Program Manuals

Generating curves via drag and drop

M2C can be used without any preparations. Just drop map files onto the exe and it will try to generate a curved version of it IF your map meets the necessary requirements!
The results will be basic then. You can always change some settings in the Defaults.txt though.

Setting up curves directly in an editor

As of version 0.5 you can use special point entities info_curve, info_curve_export and info_detailobject) to setup your curves right inside a Goldsource editor (Hammer, Sledge, JACK).

Creating preset files for curve generation

To keep all settings in one file for repeated usage it is possible to create preset files for M2C.

Specify WAD files for proper texture alignment

To achieve perfect results in terms of texture alignment you will need to specify your used WAD files in WADList.txt, which is located in Map2Curve\WAD.

Map2Curve is able to obtain texture information directly from your WAD files. For this to work you have to use one of 2 methods:

Adding WAD files to Map2Curve:

1. Open the WADList.txt in the WAD folder and add your WAD file paths (one per line).
   
2. Alternatively you can paste copies of your WAD files into the WAD folder.
   

Valid file types

Valid files for M2C are Goldsource map files and M2C preset files, which are simple text files that contain valid commands and settings.
MyPresetFile.txt A M2C preset file!
MyMapFile.map A Goldsource map file!

How the filetype influences the generation process

Using preset files

Using a preset file will always make M2C use the settings from that preset file, that is if it contains any settings. It will use these settings on the map file, that matches the name of the preset file, IF it exists.
MyPresetFile.txt + M2C.exe =
1. M2C looking for MyPresetFile.map to generate a curve from the preset file settings IF those are valid and IF map file exists.
2. Else: Looking for Defaults.txt file DEFAULTS.txt to obtain settings.
3. Else: Using internal defaults for settings.

Using map files

When giving M2C map files to chew on, it will scan it for internal information from curve entities (info_curve) and then for an external preset file.
If no info_curve or preset file was found, then M2C will use default settings from either Defaults.txt or its own internal ones.

MyMapFile.map + M2C.exe =
1. Looking for info_curve entity in map file to obtain settings.
2. Else: Looking for preset file MyMapFile.txt to obtain settings.
3. Else: Looking for Defaults.txt file DEFAULTS.txt to obtain settings.
4. Else: Using internal defaults for settings.

Multiple files handling

M2C can process multiple files in a row. The files can be of a different type (map or txt).
MyMapFile#1.map MyMapFile#2.map MyPresetFile#1.txt

Name convention for preset files

Per default MyMapFile.txt is linked to MyMapFile.map

A preset file needs to have the same name as the input map file for M2C to know which belongs to which. This can be overridden by using the “source” command and specifying an alternative input map file path.

Overriding source map

source “C:\MyCustomSourceMap.map” // defines a custom source map

Now MyMapFile.txt is linked to MyCustomSourceMap.map

Specifying curves in a preset file

As there can be multiple curve objects defined in a preset file, M2C needs to know how many actual curve objects shall be created. The rad command that controls the curves radius is the indicator for that. Without any rad command in a preset file, the minimum amount of generated curves is 1.

rad 64 // Curve #1 is being defined with a custom radius of 64 game units
rad 512 // Curve #2 is being defined with a custom radius of 512 game units
rad 0 // Curve #3 is being defined with its original position

Preset file structure

Commands and their settings can be anywhere in a preset file. No special placement is necessary. As long as they are not commented out, they will be recognized as such.
As the preset file gets scanned for valid commands, their position of appearance defines to which curve object they belong.

Example #1 – Grouped

// these settings belong to curve object #1
rad 512
type 0
offset 64
res 16

// these settings belong to curve object #2
rad 1024
type 1
offset -128
res 24

Example #2 – Stacked

rad 512 // curve object #1
rad 1024 // curve object #2

type 0 // curve object #1
type 1 // curve object #2

offset 64 // etc…
offset -128

res 16
res 24

Setting inheritance

Most settings  of a curve object are being inherited by the following curve objects unless overwritten with another value.

If multiple curve objects were defined in a preset file and all of them are meant to share a certain setting, that setting only needs to be defined once. The following curve objects then share the settings of the first one, use default values or automatically generate a value from previous values (only works for “res”). Some commands don’t use this behaviour (e.g. Radius, Offset and Transformation commands).

rad 512
rad 256
rad 1024
rad 2000
type 1 // All of the 4 curve objects share the curve type “1”

Comments

Any other text than commands and respective values has to be commented out -> “// Comment”

rad 512

//offset 64 // this setting is going to be ignored