DarkRadiant is a level editor for Doom 3 and The Dark Mod, developed by The Dark Mod team. It may also be used for editing levels for similar id Software games such as Quake 4.
This User Guide describes the features and functionality of DarkRadiant, however it is not intended as a guide to mapping techniques. Level design is a complex topic, and is covered by various other learning resources, some of which are listed below.
- The Dark Mod Wiki
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The starting point for most Dark Mod documentation and tutorials, including gameplay, configuration and editing.
- ModWiki
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Online wiki covering editing topics for vanilla Doom 3 and similar engines.
- The Dark Mod forums
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Online community for discussion of the Dark Mod, including various ad-hoc mapping tutorial threads posted by individual users.
The level editing process starts off with basic assets: models, textures, sounds, entity definitions, skins, animations and so on. Many of these assets will be packaged with a particular game installation, but a level designer may also choose to create custom assets for a specific mission. These assets are installed into a directory tree which is accessible both by DarkRadiant (for editing) and the game engine itself (for playing the mission).
Once assets have been arranged in DarkRadiant according to the wishes of the
level designer, a .map file is saved to disk. This is a text file in a format
understood by the game engine, and includes both level geometry and references
to the assets used in the map. Since the .map file is simply text, and does
not actually embed the binary asset data, it tends to be fairly small.
The game engine includes functionality to compile the .map file into a
.proc file containing low-level vertex geometry derived from the brushes and
patches within the .map file. The game engine can then render the mission in
realtime, making use of the same assets that were accessed by DarkRadiant during
editing.
DarkRadiant also maintains its own separate file containing various editing
information, such as object layers used within a map. This .darkradiant file
is never used by the game engine, and is non-critical — a .map file with no
accompanying .darkradiant file can still be edited with DarkRadiant, although
certain DarkRadiant-specific state may be lost.
There are three main types of object contained within a .map file: entities,
brushes and patches.
Entities are the top-level objects in a map — essentially, a map file is just a list of entities. Every entity has an entity class which determines the type of entity it is: static mesh, AI, sound emitter, particle emitter, light etc. Entities also store a list of string key/value pairs, known as spawnargs or properties. Some entities also contain brushes and patches as children.
Brushes are convex solids used to define basic map geometry: walls, floors, ceilings, steps and other medium to large items. Brushes are often rectangular in shape, although a brush can actually have any number of faces provided that it is convex (it is impossible to have a brush in an L or a U shape, for example). Brushes are not smooth-shaded by the game engine, which generally makes them unsuitable for representing curved surfaces.
Patches are smooth one-sided surfaces used to represent curved objects such as vaulted ceilings, pillars or cave interiors. A patch is defined by a number of Bezier control points, and offers control over the level of detail used when subdividing the patch into triangles for rendering: more triangles will produce a smoother surface but may lower rendering performance.
The entities, brushes and patches in a map are arranged in a hierarchy: not every entity has children, but every brush and patch must have an entity as a parent. Each map therefore starts with a single default entity called the worldspawn, which acts as the parent for new brushes and patches created in DarkRadiant.
When running DarkRadiant for the first time, the Game Setup dialog will be shown. This is where you configure the path to the game installation from which DarkRadiant will load assets, such as textures, models and entity definitions.
The Game Setup dialog contains the following options:
- Game Type
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DarkRadiant ships with support for several different game engines, each of which is contained within a
.gamefile. For editing Dark Mod missions, the default choice ofThe Dark Mod 2.0 (Standalone)is the one to use, but it is also possible to edit stock Doom 3 or Quake 4 missions. - DarkMod Path / Engine Path
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This is the path to the game installation on the system. The label text will change depending on whether the selected game is
The Dark Modor another engine. - Mission
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Optional path to a subdirectory containing assets specific to a particular mission which is being worked on. For game types other than
The Dark Mod, this will be displayed as Mod (fs_game), and should be set to the path of a subdirectory containing a particular game mod, if one is being used. - Mod Base (fs_game_base)
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This field only appears for non-DarkMod game types. It allows a two-level mod structure, where the Mod Base can point to a major game mod, possibly downloaded from elsewhere, while Mod can be set to point to an entirely local "sub-mod" which contains local changes and overrides. Before the release of Dark Mod standalone, this field would have been set to
darkmodwhile the Mod field would have been set to the local mission, however this is no longer necessary whenThe Dark Mod 2.0 (Standalone)is being used.
Once the game paths are set up, click the Save button to proceed to the main DarkRadiant interface.
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Note
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It is possible to Cancel the Game Setup dialog and proceed to the main window without configuring a game installation, in which case DarkRadiant will show a warning and ask if you wish to proceed. If you do, DarkRadiant will run but there will be no available textures, models, entities or other game assets. |
DarkRadiant ships with a number of different user interface layouts, which
control the position, visibility and window type of the major interface
elements. The current layout can be changed from the View → Window Layout
menu, and will require DarkRadiant to be restarted.
There is currently no support for custom layouts, however all of the provided layouts allow window sizes and splitter positions to be changed, and the changes will persist through multiple editing sessions.
- Embedded
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A large 2D window is shown on the right, while the left-hand side is divided vertically into the 3D camera window and a tab widget containing the main editing panels. There are no floating subwindows in this layout.
- Regular
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A legacy GtkRadiant layout which places the 2D window on the left, the 3D camera view on the top right, and a 2D scrolling textures panel on the bottom right. Other tabs in the editing panel are shown in a floating window.
- RegularLeft
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The same as Regular except the full-height 2D window is on the right and the 3D window and texture panels are on the left.
- Floating
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The 2D window, 3D window and editing tab widget are all shown in separate floating windows which always appear above the main DarkRadiant window. The main window itself is empty apart from the toolbars and status bar. This is the most flexible layout, since each subwindow can be sized or positioned as desired, but the multiple subwindows may be cumbersome to manage.
- SplitPane
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Three separate 2D windows, showing each of the major axes, are shown alongside the 3D camera view in a 2x2 layout similar to traditional 3D modelling applications. The editing tab widget is in a floating window.
The game world is a three-dimensional vector space with a central origin, rendered in the 2D editing window as a grid. The unit of measurement is an arbitrary game unit which does not directly correspond to any real-world measurement system — in The Dark Mod, a typical human stands around 80 - 90 game units high, making a game unit about 2 cm.
Each 2D window shows which axes it is representing with an icon in the top-left
corner, as well as an identical icon at the <0,0,0> origin position, if
visible within the view.
The 2D view also shows the current position of the camera (used for rendering the separate 3D camera view window), and its view direction.
The following commands are available within the 2D view:
Right drag |
Scroll the view horizontally or vertically (relative to the window). |
Mouse wheel |
Zoom the view |
Shift + Right drag |
Zoom the view (alternative binding) |
Ctrl + Middle click |
Move the camera directly to the clicked position |
Middle click |
Rotate the camera to look directly at the clicked point |
Ctrl + TAB |
Change view axis (XY, XZ, YZ) |
Ctrl + Shift + TAB |
Center 2D view on current camera position |
The grid shown in the 2D view is used to snap the position and size of brushes and patches, as well as the centerpoints of entities. The size of the grid can be configured, in powers of 2, from 0.125 up to 256, using the 1-9 keys on the main keyboard (not the numeric keypad), or the equivalent options in the Grid menu.
The 0 key on the main keyboard can be used to toggle the display of the grid. Note that objects will still be snapped to the grid even if the grid is not visible; this is purely a visual toggle.
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Important
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Level geometry built from brushes and patches should always be snapped to the grid to avoid problems such as rendering glitches and map leaks. Static meshes and animated AI can be positioned more freely, however grid snapping is a useful tool for ensuring that models are appropriately aligned with the level geometry. |
Every object in a map can be selected and moved within the 2D view. Brushes and patches can also be resized.
Shift + Left click |
Select or deselect the object at the clicked position. Any existing selected objects will remain selected. If the clicked position overlaps more than one object, the closest one (according to the current 2D view axis) will be affected. |
Alt + Shift + Left click |
Select the object at the clicked position, and deselect any existing selected objects. If the clicked position overlaps more than one object, each click will cycle through the overlapping objects. |
ESC |
Deselect all objects |
Left drag inside a selected object |
Move the selected object |
Left drag outside a selected object |
Resize the object (if available) |