Many of you will know about the problems with the PAK file system in Quake2 by now. Every mod we get has a bunch of new PAK files and usually at least one of these contains new levels which are fun to play using other mods. But, because the PAK files are in different directories (i.e. LMCTF ones in \Quake2\LMCTF, CTF ones in \Quake2\CTF) all the maps aren't available to all the mods.
One solution to this was to place all your PAK files into the BaseQ2 directory. If for example you were playing LMCTF and wanted to use the Q2CTF1 (McKinley) map, so long as the CTF PAK files were in the BaseQ2 directory you could do it. Quake just found the relevant map in the PAK files under BaseQ2 ( ). So, that's what I did, and guess what??? I ran out of PAK numbers!! They only go from 0 through 9 (PAK0.PAK...PAK9.PAK) and I chewed them up REALLY rapidly.
So I got to thinking, why are we doing this in the first place? Because we want the maps for all the mods right? Soooo, the simple thing to do is only place the PAK files in BaseQ2 which have maps within them. I know this is a simple idea, but lots of people just chuck them all in there.
I use QPed to look through the PAK files and if I find a Maps subtree off it, I renumber it as the next available number in BaseQ2 and move it in there. Then for the remaining PAK files in the mod directory I start the numbering at 9 and work backwards, just because I'm superstitious really.
Got the idea? There are other ways of dealing with all this like making up your own PAK files and expanding the maps out into the maps directory, but this one works for me. |