Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Fidcal]

Yes, this same reverse rotate problem came up in the last few months and was solved. Search back. It was a telescope dome that turned with rotating cogs. Also info there about triggering it.

[aidakeeley]

Very basic questions:

 

1. How do you "find next" when using the "create entity browser" (or any of the browsers in which you can start typing to jump to a match in the list)? Also are there any other tricks or hints on using this (such as do I really have to "expand all" to search all...)

 

2. If you free-hand-resize something and drag one of the dimensions into a negative it disappears... not great but not my complaint... I just wonder if it is cleaned out completely or leaves some residue? Just a technical thing because I would like this to be something I can, rather than complain about, use as a quick way of deleting things. One of those thing that, although I'd rather use the keyboard exclusively, if I'm using the mouse I can stay there instead of hoping back to press "backspace".

 

3. Speaking of using the keyboard... When I am editing a spawnarg, I like to fill in the fields (tab... tab...) and then, lastly, tab to the "check" and press "space" to "push" that button; but while this appears to work it also "duplicates" the selected item. I'm still using 1.2.2 because I almost always wait on upgrades... and I have seen mention of things been broken I think along the way (1.3??) so am not eager to upgrade, as, aside from these minor things a dabbler like me is now questioning, I'm not sure I've heard of anything that I really needed from these newer versions....

 

Anyway, I will certainly upgrade if the answer to all of the above is "upgrade and read the reads (whatsnews and whatevereleses) that come with! and then you'll have all your questions cleared up". So, if that's answer just say: "Upgrade" and thy will be done...

Edited July 22, 2010 by aidakeeley

[KaiserJohan]

Alright, got some more q's

 

1) I've looked for a tutorial about it but I can't find any. What are the basics youi need to do for creating a simple cinematic? (just a camera moving some units and then unto the player)

 

2) I've been having tons of trouble with this visportal. It works and all, but the brush gets corrupt.

 

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/5219/81299519.png

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/7091/23114584.png

 

The visportal is always black or sky_box ingame! I've tried re-creating it a hundred times. Everything around it and itself are all snapped to grid.

[Springheel]

he still makes "coughing" sounds like twice per second.

 

Some sounds (coughing, sneezing, stretching) are played with the animation they are associated with, and don't technically come from the vocals. To avoid those sounds you'd have to either modify the animations and remove the frame command that plays the sounds, or remove them from the AI's list of idle animations (or turn off idle animations for him entirely).

[Dragofer]

Having cobbled together my place again and almost to completion, I have now started with making a cave (rest assured, I didn't use grid 1. DR just defaults at 1 when I start). I've been using grid 8 exclusively and only the clipper tool to get the shapes. To add to that, I made sure that the clipper gradients are not 0.1783421, but 0.5, 0.33, 0.25, 0.16, 0.125 and so on. However, I cut them in all shapes and sizes and made brushes intersect, giving what appears to be very chaotic on the grid. I was wondering, would that be a problem? The place miraculously doesn't leak and there's no z-fighting. Would there be a more optimal method or approach for this terrain?

 

http://img824.images...i/tdmcave2.png/

[KaiserJohan]

nvm

Edited July 22, 2010 by KaiserJohan

[PranQster]

Yes, this same reverse rotate problem came up in the last few months and was solved. Search back. It was a telescope dome that turned with rotating cogs. Also info there about triggering it.

 

I remember that post... will look it up. Thanks.

[Serpentine]

2) I've been having tons of trouble with this visportal. It works and all, but the brush gets corrupt.

 

The visportal is always black or sky_box ingame! I've tried re-creating it a hundred times. Everything around it and itself are all snapped to grid.

This isn't really an answer, but from time to time this happens to me when using angled/strange visportals; but your example looks quite clean and clearly seals. Usually I fix it by just messing around and moving it around into different places/flipping which face its on etc and that usually works... that said the stairs under your exit there should most likely be a func_static

 

If you do manage to fix this, please just shout with what you changed and hopefully in future I'll actually be able to answer!

[aidakeeley]

time this happens to me when using angled/strange visportals

 

I was wondering about that because I see a slight angle to the vp just a single "jag"...in the underneath picture. Didn't know if it might have something to do with it. It's about 1/4 of the way across the far x-axis side and seems to be tilting ever-so-slightly up into the z-axis? But I'm probably wrong and even moreso because it was mentioned that the thing was deleted and re-created... just thought I'd say something as you, Serpentine, mentioned this...

Edited July 22, 2010 by aidakeeley

[Fidcal]

aidakeeley:

1. Dunno. I don't think there is a find next and yes, I think you can only search the branches that are open.

 

2. Dunno. You might try creating two brushes and turn them into a func_static. Now select one brush and resize it until it disappears. Can you still tab through the three things? I always felt that DR ought to disallow resize to zero but just block it on the minimum grid size.

 

3. Dunno. I thought Enter was the key to press to push a Windows sected item not Space? The only thing I can add here: is it of use to change your clone key from Space? I have long since switched to Insert the same as Dromed (but then I never used those camera nav keys.)

 

4. Dunno. Oh, there is no 4.

 

I'd certainly recommend upgrading if only for the readables editor which is brilliant - hang on I'm turning into Harry Potter stupendous. I remember the days when to make a readable you spent a week in the wiki and hand typed the whole xdata 25 times.

[Fidcal]

KaiserJohan: Is that door leaning on it? And if so, is a door entity? That would make the visportal turn black.

[Fidcal]

Dragofer: Yes, change all that cave terrain into caulk texture then make your terrain from rock-textured patches overlying it. Some concave; some convex. Load some of the existing FMs to see how they did it. Eg, NOHAT 1, Beleagured Fence, etc.

[KaiserJohan]

Aye, that solved it, the door touched it.

 

What about the camera stuff? Also how does one create text ingame like hearth of lone salvation did at the start?

[Baddcog]

Very basic questions:

 

2. If you free-hand-resize something and drag one of the dimensions into a negative it disappears... not great but not my complaint... I just wonder if it is cleaned out completely or leaves some residue? Just a technical thing because I would like this to be something I can, rather than complain about, use as a quick way of deleting things. One of those thing that, although I'd rather use the keyboard exclusively, if I'm using the mouse I can stay there instead of hoping back to press "backspace".

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure it does NOT delete anything, it just makes it 0 width which makes it very hard to find but can still crop up and cause issues.

-----------

@Dragofer, I don't think it'll cause any issues at all. One thing you can do is select each brush and ctrl-G, that'll snap all the verts to the grid in a way the engine can handle, it'll change the shapes a little bit probably.

 

But make sure you convert to func_statics, then the engine doesn't try to pathfind, it also doesn't cut up the polys of surrounding terrain.

But you'll have to back them all up with a world spawn room so it doesn't leak.

 

You can also use pathces like Fidcal said, but it's harder to get sharp angles from patches.

 

---------

@ Kaiser,

funs_static the 'roof' and everything around those stairs too, no reason to leave them world spawn, just complicates pathfinding, increases tri count and takes longer to compile.

You'd probably need to lower the visportal to the bottom of the hole then though.

[aidakeeley]

I'd certainly recommend upgrading if only for the readables editor which is brilliant - hang on I'm turning into Harry Potter stupendous. I remember the days when to make a readable you spent a week in the wiki and hand typed the whole xdata 25 times

 

 

Thanks, Fidcal, as always for the help and the laughs too.

 

I'll wait a day or so to see if there is a "find next" thing; otherwise I might submit it as a "requested feature" type "bug" on the tracker?

 

...

 

ETA:

 

Badcog, Ah... I will verify with the method Fidcal recommends and also 'J' and whatever else I can do... maybe a chance to look inside the .map and see for myself if there is "residue" or worse as you say...

 

I'll report back.

 

ETA2:

 

Tis all cleaned nicely from the 'J' list and the .map file. So no junk. Well done.

 

(I'm starting to become less "surprised" at the way things have become in these latter days -- it seems much has gone not as I would have expected from back in my look-behind-the-scenes days: everything is text-based! I thought xml was a strange direction but apparently binary data is no longer necessary what with all this space? Just spell everythingTFout, eh? )

Edited July 22, 2010 by aidakeeley

[Fidcal]

KaiserJohan:

 

You use this entity but I can't find it in the entity list. I'll try to figure it out and post later.

 

"classname" "atdm:gui_message"
"name" "StartMessage"
"delay" "0"
"fade_out_time" "4"
"force" "1"
"gui" "guis/heart_message_no_art.gui"
"lines" "3"
"origin" "3157 3000 135"
"show" "3"
"text" "A private sector on the outskirts of Bridgeport. Almost 2:00am"
}

[Fidcal]

KaiserJohan: For now, create a non-brush entity, eg, a path_corner, then change the classname manually to atdm:gui_message

[Fidcal]

KJ: Found it. It's under targets at the top of the list. It's there because it inherited from a target but probably wants a rethink where it should be.

[KaiserJohan]

Alright, it works nicely.

 

Need to trim it abit though. I've looked at the GUI file, which looks basically like this:

 

// A GUI for showing little messages to the player, centre screen, no background art.

 

windowDef parchment

{

rect 220,180,640,480

nocursor 1

matcolor 0,0,0,0

 

windowDef message

{

rect 0,0,200,200

visible 1

text ""

forecolor 1,1,0.9,0

textscale 0.3

textalign 1 // 0 - left, 1 - center

font "fonts/stone"

nocursor 1

}

 

windowDef open

{

 

onTime 0

{

if ( "gui::msg_lines" == 2 )

{

transition "message::rect" "0, 0, 185, 1000" "10, 59, 185, 1000" "1"

}

if ( "gui::msg_lines" == 3 )

{

transition "message::rect" "0, 0, 185, 1000" "10, 52, 185, 1000" "1"

}

if ( "gui::msg_lines" == 4 )

{

transition "message::rect" "0, 0, 185, 1000" "10, 45, 185, 1000" "1"

}

if ( "gui::msg_lines" == 5 )

{

transition "message::rect" "0, 0, 185, 1000" "10, 38, 185, 1000" "1"

}

if ( "gui::msg_lines" == 6 )

{

transition "message::rect" "0, 0, 185, 1000" "10, 31, 185, 1000" "1";

}

if ( "gui::msg_lines" == 7 )

{

transition "message::rect" "0, 0, 185, 1000" "10, 24, 185, 1000" "1"

}

 

set "message::text" "gui::msg_text";

 

transition "message::forecolor" "1 1 0.9 0" "1 1 0.9 0.5" "2000";

}

}

 

// called when the time is over

onNamedEvent doFadeOut

{

transition "message::forecolor" "1 1 0.9 0.5" "1 1 0.9 0" "4000";

}

}

 

 

 

1) How can I change where the text will popup? The "textalign" dosn't seem to do much, is there any way to adjust it?

 

2) What does the "rect" mean?

 

3) What does the transition "message::rect" "0, 0, 185, 1000" "10, 59, 185, 1000" "1" actually mean?

 

4) I'm not sure what the "lines" properity determines -- the vertical placement of the text? If so, what determines the horizontal position?

[Fidcal]

Do you literally mean you want to 'trim' it or do you mean the opposite - you want more space because your text is too long?

 

If your text is too short so is too high and too far to the left then just space it out to force it to the middle and spaces at the end to force the rest of the text down a line.

 

Otherwise, if your text is too large I'll explain about the rect values.

[KaiserJohan]

I envision it like this:

 

 

" --- first text ----- "

" --- second text ---- "

" --- last text ---- "

 

, presented on the left. Each text segment occupy one row, so no more than one row for one text segment. Of course they shouldn't overwrite each other either, the second text is presented below the first, etc. I find the textsize 0.31 to be pretty good.

 

Then they fade in and out at given intervals which I think I nailed.

 

Also, can you make the text segment 'move' during the presentation? Say, the first moves slightly to the right, the second moves slightly to the left before fading.

Edited July 22, 2010 by KaiserJohan

[Fidcal]

So are you saying it's OK but you want it on the left instead of centre? Try changing the rect 220 to rect 0.

 

Moving the text is probably possible but I don't know how without an unknown amount of research.

[KaiserJohan]

The rect did the job!

 

It looks absolutely splendid!

 

1) However, can you change the fade_in_duration? The fade_out_duration works, but no the 'in' one.

 

2) Can you make the text italic somehow?

 

3) About those cameras too; how does one create a simple moving cinematic camera at the start of the game?

Edited July 22, 2010 by KaiserJohan

[Fidcal]

1. The fade in time is the 2000 milliseconds at the end of this line in the gui:

transition "message::forecolor" "1 1 0.9 0" "1 1 0.9 0.5" "2000";

You probably need to extend the fadeout time in the entity if you extend that. I'm not sure of the effect as I think that is in the code.

 

2. No there is no italicising of the font in guis.

 

3. Another one I don't know without an unknown amount of research. I think we saw this in a recent FM so you could take a look. You'd have to look for some sort of trigger at the start to see where it leads. For instance there might be a trigger once brush below the player start.

[KaiserJohan]

Aight, cool, I'll do some research on it. I think it was in the "no honor amongst thieves", so I'll check it out.

 

Meanwhile, I've got another(!) question, this time about a script.

 

Here's some guesswork how it might look like...

 

void poweroff() {

....

if ($powerguard2.getHealth > 0) { // I only want to do this if the guard is not knocked out or dead.

$powerguard2.attach('some torch/lantern'); // I want to give him a torch/lantern in the proper hand

}

 

}

 

I can't find the functions for checking an AI's health (or is it state? like state: 'alive') and then to attach an object to him. I've looked at http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/Script_events_%28Doom_3%29 which has quite alot but not what im looking for.