Week 3 Day 5 - Modding Quake
1Today we went through the steps to make a Quake mod, as such:
1) Download the Quake mod starter pack here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9tdifgaaeq6qy2/QUAKE%20Release.zip?dl=0. Unzip it into its own directory.
2) Download Visual Studio Code (not normal Visual Studio) and right click on your quake/fortress/source code directory and choose "Open with Code". This will open up all of the source code for you to edit. Make sure you enable the QuakeC extension and turn character encoding to Windows 1252.
3) Click on the search button (the magnifying glass) or hit ctrl-shift-F to search for some term. That's the easiest way to navigate a 300k line of code mod. For example, if you search for "infection" you can find things related to the medic's ability to infect people, or "rocket launcher" to see all places where the rocket launcher shows up. Go through the results until you find the place you're looking for.
4) How to modify the source code? Honestly, just start off making small changes, like turning the damage of a rocket up ten times (92 to 920) or adjusting prices or something. Build up from there. Find code similar to what you're trying to do and copy/paste it and change. That's the beauty of modding! You are working with an existing game instead of having to do it from scratch.
5) Once you've made your change, it's time to compile and test it. In the root quake directory you will see a script called "Make.bat". Double click that, and if there's an error, fix the error (it will say error on line 1650 of weapons.qcp, but it's actually going to be in the file weapons.qc instead). If it works, then it's ready to test.
6) To play the game, you need to launch the server (I have a shortcut set up for that), or if the server is already running to restart the server (with the "restart" command) or to change the map (like "map rock2" or "map well6"). Then run the client (there is a shortcut for that too) and it will connect to your server. If you are partnered with someone then once the client launches, go to the console (~ key) and type "connect 11.22.33.44" where 11.22.33.44 is their IP address. They will need to have their firewall configured.
Rinse and repeat. Make a change and save in VS Code. Compile. Restart the server. Switch to the client and play and test it out!