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RJFerret

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Everything posted by RJFerret

  1. I'm treading into unfamiliar territory here, but recall something about the shader also needing to have a frob highlight stage, and not all models have that? Perhaps that pertains to here...
  2. Note, visportals have dual function, one is to seal areas to prevent pointless rendering, another is for sound propagation. As such, you might put a visportal in a street, it would have to meet the sky, walls, roof and ground to seal. However if the player's line of sight would always keep it open, it would be solely for sound. This isn't particularly a "newbie" technique, but I ended up building a visportal "shed" or lean-to, if you will, in a mission, providing a complete corner of three visportals (ceiling and two vp walls) that only met the ground and two walls of a building to improve rendering and sound. This not only improved rendering, but made it so AI on the far side of the building didn't respond to noise as if the building wasn't there.
  3. But to be encouraging, it does look lived in now, like a space where someone exists rather than an empty shell that's for sale or something like that. A big difference, nicely done! :-) Think of dirt decals like makeup for women's faces. When putting it on, it might seem like too much/bold, but when it's all done, it doesn't catch your eye and stand out, but all blends/contributes to the whole appearance. The other beauty of dirt decals is they make walls look different, rather than all appearing like replicas of each other.
  4. This is hard to do without sounding like a critical jerk, but here's a bunch of brainstorming suggestions that come to mind as I go through it, feel free to disregard as much as you want, or just stick some tidbit of useful design info into your head for future creations... Bedroom: Rug for floor in bedroom, that looks cold on bare feet, nevermind splinters. Anything on chest of drawers beside candle: coins, book, hat, cards, dice, etc. Dirt in corners, litter, whatever didn't get sweeped up. Speaking of cleaning, where's a broom/bucket (aside from privy pail). Oh! Chamber pot. Pictures on walls/flat surfaces? Curtains on window? Coat rack or hooks for hanging cloaks that don't fit well in drawers. Spare set of shoes lying around? Ring, jewelry, trinkets? Base molding to trim where the floorboards and wall boards meet. Hallway: Trim/molding Can't see, is there a threshold piece where the two different floorboards meet exiting the bedroom? Why do they run perpendicular directions? (Usually floor joists supporting the floorboards run one way, so floorboards run perpendicular to those, aligned throughout.) If the hallway floorboards are turned 90° to run the same way as bedroom, no need for a threshold. That would also look more natural, as floorboards are usually laid out to run the length of a space, and walls are usually built perpendicular to joists so they don't fall between down below. Candle holders on wall? (Can be empty/unlit if you intend for it to be darker up there.) Both spaces look very bland/flat from lack of lighting, it'll get a lot more dimension/depth if there are some lit sources. There's a big problem with the glow from the windows, it's going in to different directions, perpendicular to each other! You can see this at 0:13 seconds drastically, as the glow coming in the bedroom is being cast from the right and shining toward the viewer and left, while the glow coming in the hallway window is casting to the right! To correct that, the light falling in the bedroom window should angle toward the drawers and the light falling in the hallway should angle onto the left wall. Alternatively, keep one straight and remove the other so they don't conflict with the viewer's subconscious expectations. A table and vase at the end under the window maybe? I like the urn tucked in the odd corner. Stairs: Handrail perhaps? Copy those downstairs candleholders to upstairs? Add soot behind/over them first though? Downstairs: Again, floorboards are all willy-nilly. I'd rotate the hallway boards ninety degrees to run the length instead of interrupting the visual flow of it. The opening off the candle hallway to the left at 0:35, I'd put a different wood texture with grain running vertically on the end of the wall, rather than having matching paneling style wrapping around. If you add trim, something that complements that. A shelf with perfume in the privy? Scrolls/reading material? Spilled coinage? Dark moisture/mold stains in the unfinished wood? Is it just me or does the seam of wood panel through the middle of the seat over the bucket makes it appear like it would break in half if anyone sat on it!? The lighting and accessories downstairs make upstairs feel like an afterthought. Kitchen: Chimney over fireplace or that room's filling with smoke, perhaps a soot decal above on the wall or ceiling. (Then match the chimney on the exterior for simple visual interest if you haven't already.) Fireplace tools next to it, a pile of logs or that fire'll be going out in a few minutes, a bucket for discarding ash. I'd move the flammable sisal rug from in front of the fire where it's ready to ignite from an errant spark to the other room where you'd more desire quiet/warm floor insulation. Instead of one big wrapped package propped up in the corner, perhaps a more reasonable size for a small home? And think in sets of threes (or other odd numbers). So replacing with a small package, with a basket sitting on top and one of those tied cloth bags adds visual interest. Maybe a candlestick or two on the table? How do they clean? Broom? Where does waste go? Pail? Duplicate the window to use up more wall space and let more light/air into the kitchen? It looks awfully hot/stuffy in summer. General: Water source? People need water more than food. Basin? Barrel? Spigot? Bucket? Sink? Ladle? The fact that the light coming in through the kitchen window is perpendicular to the light coming through the window over the stairs isn't as objectionable because they are further away and not seen together, but it seems the planet you are on has four moons, one in each cardinal direction! Also, instead of centering/squaring everything, if you rotate things a couple degrees, and position things following the Golden Ratio, it's more aesthetically pleasing and natural feeling. PS: I like that it appears that you adjusted the chest to only frob the top lid, instead of entire chest to ease players collecting stuff.
  5. And there's a workaround for maps in development prior to 2.02's release in this thread: http://forums.thedar...leasing-on-201/
  6. Ah, so it should spawn over and over again repeatedly, not just once? Does it do it from map start? I'd use a trigger_timer for that, which allows for the duration to be randomized. spawnargs: "wait 10", "random 3", "start_on 1" <-- this would make it happen anywhere from 7-13 seconds at map start http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Triggers#trigger_timer
  7. If it's a random teleport position, there's a spawnarg for that: "teleport_random_offset" "5 5 0"
  8. That is a behavior one sees if they noclip outside of a map. Curious if you are in a proper visleaf. The point at which it changes, "closer to the end of this alley", is there another visportal in the map that shares that plane? I wouldn't be surprised if you showtris there's a geometric divide at that point. My first guess would be an internal leak. Misbehaving visportal causing funky geometry during dmap would be my second. But they are just guesses, I'd have to poke around the map itself to sort it out. Perhaps quarantine that section to isolate the problem?
  9. Oops, my phrasing wasn't clear enough, I meant I'd like for your laptop to get more than that FPS, having nothing to do with "it" or "those" scenes. Our hardware will assuredly have our regular framerates. Sorry to have unintentionally created a megillah. :/ It was meant as a positive sentiment which obviously failed.
  10. What I'd like to see improved is your 13-16 fps perhaps? ;p
  11. Yes, using SEED with the SEED/LOD designed source objects works well. The grass and shrubs in the cemetery of "Inn Business" are SEED generated, if you view from the starting location through the telescope, you can observe the LOD effect as you move closer. Performance benefits nicely at various distances. That was my impression too, that LOD seeded SEED... That SEED grew out of LOD... That the germination of SEED was... ;-)
  12. I've only indirectly used LOD via SEED for my outdoor areas. It has helped significantly, and sound propagation is moot since it was line of sight. Since I couldn't grok the LOD wiki page months ago, I've added this example per SteveL's post above and with another pic provided by him (thank you very much), please correct or inform me of any errors: http://wiki.thedarkm...tle=LOD#Example From my read, the seven includes the regular detail model and hidden, so five lower levels of detail.
  13. Totally off topic, but what I initially read earlier... For the new female NPCs, rather modern, no? (Yes, my mind was an entirely different place when I first read that post.) Playtex's new high-poly bras, for that smooth rounded appearance--no Madonna low poly bullet bras for our AI.
  14. If you find anything superseded, please post about it! The beauty of a wiki is it's fast to change, easily updated, and records legacy info (including times of such). The wiki info should be more current than older forum posts, as the forum posts don't get revised when new changes become available. One thing I've been tackling is seeing repeatedly asked about processes in the forums, and adding those step-by-steps or tutorials to appropriate articles or clarifying what is already there if people have ended up turning to the forums. It was easier back when I was new to editing, as I was scrounging for all the info I could get through all venues, harder now that I don't go seeking things as much, hence my keeping an eye on what newer folks are getting tripped up by.
  15. Most welcome, let me know if any issues, I did all sorts of crazy objective control in my last mission.
  16. Yes, it will be confined, and doors too small to traverse are fine, you can also use monsterclip to prevent it (and other AI) from accessing things, such as func_static elements that they don't "see" otherwise. (The error comes mostly from there not being a defined area the game recognizes, whether a file deleted or no physical area for the AI of appropriate size as in this case.) You are also seeing a useful part of mapping, if you test between changes that are new to you, new problems typically point to those recent changes (or more complex, other things impacted by those recent changes).
  17. It also keeps us humble here, as it seems no matter how much editing we do, we always feel like newbies when we bump our heads into something we haven't dealt with (or don't remember how we implemented in the past).
  18. Yes, via entities. An important part is for your objective numbers to not change, as which are switched are specified by number. There are two entities to choose from: atdm:target_setobjective_state or atdm:target_setobjective_visibility. The former lets you set an objective to incomplete, complete, failed, or invalid. The latter makes it disappear or appear in the list. See the Objectives wiki entry for full details, but basically... If by cancel you mean you want them to disappear from the list, use two atdm:target_set_objective_visibility entities in your map. Have the objective completion target of 5 and 6 activate the one which is set to have 3 and 4 disappear ("obj_id1 3" and "obj_id2 4" with "object_visibility 0"), and have the completion target of 3 and 4 set to the one that makes 5 and 6 disappear. Alternatively, if you want the others to remain on the list but get checked off as complete, then use two atdm:target_setobjective_state entities in a similar fashion. The same "obj_id#" spawnarg is used to specify which objective is affected. In this case, "obj_state" is set to "1" for complete, other numbers for other conditions (see pop-up in DR). So all you do is put in two entities, target them from your four objectives upon completion, one of the two entities affects your non-lethal objectives, the other affects the others, make sense?
  19. Whoops edit, missed the answers/needed a reload or something before replying, but perhaps there's some useful knowledge that's not redundant below anyway: Yes, readables are excessively confusing. The .xd file is just a plain old text file, I use the editor in Dark Radiant on a prefab, then copy/paste via notepad or wordpad into my created mission whatever.xd file. In other words, if you insert a prefab, it will save to the prefabs.xd in your darkmod xdata folder (something you don't want to include/package with your mission). If you open that, search for the name of your readable, you can cut that section out and paste it into a separate something.xd which will be packaged with your mission. Although you may have multiple, generally most missions tend to put all their readables into one .xd file in the xdata folder. The counter-intuitive part is unlike any other software, the .xd name doesn't matter and is handled mostly transparently. In other words, all the .xd files in the folder are read, and the text associated with the proper entities, regardless of filenames. Both DR and TDM have menus/a command, respectively, to reload xdata if it's been changed since they were loaded (although if in doubt, rerun them). A word of warning with the editor in Dark Radiant, some systems don't show the last line properly, so format your text accordingly to leave plenty of blank space at the bottom of every page.
  20. I also had that problem from not having the proper subfolder in my PK4, although I don't recall the exact specifics now. I'd successfully packaged a mission previously too, so went off looking for fixes in all the wrong places before finally realizing my error.
  21. Is there a reason you want a script instead of using the Objective system which does that directly? Also, what results from the poisoning? This wiki article is more elaborate than what you need: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Objectives#Having_the_player_place_multiple_interchangeable_items_in_varied_places. In your case, just one objective using "item is in location" will do. At the poison barrel have a info_tdm_objective_location item where the poison needs to be placed by the player, it needs the spawnarg "objective_group" set to whatever you specify below, such as barrel_objective_location. Set the objective: "let the target entity poison_name be at location 0 of barrel_objective_location" If you want anything more to happen than just the objective completing when they place the poison there, use the target of the objective to trigger whatever (like func_remove the poison object).
  22. You'd be the second person who didn't appreciate the non-standard loot items, so thanks for that feedback. I have the opposite problem, "don't even need to go into this room, I can see from the doorway there's no loot in there" with most other missions, since so many use the same loot objects--it just stops me from exploring. Or, I see an obvious loot bottle up there, move a crate over to go up to get it and ignore the rest of the room. That wine bottle? If you'd looked closely at that old torn label, it's torn because it's been saved...special vintage! ;-) Hehe... Thanks so much for the gracious feedback, again, my condolences I threw you with the loot that ended up encouraging using game commands to work around it instead of game-play. I expect that'll be less of an issue subsequent nights (*fingers-crossed).
  23. Having done both in my maps, I find the consistent way that can be used with any circumstance and simply shift-dragged from one fire area to another easier than the other method, which varies depending on light entity, may not be obvious what the spawnarg should be (can't simply target with one keypress in DR, need to figure it out), needs manual spawnarg adjustment for every one, and subsequently test more rather than already knowing it works because it's just a clone of a previous working setup. But I provided that way too as you never know which is easier for an individual mapper's mind to wrap itself around, or circumstances in the map. I know I had oodles of troubles trying to sort out the S/R system initially, and used triggers like crazy where others would use stims, so it's ironic in this case I prefer the reverse.
  24. You'd think that would be easier, but it's actually harder, and it's a different procedure depending on the light type used, requiring special spawnargs, complicating it further. See http://wiki.thedarkm...ring_via_Lights in the Triggers wiki page for details. However Grayman reminds me, you can have the S/R system simply trigger the trigger_hurt on/off, by working around the display bug (if present for you) in DR by pulling up the pop-up of effects, and cursoring down to "Trigger" offscreen. See the section http://wiki.thedarkm...Stim.2FResponse.
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