Noob problems with editor

[Mad Santa]

Hi:
I tried the tutorials at Serious Editing, but I had some problems.
First I tried Mike Harris' tutorial.
I made a 'conus' for a starting room, and the screen matched the screenshot (i.e., grey fading to fog, grid lines, a little globe in the center).
Then I tried to drag a light over to the room, but nothing happened. I tried using the '+' key, too; still nothing.
I tried to add other things, like a player start object, and some weapons, but nothing ever happened.
I was able to add a texture to the room, and it appeared in the 3D view pane.
When I tried to test this 'level', all I saw was red.
The highlights on Sam's pistol changed as I turned, so maybe the light was added somehow?

I can't make out what I was doing wrong; I noticed that I was in CSG mode when I tried to add the light, though.

I did follow all the steps faithfully....
Is the editor somehow corrupt? Do I need to reinstall?

[Cable]

No, it isn't corrupt. If you're in CSG mode, you can't add any lights or other entities. You must either cancel your CSG or add it.

[Michael Harris]

..... or join or subtract it.......

Are you referring to the Hello Serious WLD tutorial that is available on Serious Editing (www.massassi.net/serious)..... and possibly here (haven't checked lately to see if it has been added yet)?

The basic drill for each primitive involves three steps:
- click a "Create xxxxx CSG" button, to select a basic CSG primitive type to prepare for applying to the world (following which that primitive shows up as a red wireframe that can be moved around)
- adjust that pending primitive's settings (height, width, ......, position, orientation......
(you will see those adjustments reflected by changes in the pending primitive's red wireframe)
- then, finally, apply that pending primitive to the world, by clicking the Add, Join or Subtract button (or the Cancel (?) button to cancel the pending primitive)

The Add and Subtract apply the pending primitive to the world (or more precisely, the currently selected brush)....... making that primitive's shape part of the curently selectd brush (worldbase).

The Join adds a new worldbase to the world and then adds that primitive's shape to that new worldbase. (Useful for starting a new independent brush that remains moveable (during editing) .......to which additional primitives can be added/subtracted).

The Cancel (?) says to forget it...... you have decided not to apply the pending primitive to the world.

I'll take a look at the tutorial, to see if I can make it clearer.

[Mad Santa]

Hi Mike:
I'm an idiot, I forgot to do the add operation.....
Now, I'll press on with your second tutorial.
Thanks