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You don't need Maya to create particle effects (I'm not even sure whether a Maya-created one would be compatible). Dark Radiant comes with a particle effects editor, though obviously that's not beginner level stuff. I've only tried it a couple times myself.

Once I get more caught-up with the map building process and have time to experiment, I will look into this more. I wish to see Dark Radiant's editor, but I have more experience with Maya dynamics, so was just thinking it'd be neat to try to make some stuff

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Thanks Destined. I knew what you were meaning ... I was just speaking in terms of wanting to make my own particle effects someday.

 

Springheel - You can make all sorts of dynamic particle effects with Maya, which you probably already know... but that's what I was referring to. When I looked through some of the libraries in DarkRadiant, I saw some particle dynamics. Like impact explosions, water arrow impacts (I assume), etc. I want to improve some or make my own someday, but I only know how to do so in Maya 2014+, or, rather, I don't have/can't get Maya 7. I figured we'd have a similar issue with me not being able to animate, where I don't have Maya 7 and so maybe I can't contribute any dynamics... but maybe cached or alembicized particle dynamics are more possible/compatible from Maya 2014+ ?

 

I wrote to AutoDesk and they don't have Maya 7 available for download or purchase at all anymore.

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The flowing down only looks good, if it is really only a trickle, so you can use particles. For this you create a func_emitter (Create entity...->Func->func_emitter) and select the "model" spawnarg. There will be a button "Choose Particle...". From here you will have to see what looks good for yourself.

 

I would like to make some particle dynamics (at some point... I'm not in a hurry... not until I'm done with the workshop), but I probably need Maya 7 instead of a more recent Maya :.(

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These videos are gold, thanks for all your hard work making them!

They are gold, indeed!

 

When all our maps are done, we should combine them all into one big map and connect them via hallways or staircases, or something Might feel a little like walking through Constantine's mansion, but might be interesting anyways, lol

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Success! With that vote of confidence in knowing it works, I deleted all the non-.map files, but it still didn't work. The solution for me was to delete all the non-.map files, exit out of the Dark Mod game entirely, re-launch TDM, dmap it and play. I had been ALT+TAB'bing between Dark Mod and Dark Radiant. I guess it doesn't like that sometimes?

 

Thanks! Now I can get back to outfitting the room how I want.

 

I wonder why the wall lamps don't cast light? Will look into that. Probably didn't pick those lights from the 'model lights movable' or 'static' folder in Entity area. Yeah, that's it.

 

EDIT: Was able to get some good progress today. I need to add more decorative goodness and such, and then add more rooms, but am feeling a bit more comfortable with the basics, at least. Here's current state (expand spoiler for screenshots). I know there's a few gaps I need to close up or hide. I would like to dim the gas lamps, but I think because they are entities, I can't(?). And moonlight behind windows would be cool, but not sure yet if that's possible either

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My map doesn't have any leaks, but the screen is black when I try to play map; only the light gem shows. I have a lit fireplace in it, and put an extra light in the middle of room to test, but still black. Player start position seems fine to me. I can hear the ambient audio track I put in there. I can't pick a weapon. Attaching map...

Thanks for taking a look!

firstjob_v9.txt

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Brush problem solved! I just deleted the brushes, floor, ceiling, and sealing... and remade them. Got my room working! Continuing to add decorations...

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I mean look at this... at least three layers of defense against the evil pointfile, and the red line spears through like a hot knife through butter Re-watching appropriate parts of lessons now

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Thanks, your explanation worked for resizing that Entity window. Not used to using the bottom border of a text box to resize panels; and the line for it was so faint on my screen. No problem... now I know

 

Yeah, the pointfile is the same place every time. Over by a window I put in-place of a prefab wall (models/darkmod/architecture/modules/interior_mansion01/mansion01_window02.lwo). It's okay, though... I'm sure it's user error and I just need to re-watch the brushes part. You probably explained things well, but my fairly limited time to work on this is coming to haunt me a little. TBH, brushes seem a little daunting in that you, SH, are precise with them like it's a balancing act; yet my instincts tell me, "Why don't we just wait until the map, or area, is fully built and then place a huge brush that encloses all?" (I assume it's a performance thing, but as a beginner, I'm not understanding why brushes have to be so close to room walls... or if brush thickness/width is a big deal ('hollowed' ones are defaulted to like 8 grid units wide or whatever, so what would happen if I accidentally made it 16 grid units wide?)... or when to intersect / when not to... or why can't the room floor, walls, and ceiling just act as the brushes (i.e., why is there a separate "sealing"?)... so their mysterious nature stresses me out a tad. I like knowing the exact rules so I can rest assured that I'm doing things correctly... but I don't know the main exact rules yet.)

 

I know this will all come with time, but for now... on my fairly limited time... brushes are my main question mark during design, and the current roadblock to me experiencing the euphoria of seeing the fireplace, couch, and windows in my map, lol And now I have to leave for the day... to resume tomorrow.

 

Another rookie question: is there a way to "Frame Selected" like in Maya? For example, you have a couch highlighted, and you want to frame the camera onto that object. In Maya, I would just hit "f". When I hit F in DarkRadiant, I have no clue what happens, but it might not be good (my model turns white), haha. I'll look at the hotkey list next time I dive in...

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How do I resize this area of the Entity window to be taller? I can't seem to find any way to expand it

 

Also, I was having a problem with pointfile finding a leak. So I deleted my brushes and made a new one encompassing all; made it hollow. I versioned up with a save, and accidentally named it "firstjob_v66" instead of "firstjob_v6". So I re-saved it as "firstjob_v6". Then went back to the "Save As" dialogue box and right-clicked the "firstjob_v66" entry and deleted that file (as I would do in any other program). Now when I try to run a pointfile, I get an error where it can't open the ".lin" file. Not sure if my _v66 fiasco messed things up (a bug), or if it's something else. Will search the thread to see if I find the error in my ways. Loading my old "_v5" lets me pointfile again, but I wonder why _v6 got screwed...

 

I don't understand how a big textured brush drawn around everything in your room, and giving it a 10-15 foot cushion/moat/buffer, could still generate a pointfile leak. Guess I will have to re-watch Lesson 3 and 4

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Prefabs are grouped by default (for easier handling). If you want to select any single part, you have to ungroup it first (RMB->Ungroup Selection or Edit->Ungroup selection or using the buttons on the left). Grouping is covered later on in the video, but I assume you have not gotten to that part, yet.

Ahh, thank you! I remember that now. He may have even stated that earlier in the video. I watched it in full earlier in the week and forgot that little nugget of knowledge when I went to do some stuff last night

 

I think a short video is good this week. I might be the only one(?), but it'll let me play catch up a bit

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esc = deselect

 

shift + leftclick = selects object

 

shift + alt + leftclick = selects ONLY object (deselects all other selections first)

 

shift + ctrl + leftclick = selects a single face of a brush

I can't seem to select a panel like you can in Lesson 4 @ 18:40. I've tried all of the above. SHIFT + LMB selects the whole prefab (all of the walls that make up the prefab)' and the other two don't do anything (nothing / nothing). I've also tried drag-selecting and get the same results (whole prefab / nothing / nothing). Advice? Also tried using the camera view (instead of the orthographic views) using the same selection methods, with no luck.

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I found it quite difficult to see brushes in the default XY / YZ views of DarkRadiant after de-selecting them because their lines are black, as are the gridlines of the viewport. So, I customized my colors. I then noticed you had customized yours, too, Springheel; and I liked yours better, so I stole your idea to use light gray background, with white major grid lines.

 

If anyone else would like to customize their viewport colors, go to: "View > Colours... > DarkRadiant Default" and change Grid Minor, Grid Major, and Grid Background. Look at Springheel's videos for reference, if you want what looks to be a good color combination or a nice starting point.

 

Not being able to see my brushes in the 3rd lesson added to the complexity of me trying to re-select brushes or see brushes.

 

Sorry if this was already stated somewhere and I missed it. If not already stated, I recommend adding a text note somewhere in a past video -- might be especially useful in Lesson 4, and partly useful in Lesson 3; or mentioning in an upcoming video if that's not possible. I'm only part-way into viewing the 5th lesson. I'm still having to flesh out my room from Lesson 4, which I'm going to start now and continue over the weekend. Hopefully I can catch up.

 

PS: This is the 2nd time I've almost lost what I typed because the forum lets you compose a reply without being logged in. Then, when you hit "Post" it tells you to login... but if you login there, it won't retain and auto-post what you typed; rather, it kicks you out to the main forum page. Fortunately, I've been able to hit the Back arrow of my browser after getting the login prompt, and CTRL+C copying my text so I can then paste it in a new post after I'm logged in. I just wish the reply box wasn't visible until after you've logged in, so you're not tempted to type a reply that might get lost upon getting prompted to log in.

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Making my way through watching Lesson 4. About 3/4 through. A couple bits of feedback so far, if you ever update the vid:

• 15:30 - When you say, "If it's the floor" ... I would add a caption saying "of a room you might be making above" (if that's what you mean). I know it sounds basic, but when I first started watching a few days ago, I don't know that I caught on to what you were meaning there. Maybe I did, but I seem to remember not being sure. When re-watching that part today, I figured it out.
• 28:50 - Did you hit a hotkey or press a button to center it with the wall piece? Or were you just manually aligning?

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Maybe hit ESC key (escape), then SHIFT+LMB (or possibly SHIFT+ALT+LMB?) on the item you want to select? Not positive

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Thanks, will review Lesson 4!

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Sounds great, no problem. Thanks!

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An idea that just comes to my mind is that if there are enough persons who release a mission due to this tutorial, it might be worthwhile to consider a contest. There will probably some gems among those missions and this might be a motivating thing. Or not, just an idea.

 

For me, I'm afraid to say that a competition would not be a motivating factor at all. I plan to do what was recommended at the start of this workshop: keep things small and manageable; and for me, probably even simple or simplistic. (I'll only increase complexity if I have time and the will to do so.) If it became a competition, it might turn some people away because they'd feel their efforts aren't good enough or don't measure up to some awesome standard. Some will have more time than others to work on their maps, too, which could further alienate those who don't have as much time to dedicate. I think the workshop aims to simply teach us how to make maps and I just fear a competition could be detrimental and counter-productive to that goal. That's just my personal sense, though. If it becomes a competition, I know that I'm not changing anything I plan to do

 

EDIT: Thank you, Destined! Good advice. You're probably correct in that the non-shaded object was probably the initial brush I created, since I think SH said to just leave it in. At some point, it's okay to delete, right? Because I did and the map worked

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Going to the wiki is a good idea, though I'm hoping to make the tutorials comprehensive enough that it's not a requirement. It's hard to remember everything that needs to be said during the creation process though.

 

 

Thanks, not sure how that happened. I'd like to have the best versions possible up for posterity, so I'll go back and make some corrections.

Awesome. If you go back to update this vid, then, I'd definitely recommend adding a red arrow that points to the "Doom 3" drop-down menu, to help prompt us to select TDM.

 

With the audio out-of-sync, it became markedly more difficult to follow, but not impossible. If you sync the audio up, it'll help a lot when others view this tutorial in the future.

 

A few more notes about my experience with this part of the series. Take it for what it's worth, or feel free to further enhance the video or address in future vids, as you see fit:

• When I made the brush and clicked back and forth between "Hollow" and "Room" (like you did in the vid) to try and see the difference, the brush seemed to disappear.. so I hit 'Undo' a few times to get back to the Hollow one, but the brush was now black outline instead of red (a de-selected state). So, I gave up on that and moved on (didn't know how to re-select it)
• I accidentally made my first brush (the hollow brush) too small/tight relative to the room; the floor (or room?, can't remember which) went lower than the brush's top boundary. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to re-select the entire brush and make it bigger. SHIFT+LMB'ing kept only selecting individual pieces of the brush (couldn't get it all), and selection attempts sometimes grabbed the room, too. So I gave that up. And I also couldn't select just the room and make it smaller as an alternative (didn't know how). I ended up just drawing a new brush bigger than the old one.
• I have a habit of saving often in programs, so I did so early in this tutorial and continued to do so a couple more times while advancing. Because it's easy for newcomers to back themselves into a corner and not know how to get out of it, I recommend encouraging a save earlier in this video, like after a step or two is complete; and continued saves and periodic iterative saves (e.g., _v001, _v002) through the process... or whatever you want to say about it. It helped me once or twice, because when I screwed up, I just re-loaded to what I felt was a good save.
• How often does DarkRadiant crash? I never had an issue, but this can help us know how often to save. (I see DR has an auto-save feature. A quick blurb about its use and reliability at some point, even if Ep. 4 or beyond, would be cool.)
• I had a leak when I did a "dmap firstmap" my first time. Since the audio was out-of-sync in this Ep. 3 vid, I continued to do a "map firstmap" in console rather than exiting and going back to DR. As you might guess, my map didn't load. So, I went back to DR and did a pointfile and my ceiling appeared to be gone for some reason. It may have been gone before doing the pointfile command, but not sure. (My AI entity may have been gone, too, but I can't say for sure, since I know there is a filter for that.) Any thoughts on why my ceiling disappeared? Was it because I did a "map firstmap" after the console told me about the leak, when I should have instead exited? I just made a new ceiling and called it good, so I could see my craftsmanship in-game
• I'm not sure what this item is without a shader or when it got in my map (see screenshot), but it was in my map most of the time while authoring. I thought it was my light, but learned it wasn't. I think it caused errors when I tried to run my map, so I deleted it.

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My engine is pointing to the right path, I'm pretty sure. Have tried a few different methods in that box, too (e.g., forward slashes vs. backslashes in file paths). I will keep tinkering and post a screenshot soon if I can't get it. I wonder if it's because my folder has a hard space in it ("Dark Mod") instead of "darkmod"... or because my path is in the Program Files folder. When I installed Dark Mod a while back, I seem to recall installation recommendations to not put it in Program Files(?), or something like that. Hopefully neither of these things are coming back to haunt me

 

EDIT: I'm dumb. I didn't change the "Select a Game" field to "The Dark Mod 2.0 (Standalone)". All is well... prefabs work now!

I just didn't notice before that you changed the drop-down selection in the video.

 

 

PS: In case others aren't sure how to make a "YZ SIde" view in DR since there doesn't seem to be a menu selection for it, I'm pretty sure I had an 'XY Top' window already in existence in my work area and then selected "View > New XY view" from the top menu of DR and it auto-created the YZ Side view.

 

PPS: At 18:00 of Part 3 vid, you say to click to select the floor and ceiling. I can't select anything, though. Will keep trying and researching until I figure it out. Please post answer if anyone knows the answer to this, though.

Update: Got it! SHIFT + ALT + LMB. From the A-Z guide:

 

 

Selecting and DEselecting

We only have one item in our view but eventually many. Operations only work on what is currently selected. When you have just created something as we just have it is automatically the current selection and should be highlighted in your views (see DR Preferences for colour.)

• To DEselect it, point your mouse at it in either the grid or camera view and use SHIFT+ALT+ (or just press the Esc key.)
• To select it again, point your mouse at it and use SHIFT+ALT+ again.

Selecting is something you'll do a lot of so get familiar with that SHIFT+ALT+. It's an exclusive select to get just one item. There are other selects I'll describe later. The Esc key always deselects and it is vitally important to get into the habit of DEselecting before you select or create something new or in some cases you will have multiple selections without knowing it and can delete or change something you didn't want to. This is why the SHIFT+ALT+ is the safest select as it is exclusive and will automatically DEselect anything else that was left selected. But it won't protect an item when creating. Yes, it is possible to have say a brush selected, forget it is selected, then create say, a new light. Oh! what happened to the brush? It's gone - replaced by the light. Develop a nervous habit of keep hitting Esc to deselect when you go to create!

From now on I'll use LMB, MMB, and RMB to refer to the mouse buttons.

 

 

 

When I encounter problems in the future, I'll try to research a bit more on my own going forward so I don't clutter the thread; but I was hoping to help others avoid or solve issues if they come across the same -- and come to solutions quicker, I suppose. Maybe my experiences will help you see how 'rookie' some of us are, though If you're remotely in doubt on if we know something already, go ahead and point it out anyways (in my opinion). And some things may be helpful to repeat once or twice, even if mentioned before or if it exists in the Wiki/A-Z guide. So far, I'm diggin' this video and the training, and can't wait to dive into the player's view of this prefab map. (*DF goes back to watching the rest of the video...*)

 

FYI - The audio gets out of sync with the video by several seconds starting at about 25:40

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I'm seeing everything in the folder, but not the folder itself. Pretend that "prefabs" isn't there and that you see it all under "darkmod". (Or "Darkmod" on my thing, but I can't imagine that messing anything up.)

 

Apologies for all this trouble, by the by. <.<

I had this same issue, but, fortunately, saw what was going on and manually created a "prefabs" folder, then dragged/dropped all the prefab-related folders from the '..\Dark Mod\' top-level folder to the newly created '..\Dark Mod\prefabs\' folder (like what SH said). Just adding a bit more detail in case anyone has troubles in the future.

 

Springheel, the prefabs.zip file doesn't have a "prefabs" top-level folder in it, so it doesn't auto-create it. The models.zip file worked like a charm because it does have a top-level "models" folder in it. See screenshot showing both .ZIP files when they initially open in WinRAR. As you see, prefabs.zip doesn't have a "prefabs" folder; and contrast that with the models.zip. (That's my experience, anyways)

 

Image in spoiler tags:

 

 

 

 

 

Also, I saw you have a 'shapes' folder in your prefabs folder, SH, which isn't in the download. Did you mean to exclude that, or is it okay that we don't have it?

 

Thanks! Just going through the video now and following along; sorry for the delay. Been a hectic week. Will post more if I have any questions as I continue to watch the vid.

 

EDIT 1: After making the first brush (because Dark Mod likes it on a new map), do you Undo that action so it disappears, Delete it, or? (i.e., what is proper the way to remove it, since your map had a clean slate)

 

EDIT 2: My prefabs have a blue generic texture on them that says, "Shader not found"; unlike yours which show actual wood textures and such. Something I can fix? (I'm not sure if this would cause the issue, but I did have to enter a custom path to see the prefabs, even though I'm pretty sure I have everything where you said they should be. The custom path I entered is: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Dark Mod\prefabs". Otherwise, if I use the "Browse mod resources" selection like you it doesn't show me the prefabs). See right-side of screenshot:

 

Images in spoiler tags:

 

 

 

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SH, will there be a week (or the majority of a week) dedicated to sketching out/designing rooms and regions in much more detail, or is that something we should need to start now? (Sorry if I'm jumping ahead, but just wanted to make sure. I know there's no penalty for getting ahead, and will try to at times, but I don't want to swamp myself if that design-work is scheduled to happen the same week as getting a bunch of things into DarkRadiant, for instance. By me asking, it's also a way for me to gauge how much I should take the videos at face value. For now, I plan to take them at face value and just go along the journey they take me on, at the pace they dictate; and if I don't do any extra-curricular work or don't think outside the box, I will be fine.)

 

Please excuse the staircase, but drawing 90-degree stairs in isometric is not easy!

 

They're rickety stairs, as indicated; what do you expect them to look like?? ;-) hehe PS: Good start to things, DoubleOhZero!

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Nice. Visleafs of goodness. Will keep them in mind when designing. In the interim, can you define what a "brush" is? You say a visleaf is created by brushes and visportals, but I'm not quite sure what a brush is. I will Wiki and/or Google it, but thought it might be good for you to offer your definition in this thread here. I think I kind've know, but want to be sure...

Thanks!

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I was thinking of having a greenhouse next to my mansion, out back. Is that a bad idea for this stage of my DarkRadiant career? Like an oversized shed, but with glass walls, more or less, of course. Player will likely be able to get on top of its roof as a way of getting inside mansion in an unlocked window, or balconey, etc.

 

Probably just need an assortment of potted plants and flowers, tools, bags of seeds/dirt (or the semblance/illusion of)... maybe some bright focused lighting like in a dimly lit museum.

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I think I've completed this phase of the workshop, except for downloading Dark Radiant. Will do that soon.

 

I was thinking of making four regions: mansion, courtyard, town, and sewer. But the sewer will be very basic... maybe just a single tunnel with a small room or two as points-of-interest. I'm okay with keeping the courtyard and town pretty basic, too. For my courtyard, I'm thinking along the lines of the perimeter lawn areas in Thief 2: Running Interference. But depending on how things go, I wouldn't mind adding a fountain, some hedges, a few trees, and a statue or two; unless they'd be too complicated to implement at this time.

 

I'm okay with keeping everything pretty basic, since I don't want to overdo it, like you say.

 

Note: I want to become fairly proficient someday at making other things, like crypts. Do you have a guess as to how behind-the-curve on crypts I might become for not choosing them as one of my regions for this workshop? Or if I chose crypts instead of towns, how behind-the-curve would I get on towns? Just curious, to help me weigh the pros and cons of choosing the regions I have.