New Blog Launched

22Mar09

Just a reminder: if you like what you read here, you’ll love my new blog at http://magnao.com


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Closing the blog

05Sep08

It’s been a great 10 months and I’m moving up from WordPress hosting.

Thanks for reading and for commenting!

You can follow my new blog at magnao.


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Using Xubuntu as a web server

29Aug08

For those who are interested in running Linux, especially on an older PC, Xubuntu just might fit the bill. Its installation files fit on one disc and include a versatile window manager to boot. However, the basic install isn’t really capable of being a LAMP and FTP-enabled web server. This tutorial explains how to get there.

  1. Get Xubuntu. Install it.
  2. Open a terminal window and enter 
    sudo tasksel install lamp-server
  3. Provide the MySQL root password when prompted.
  4. Open a terminal window and enter 
    sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
  5. Then enter 
    sudo apt-get install php5-gd
  6. Enter the following into the terminal: 
    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
  7. Now, if you navigate to http://localhost/phpmyadmin, you should see the phpMyAdmin login screen
  8. Next, let’s install an FTP server. In a terminal, type in 
    sudo apt-get install proftpd gproftpd
  9. Launch gproftpd. Add a user. Take out the following from /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf: 
    AllowOverwrite off
  10. Activate the FTP server.
  11. You’re done. Enjoy!

Questions, comments? Let me know.


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Creating a map in GtkRadiant for OpenArena

26Jul08

This tutorial is written for anyone wishing to get started making maps in OpenArena or another ioquake3 game.

  1. Get GtkRadiant.
  2. Get openarena_gtkradiant.zip. Extract it into your GtkRadiant installation folder. If your OpenArena installation folder is not in C:\Program Files, open the GtkRadiant\games\oa.game file and change the enginepath_win32 variable to reflect the location of the installation folder.
  3. Get Q3Map2Build and extract it to C:\q3map2build.
  4. Launch C:\q3map2build\q3map2build.exe. Click Directory Options and set “Game executable” to your openarena.exe file, q3map2.exe location to q3map2.exe in your GtkRadiant folder, and bspc.exe location to bspc.exe in your GtkRadiant folder. Set BSP, VIS, LIGHT, and BSPC to Normal. Uncheck “Pause” under each item. Leave q3map2build open.
  5. Launch GtkRadiant. When it prompts for a game, select OpenArena and uncheck “Show Global Preferences.”
  6. Press P to bring up Preferences, go to Interface->Layout, and select the third layout option. Restart GtkRadiant afterwards. This will give you the old-fashioned Q3Radiant layout that is similar to major 3D applications.
  7. In one of the non-camera viewports, click and drag out to form a rectangle. If the resulting prism is too short, drag up in another viewport to bring it up to the desired size. Press T to bring up the Texture Browser, double click on “base,” and open “base_wall.” Click on “concrete” and press T to close the browser. Then click the Hollow button (it’s the one before the button with the white cube, it looks like a square with a perforated square outline inside).
  8. In the middle of this new hollow room, right click on the map and select “light.” Enter 850 for intensity, press Enter, and press Esc.
  9. Above the floor of the room, right-click and select “info”->”info_player_start.” If the item isn’t in the room and above the floor, click and drag it to where it needs to be. Press Esc when done.
  10. Repeat the above procedure and put another info_player_start entity in the map, away from the first one.
  11. Right-click on the map again and insert a “weapon”->”weapon_shotgun.” Press Esc when done.
  12. Save the map in your openarena\baseoa\maps folder as test.map.
  13. Go back to q3map2build and click Refresh. “baseoa/maps/test.map” should show up in the “Maps” list. Select it and press Build. Check your maps folder afterwards. There should be four files (excluding test.bak): test.bsp, test.map, test.srf, and test.aas. If there aren’t four files, there’s a problem with the map and you should start over.
  14. Launch OpenArena. Pull down the console with the ~ key. Type /sv_pure 0 and press Enter. Then, type /map test and press Enter.
  15. You should spawn in a brightly lit room with a shotgun nearby. Pull down the console and type /addbot grunt 3, and press Enter. This should spawn a bot.
  16. That’s it! For more about GtkRadiant operation, see GTKRadiant Tutorials and Q3Radiant tutorials. Enjoy!

Here’s a video companion to the tutorial:


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OpenArena map: oax_dm1

07Jul08

I decided to make some maps for OpenArena (and learn GtkRadiant in the process), so here’s my first map, dubbed oax_dm1. It’s a simple space map with 5 spawn points, a teleporter, a platform with a lightning gun, a rocket launcher, armor, a bevy of health and armor shards, and a somewhat precarious layout.

oax_dm1 map

As you can see, nothing special, but pretty fast gameplay. The bots don’t fare too well here, even after I accommodated the gaps between the platforms with their own mini-platforms, so it’s best played with other people. Get the pk3 here, put it in your baseoa folder, and launch it by pulling down the console (~ key) and typing “/map oax_dm1″. Enjoy!


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