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Ok, might as well make a personal thread instead of keeping on posting related questions all over the place. Starting with a simple one: Made this bench yesterday night, and even though I have created some simple normal map conversions for previous tests already, Im yet to make a proper one for a texture I painted by hand like this one. Since Im unable to test them in game for the moment, what would you guys suggest for a very subtle, matte finish for an unpolished granite texture? The thing about some of the existing models is that the bump maps are a bit big in proportion to objects; also, the grain here should scarcely be visible, more like a "rough", sanded surface rather than polished areas filled with small holes.

Figured I might as well open this at some point, just come across a problem. After an editing session, closing DR, then opening it a bit later, suddenly the map won't load. The error it's spitting out is Failure reading map file: (file path) Failed parsing entity 164: Parsed invalid value '}' for key '0' Opening the .map file in notepad and scrolling down, this entity is the atdm:target_addobjectives entity. Comparing it to the entity just above it, it doesn't look like it has any random }'s floating around, and the last save-as-copy I made (a few hours back now) loads fine. Wondering if this breaking is common? Edit - found the problem.... was using " " in an objective description, changing them to ' ' fixed it.

Yes, you are still viewing The Dark Mod Forums I've just finished the upgrade of our IPB Board Forums to the latest release. Packed with new features, rewritten code and all that. Have a look around. The skin is currently the default one, but will sooner or later be converted to a darker skin, to fit the Dark Mod universe. Also note that the forums have been moved from http://modetwo.net/darkmod to it's own sub-domain: http://forums.thedarkmod.com - all forum links will still work tho, thanks to Apache's rewrite-plugin. Please report any bugs, requests and comments in this thread. PS: The forums will run a bit slow the first hours as the cache is being rebuilt.

So... What was up with the forums all day yesterday..?

I figured I'd start this so I can keep much of my questions, ranting and raving in one place. Excuse me while I think out loud (as loud as silent electronic text can be)... What to do next? Hmm... I have the beginnings of a large mansion creeper started. It is mostly initial brushwork so far. It is very loosely based on exterior photos of a real castle somewhere in Europe (I know where but not saying which). I have modified the layout and dimensions of the building slightly to make it easier to build in DR. The interior is entirely up to my imagination and so far has a dining room, auditorium, wine cellar, and part of a pantry finished. Oh yeah, the eaves have rain gutters and drain pipes too, lol. I set it aside to re-do SiegeShop and the Halloween mission. Right now I'm not sure if I want to continue it or work on something more adventurous. Building bunches of bedrooms seems tedious and unappealing right now, but someday I'd love to do a large mansion with many secrets, hidden rooms etc. My next planned map was intended to be a crypt/bonehorde style mission. But the Halloween build came up and I made a miniature version of what I had in mind for that. Time to put the thinking cap on. Maybe I'll watch a few movies, seeking inspiration. I need to make a city map soon too and need much practice at making an urban setting.

why visportal is always closed when i place func_portal in it ?

Since a lot of you guys around here have your personal threads with collections of questions, I'm not gonna sit around but do the same myself. I want to make lightning flashes through windows. The windows aren't transparent so I have made them into func_statics. Then I've made a construction with the shadow texture to make the "light map". So the flashing lights in the room is affected by the metal and prongs of the window texture. The problem is that I now will render the outside areas, as the engine needs a portal outside to even render the flashes in the room. As I understand the thunder/lightning behaviour is tucked away in some kind of fx-file where all the preferences are. Is it possible to change the lightning flashes and make, let's say a spot light, inside the room, pointing away from the window, and creates flashes in the room? That way I can use whatever lightning map I want. Another problem I would like to solve is: When the flashes appear, the inside of the windows is totally unaffected. I would like to make them change to a brightly lit version, in sync with the flashes. Perhaps making a very thin sliver that covers the whole window, and make it into some kind of mover that moves with the flashes and goes out a small bit, just so that it covers the dark window.

Let's not clog this forum up with stupid questions. I'll put them all in one thread now. I'm trying to make an object frobable. I read the inventory tut and entered the required spawnrags but when I try to drop the model it just floats in mid air. It seems I have to add the porperty "drop_to_hands" and set it to 0 for the model to fall. This doesn't work for me though. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

2011-06-12: Map info: 840 brushes, 35 patches, 165 entities Current status: Map contains start pack, big terrain room, sky, and has 15% of building-outlines done Info: Modelled after a real world location, but it seems I have to make some compromises: The AI cannot climb the very narrow spiral stairs, so I need to find a way to block them in a realistic manner (stairs are under repair? old tower was bricked off, so AI cannot access it?). Building in varying degrees off-grid works as long as you keep an integer ratio (like 5-to-3 units in one direction, 1-2 in the other), so you can join doors and windows at the right places. That even works if the floor is not level. However, as soon as you try to add the roof, you end up with 3D brush-faced nightmares... The map compiler seems to introduce random errors (missing faces, or player gets stuck in floor, or non-solid walls) if things get too complicated. Unfortunately, it is totally unclear what exactly "too complicated" means. Add a brush, and suddenly the error is gone. Remove another, and another error creeps in again... Most of the (real) rooms have now either modern (tourist-related) usages, or their usage was/is never known, or they are not accessible to the public, so I have no idea how they look. Likewise, some good-looking things were not existing even 1860, but the state of the location pre 1800 was just too plain, boring or in ruins (which are harder to model than a clean wall or I already build the modern equivalent and I am weary to tear it down... At least one location seems not to be properly sealed against the outside, so the game mixes up outside and that location. I can't find the leak, however... Anyway, things progress nice, but very slowly. Don't expect any release or even screenshots this year.

alright, might as well start from the beginning. Start here: http://modetwo.net/d...appers%27_Guide the past couple FM's I worked on I didn't use the startpack, but for a new mapper, this is probably the way to go. instructions are pretty easy to follow. download it here: http://www.bloodgate...ms/startmap.pk4

when i do a search, it give me some results, I click on a result and exspect to get taken to the post it specifies - but no..... I get taken to the first post of the bloody thread it is in..ggrrr

I'm curious if any fellow KDE users have been making use of Basket Note Pads to aid in their mission building. I'm finding it to be extremely useful for organizing notes, ideas, outlines and to-do lists. Just about anything can be posted to it including graphics and sounds (I think). It's a desktop clipboard on steroids and can hold multiple 'baskets', each with their own sub-baskets to organize whatever you want. Here's a sample: