Porting maps from other games into source? - Developers

Well... what the title says. Games like; Prey mario kart?

I'm not sure how, but there most likely is a way if you have Mario Kart and Prey are avadiable for the computer.

There is a way. Chances are you'd have to write a converter, however. Unless there's already one out that I'm unaware of.

I do have both those games.

[QUOTE=vexx21322;21072417]I do have both those games.[/QUOTE] I should imagine there would be some way of converting these map formats (not that I know what they are, just hazarding a guess) into a format readable by a modelling program such as blender, and from there you could get it into source, but it would be an awful mess. There may be other ways of doing it (I don't think either of them use anything even remotely bsp-like though).

There isn't a quick way or a way that would port it straight across without butchering it, it would be easier to just re-make it in Source from scratch with reference images.

Try porting it, then using it as a guide in hammer to re-map it.

[QUOTE=~ZOMG;21078077]Try porting it, then using it as a guide in hammer to re-map it.[/QUOTE] This is what I was going to do. [editline]11:11AM[/editline] I can't find any tutorial or program on porting maps from the games I want though.

With Mario Kart being a N64 game you'd have to remap the whole entire level. Their maps are models.

[QUOTE=Jimmg;21092489]With Mario Kart being a N64 game you'd have to remap the whole entire level. Their maps are models.[/QUOTE] Oh wow.

Well, I would like to see the kitchen from blockland or the starting area from ROBLOX or maybe a mall from mall tycoon (I also once changed the renderware into... wait, that's another story)

If it's a game completely unrelated to the source engine (like mariokart, as was so suggested by the first reply) then it will be incredibly difficult to do any level of direct 'porting' at all unless you're a master programmer. You would be better off extracting elements that source [b]can[/b] use like textures, converting them to a format that is source compatible, and then redoing the geometry using hammer. It's effort, but not nearly as much effort as it would be to write a program to convert one format to another! You would practically have to program an automated hammer to convert everything into brushes. If it [b]is[/b] Source-related, however, it's theoretically not too hard. Every game that descended from the ID Tech 2 engine (and that is [url=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Quake_-_family_tree_2.svg]a [b]LOT[/b] of games[/url], including Prey), should be much easier (relatively) to import. The main level editor for the Tech engine, if memory serves and if it hasn't been replaced since, is called Radient, which is very similar to hammer. I seem to remember it offered a 'Export to .map' feature, which is formatted basically the same as valve VMFs. Of course it's not that simple. You're going to need a lot of free time and notepad.exe find-and-replace. Firstly, every Tech game since Quake 3 has included a very-heavily-used feature called Patch Meshes, which are sort-of-displacements, but designed to produce things like pipes, curved walls, curved ramps, but, strangely enough, they were pretty rubbish for terrain. Source is the only Tech descendant that does not have patch meshes. [url=http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/xbox360_prey_05.jpg]These curved walking walls[/url] in Prey are a good example of what they are. You will lose them in a ported map. To make things worse, other developers add their own level object classes to the game, for example Infinity Wards terrain system. If you port a Call Of Duty map, you're only going to get the houses. Actually, not even that, because of a prefab system they developed so that brushes could be rotated to any angle without risk of distortion or errors. Basically, my point is, you're going to get brushes, and that's pretty much it. You'll need to strip ALL the entities and patch-meshes, including lighting. You'll also have to double check the .map format matches up with .vmf standards and make changes to the syntax. Once that's done, you'll need to VMT and VTF all the textures involved, convert models and so on and so on. It's a lot of work, but it's possible. A friend of mine was having a hard time getting used to hammer, so used GTK Radient to do the brushwork for his levels, and ported it out to hammer. Good luck!

Use 3D Ripper, you can RIP models from games working on DirectX and games thru emulator. It's easy since maps are saved as model

[QUOTE=Netheous;21243051]Use 3D Ripper, you can RIP models from games working on DirectX and games thru emulator. It's easy since maps are saved as model[/QUOTE] Making a map out of one big model is a pretty silly thing to do. It could be done, but it will be impossible to optimise in any way, Source will be unable to light it to any degree of quality, and the file size of it's doubtlessly massive UVmap would seriously suck. If you rescale the model to Source scale, though, you could use it as a concept on which to build the brushes and displacement work around, chop off smaller models, and rip textures from the UV map. You're going to need to be -good- at optimising to make sure it's all source-friendly though.

[QUOTE=Khuskan;21243126]Making a map out of one big model is a pretty silly thing to do. It could be done, but it will be impossible to optimise in any way, Source will be unable to light it to any degree of quality, and the file size of it's doubtlessly massive UVmap would seriously suck. If you rescale the model to Source scale, though, you could use it as a concept on which to build the brushes and displacement work around, chop off smaller models, and rip textures from the UV map. You're going to need to be -good- at optimising to make sure it's all source-friendly though.[/QUOTE] There's some way to export models to vmf I believe.

[QUOTE=Zally13;21243241]There's some way to export models to vmf I believe.[/QUOTE] Model to texture? Shouldn't really be any need, all models are going to have a diffuse skin. Heck, they're probably a seporate file alltogether in most games, even the old ones. I have a feeling there might be a way to dump all bitmaps on a video cards ram but I can't for the life of me remember where I read that.

[QUOTE=Khuskan;21243838]Model to texture? Shouldn't really be any need, all models are going to have a diffuse skin. Heck, they're probably a seporate file alltogether in most games, even the old ones. I have a feeling there might be a way to dump all bitmaps on a video cards ram but I can't for the life of me remember where I read that.[/QUOTE] Wat. VMF : Valve Map Format This idea isn't great, since I have a feeling the model>brushwork converter makes a brush for each poly.

[QUOTE=metallics;21243950]Wat. VMF : Valve Map Format This idea isn't great, since I have a feeling the model>brushwork converter makes a brush for each poly.[/QUOTE] Gah, too early in the morning, misread it. I'd still recommend essentially 'tracing' it. I really can't imagine any model>VMF producing anything that could even barely considered to be optimizable. If you start off with a jumple of brushes that you didn't make, you'll have a hard time getting intimate with the map you're making It could be useful for things like shop fronts, however.

Thanks for the replys, I'm going to redo anything that gets messed up, I just want as close to the map I want into source, then I'll just rebuild what didn't work. [editline]02:30AM[/editline] Where do I find and work this radient? [editline]02:44AM[/editline] Nvm, found it, the only problem is that I have the steam version of prey, so, all the files are in .pk4. I can open them, I just can't in the editor, can someone tell me how to unpack them, well, not how, but where, what's the file structure in the base folder?

You should be able to open .pk4 files with pretty much any file compression program like winzip, winrar or 7zip.

[QUOTE=Khuskan;21245686]You should be able to open .pk4 files with pretty much any file compression program like winzip, winrar or 7zip.[/QUOTE] I said I can open them, I want to know how they go together in the prey folder when extracted.

Uh, well, just keep clicking through the pk4 until you find the maps file. The actual structure, ignoring the PK4s is pretty similar to Source, without the caches. Just extract them where they stand, if memory serves, all the pk4s should be in a folder called something like /base/, /baseprey/ or something along those lines.

[IMG]http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/1497/cpclocktown50001el7.png[/IMG] Just get the map in hammer as a model and use it as a reference. There are dumpers for n64 that can get you everything you need. 3dripperDX sucks. It skews shit. But I guess that can't be avoided in other engines. Whatever you do don't try to convert the mesh into brushes through Import. I made the major mistake of doing so, and due to that I don't know if I'll ever finish the mess you see above. Instead, convert the map to a model and take things slow, use it as a general reference point. There's not much else I can tell you when it comes to textures. Just dump them, convert them, and have fun figuring out how to apply them correctly.

I really want to see a map of some of the end of Resident Evil 2 on the source engine. Being a highly inexperienced mapper, I doubt I'll ever see this vision because nobody else cares enough.

[QUOTE=bepassley;21256427]I really want to see a map of some of the end of Resident Evil 2 on the source engine. Being a highly inexperienced mapper, I doubt I'll ever see this vision because nobody else cares enough.[/QUOTE] LOL! u thought they had MAPS back then?! lol all it was back then was pictures and an ILLUSION of a 3D atmosphere. Pop your PS1 game into the computer and take a look for yourself. Youll find every picture used as a "map" there.

[QUOTE=SeveredSkull;21297895]LOL! u thought they had MAPS back then?! lol all it was back then was pictures and an ILLUSION of a 3D atmosphere. Pop your PS1 game into the computer and take a look for yourself. Youll find every picture used as a "map" there.[/QUOTE] Firstly: He didn't say Resident Evil even had maps. Secondly: Technically they are still maps. Just shut up if you don't know what you're talking about.

[QUOTE=FluxMage;21253434] *image* Just get the map in hammer as a model and use it as a reference. There are dumpers for n64 that can get you everything you need. 3dripperDX sucks. It skews shit. But I guess that can't be avoided in other engines. Whatever you do don't try to convert the mesh into brushes through Import. I made the major mistake of doing so, and due to that I don't know if I'll ever finish the mess you see above. Instead, convert the map to a model and take things slow, use it as a general reference point. There's not much else I can tell you when it comes to textures. Just dump them, convert them, and have fun figuring out how to apply them correctly.[/QUOTE] This is the best course of action. If you can get the model converted into something you can see in hammer and scaled to the size you want it, you can build brushes and displacements around it to create the world geometry. That’s basically what I’ve been doing with the Sonic Adventure DX ‘adventure fields’ I’ve been trying to replicate. Once you’ve got the textures properly converted you can texture the world geometry accordingly. The textures are indeed a pain to get justified properly, (especially for displacements), and you will likely have to modify them or combine some of them in a image editor to make it look right.