Is there a easy way to porting a map

[quake2dday]

I see so many new ways and idea's here for mapping but is there a simple way to porting over a map and changing there entities. I have try this my self but I am always falling out of map and lost in space there.

[sP1Sp0pD]

It would help if you could be a little more specific. What map (for which game) are you trying to port (assuming you're trying to make a Q2 map)? What editor are you using? Are you familiar with *.map file format for the games in question?

The first thing to do is to obtain and export map geometry (brushes) correctly. For Q3/QL you'd have to decompile original map (with tools like BSPC or Q3Map2) if you don't have the source for it (only *.bsp file). Note that result of decompilation will be very raw and require substantial amount of cleaning. For Q4 maps, you don't have to decompile them as they inherently come with *.map file. Converting maps from non-Quake games, e.g. Unreal series, is a lot more complicated process and I'd assume we're not talking about those here.

You'd then want to convert it to Q2 format. There are several ways for doing this, depending on your tools and preferences. Some editors have import/export features; another option is to use text-processing utilities, e.g. standard Unix sed(1) and perl(1) programs, and perform all needed adjustments in a semi-automatic fashion.

Once you have your map converted to Q2 format, you can open it in your favorite editor and work on it as usual, plus you'd have to retexture and relight it, and think what to do about patches and shaders (if there were any) since Q2 lacks them. Last but not least, expect to spend some time optimizing it (think r_speeds) — while you should always try to optimize your maps, even the ones you created from scratch, this is particularly important for converted maps because they usually contain lots of bogus and overlapped brushes.

As for a simple way, I don't think there is one (assuming you want a decent result), sorry.

[quake2dday]

oh Thank for getting back to me. An yes this is for a Q2 map. Let me start with a example like newrok.bsp with is a Action Q2 map. I can open it in Quark and see all the entities in a map. Taking out everything that is not needed like power ups, health, bullets. Then copy and paste my other entities from a working DDay map. The map loads up fine but I am out of the map area and fall or falling out of map. How can I adjust to be in the right place in a map and be able to play. I am not changing the map it self or textures in the map just the entities to make a map playable for DDay. I have some idea now that I am going to try and see if I can make it work and post my results if it does work on my next test of porting to DDay.

[sP1Sp0pD]

Hmm, perhaps you should check your info_player_deathmatch entities and see if any of them is outside the map (albeit I'm not sure a map with such a bug could be even compiled).

[quake2dday]

Well that is my problem adjusting my info_player_deathmatch entities to be in the map. Loading Quark crashes the map file.

[sP1Sp0pD]

Does QuArK produce any error message when it fails to load your map? If you suspect the problem is in your entities (easy to check: just remove them in a text editor and try to reopen the map in QuArK), you might try to iteratively remove them (think binary search) and locate the bogus one(s).

You could also attach your *.map file so we can take a look.

[quake2dday]

Well I came a long way in a couple of Days. my Quark is working and loaded up a map file fine. I edit some entities and removed any not for my mod {DDay} and just had this error Build failed, because it created the (-LIN) file: e:\Quake2\dday\.\maps\newrok.LIN
What causes this error in quark will be playing around with it some more and hoping I learn to fix this bug I am having here.

[spirit]

This means your map has a leak, i.e., there exists a path from an entity out of the map area into the void. Your editor should be able to display this path so you can easily find it. (I'm not familiar with Quark, under Radiant, the option is called Load point file or something similar.)

Note that by the definition above, a map also has a leak if you move an entity out of your map into the void (even if all other entities are within the map AND the map is sealed off properly).

[quake2dday]

OK Thank you spirit I found that leak in that map and got that map too work for me. I am still learning new things and tricks on making it easier to port a map.