A. See the entry for Making an Entity frobable.
Q. Ok it's frobable, but doesn't fall or move. How do I make an entity act like a world object?
A. You need to make the object a moveable, see Moveables.
Q. How do I get a lever or button to open a door?
A. Instructions are here [5]
Q. How do I put some text on a sign or wall?
A. You can use this method [6]
Q. How do I bind something to a rope (like a body) so it doesn't fall?
A. Dynamic ropes are unreliable, so it's good to use a func_static like a chain or make a func_static rope from a cylinder brush. For a ragdoll, place the ragdoll so he clips into the func_static. You need to bind the ragdoll to the chain (so the spawnarg is on the ragdoll), with "bind" "func_static_...", where func_static_... is the chain. Or, through DR, you can just select the entity you want to attach (the ragdoll), then also select the thing you want to attach it to (the chain), and in the menus select "Entity" - "Bind selected entities". But it's been reported the clipping does the job, not binding. See this link [7]
Q. How do I make something switch from frobable to unfrobable like a used lever, or unfrobable to frobable like contents in a chest or drawer you don't want frobable until it's open?
A. Make a brush around the object with a clip texture and convert it to an atdm:target_set_frobable entity, with the property "start_frobable" 1 or 0 (which mean true or false) depending on your case (it affects everything inside), and a triggering entity, such as the lever or the chest itself, that targets the set_frobable entity that triggers the switch when it's frobbed. For the record, you can also switch the frobability of an object in a script with the command: $<entityname>.setFrobable(n);, where n is "1" to make it frobable and "0" for unfrobable.
Q. How do I make breakable glass?
A. Instructions are here [8]
Q. How do I make an object that you can frob and it does something or something happens?
A. If it's an object you made from patches or brushes, make it into a frobable func_static, or if it's already a func_static, make sure it's frobable (Making an Entity frobable). Then give it a Frob response whose effect is a trigger, and give it a "target" spawnarg to the entity that causes your effect when triggered.
Q. Can a lever or button target multiple entities?
A. Yes! Use the spawnargs "target1", "target2", "target3", etc, with each entity-target as a value. A quicker way is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K. Select the button or lever, then select the target-entity and hit Ctrl+K. De-select the target-entity then select the next one, hit Ctrl+K again. Each time adds a new target to the switch. (Many other spawnargs allow you to have multiple entries by numbering them, such as bind and def_attach.)
Q. How do I make a rotating entity, like a fan?
A. Instructions are here [9]
Q. How do I make objects non-solid so they still render but the player can walk through them?
A. Add the spawnarg: noclipmodel 1 to turn them into non-solids.
Q. How do I make a firefly or will-o-wisp, basically a glowing ball that floats around?
A. This is a rough explanation to help you get started. A firefly is a func_emitter. Click the model property then use the button bottom right to select a suitable particle effect, possibly tdm_glare_lamp_01.prt. Bind to something invisible that will move it along a path, typically a func_mover with nurb curves used as the path. A tutorial for setting up nurb curves is here [10].
Q. How do I trigger an event from something in the player's inventory?
A. give the object a "target" to trigger and also the property/value: scriptobject InvTriggerScript. If your object does not already go in the inventory then use the entity: items > custom > atdm:moveable_custom_item. If you get a collision model error then ask on the forums for help (or read the wiki entry for Moveables).
Q. How do I teleport an entity?
A. Use targets/atdm:teleport. See this wiki page Teleporting_entities.
Q. How do I make a custom inventory item with its own inventory icon graphic?
A. See this entry A_-_Z_Beginner_Full_Guide_Page_6#Special_Items for setting the inventory category, loot type, inventory name and inventory icon. To repeat the instructions for a custom icon: on the object put the property "inv_icon" with a value "guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons/<name>.tga" (substitute whatever name you gave it for <name>), and package your .pk4 to put your image file in that relative location. You can also see other inventory_icons there and can use an existing one, or package your .pk4 to replace an existing one with your custom one. A method for making an inventory icon is described here [11] (be sure to use an alpha channel to make the background transparent, tutorial: [12]).
Handling AI
Q. How do I make sure a guard can unlock a door?
A. There are a few different ways, explained here [13]
Q. How do I attach a key or purse to an AI's belt, or similar kinds of attachments?
A. The easiest way is with "bind". Place the key or purse around the belt area where you want it, sticking a little farther out than usual, and rotate it as desired. On the key add the property "bind" with the value of the AI's entity-ID or name, then the property "bindToJoint" with the value "leftHips_dummy" or "rightHips_dummy" as needed. For attaching things in other places (like a ring or hat or necklace), it's the same general principle but you should look up the joint to attach to. A list of all the joint names is here: BindToJoint. See this wiki entry for more info Attaching_Items. For another method using def_attach see Attaching_Props_to_AI, and this post for an example of the spawnargs involved [14]. The issue with def_attach is that the attached thing spawns at its own rotation angle, which might not look great and is tricky to change (if you insist, see AI_Attachment_Ingame_Editing and Cvars_in_The_Dark_Mod#Attachment_related). With bind you just place and "bind", and it stays where you put it.
Q. What about other kinds of attachments where special animations are involved, like torches and weapons?
A. For these you want to use Def_Attach. See this wiki entry Attaching_Props_to_AI. For heads & weapons specifically see this wiki entry Adding_Heads_and_Weapons_to_AI. (You can set spawnargs on the def_attached entities with the method described here Combined_light_entities#Setting_spawnargs.)
Q. How do I mute an AI?
A. Give the AI the spawnarg: def_vocal_set atdm:ai_vocal_set_mute. If you only want to mute some barks, you'll have to modify the AI's .def file by hand, taking or commenting out the barks you don't want, and packaging the new def file in your mission's pk4. For coughing and animation based barks, see this post [15]
Q. Can I hide an AI until I trigger him?
A. No, hide doesn't work with AI. Put the AI in a blueroom and use a teleport instead, or a teleporting script command. See the wiki entry for Teleporting_entities. Note, after teleporting an AI, pathing becomes a problem for it, but IIRC there's things you can do. When I find the instructions to deal with that, I'll link to it.
Q. How do I manage AI teams, who is a friend, enemy and neutral?
A. To set the teams, see Relations. If you want to trigger a change in team with a script, see AI_Relations_(Scripting).
Q. Can I trigger an AI to switch teams in-game?
A. One way to do this is described here [16].
Q. How do I make an AI play an animation when I want?
A. Instructions are here [17]. There may be other ways possible.
Q. How do I set or change the health of AI?
A. AI use the spawnarg "health" to set their hit points.
Q. How do I pose ragdolls so they look naturally placed?
A. Save a backup, pose all the ragdolls in-game, then use the console command saveRagdolls which saves their positions to the .map file. cf. [18].
Q. How do I make a scene of AI playing cards?
A. Probably the easiest thing to do is load the prefab (under AI), place it, and adjust it how you want.
The Player
Q. How do I do things with the player's inventory, like trigger an inventory item to be deleted, or an item to be added to the inventory, or one item being replaced with another item?
A. You can do all these things with a script (read A_Beginner's_Guide_to_Scripting and the scripting FAQ below to learn about scripting). Have your triggering mechanism trigger a target_callscriptfunction entity which calls a custom script, then use the appropriate script command in the script on $player1. A list of the commands is here Inventory#Scriptsupport. Useful commands are (replacing the "Item" variables with the item ID): $player1.addInvItem(inv_item); and $player1.replaceInvItem(oldItem, newItem); (note: If <newItem> is the $null_entity, <oldItem> is just removed and no replacement happens.) For example, to remove a key from the player's inventory, use a command like: $player1.replaceInvItem ($key, $null_entity);
Q. How do I teleport the player?
A. Use base > info_player_teleport. Give it the spawnarg and value: target info_player_start_1. Give it the spawnarg: angle with a value if you want to force the player to turn to face a particular direction.
Scripting
Q. How do I make a custom script?
A. First read A_Beginner's_Guide_to_Scripting to learn the basics of scripting. You write a custom script as a text file named <mapname>.script and packaged in your .pk4 in the same place as your .map file. Inside it you make your own script object in the format the Beginner's Guide gives you, usually looking like void MyScript() { code goes here }. Then the game can "call" "threads" of that "script object" that will run until they end or are killed, so you can have more than one thread running of the same object concurrently.
Q. How do I run a script in-game?
A. A few common ways of calling a script object thread in-game are (1) creating a target_callscriptfunction entity with the spawnarg: "call" "<name of your script object>", then creating some other entity (such as a button or trigger brush) that "targets" that entity; (2) creating a button with the property "state_change_callback" "<script object>", which runs the script when pushed or triggered, (3) Using Location_Settings#Script_calls to call a script when you enter or leave a location; (4) triggering a script with the Objectives_Editor when you fulfill or fail an objective; (5) A script can call another thread in itself; see the command below. There are other methods too.
Q. What are script events (aka commands or functions)?
A. A script event is like a pre-made object that does something for you, usually to some game item you specify, just when you write it in your code (like $item.eventX(); does X to item). Sometimes it wants parameters or arguments to run (the stuff in parentheses) and will give an error if you don't put the arguments in the parentheses in exactly the way it wants, with the right number of them & right data types, etc. And some of them return values too, especially the "get" functions, which are handed over to a variable (e.g., X = getValue();, now X has the value. Just be sure the data type of X and Value are the same, e.g. float, or int, or entity, etc, or you'll get an error).
Q. What are some common or useful script events?
A. A good list of common or useful script events is here: Script_Events_User-Friendly_List. It doesn't list all script events and all details. To see all Doom3 script events with links to their proper syntax, see here [19]. Note that TDM has some of its own script events (I can't seem to find a list. =o Here's a list of TDM Script_objects).
World Building
Q. What's a good way to make caves?
A. Some tips are here [20]
Q. How do I make a good looking roof using clean brushwork?
A. See this method as a good example [21]. It can be better to "cut out" a roof from a square brush using the clipper tool than to rotate brushes to make it by hand.
Q. What's a good way for making a forest or a big outdoorsy area?
A. One good method is making large "rooms" in the shape of a big oval cylinder with very high natural-looking "rocky" & skybox walls and uneven ground using patches, filling it with trees and hiding some of the walls behind trees and greenery (you could also fill it with thick cylinder brushes of different sizes with bark texture to look like more trees, and place branches coming off them or to make a canopy), and possibly filling it with tons of grass (using SEED) and rocks and streams, with visportaled openings at "kiss points" to other large oval rooms at different orientations so there's a dense web of interconnected forested rooms that (sort of) appear to be one big dense forest to the player. Some useful things to use are the Object_detail, SEED, and LOD systems.
Q. How do I make uneven ground?
A. One method is by burying patches into the ground that stick out and make the ground lumpy as described here [22]. For more encompassing unevenness, you can use much larger patches laid over square caulk brushes underneath that seal the leaf to make the entire ground uneven.
Q. How do I make curved ceilings and archways?
A. Use patches. Here's a list of some good tutorials for this sort of thing [23]. Also look at this wiki page Patches#Archways.
Q. What's a way to get good-looking fog in my mission?
A. There are numerous values to make good fog. The setup for the fog from Fidcal's Heart mission is here [24].
Q. What are some tips to making a better looking map?
A. See this wiki entry 10_Simple_Tricks_for_Better_Looking_Maps.
Q. What's a good method or plan-of-action for building?
A. This is a matter of personal preference, but a method that professionals use is called the "stepwise refinement" method. It means you build the *entire* space of your mission first in rough blocks (so you have it all planned out first), then refine the whole thing in increasingly more detailed steps. It can help to use DR's Layer to organize your building by sections too, without other sections interfering. Also, when you're drawing your map, think about arranging space into winding "rooms" (so there's no long lines of sight), even outside with tunnels, walls and skybox; and think about visPortal placement right at the start. Also think about the gameplay-performance balance of shadowing-lights & AI when thinking about placing them.
Patches!
Q. Is it possible to split patches?
A. See this tutorial on it Patch_Splitting_-_Basic_Tutorial.
Q. How do I bend patches?
A. See the instructions at Patches#Bending_Patches.2C_Curves.2C_L-shapes.2C_etc (Here's another small tutorial in a post [25].)
Q. I want to use a patch to round off a corner.
A. See this part of the Patch wiki page Patches#Round_and_Soft.
Events and SFX
Q. How do I trigger an earthquake event?
A. Earthquakes can be done with a speaker. Just use the spawnarg "s_shakes" "1" on the speaker, and the screen will shake violently however loud the sound gets.
Q. How do I emulate something like a blizzard or dust storm?
A. Doom3 made a dust storm area, and the same method can be used to make a blizzard, so it's possible. I'm leaving this here to look up instructions for future reference.
Textures
Q. What's a quick way to align textures between two surfaces?
A. Select the first surface, then edit --> copy shader, then click on the second surface and edit --> paste shader. This will seamlessly match the 2nd surface to the texture of the 1st. DR also comes with a useful tool for texture alignment, Texture_Tool, which you bring up with Ctrl+Alt+T.
Q. Can I blend textures?
A. Yes. This is particularly good for dirtying some textures up by blending in a grime texture. You can blend textures with a custom material file. Link to instructions coming. Also see the entry for Basic_Material_File.
Q. How about blending texture transitions so there isn't a sharp seam, e.g., for a dirt path in grass?
A1. DR comes with grass edge transition decal patches to overlay the hard edges. Read how to set it up here Grass_Edges.
A2. In NHAT blended terrain was made from patches broken into segments then exported as ASE models. Then the models were vertex painted in Blender and imported back into Dark Radiant. See this tutorial DrVertexBlend_(tutorial).
Q. How do I set the color for some textures (like glowing mushrooms) and make lightbulbs go dark when turned off?
A. "Colorme" textures allow you to set the color with a spawnarg. So e.g. for colored mushrooms, choose a colorme skin with the spawnarg like "skin" "mushroom_selflit_green_colorme" and choose the color with a spawnarg like "_color" "0.24 0.50 0.40" (where the value is the RGB values you want). For lightbulbs you can trigger a colorme texture switch with the lightswitch (so it switches between "lit up" and "black"). Instructions on that coming.
Readables & GUIs
Q. How do I put custom art in a book or scroll, like a picture?
A. Use a custom .gui. Here's a rough idea to get you started [26]. I'll try to put better instructions in later.
Q. How do I trigger a text message to pop up and say something?
A. Create an entity: darkmod > targets > atdm:gui_message and give it the properties/values that you want. Popups will explain each one. You can target it with a triggering entity or trigger it from a script or any other triggering mechanism. An example is here [27]
Lighting and Sound
Q. How do I add music or ambient sounds? Q. Can I dynamically adjust the ambient lighting?
A. For both of these things, check out the article for Location Settings
Q. How do I set up Reverb (EAX) settings for my rooms? (E.g., the echo of a large hall, etc.)
A. Create a text file and name it <mapname>.eax; place it in your .pk4 with your .map file; and in it create entries by location name with the values you want for that location. See this wiki entry to see the format & values Setting_Reverb_Data_of_Rooms_(EAX).
