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A thicken patch option.

Usually, I'm posting this in the internal forums, but I figured I could announce it here just as fine. I've uploaded a new DarkRadiant snapshot and it can be downloaded here: Snapshot Page (0.9.11pre2) Note: this is not a regular release, hence the name 0.9.11pre2. It's "just" an intermediate windows release build on the way to the upcoming 0.9.11. It contains both the latest code and the latest bugs. Instabilities or crashes might occur when using any new features. If you're still not scared off, be sure to grab it.

That's useful, it looks like one of those demos uses portal information which might shed some light on the node/portal stuff. That said, working out the format is the easy part, probably 5% of the total map-compiling solution. Beyond that, it is necessary to 1. Flood fill the level, detecting any leaks and placing primitives into portal areas (which may involve splitting brushes if they cross a portal boundary). 2. Merging adjacent brush surfaces into planar windings, and turning these into triangles 3. Optimise the generated triangles to reduce polycount 4. Generate the shadow volumes based on light volume positions and the geometry within them. It is of course possible that 1-3 are already covered by the Q3 map code. It would probably have to be done in stages -- first step would be to spit out a basic non-optimised, non-portalled map from the brush and patch information.

Not sure if this will work but here's a direct link so there's no confusion: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?act=a...ost&id=2035 It's in the exact post linked, not the top of the thread. That is split mode, not embedded (though they're similar). With this mode, I keep the Inspectors window as floating and only open it when needed. Otherwise it's closed and out of the way, and the only thing on the screen is my adjustable 1-cam, 1-ortho split. Edit: yup okay that image link worked.

@Fidcal: You can see the width of the splitter on my UI here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?s=&am...st&p=149747

My pleasure, good to give credit where it is due, Wow, really nice post! Thanks. We've had a few whack jobs appear on the forums, but generally...they get banned. They're alway a few whack jobs I guess.

Wow, really nice post! Thanks. We've had a few whack jobs appear on the forums, but generally...they get banned.

"no time" was about one year real-time for me learning Javascript - I doubt python is much faster Can you wait a year? I don't have an account on the SVN that is used for DR which might explain my lack of commits Also, I know almost no C++, which is a real hindrance working on DR. I started a few attemtps but got horrible lost for even the smallest changes (like adding a new dialog or even just changing a dialog into a splitpane). That might explain it even more However, working with scripts and producing level geometry via them is something I know a thing about, or two. There was this little project named "Cowgen" which generated level geometry for Thief 1/2 by writing out level files... one can still find it refernenced in a few places like here http://www.thiefmissions.com/telliamed/ or here http://www.ttlg.com/FORUMS/showthread.php?t=26524). I can dig out a copy if anyone is interested (but be warned, it is horrible outdated, because it is from somewhere around 1998 or so....) One could say that I was quite early creating level geometry programatically, and that is what the new Python (or a never-existing Perl) interface would also allow... however, currently I am struggling to find time to even read all forum posts so you can prolly ignore me completely. wish I had more time :-(

I posted and reposted the (drama free) steps for removing textures months ago. http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showt...5&start=125 There was no "fight". Just apparent disinterest. There was a grand total of one nomination, I believe, which tells me that people are not particularly motivated to pursue this issue. All it takes is one person who cares enough to create a list.

I uploaded a new snapshot build here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=7381 (it's version 0.9.11pre2) Please let me know if this solves your problems.

Both, they can be used as patch meshes or modeled to fit around an object in a modeling app, by adding the 2 new tiling ivy textures it opens up a whole lot more possibilities for covering large surfaces like walls at little cost of polys, the tiling pattern can be broken up by the Ivy leaf textures. I havent added the new textures to the .mtr file so you may need to do that, below is the shader you'l need if you want to paint vertex shadows, I doubt you'l need it for most Ivy situations though. models/skool/bramble_vertexcolour { //DECAL_MACRO noShadows twosided //polygonOffset nonsolid noimpact { blend diffusemap map models/skool/bramble_d.tga alphaTest 0.5 vertexcolor } bumpmap models/skool/bramble_local.tga specularmap models/skool/bramble_s.tga { blend diffusemap map _black inversevertexcolor } } Ive also included the highpoly model of the Ivy, I think it might be useful for generating textures for the vine arrow and you can see how the scene is all set up for lighting and projection. All you have to do is select the lowpoly mesh, open the render to texture dialog and click render. It will render out diffuse, specular and normal .tga's for the alpha you need to render the diffuse again but turn off shadows and lighting, call it "whatever_alpha" then open it in photoshop, select sampled colours and copy the black area onto the origional diffuse alpha channel Im not realy too familiar with PSP, if you're having trouble seeing the alpha working in doom3 it probably the material have a look at the material for the origional ivy

General question: should we still keep the old code of the legacy Surface Inspector, Patch Inspector and TexTool? At the moment it's an option in the registry whether the new or the old dialogs should be used. I'd personally prefer removing the old code for the sake of code cleanliness and because they're inferior (IMO), but I'm unsure from the mapper's point of view. SneaksieDave? angua? Beta Mappers? Opinions?

This is no problem, although this will be one. The Light Inspector can't keep track of any other undoable actions that might happen while it's open. Imagine a change from a point to a projected light and the user dragging the vertices around. It could never know how "far" to go back to revert the changes since the time it was first displayed. In my opinion the gnome HIG are nice and clean for most applications, but can't be easily applied 1:1 in an application like DarkRadiant, especially when it comes to using the inspectors. If it was up to me, I'd make all changes in the Light Inspector instantly applied and undoable, and ditch the apply button completely (the Surface Inspector and Patch Inspector) don't have one either. That said, I'm all for making the UI as predictable and easy-to-use as possible, but in the end we can't (and shouldn't) turn it in an Office application. (I guess I got dragged away, sorry.) I'll try to look into the instant-apply stuff first.

The LightInspector changes when clicking on "Apply" are undoable now. Should I go further and make all changes instantly applied? This is of course harder to implement, but from working on the Surface and Patch Inspectors I think I know what to watch out for.

Haven't seen this, must be linux-specific, but it could be possible that I set the modality to MainFrame instead of the parent window. I'll check that. Argh, I knew I forgot something, I'll have to copy over the old infostore population code from the LightTextureSelector. The dialog is behaving now as the Surface Inspector and the Patch Inspector does, they can be floating around while working on the actual map. OK is suggesting that the dialog is closed after clicking, which isn't the case. Similarly, I thought Cancel is not appropriate anymore, but I could re-add it calling it "Reset" instead, triggering a reload of the information from the currently selected light. Should I do that?

If you're starting on making a new mission perhaps this is something for you theothesnopp, http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=8954 .

OK, I'll take a quick look. BTW once you have SVN sorted out you can upload to your own betamapper folder. Again, once you have downloaded Dark Mod you will find there are readables all ready and very easy to put in your map and just enter your text. See the following link for details... http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php/Readables_Prefabs I suggest you open a thread in the private forums under say Level Editing forum for any specific questions relating to well, any help really.

Hehe... I often think about that myself sometimes, what those on the public forums think versus reality...

Indeed. Please start here if you haven't already: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=6694

That's exactly what I suggested on the On-mirrors-edge.com forums. But I and a couple of others had a brief look at how the game is dealing with the levels in UnrealED and it uses a complex blockloading system (different to oblivion), which will make it really hard to design an open city. Aside from that, Mirror's Edge seems to be the slowest unreal engine 3 powered game, I've played so far. So you'd need a really big fat computer to play an open city (where the blocklevels have to be much bigger, than in original Mirror's Edge). Anyway, I still didn't finish the last speedrun, but all timetrials 3*!! ;-)

As did I. Tonight I put up a facade wall which included a bevel patch and inverted bevel endcap. I rotated it as well, to create the other side of the arch. I used the texturing hotkeys to texture it - I think first I hit shift-MMB, got the warning, then clicked ctrl-MMB. I assume any of those could be important steps. End result on trying to reload the map a few hours later: fails to load with 'Brush 8, parse error'. I've got a case of the #INFs (126 surfaces in total). // primitive 8 { patchDef2 { "textures/darkmod/city/wall/brick_dark" ( 3 3 0 0 0 ) ( ( ( 136 -448 164 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ( 136 -456 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ( 136 -480 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ) ( ( 136 -456 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ( 136 -456 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ( 136 -456 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ) ( ( 136 -456 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ( 136 -456 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ( 136 -456 188 1.#INF -1.#INF ) ) ) } }

I saved in DR, and now when I open the map in DR it's a blank, and in D3ed... Any idea what's wrong? The last thing I did in DR was add a end cap patch to a window and invert capped it.

There are a few details and you need to start thinking about story. Doesn't need to be complex just a few lines as to what it is all about. Also I would not set KO 5 guards as an objective unless there is some good reason to KO 5 guards. The player is a thief in the Dark Mod universe. He is not interested in coshing people for its own sake but only if it is necessary as a means to an end - thievin' ! What is this place? Why is the thief going there? Has he received some info from an informant? Add more objective interest. A common method is add a special object that he has to retrieve. Another is to exit/escape. I was hoping by now you would be made a betamapper; you're certainly good enough. I'll ask in one of the private forums to see what the procedure is. Once you are a betamapper and have access to all the resources it is easy to add a few readables, a message, a log book, etc as we have a lot of types already made and you only have to type the text. The same is true for ammo/player tools like lantern, compass etc. Then we need to go over the map again to specify some individual things like some textures that want adjusting. Also, last two times I played I kept climbing a wall near a tree that looked interesting but it wasn't textured on the other side. Consider making that a yard with something worth retrieving like someone dropped a few coins.

Should have used more smilies I guess. I didn't intend to sound arrogant Mike, at the same time...I really don't care if it sounds arrogant. That was my honest reaction, and if that offends...sorry. For goodness sake though...there is truth behind it. Go back and read over the old thief forums. There are tons of posts about adding this thing from that game, and that feature from another. People wanted GTA style open cities, RPG factions, more action, more from this game, more from that game. Whatever you're left with at the end wouldn't be Thief...just a derivative. As Dram says...shimmying along a ledge that you've gotten hold of would be acceptable, since it falls within mantling, but that opens up a whole can of coding fun! Too much work right now. Yes, I do think I have a pretty good idea what Thief set out to do...the answers are right out there on the net so I'm not stating a 100% personal opinion. I'm simply reiterating what the developers said all along...the character wasn't an athlete, a master swordsman, or a killer. The character was a Thief who knew enough to stay alive, but excelled at being a Thief. There are other games that do the action thing very well...Thief was about voyeurism, patience and the skill of not being caught.

Are the blood sprays just decals? I never thought that was a dynamically placed thin brush, but instead just another blend (or whatever, possibly not the right term) on the texture or the brush. Decals can be a thin patch hovering over a brush, but it doesn't seem like it has to be. I just got done playing a short session of RoE, and after smearing a possessed marine all over the wall... and floor... and doorway... and door... with single point blank shot to the chest with the double-barrel, it occurs to me, why don't we just adapt the blood sprays instead of worrying about models or all this other complication? If we could do so with angua's leaves particle, it would look great, and would cover all surfaces that the "spray" hits. Make it permanent, and there you go. Could that be detected just like any other surface?