Level editor?

#1 Hammer ->www.valve-erc.com/files/?download=/files/hammer_v34.exe

Worldcraft it is now knowen as Hammer

Quark ->dynamic.gamespy.com/~quark/

As for Linux and Mac OS X editors there are non at this time.

Edit: There is a Mac OS 9 version of quark out there, though i couldn't get the download link to work, and i couldn't find any linux editors though quark could probably be ported

#2 You seem a little confused. There is only one "level editor" for Torque, and it is part of the engine. Press F11 while in game and you'll see it.

Hammer/Worldcraft and Quark are interior (building) editors.

I don't know about anything for OSX, so I can't help ya there.

#3 GtkRadiant works, though you may want to check the EULA depending on which country you live in and if your lawmakers were dumb enough to give click-wrap licenses any power.

You need to make a few manual modifications to the .map files it writes, but that's all very simple.

#4 Thanks for the help. I'm not confused, I just wasn't specific enough. I'll look into the suggestions. If anybody else has some recommendations it would be greatly appreciated since I will not be using a Win system for any of the development, quite a challenge but I believe possible.

Thanks,
-zaaj

#5 I'm in the same boat as you, zaaj. I'm going to try using Wine - www.winehq.com to emulate using Quark and Worldcraft/Hammer. Wow, I remember using the early pre-releases of Worldcraft for Quake I...hmm. Anyway, yeah. I don't know how Hammer/WC would work, but I'm thinking that Quark might work well, in the 2D views at least.

#6 Any comments on the license agreement for Hammer? I just downloaded and installed 3.4 and read it, and it says the application is only for use in creating levels to be used with Half Life or other Valve products...

#7 I wouldn't suggest anyone use GtkRadiant. Even if your country doesn't support the provisions of its license which disallow it from being used with non-Quake3 engine games, if you want to sell your game in countries that do support that (eg. the US) you could be in for some big headaches.

I believe the Hammer issue is still unresolved, and thus I don't think people should use Hammer for Torque based games. At one time, someone at GG got a verbal (or rather email) agreement that Hammer could be used on TGE games, but Valve never updated the EULA to say such and there's never been an official confirmation that Hammer can be used with TGE.

With all that in mind, I'd suggest you use either an old copy of Worldcraft, before the EULA was modified or use Quark. You might get away with using GtkRadiant or Hammer, but you're standing on shakey legal ground by doing so and it really isn't worth it if you take your game development seriously.

#8 What about the Quark editor? Is that legally sound?

#9 Yes, Quark is perfectly fine, legally.

From a usage perspective the UI is a bit wonky (IMO) but the program is quite nice once you get past that.

#10 Thanks. I'm pretty new, and mostly just a tinkerer, but I'm still trying to take care and cobble together a LEGAL toolset..!

#11 There's some kind of agreement whereby Hammer has been "graciously" allowed for Torque-engine usage. It's in the documentation...somewhere. Somewhere.

I'm planning to make a .map editor myself, for Linux, but it won't be for another month or so before I start. I'll be using Python, probably with the wxPython GUI set. Not sure exactly how I'll approach the 3D view, yet. As I say, it'll be a while before I get a chance to start (super busy until September, and then I rejoin university again. Aaargh), but I will definitely be starting one. There's no way I'm buying an extra PC or dual-booting just for using Hammer!

I'll say more when I eventually start and have made some kind of progress.

#12 To avoid dual booting, I use VMWare. It's the coolest thing since sliced bread and I use it for everything I just can't find a linux version for. It's a pure x86 emulator, so you can run any os that needs one. Dos,Linux,windows, whatever.

#13 VMware is indeed very, very cool. But you can also checkout win4lin, I don't think it'll run the latest directx stuff, but if it runs what you need, it's a lot cheaper, and I've found its performance to seem a bit better than vmware. It only emulates win95/98 (and probably Me) within Linux. It's not aimed at hardcore VM emulation, but more at providing an environment to run Windows apps in. It's sort of like a cross between VMware and Wine--it provides a completely separate boot-image window of Win9x, similar to what you'd get with VMware, but it automatically uses the host system's IP stack, and works directly with the file system (it writes its file tree within a directory...it doesn't use disk images...so it's easy to access the windows files even if you're not running win4lin).

Anyway, what I actually intended to say is that isn't the performance sorta crappy within a VM (win4lin included)? What sort of system are you running all that on? I would expect things like Word and IE to run ok, but anything displaying and calculating fairly complex 3d graphics I would have low hopes for.

#14 Its pretty bad torque doesnt support levels created in something like 3DSM :/


anybody knows if cipher does? it looks like pretty cool engine to me

#15 VMware 4 is quite speedy. My system is a p4 2.4 with a gig of ram and a geforce fx 5600 256mb card. It can handle just about anything thrown at it.

cipher is winblowz only, therefore sucks. :p

#16 Well, the question was a little different ;)

#17 Personally, my machine is but an Athlon 700, with 256mb and a Geforce 4 4600. I can't afford to upgrade, and I like the UNIX philosophy of small tools each doing a single task, all working in unison. For those who don't have fast PCs, VMware isn't really an option.

To those disappointed by the lack of a level editor, I suggest working on a different part of your game for now. Read some articles at websites like www.gamasutra.com and think about other aspects of your game, not just the the making of generic bases to run around shooting each other in. You don't have to make that first, after all.

#18 I would still look into win4lin. I used in on a 1ghz p3, and it was very quick. When using stuff like Photoshop, it ran at near-native speed. I don't know if it supports directx, though. Depends on what the level editor needs. I'm about to try seeing how Quark and Hammer run in VirtualPC on my Mac laptop...which is not the fastest mac, so we'll see how that goes. I'm not too optimistic..but slow is better than nothing.

Anyway, I have a windows PC also (no laptop though), so this is mostly out of curiosity, and also to make sure I can work on things on the road if I need or want to.

#19 Can Quark be run on Linux? Does the source compile fine on it?

All I saw were 'windows' downloads. How many window-isms does it have?

-Daniel

#20 It can be run through wine, but last time i tried it the fonts were so small that it made using it excruciatingly painful.

There is quest-ed that does run in linux.