Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[teh_saccade]

De nada.

 

It helped me too, in finding the necessary links and to provide a clearer description of the structural dependencies for DR documentation.

(Also bookmark another wiki page for a lick of paint)

 

So thanks.

[NeonsStyle]

Hey,

 

I have some smoke coming out of chimneys, and wind blow, with clouds moving. I'd like the smoke to look like it's effected by the wind.

 

is it possible to have the smoke column inclined at some angle from vertical and angle to the horizontal? ie to incline same direction the clouds are moving?

[Destined]

I am not sure, if this works, but you could use a func_forcefield: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Func_Forcefields

However, I am not sure, if particles are affected by this, so you would have to try.

 

EDIT: I just tried it out myself. Unfortunately, particles are not affected by forcefields, so this does not work.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Destined

[NeonsStyle]

I am not sure, if this works, but you could use a func_forcefield: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Func_Forcefields

However, I am not sure, if particles are affected by this, so you would have to try.

 

EDIT: I just tried it out myself. Unfortunately, particles are not affected by forcefields, so this does not work.

 

Ahh, that's a shame Destined. Thanks for trying. Hopefully someone else will come up with a way.

[Destined]

Another thing you can try: just rotate the func_emitter, so it does not point directly upwards but slightly tilts in the direction the clouds move. That way the particles will move in that direction. It is not 100% realistic (as it moves in a more or less stright line), but as it is only chimney smoke, most players won't pay that much attention to it, so it should suffice to imitate the effect of wind.

[Spooks]

Hey,

 

I have some smoke coming out of chimneys, and wind blow, with clouds moving. I'd like the smoke to look like it's effected by the wind.

 

is it possible to have the smoke column inclined at some angle from vertical and angle to the horizontal? ie to incline same direction the clouds are moving?

The easiest way is just faking it

 

Browse to the particle you're using in the Particle Editor, duplicate it (or you can overwrite it if you're lazy, the overwrite will only be effective while your FM is installed anyway so no biggie), then edit the gravity so that the smoke is falling at the pace you want. Don't check "use world gravity". I assume you'd have to rotate your func_emitters sideways so it actually looks like wind, but that should be it, I think.

[Bikerdude]

Or you might be able to edit the particle to introduce a sideways effect, wan't me to have a look at creating one..?

[NeonsStyle]

Faking it will work fine I think, however BD, I'd like to see what you can make, I don't have time atm.

Edited May 25, 2017 by NeonsStyle

[Epifire]

Hey does anybody know a good method for binding the player to a mover via a trigger or something?

[teh_saccade]

Epi, what is your objective in doing this..?

It is, eg, a cart or is it for cutscene or something..? There appear different ways to do both things.

I've not had much sucesses with binding a player to a mover... it requires constant teleport to mover's location, eg, $player.setOrigin($mover.getOrigin() ); ... like in a rollercoaster ... or else some kind of mechanical "lock" to stop the player being thrown around and/or damaged.

 

but binding a ladder to a mover (trigger for "laddermover001.script" on ladder) and having then the player "stuck" to the ladder (on which is the trigger) seems to work ok (so long as nothing pushes them off).

This way the player is effectively stuck to the mover, by pre-existing game mechanics, without need for scripting and the ladder is simply part of the mover - the player may hop on and off whenever.

 

The only scripting required other than mover is for the ladder to extend or contract, if required - like a walkway or something, in which case... need float, toggle, if, else, laddermove == 0 blahblahblah and a bunch of stuff that is no needed if a ladder / platform is set on origin and end position to hop between.

Means the player can jump off the ladder during "transit", but... depends on what you are trying to achieve. Several ways around that problem, too.

Edited May 29, 2017 by teh_saccade

[Epifire]

It's more of my tram research I've been looking into. The problem lies in two things, that the player bounces pretty unpredictably on turns and that changing directions kills the player. My initial thought was to bind a camera instead and then possibly define a dismount position to teleport the player when the mover comes to a stop. I guess the only other thing I wonder is if there's a way to get mouse look on top of a camera position. Otherwise that would be a sure way to solve it.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Epifire

[teh_saccade]

Gotcha:

 

I think that $camera.activate($player1); returns control to the player for the camera view... so this might solve your mouselook (but also allow movement...)

// oh - it deactivates the camera... :/

This is the same as the moving platform that needs updating in the wiki, however you're using a train instead of a platform.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100522163842/http://www.doom3world.org:80/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=7579

The link above - ignore the GUI stuff, as this is mostly the trigger / buttons / etc done for us (even down to buttons for doors and stops and things) in TDM (possible even to alter a lift so that it becomes a train) - it's much the same as controlling any mover in this engine, it appears.
IF it were me with a train, I'd have the doors on the outside of the train and open then with a sep. script called by arrival and add a wait time for them to close to the traindoor.script (But I messed up in a KF map once and ppl complained they were trapped on the train while half the team were being killed by zombies... so... maybe buttons not time).

However, I prefer to have the world move around me and I stay in place, which would give the illusion that I was riding a train or moving in any direction a great distance...
Lock player in position, have a skybox camera move through a toytown and then release player on destination - player hasn't moved but the map has... similar to cutscene.

 

From a narrative point of view, it might be nice to transition a train by simply locking the player into a darkened room, playing the appropriate noises and having some lights whizz past to present the impression of movement, before releasing them a few units away from origin after time - you know... showmanship, like making a video. Saves space and time - like old movies where the people would sit in the non-moving car and they'd play the scenery going past as if they were moving... A good time to read a book or something, reflect.

Edited May 29, 2017 by teh_saccade

[teh_saccade]

But hey - if you can figure this with mouselook - we can peek through keyholes and peepholes and stuff, so... nice.

[Obsttorte]

Hey does anybody know a good method for binding the player to a mover via a trigger or something?

This won't work, you have to work with cameras as saccade suggested.

[Spooks]

Hey all. If I can generalize here, we have two types of lights in TDM, models that have lights attached to them and lights that have models attached to them. The former (e.g. candles) can't have their light radii and color changed. The latter (e.g. some of the new lanterns) can. I want to make some candle entityDefs that are the second type - adjustable light radius, the works. I've been digging in the definitions for our candles and it's quite a mess, however. Before I sink more time in, if anybody else has experimented can you tell me if it's even feasible? I worry that it may not be since candles are uniquely moveable and every light-first entity I've seen isn't.

[Springheel]

The former (e.g. candles) can't have their light radii and color changed.

 

 

They can, you just have to use the "set light_radius on flame" spawnarg. The downside is that you can't see the results in DR.

 

Is your main goal to have the light radius visible while editing?

[Spooks]

At this point in my FM, probably not, but I was hoping to push out a set of candles with adjustable lights for general use to the community. If the colors, radii and texture were kept the same, they could even replace the ones in tdm_candles made by one Mr. Springheel. 'Could' being a key word here, as I don't know if they'll keep backwards compatibility if changing the candles to the "adjustable light" type would require changing the scriptobject or any of the action scripts the current ones have.

[Springheel]

The only thing keeping the light from showing in DR is the fact that the candle flame is def_attached by the entity (so isn't visible until runtime). I suspect (not 100% sure) that if you remove that line from the entity, and manually bind or def_attach a candleflame entity instead, that should work. The result could then be saved as a prefab.

 

I've never actually tried this with candles, so it's possible there is something in the script that would dislike this.

[Spooks]

This is the code that toggles candle flames when you frob them while held:

 

 

 

// Helper function for toggling light holder flames:
void lholder_toggle_bound_flames( entity ent, float state )
{
	// tels: If the light holder has a script object and these two
	// functions, simply call them and stop:
    if (state > 0 && ent.hasFunction("LightsOn") )
	{
		//sys.println("DEBUG: calling LightsOn on holder\n");
		ent.callFunction( "LightsOn" );
		return;
	}
    else if (state <= 0 && ent.hasFunction("LightsOff") )
	{
		//sys.println("DEBUG: calling LightsOff on holder\n");
		ent.callFunction( "LightsOff" );
		return;
	}

	//sys.println("DEBUG: manual looping through attached entities on holder\n");
	// otherwise manually loop through all attached entities:
	entity child;
	float ind;

	for( ind = 0; ind < ent.numBindChildren( ); ind++ )
	{
		child = ent.getBindChild( ind );

		// sys.println("DEBUG: checking child\n");

		if( (child != $null_entity ) && (state > 0) 
			&& child.hasFunction("response_ignite") )
		{
			// tels: call this in a sep. thread, otherwise it doesn't return until the 
			// exti. animation+particle have finished, which can be several seconds.
			// This would pose problems when you ignite/extinguish more than one bound flame:
			thread callFunctionOn( "frob_ignite", child ); 
		}
		else if( (child != $null_entity ) && (state <= 0) 
				&& child.hasFunction("response_extinguish") )
		{
			// sys.println("DEBUG: child had frob extinguish called on it");
			// tels: call this in a sep. thread, otherwise it doesn't return until the 
			// exti. animation+particle have finished, which can be several seconds.
			// This would pose problems when you ignite/extinguish more than one bound flame:
			thread callFunctionOn( "frob_extinguish", child ); 
		}
	}

} 

 

 

 

As you can see Tels had specifically set this up so it extinguishes def_attached flames which by their nature cannot show their light radii in DR. I think it's too much of an uphill battle to attempt to change this.

[teh_saccade]

Sorry to interject:

 

Is there an easily searchable directory structure for all entities, textures, etc... in DR?
Complete with thumbnails and descriptions?
In the wiki..?

 

// similar to the fonts page

 

Would such a thing be useful..?
(it would be for me)

I keep losing things and taking forever to find them if the texture isn't already in the media browser for easy access - I feel my life dripping away every time I open those windows...

Edited June 1, 2017 by teh_saccade

[teh_saccade]

Additionally, a lot of older maps that contain device / contraptions - when loaded for testing from original maps appear fine in DR. However, when they are imported into a new map, the console reports:

"OSPathtoRelativePath On" <--- is this why they are no longer working..? Is my installation buggered?

 

damagetriggerhurts on brushes are causing the brushes to vanish entirely.

Some info.portalskies that I'd use for visual effects indoors are vanishing too, warning:

"brush has multiple portal sides at x.x.x.x"

 

I'm having some serious issues causing "environmental" damage to the player - triggerhurt entity will only work on brushes, which means that "electrical switches" can't be used to cause a few points of damage if, eg, the power is off first, or a swinging pendulum doesn't cause damage if the player times their movements so they're caught by it. Although, the mover is the pivot that is out of view, touching the "non dangerous" part of the brush causes damage...

Again, the traps are failing and I don't undestand why - they appeared to be working a while ago...
Most disconcerting is the portalsky not working.

 

Don't mind rebuilding it all from scratch, but... it'd be good to not rebuild it so that it doesn't work again, eh?

 

ALL I WANT IS SPINNING DISCS OF DEATH AND PITFALL TRAPS AND SPEARS FLYING OUT OF THE WALL - IS THIS TOO MUCH TO ASK?!

[Obsttorte]

 

They can, you just have to use the "set light_radius on flame" spawnarg. The downside is that you can't see the results in DR.

As Springs said. The general usage of set is

 

set spawnarg on attachment_name

This way you can alter any spawnarg on any attached unit, as long as it is named. This is done via attach_pos_name. If several entities are attached, these are numbered. See here and here

[Spooks]

Sorry to interject:

 

Is there an easily searchable directory structure for all entities, textures, etc... in DR?

Complete with thumbnails and descriptions?

In the wiki..?

 

// similar to the fonts page

 

Would such a thing be useful..?

(it would be for me)

 

I keep losing things and taking forever to find them if the texture isn't already in the media browser for easy access - I feel my life dripping away every time I open those windows...

Goldwell had made a thread enumerating the pk4 structure, if you search his thread history you might find something useful in there.

[Kiln]

Isn't there a console command or some way to get a single line of "r_showprimitives 1" to print across the very top of the screen without the console itself being open? I'm looking for a way to walk around with debug info like you can in Dark Engine/New Dark, and I could have sworn this feature is in D3/TDM. Am I misremembering again?

[rich_is_bored]

You're not imagining things. That is a thing. I can't recall the command / variable though. I think it might be "developer 1". Not sure.