Entity modding: A few map mods and entities you can use to spruce up tatooine

To modify a .bsp map on Jedi Academy like many have seen on various servers, first you copy and paste the entities section out of the near-bottom of the .bsp file you wish to mod, and you paste it into a .ent file of the same name of the .bsp you would like to recompile.

You then copy both of these files over to your GTKRadiant directory (Yes you need to install it so you have q3map2), and then you create a .bat file (mine is mapmod.bat) which you can then run. Paste this into the .bat file (made by Boba Fett the UU creator):
 

@[member='Echo'] off
cls
title Entity Recompiler - Wrapper made by BobaFett
echo q3map2 entity recompile wrapper
echo by BobaFett
echo.
m:
cd C:\Program Files\GtkRadiant-1.4
q3map2.exe -v -game ja -onlyents %1
echo.
echo Compiling finished, press any key to close this window
pause>nul

Some examples of some cool entities to add include but are not limited to:

The misc_bsp

{
"classname" "misc_bsp"
"origin" "16145 -7700 -25800"
"bspmodel" "academy6"
}

The fx_runner (This one is for red flares)

{
"classname" "fx_runner"
"fxfile" "force/kothos_recharge.efx"
"origin" "497 1759 -72"
}

A teleporter with walk on trigger

{
"classname" "target_teleporter"
"targetname" "duel01in"
"target" "duel01destin"
}
{
"classname" "misc_teleporter_dest"
"origin" "16214 -7376 -4900"
"targetname" "duel01destin"
}
{
"classname" "fx_runner"
"fxfile" "force/kothos_recharge.efx"
"origin" "17552 -7030 -4848"
}
{
"origin" "18451 -6850 -5284"
"classname" "trigger_multiple"
"model" "*7"
"spawnflags" "0"
"angles" "0 270 0"
"target" "duel01out"
"wait" "1"
}

A scriptrunner

{
"classname" "target_scriptrunner"
"targetname" "telec"
"count" "-1"
"usescript" "athrun/telecard"
"spawnflags" "1"
}

A message on the middle of your screen

{
"classname" "target_print"
"targetname" "telecmsg"
"spawnflags" "4"
"message" "MESSAGE"
"wait" "750"
}

A couple of neat tricks I picked up over the years...

First, when you add a misc_bsp entity in you'll notice the skybox doesn't work. On ffa3 this can be fixed by placing a skyportal in the corner of the map

{
"classname" "misc_skyportal"
"origin" "2736 2416 1896"
"angle" "90"
}

The only downside to this is if you get to an area where you can look downwards at the skybox you see a double version of the ffa3, but this doesn't cause fps drop.


You can also add cool server-side skins that anyone can use, and activate them as well.

{
"targetname" "shaders"
"classname" "target_relay"
"targetshadername" "models/players/jeditrainer/trainer_torso_red"
"targetshadernewname" "models/players/trandoshan/tint_trandoshan_torso"
}

This would be the activator you place under your worldspawn entity

{
"classname" "trigger_always"
"target" "shaders"
}

That targetshadername and so on can be used to edit the walls like many servers do and so on.



The last thing that comes to mind is client-side map plugins, a very fun and handy trick.

Normally when you load up a map on a server all the clients who connect have to have it.

There's a way around this.

You can rename your custom map .bsp to that of a base map and put it in the folder that the assets use for the map in your own pk3. An example would be your could take JSA Trials and toss it into the /maps/ folder of a pk3 with the name academy1.bsp

Then if you use a misc_bsp to connect it to your map along with a teleporter to get there you'll be able to have fun in a custom map while those who don't have it can still connect.

One thing to take note of though is if your custom map in question uses bmodels (doors and so on) in a quantity exceeding that of the base map you overwrote, those who enter into the map but do not have your client pk3 will crash to the main menu.

This is because while the engine can load up a bmodel even if it isn't the one being used, it can not load a bmodel that never existed in the base version.



These are just a few small things I've picked up over the duration of working on maps in my JKA career.

A big shout out to Seto\Tercx who is, in my opinion, the best map modder on JKA and many of these ideas came from things he had already done. Also a big thanks to Boba Fett for supplying the .bat for recompiling and adding many juicy details to the holonet page.

You can learn more about the specifics and concepts over at:
http://holonet.antar...tle=Map_Modding

I wrote this article just because there were a few things that weren't mentioned in there.

If anything else comes to mind I will put it here.

I hope that others might also like to discuss other techniques and feats they've accomplished in entity modding.


Anyways good luck in your quest to improve the JKA maps and thanks for reading.