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Frost_Salamander

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Posts posted by Frost_Salamander

  1. [Bug] Drowning AI in shallow water

    in TDM Tech Support

    Posted

    If any mappers have encountered weirdness with kill objectives not working with drowning AI, I think I've found out why.  I don't think it would be a particularly difficult one to fix either.

    I've raised this bug report: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6323

    Some context here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21837-fan-mission-the-lieutenant-2-high-expectations-by-frost_salamander-20230424/&do=findComment&comment=487316

     

    I think this is a bug, but just raising here in case some people think otherwise.

    • Like 1

  3. 2.10 Crashes - May be bow \ frontend acceleration related

    in TDM Tech Support

    Posted

    In High Expectations one of the guards uses the urinate animation which I think involves the 'penis', but IIRC I think some message appears on the console about not being able to find the 'penis attachment' (which to be honest is better that way as it thankfully never makes an appearance).  I never used the penis entity directly.

    Also I could reproduce the bow crash in the starting tunnel pretty easily just by partially drawing the bow and cancelling it until it crashed.  Sometimes it takes a while but you shouldn't need to go up into the street and do anything crazy.

  4. Fan Mission: The Lieutenant 2: High Expectations by Frost_Salamander (2023/04/24)

    in Fan Missions

    Posted · Edited by Frost_Salamander

    On 9/1/2023 at 8:48 AM, Shadrach said:

    Hi, I've been getting back into Dark Mod after some time, and have really been enjoying this mission and the first part, really well done - great stories and ambiance!  🥷👍

    Just one thing though, I think I made a boo-boo, and just at the end... 🥴

      Hide contents

    Coates was at the last place I looked (of course!) - the church. 

    Really hard to get the body out of there, so I figure the briefing says "accident near a body of water" - well there's a font in the church, that's (holy) water. So I dump him in there, head first. Not exactly *subtle*, but gets the message across I guess. Never liked those Builders and their stupid religion anyway 😅

    tqxgumc.jpg

    So he drowns after a while (love how just his head in water makes the game detect this). Body says "(dead)". But objective is still not completed. I try picking the body up and shooting it with a fire arrow - nope. Pick it up, noclip and dump it in the river and the well - nope...

    Various methods:
    Mine: ✔️
    Fire arrow: ✔️
    Bludgeon: ✔️
    Drowning in well: ✔️
    Drowning in river: ✔️ 
    Drowning in baptismal font: ❌
    Falling (repeatedly) from great height onto cobblestone: ❌
     

    Problem is, I don't have any recent saves or quicksaves... 😓

    HI @Shadrach. I can reproduce this and thanks for raising.  Very frustrating, as this was indeed an intended way to complete the objective so I'm 99.99% sure it used to work. 

    Spoiler

    And yes, if you noclip and dump him into the river it works fine.  Both ways he's equally dead by drowning, but the objective doesn't detect it if you drown him in the baptismal font.  How strange.

    I think this will need some debugging.  Not sure when I will ever get around to doing it though as I'm on a bit of a break from TDM.  If anyone has time to debug this, it's pretty easy to reproduce quickly:

    Spoiler

    1. start the map and set notarget on.  Read the briefing to make the 'kill Coates' objective visible.

    2. noclip into the hotel. This will spawn Coates in the church.

    3. Noclip over to the church.  Knock out Coates and place him in the baptismal font.

    4. Observe he dies, but the objective never completes.

    5. Repeat all this again, but instead of placing Coates in the font, noclip and dump him in the river.  The objective will complete this time.

    Alternatively, if anyone knows what part of the codebase (i.e. the actual C++ classes to set breakpoints) to look at to debug this problem, I may try and have a look. 

    • Thanks 1

  5. Parallel lights usage

    in TDM Editors Guild

    Posted

    18 minutes ago, stgatilov said:

    The idea is to deprecate Doom 3 style "parallel" light.
    Use "parallelSky" light instead.

    And if you want the light to have shadows, then:

    1. make it global, i.e. cover the whole world
    2. make sure portalsky material marks the sky instead of caulk or anything else
    3. hope that it works 😥

    OK, I guess I'm asking what spawnargs will be supported.  From reading the Wiki entry on them I don't really understand how they work (but that's OK, I'm just starting to play with them). So if I decide to use them I don't want to use some feature/spawnarg that will be deprecated.

    The Wiki says:

    Quote

    In TDM 2.08, a new spawnarg parallelSky was added. If you add it to a parallel light and set value "1"...

    Which implies both 'parallel' and 'parallelSky' spawnargs are needed to create a 'parallel sky' light.  Also, you suggest for 'local' parallel lights to use 'noshadows'.  Does 'local' mean  with 'parallel' and without 'parallelSky' spawnarg?. So I don't really understand what's actually being deprecated. Just the shadowcasting on local parallel lights? Sorry if I'm being dumb here.

    I have no view on whether or not they should be deprecated since I've never used them, but reading this thread it sounds like they have their uses and I should look at them. 

    • Like 1

  6. Parallel lights usage

    in TDM Editors Guild

    Posted

    On 6/23/2023 at 4:55 PM, stgatilov said:

    So the bottom line is:

    • Global parallel lights should use parallelSky and follow some rules.
    • Local parallel lights should be noshadows.
    • All the rest is not well-defined: you'll avoid a lot of trouble by avoiding it altogether.

    So what are we saying here?  We're not going to deprecate them, and we should still use them but follow the guidelines you set out?

  8. Fan Mission: The Hare in the Snare, Part 1

    in Fan Missions

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Cambridge Spy said:

    Okay, just finished this mission for the first time since the final release came out, so it took me a while to find all the secrets and complete the optional objectives. Could this mission perhaps do with some in-game subtitles, though?

    Do you mean for the player voice lines?  If I understand this correctly, I think that's the only thing I would have control over as the author.  

  10. Would like to know different ways to do loot objectives?

    in TDM Editors Guild

    Posted

    21 hours ago, Skaruts said:

    What if the loot objective wasn't even there, in cases where loot is entirely optional and without ties to the plot?

    My current mission looks like this:

    • Find Tasteless Bert's Recipe Journal
    • (Optional) Get any loot you can find
    • Get back out the way you came in

    Seems rather redundant to have it there. Players will get loot if they want anyway.

    Or could it confuse players, since it's a bit unexpected and unorthodox?

    it's worth trying whatever you want to try and then see what the beta testers think. Just have a plan B ready to implement in case it goes over like a lead balloon. 

    If there is no loot goal, the first thing people are going to ask is 'where is the loot goal?', so you just need to have an explanation that makes sense and provide that in the release thread, or even in the mission briefing (e.g. don't rob innocent people or something).

    The only reason I make loot goals optional is to make players like myself happy, who are terrible at finding loot and don't want to spend hours searching everywhere before the mission completes.

     

  12. Changes to map not showing in Dark Mod

    in TDM Tech Support

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, BlackMagic said:

    Yes, I started a new map, made my usual Large brush box (with default lighting/etc.) and saved it. Then loaded the box and imported the original layers. Things are fine with each layer, no internal leaks or external leaks. As I have been proceeding, and adding more structure/areas - each in it's own layer I am only having normal(?) blunders as I am trying to re-learn scripting, DEF's, etc. Can't seem to seal any building with transparent windows, and in one new area DM drops two portals but does not say why (no lin files) and throws another out as useless (inside a non leaky building but separating two rooms). Still have a long to-do list, finish town, visportals, add AI, yadda yadda. BTW I downloaded a free to use 3D cowboy hat but it is in obj format. Is there a way to import it in DR? Man, this stuff is time consuming! but loving it.

    I don't think I've ever seen TDM drop a portal without a .lin file.  You sure?

    Support for OBJ model format was just added in TDM 2.11.  You can import the model into DR (File -> Import/Convert Model...) or I think you should just be able to place the model in your FM folder (under models/) and DR should see it I think? If you have DR open you will need to use File -> Reload Models...

  13. Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

    in TDM Editors Guild

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Geep said:

    Getting FollowActorTask to work with the player is probably a good bugtracker request.

    BTW, I was curious about the behavior. It seems the follower gets as close as 60 units by walking, then stops. If the distance is over 480 units, the follower runs until within 180, then resumes walking. Given by these constants:

    #define DISTANCE_FOLLOWER_REACHED                        60
    #define DISTANCE_FOLLOWER_CATCHUP_DISTANCE                480
    #define DISTANCE_FOLLOWER_CLOSE_ENOUGH_TO_STOP_RUNNING    180

    I don't know if there's a means to tell the follower, "stop following, go to some path node".

    Since you're looking already, can you tell if there is an obvious reason why it doesn't work with the player?

  14. Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

    in TDM Editors Guild

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, grodenglaive said:

    I'm having trouble getting an AI character to follow the player. I have a path_follow_actor node at the end of the AI's path and the node targets Player1. The AI follows the rest of her path normally, but stops at path_follow_actor and just stands there like an idiot no matter what I do. Am I referencing the player incorrectly?

    I tried this as well and couldn't get it to work either.  Same result as you.  It works if it targets another AI, but not the player.  Would be interested to know if anyone else got it to work.

    • Sad 1

  17. Fan Mission: The Lieutenant 2: High Expectations by Frost_Salamander (2023/04/24)

    in Fan Missions

    Posted

    Yes - I know what the problem is.  This is a very stupid bug on my part in 1.2.  You can either wait for the fix (I will fix it now but it might take awhile to get it uploaded), or to proceed you can spawn a new key with the correct name.  Open the console and type: 

    spawn fsx:prison_cell_key name prison_cell_key inv_name fixed_prison_key

    It will appear as 'fixed_prison_key' in your inventory, and that one should work.

     

    • Thanks 1

  19. Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

    in TDM Editors Guild

    Posted · Edited by Frost_Salamander

    I've created a very simple tutorial on my Wiki home page on how to create a material/texture from an online source (e.g. textures.com) using GIMP.  This is something I didn't know how to do and wished that it existed when I started.  Yes, there are some existing Wiki pages that kind of describe how to do this, but they are wildly out of date with respect to the tools used and are full of gaps to the uninitiated.  What I've pieced together mainly came from existing Wiki sources, but updated with the current version of GIMP.

    I obviously realise that to a lot of people here this is 101 level stuff, but for myself and other complete n00bs that want to build something, basic tutorials like this are invaluable. 

    It's using GIMP just because it's free and does most things a n00b will want to do, especially when it comes to dealing with older file formats that TDM requires.

    Anyways, the point of this post is I would like to ask if anyone who DOES know what they are doing could cast their eye over the tutorial and point out any gaffes or downright incorrect/misleading information. Not so much in the proofreading sense or GIMP-specific things (although that would be welcome too), but more around the images/properties themselves.  I've labelled some sections with (ADVICE NEEDED) for stuff that I really don't understand very well but the whole thing is fair game.  The tutorial is very short, and if anything is glaringly wrong it should be easy to spot by knowledgeable people.

    The main things I don't understand are the image properties when exporting - there are a million options and I don't know what most of them do.  I've looked some of them up, but I don't necessarily know what's best for TDM. All I know is that what I've written seems to work.

    Perhaps if this gets into a state that makes sense we can add it to the main Wiki and clean up some of the existing sections on this.

    Link here: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=User:Frost_Salamander#Creating_a_material_using_existing_images_(e.g._from_textures.com)_using_GIMP  

    • Like 3

  21. Fan Mission: The Lieutenant 2: High Expectations by Frost_Salamander (2023/04/24)

    in Fan Missions

    Posted

    🚨 Release 1.2 now available.

    Mostly minor fixes, but includes one fix that will hopefully prevent the prison key from not spawning.

    Full changelog: https://github.com/FrostSalamander/fsx/releases/tag/1.2

     

    Download:

    Proton Drive: https://drive.proton.me/urls/4YTT2D72EW#FJ9furObjD19

    Github: https://github.com/FrostSalamander/fsx/releases/download/1.2/highex.pk4

    @nbohr1more could you do the honours and add to mission DB please?

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

  23. Fan Mission: The Lieutenant 2: High Expectations by Frost_Salamander (2023/04/24)

    in Fan Missions

    Posted

    1 minute ago, AluminumHaste said:

    Because the visportal is closed and lights in that visleaf are no longer active, they're shut off. Why bother wasting CPU/GPU time on lighting a room that's completely closed off.

    OK that makes sense.  Looking at some of the other window material definitions some of them don't have that keyword.

    Also, if you are outside and noclip up so you are outside the window next to the other lamp (the standing copper one), you can see the lightgem light up.

    So I guess one workaround if you really wanted to use that material is to just make your own version and remove the 'noshadows' from it?

    • Like 1
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