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So, what are you working on right now?


Springheel

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Thank you PranQster. Much appreciated man :)

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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On 5/10/2020 at 3:03 AM, NeonsStyle said:

Thank you PranQster. Much appreciated man :)

No worries :)

On 5/10/2020 at 3:52 AM, Geep said:

Do you think using monsterclip as the texture, instead of the original tdm_nodraw_solid_liquid, has made the setup more fragile?

I'm not sure about that. I tried moving the whole thing again, including rotating it, and it didn't break. Using monsterclip doesn't seem to be an advantage if the ragdoll can't be dragged or frobbed. If the player wants to swim under the ragdoll, they cannot get any closer than where the hands and feet are dangling. So the cage does not get in the way no matter how it is textured. I have not yet gotten around to making the ragdoll frobable/shoulderable. In that case, monsterclip would be needed if the player wants to move through that part of the water after moving the ragdoll. Or perhaps the frobbing or grabbing of the ragdoll could trigger the removal of the cage.

Edited by PranQster
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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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On 5/10/2020 at 2:24 PM, PranQster said:

Suddenly tonight, the ragdoll started falling through the elevator entity. I'm not sure what happened but I can't get the ragdoll to float now. (I had moved it a little ways from where I had created it).

Fixed. I needed to revert the elevator to worldspawn, convert it back to an elevator, and re-bind it to the mover_bobbing. Until I did that, the ragdoll kept falling through.

Discovered a problem with this. Because the pirate boat AI pagan has spawnarg of mass 0, in 2.07 it crashes the map every time. Apparently mass 0 of an AI 
is a big no no. 

Also, what causes the boat to drift back and right? I'd like it to bob in place. The effect is awesome though. :)

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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1 hour ago, NeonsStyle said:

Discovered a problem with this. Because the pirate boat AI pagan has spawnarg of mass 0, in 2.07 it crashes the map every time. Apparently mass 0 of an AI 
is a big no no. 

Also, what causes the boat to drift back and right? I'd like it to bob in place. The effect is awesome though. :)

OOps. That was me experimenting. I'll remove that property, change the mover, and update the prefab and re-link it. I'll also do one of the boat alone with the bobbing, etc.

I had bound the boat to a mover bobbing, and that to a pendulum, and pendulum to door sliding. I was trying to make the AI get on the boat at one dock, have the boat move across the water to another dock, and have the AI get out at the other side. He can disembark at the original dock, but not at the second one, even when teleporting him to the center of the boat when he embarks. Lol. Anyway, that prefab was for fun. I'll post one with the door sliding mover changed to a regular door rotation and proper pendulum swing etc. And an AI with proper mass.

And here it is with AI on team 5 so he won't get agitated when you test. His mass is normal.

boat_elevator_bobbing_ai_01.pfb boat_elevator_bobbing_ai_01.zip

Edited by PranQster
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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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Thanks man. Much appreciated :D

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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Hey Pranqster, 

The boat is still drifting back and left about a 1 1/2 boat widths, which makes it pretty difficult to have it docked lol. I tried

to look at it n work out what was causing it, but damned if I can see how. Do you think you could make one where

it just sit's still and does the bobbing thing? Is there a way to slow down the bobbing? I have it in a Venice Canal which

is pretty still most of the time. 

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I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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I just replaced all my old covered furniture with the new updated ones @Dragofer updated. Gotta say, wow. No more errors during dmap about those models having “too many tris - you must triplet it down”, I swear my map runs better in those areas with the new models, and the shadows from guards cast upon them as they walk past look much smoother on this fabric, not to mention alternate skins. Is there a drool emoji like Homer Simpson?

Edited by Jedi_Wannabe
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As my father used to say, "A grenade a day, keeps the enemy at bay!"

My one FM so far: Paying the Bills: 0 - Moving Day

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/12/2020 at 3:07 AM, Geep said:

Just did a refresh of https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Text_Decals_for_Signs_etc.

Mainly a new middle section with an example of how font resizing and wordwrap works, with comparison photos in DR and in-game. And some muddle cleanup in the first section. I left the last "customization" section as is.

Nicely done! I actually had use for exactly this entry today, since I always find using the entity_gui system confusing and I have a couple of texts in my map that were way too small.

My Fan Missions:

   Series:                                                                           Standalone:

Chronicles of Skulduggery 0: To Catch a Thief                     The Night of Reluctant Benefaction

Chronicles of Skulduggery 1: Pearls and Swine                    Langhorne Lodge

Chronicles of Skulduggery 2: A Precarious Position              

Chronicles of Skulduggery 3: Sacricide

 

 

 

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I was feeling guilty about not doing I18N for my first mission, so started looking into that for the next. It was nice to see that there was a page that indicated what translations were done... but shocked that it was so misleading (and with a warning about being out of date). It said there were no Russian translations, when elsewhere the forum indicates there's a hundred! I updated the I18N_Status wiki page with a new section under FM List:

--------

FM List

Translations Developed Under or Available through Language-Specific Third-Party Sites

These translations may in some cases go beyond I18N-text translations, to include images and vocals.

An example is DarkFate.org, which has Russian language translation of Thief-family games, including on the order of 100 TDM FMs. A current list may be found here. See also an earlier TDM forum post about Dark Fate resources for Russian-speaking translators of TDM FMs.

I18N-Text Translations Available Within TheDarkMod.com FMs

----

I also indicated that the existing list shown is sortable (since it's unsorted initially, and there's no sort icon shown).

With respect to being out-of-date, I wonder if someone could develop a different version of the list that could be automatically generated, say, with a python script that ran monthly?

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On 5/19/2020 at 10:24 PM, NeonsStyle said:

Hey Pranqster, 

The boat is still drifting back and left about a 1 1/2 boat widths, which makes it pretty difficult to have it docked lol. I tried

to look at it n work out what was causing it, but damned if I can see how. Do you think you could make one where

it just sit's still and does the bobbing thing? Is there a way to slow down the bobbing? I have it in a Venice Canal which

is pretty still most of the time. 

Oh, hey I missed this post. OK I'll set one up with bobbing only.There is a value for the timing, not on the top of my head right now. I'll check in a bit.

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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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I'm trying to fix an elevator which mysteriously broke after adjusting (seemingly) nothing about it. That's what I'm working on now.

I have a suspicion it has something to do with aas32_flood, but I've tried everything I can think of with no good results. The bottom floor elevator position is broken on the west elevator in Siege Shop. AI approaching the elevator do not use the call button and perform all of their upstairs animations in front of the elevator. I only noticed after having moved a light from the top of the elevator shaft. I had previously re-textured the elevator, but until two nights ago, AI didn't seem to care and continued to use it.

Believing the elevator itself to be the problem, reconstruction of the elevator was begun. The AI refused to get on the elevator at the first floor. I checked and corrected origins, comparing everything with a freshly imported prefab elevator. I even tried replacing the entire west elevator with a new prefab. New visportals didn't help and don't seem to make any difference anyway.

  • Replaced the call buttons.
  • Duplicated, rotated, and positioned parts from the working east elevator.
  • Attempted to re-do aas32_flood.
    • Only on floors with no AI start.
    • only on both upper floors.
    • only on the middle/top/bottom floor.
    • only on all floors.
    • sitting on the floor vs. sunk halfway into the floor.
    • far away from other brushwork on all sides.
    • near the elevator and far away from it.
  • Moved an AI to a different floor. They can use the elevator between the top two floors properly.
  • Triple checked entity origins, dimensions and positions when comparing to the 3-floor prefab elevator.

I just thought of a possibility. I did add a new area which connects the first two floors on the east side of the building. Would that cause the AI to not use the west elevator between floors 1 and 2?

Anyway, time to move on to other work.

Siege Shop is getting its final makeover. That's what I am really working on.

  • New player start area, before the cave, along the road leading to the siege shop.
  • There will be a new cave.
    • ...likely with climbing options to the upper area in addition to the rope arrow option.
    • will replace the "tube" cave with something more natural looking, sans the texture seam down the side.
    • Gonna have to put something scary or weird in the cave.
  • Changed textures yet again throughout the map.
  • Greatly enhanced weather effects in outdoor areas 😈
  • Greatly toned-down textures and decorations on the middle floor.
  • Greatly reduced need for water torches on the lower two floors 😈
  • Changed many light sources/colors/radii throughout the map.
  • Moved the lights from the tops of the elevator shafts to the actual elevator platforms 😈 (maybe.. I have to keep it sneak-able)
    • This is not what broke the elevator.
  • More junk and stuff, just about everywhere.
    • The bottoms of the elevator shafts are begging to be partially filled with trash, bottles, etc.
  • Came up with some better shelving ideas than wood shelves sticking out of concrete walls.
  • Some re-design to the workshop cavern with alternate/new routes for certain AI to take.
  • I (finally) noticed issues with RIT paths where AI would sometimes leave a room and then decide to immediately re-enter it.
    • Will re-do many RIT networks to fix this behavior.
  • Rocks, trees, grass, etc., are being added to outdoor areas.
  • Updated the balloon.
  • I'm going to open the front gates, but not for the player to venture through. A glimpse of the outdoor weather would be good here, so I'll put a cart delivering goods outside the gate.
  • Personal quarters are getting re-done on the upper floor, regardless of rank.
    • With the new start area come more guards. They need somewhere to sleep.
  • The aforementioned elevator was just added to the list.
Edited by PranQster
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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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@PranQster, just by way of empathy, we're also having a problem getting AI to use a elevator, under 2.07. This was a new, very tall elevator with just 2 stops. Worked fine for the player. The AI never used it, even in a map that had ONLY the elevator, and its two landings. Still, you might try creating a similar map to shed light on your hypothesis that it's the alternative path that's interfering in your case.

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Though I'm not available to debug elevator problems, I can make a suggestion that has nothing to do with moving AI or trying new elevators or moving buttons, etc.

Back when St. Lucia was getting a facelift, the guards refused to use the small elevator in the mission. Nothing I did involving the elevator or guards would solve the problem.

Then I noticed that pathfinding, which likes to calculate distances and reachability between the centers of AAS clusters, was setting the center of a cluster at the bottom floor of the elevator high up on a worldbrush piece of door trim. Way up off the floor, and denying reachability to that cluster when evaluating a path with an elevator in it.

We changed that worldbrush to a func_static, and the cluster center shifted down onto the floor and the guards started using the elevator.

So here's my suggestion ...

1. Look at the rooms around each stop of the elevator. Filter out all entities, and allow monsterclip to be displayed.

2. Now examine all horizontal worldbrush surfaces (except the actual floor) and see if you spot any that don't have m/c sitting on them, extending up to the ceiling above. It's surfaces like these that dmap considers reachable by AI, and it will assign AAS areas to them. Cover these surfaces with m/c. (Or if the brush is a piece of trim, convert it to a func_static.)

3. Now make sure that ALL m/c in the room extends up to the ceiling. Otherwise, dmap will consider the tops of those short m/c brushes as walkable surfaces, which you don't want.

4. Dmap and see if the guards start using the elevator.

If not, I have no further suggestions. 

Good luck.

 

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12 hours ago, Geep said:

@PranQster, just by way of empathy, we're also having a problem getting AI to use a elevator, under 2.07. This was a new, very tall elevator with just 2 stops. Worked fine for the player. The AI never used it, even in a map that had ONLY the elevator, and its two landings. Still, you might try creating a similar map to shed light on your hypothesis that it's the alternative path that's interfering in your case.

Interesting. I think I'll delete the new doors and block off the ends of the new hallway with solid brushwork and see if the bottom stop works again.

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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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10 hours ago, grayman said:

...

3. Now make sure that ALL m/c in the room extends up to the ceiling. Otherwise, dmap will consider the tops of those short m/c brushes as walkable surfaces, which you don't want.

...

 

Ahhh! But of course! I did make changes to the bookshelves, replacing simple shelves with full bookcases. And I have been lazy and right-clicking on models and choosing to surround with m/c. I have not been extending those to the ceiling, though I had when originally making siege.

Thank you in advance. I'm sure that's it... about to find out.

And thank you after having fixed the problem. I will be much more careful with m/c in the future.

Now I can get back to making it look better. :)

This would also explain why AI have sometimes been hesitant to exit the elevator platform.

Edited by PranQster
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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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This all encouraged me to try again with the elevator-only map. Made various changes, but burying the aas_obstacle fully within the aas_solid broke the log jam.

The good news: the AI guard can fetch the elevator from both levels. 🥳

The bad news: using the elevator leaves him KO'd or dead! 😖

Specifically,  he fetches the elevator from the top floor, rides it down, makes his rounds on the ground floor, fetches it again and rides it up. All good. But when it reaches the top, the platform immediately reverses and heads down again, inflicting pain in the process! When it gets to the bottom, the AI pushes the top-floor button, and the cycle repeats... more pain. And after yet one more cycle, he's flat and twitching.

Morale: be careful what you wish for?

Silver lining: possible new way to disable guards?

So the mystery continues

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2 minutes ago, Geep said:

Silver lining: possible new way to disable guards?

So the mystery continues

If the AI hits an obstacle while on the elevator, it will reverse course so as not to crush him (though he will take damage from the initial impact).   That sounds like the behaviour being described here.  Is the AI being pushed into worldspawn by the elevator?

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One of my AI bashed his head last night on the elevator which was never broken. It was one of those cases which I need to address where an AI leaves a path network and then chooses to immediately re-enter it. This AI, the cook, came down the elevator and stepped off, turned around, and stepped on the elevator again. Then he activated the switch for the upper floor before he had even walked all the way onto the elevator. (Maybe...I might be mistaken...) This caused him to bash himself upon the upper frame of the entrance to the elevator. I guess he learned his lesson, because he turned around again and stepped off the elevator and continued on his normal path on the lower floor. I guess he gave up on the second floor with a raging headache.

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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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SOLVED!

@Springheel, thanks for the tip. As you said, the AI's damage was causing the elevator reversal. But the source of that pain turned out to lay elsewhere than worldspawn collision. Because this is a tall express elevator, I had doubled its speed from the default 30 to 60. Evidently the abrupt stop when going upward (but not downward... odd) inflicts the pain. If I reduce it to 55, the AI handles it fine, and everything works.

It is possible that this max speed of 55 is the same for all AI. It is also possible that it varies, e.g., based on mass. I'll leave that for someone else.

IRL an express elevator has a gradual acceleration/deceleration cycle. Too much to ask for here, methinks.

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@Geep nice find - but can’t you set the accelTime (or accel_time) spawnarg to make the elevator change speed more gradually? Same for decel.

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