Naming conventions

Repository Reference | previous chapter: Building a Game

Naming conventions are required to keep repository clean and easy to work with. There is some files violating common rules, making them first candidates for the renaming.

Texture names

Texture name should contain only latin characters, all lowercase. It should have one or two words explaining what this texture is for. Special texture should be suffixed according to skinframe rules (see texture)

If there is several variations of this texture, use the following template for naming: texturename<group_number>_<texture_number>

Example:

textures/towns/brick1_1
textures/towns/brick1_2
textures/towns/brick1_3
textures/towns/brick2_1
textures/towns/brick2_2
textures/towns/brick2_3
textures/towns/brick3_1

Material names

Material names should mimic texture names where possible. For portability reasons there should be only forward (/) slashes.

If material is additional variation of a base material, or additional layer of it, it's name should begin as it's base material

Example:

textures/inn/window // base material
textures/inn/window_envmap // additional envmap layer

Tip: Material layers are done with copying a mesh in a model, or with q3map_cloneShader material keyword (this only works for map surfaces)

Texture themes

Texture themes is way to categorize textures in map editor. Only one texture theme are seen in level editor texture browser. Also it is convenient way to break files into several separate folders.

Texture theme should be one word explaining what it will be (like crypt, mausoleum, inn etc.).

Examples:

crypt
mausoleum
dungeon
spiritforge
town

Model names

Model names can contain lowercase latin characters, numbers and underscore as spacer. Names should be sane, suffixes and numbers should be added only if model is part of some group.

Important: Some exporters like a 3D Studio Max ASE exporter always makes file extensions uppercase, should fix this before models get uploaded to repository

Examples:

// Correct
models/mapobjects/graveyard/stone1.md3
models/mapobjects/graveyard/stone2.md3
models/mapobjects/graveyard/stone3.md3
models/mapobjects/misc/bat1.md3
models/mapobjects/misc/bat2.md3
// Wrong
models/mapobjects/my models/barrel.md3
models/mapobjects/graveyard/stone4.MD3

Model themes

Like texture themes, model themes are subfolders in models/mapobjects/. Model theme name should be one word, explaining what models will be used for.

Examples:

crypt
dungeon
graveyard

Map names

Map name should contain lowercase latin characters and position of a map in hierarchy:

• World
  • Locations
    • Sub-locations

Template: w[worldnum]m[locationnum]-[location_name]-[sub-location_name]

If sub-location is grouped (there is several crypts, caves etc.) first one doesnt contain 1 in the end.

Examples:

w1m1-cemetery
w1m2-pillars-crypt
w1m2-pillars-crypt2

Test levels should be prefixed by test-. They are not added to game release build.

Map props

All level props is saved to models/maps/<location_name> folders. Use model names convention to name them.

Example:

// Correct:
terrain.ase
// Wrong:
02.ase
terr01b.ASE

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Next chapter: Repository structure in-depth
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