Gnometech's exporter and Quark

#1 1. No. It is not .map exporter.
2. Check out the texturing tutorials in the documentation.
3. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking.
4. I'm not sure if there's a collision option or not. I've not usually cared about it as I use it for a quick-and-dirty preview.
5. I've never dealt with backgrounds in Quark, nor do I know if one can. I create geometry and then build it with Map2Dif and open it in Torque with the appropriate skybox and terrain.

#2 2) Cannot see any voices for uvmapping in quark's docs! (unless there are some others than the ones from gamespy)

3) I mean, can I build furniture with LW, then export 'em with gnometech's DTS exporter, then import 'em in Quark (or directly within TGE?)?

4) You mean, Quark's ogl preview is just... a preview, that is? And the collisions are established in TGE?

what does Quark serves, in brief, then?

#3 2. Look up texturing. You don't have a HUGE amount of flexibility in QuArK, though.

3. I use Torque when I combine DTS and DIF's. Matthew Fairfax's Map23DS program is great for previewing scaling and such, though.

4. Quark is a editing package, not an engine. The preview mode is simply a preview mode.

Quark is a level editor for brush based geometry. It is not a game engine. It's simply a tool to let you create levels, just like Lightwave is a tool to create 3D geometry, scenes, and render movies. Lightwave isn't a game engine any more that QuArK is.

#4 That is, map3ds is the tool to apply uvmap/textures to stuff made with Quark (what is the use for DTS, then)?

I know Quark/LW are not engines :)

#5 Map23DS takes a .map file and creates a generic .3DS (3D Studio) file. You can then load it into Lightwave to check scaling and such.

DTS files are the basic model file format for Torque. They have lower collision requirements than DTS models and can be animated. So, unless you want an extremely stiff character, you'll want to use DTS models.

EDIT:
The Torque for Artists link on the right explains much of this.

#6 Ok, I'm a newbie coming at this from a different slant. I am an engineer trying to take CAD facility design (large building, think 300 yards by 300 yards by 4 floors) from MicroStation (exported as VRML) and convert it to DIF format. The building has internal rollup doors between areas which need to be included in ultimate animation. All the geometry has obviously been developed, but texturing and lighting is fairly "rudimentary" to be kind. I have some basic questions:

Should the doors be included in the DIF file or should I just have openings, and handle the doors as separate DTS model? Crane operations and elevator operations move material, should they be DTS models?

I have a DTS solution --- Microstation (VRML 1.0) or Pro/Engineer --> Blender --> DTS file, although I'm still tinkering with issues. I do not really have a DIM solution.

Does QuArk have much in the way of import capability? I am doing all my image/detail masking inside the CAD systems so I don't include all the steel work and air/power drops (utilities), but some lighting/texturing would be nice. I assume that would be done with map3ds.

#7 Quark would probably not be the way to go. You might be able to export as DXF and get it into Max and let Game Level Builder do its extrusion magic on the walls, etc. DeleD or Blender's .map exporter might be able to do a lot of the dirty work as well.

It would require a ton of cleanup (and retexturing in the case of Game Level Builder) most likely.

And, yes, you should keep the doors as opening and create them as DTS models.

Or implement polysoup (opcode) collision and not use DIF's at all for it. Which is probably the way I would go rather than the extremely messy map conversions.

#8 Thanks!