It's All About The Wads

Eyez

<div class="IPBDescription">plz help out a mapping noob</div> Hi there.

I'm not actually new to mapping, but i have no experience on doing maps for HL or NS (so just call a a "half-noob", ok ? *g*).
After installing Hammer I added all textures i could find in my ns directory, but i'm not sure if that's ok.
my questions are:

1.) May I use files like ns_hera.wad or may i get problems with them ?

2.) Could i also add the hl.wad or will players that run ns on counterstrike retail get problems then ?

3.) Is there a way to gather all the textures used in my map and pack them into ns_mymap.wad or do i have to do this all by hand ?

3.2) and/or is the a way to "attach" all the used textures to the compiled map, so that players will only need the .bsp and not the wad files ?

I already had a look at a few tutorials but thiese things were not covered.
i hope you can help me.
thx

Eyez

SamR

I know the answer to a couple of these, so, here we go:

1) There shouldn't be any problems at all using the ns_hera wad, or any of the ns wads in the ns directory, SO LONG as you use them for Natural Selection maps ONLY.

2) You can use the hl.wad in the Valve directory, BUT the NS development team would rather it if you didn't use the hl.wad. It would be prefered if you used the Natural Selection textures only. If you create your own textures, they should be in the same kind of vain as the NS textures.

3) I think theire is a tool called Wadmerge or something that can do this, but I don't know where to get it from these days. It would, however, be pointless to merge textures from the wad files with NS into a new wad file, it would just take up unnecessary space, and increase download times. Using multiple wads for a map works fine.

3.2 !? ) There is a way to do this. You have to use a command like -wadinclude (wad name) when compiling, but I have never done this myself. I think you may need to get different compiling tools (like Zoner compiling tools) to do this, but I'm not sure, you'll have to have someone else answer this question.

For more information on mapping for Natural Selection, be sure to check out the Mapping Guidelines thread on this forum.

Hope this helps..... <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

pielemuis

some of the official maps DO use HL textures s;)

Mendasp

"-wadinclude wadname.wad" without the quotes on CSG

That's it.

blue2k

wadinclude rocketh big, but llamas can still steal your unreleased textures using another app to extract them, and i wouldnt wadinclude a whole wad like the hl one man its massive. wadinclude a small custom wad if you need to but not a full wad like the hl one.

wadmerge is an option in wally (incidentally the wad viewing program, its buggy but does work eventually)

ChromeAngel

-wadinclude actualy only includes the textures that are used in the map. There's not point wadincluding the half-life.wad or any that come as standard with NS as eveyone will already have them anyway. You need only -wadinclude custom and non-standard texture WADs.

Personally i've found Wally to be totally reliable for importing/exporting textures into/out of WADs.

Hypergrip

Jo Eyez try this article on embedding textures into your map.
Helped me to understand the whole thing a lot better.

-> <a href='http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?doc=1015283010-58181000' target='_blank'>Article</a>

Greetz

-=HyPeR=-

blue2k

it only includes the textures used from that particular wad? thats odd because when i tried it, the bsp file size was massive, far larger than it should have been. i assumed this was because every texture in the wad (although some are not used in the map) were included anyway. still you learn something new everyday i suppose.