QuakeMap Explorer is the window that pops up when you launch QuakeMap. It is QuakeMap's "file manager" : a single QuakeMap Explorer file (.QME) contains several "entries", for instance: a map, a QuakeC code patch, new textures, etc. The illustration on the left shows a file containing 4 entries : a map, a QuakeC patch, an imported file (in this case, a sound file), and the definition of new entities. Open any sample .qme file to get a screen like this.
When you click on an entry, the right part of the window shows you the contents of the entry. The format that is actually used to display this varies accordingly to the entry's type. For example, if you click on a map, you will get the preview of the map, and a button to click on to open the map in the QuakeMap Editor.
More about the various entry types later. First, let's see how to run Quake using all the information found in these entries. Quake needs files put in particular directories; it also needs compiled maps and code. The QuakeMap Explorer file format is, of course, unknown to Quake, so some preparation work is required : creating the directory structure, extracting files, compiling maps and code, etc.
In the QuakeMap Explorer, if no entry is selected (click between the entries to "unselect" the currently selected entry) you get two big buttons that let you ask QuakeMap to do this preparation work :
GO ! : click here to do it all and immediately launch Quake. This is the one-click way to completely prepare and run a whole .qme file, no matter how many entries it contains.
Extract files but don't GO : the same as above, but it doesn't launch Quake. Use this to prepare the directory structure for Quake before you make small changes. For example, if you open a .qme file containing a map that itself contains non-standard monsters, you must click on this button to extract the monster's model and sounds and recompile the monster's ai, before you can work on the map. If you fail to do so, you will still be able to open the map, edit it, and launch Quake, but Quake will complain about not finding the monster's QuakeC code corresponding to the monster's entity found in the map.
More about it
Principles of editing in the QuakeMap Explorer
Various Entry types
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Date: 21.01.97, by Armin Rigo