Anyone know how the AutoOP NightTime (nao) maps were made on TFC?

For anyone out there that may still use this from the early 20s, or miraculously knows of such in this current age, does anyone know how the AutoOP NightTime (nao) maps were actually made?


I'm working on a new TFC server which features these maps (nao_hunted and nao_2fort are currently the only working maps I can find). There's a nao_dustbowl and nao_badlands but these are non-working or, bizarrely, with all entities removed.


For anyone that wants to try help but has no idea what I'm even talking about, AutoOP NightTime (nao) is simply a night time version of an official map with all lights removed and replaced with colourful ones.


So I guess the best way to ask this question is, how do I properly edit (or decompile) a BSP (or through use of amx-plugins/stripper2) so that I can achieve making my own 'nao' versions of official, pre-compiled maps?


Many thanks for any help!

Terrum...that nick rings a bell since I was working as admin in Jolt TFC! Well no, not really saddly. But we have a couple of members who are mappers who may know about this stuff. I take those nao maps use night SkyBoxes as well?

I could ask on how to recompile maps with the night materials required and wads needed...

Also if those maps you are making are like night clones of stockmaps but no changes to the map paths, I can create the waypoints needed.

I've been on and off TFC the last 20 years or so :) I was probably too young to be considered part of the 'dial-up' days, but say since 2005 onwards I've been working on TFC throughout with servers up since!

Anyway, it would be amazing to know if you have any mappers that can offer advice! Really appreciate it :)

Yes the 'nao' maps would use night skyboxes too, although from past experience, I think this is as easy as just using some HEX editor (or BSPEdit) to edit the entity which spawns/handles the skybox texture.

Also Kent eh, well I had a step-brother from Maidstone until he had a brain tumour...and didn't make it in 2009...Even he liked TFC in a mad wacky manner blowing up enemies into gibs.

Can you share those nao_ maps you have? I have hunted, 2fort, and well, and another night-time version of hunted that's just called "night.bsp". I've uploaded them here.

As for how the maps were made, they probably used a tool like Zoner's RipEnt. It's pretty easy to do, just takes some trial and error to figure out what entities are where in the level. I think the latest version of Zoner's tools is 253.

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Originally Posted by RoboCop

Also Kent eh, well I had a step-brother from Maidstone until he had a brain tumour...and didn't make it in 2009...Even he liked TFC in a mad wacky manner blowing up enemies into gibs.

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Shoot, sorry to hear that! I vaguely remember some work colleague from Maidstone passing away due to bowel cancer, strange but small world! :(

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Originally Posted by Antnommer

Can you share those nao_ maps you have? I have hunted, 2fort, and well, and another night-time version of hunted that's just called "night.bsp". I've uploaded them here.

As for how the maps were made, they probably used a tool like Zoner's RipEnt. It's pretty easy to do, just takes some trial and error to figure out what entities are where in the level. I think the latest version of Zoner's tools is 253.

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The nao maps are still widely available (They're even on apg-clan's fast dl: http://apg-clan.org/fastdl/tfc/maps ).

The ones that work are the ones you have provided in your download ('nao_2fort.bsp', 'nao_hunted.bsp', 'nao_well.bsp'). The ones that don't work are 'nao_badlands.bsp' and 'nao_dustbowl.bsp' which have no entities at all on any of the maps, apart from some lights here or there.

2fort doesn't have any 'light' entities and the nao_2fort has tons of 'light' entities, so I don't think it was a simple entity edit now (could be wrong, I'll have to find out and let you know!)

Thanks so much for the information thus far, though! :)

Oh, didn't think to look on the fast dl. You hadn't mentioned well and I already had those maps zipped, so I thought I'd just post them. :P

I noticed there are two of each on the fast dl for badlands and dustbowl. I checked nao_badlands.bsp and nao_badlands_.bsp and they seem to be the same, and both spawn me in the air over a canyon with nothing to do. nao_dustbowl.bsp does seem to work, as I spawned in the right room and was able to find backpacks while wandering the map. nao_dustbowl_.bsp (note the trailing underscore) did not seem to work right, as it also spawned me in the air in the middle of the map. Another thing I noticed is that the working Dustbowl had only red and blue teams, while the non-working one (as well as both Badlands) had all four teams.

Bizarrely, I didn't think to try the ones with the underscore! As a matter of fact, I didn't think to try the ones on the fast DL at all (I just thought it would be the same!). But after replacing my nao_dustbowl with the one from the fast DL, you're right - it's actually a working version, and it's a really good version at that! Thank you so much :) Saves me a lot of time!

Although the question remains how on earth one would add entities to an already compiled BSP like the original makers did. It really would be interesting to find out how they added entities, as I used the ripent software you mentioned in your previous post and opened the file in notepad, and it didn't show any 'light' entities, so it definitely isn't related to simply editing the existing entities (unfortunately).

Well I don't know but I use VHE 3.5.3 for enhancing the maps by adding the bumpmap textures for the TFC stock maps which I've made here:-

https://apg-clan.org/vbdownloads.php...ownloadid=1112

Also well to be honest Maidstone Hospital wasn't as hygienic as it was supposed to be in the 2000s, as my brother TVS had to be allocated near Kempston with the best cancer docs. But TVS didn't survive and was cremated in Margate...

Looking again at the RipEnt site, I saw this: "You may add new point-based entities onto the end of the file as you need them." A light would be a point-based entity, so I think it may actually be possible to add lights. I'd have to mess with it to be sure.

Further following that thought, you could potentially fix the Badlands map by extracting the original map's entities, and replacing the ones in the nao_ version. Or just making a copy of the original map and then editing those entities, I guess.