Oszkár's questions.

[Springheel]

Which skull is it exactly?

[Oszkár Winkler]

Entity based light sources do not emit light in DR. Will this feature be available in a further version of DR?

[Oszkár Winkler]

Which skull is it exactly?

 

skull_pork.lwo

[Oszkár Winkler]

I didn't find any undead creatures in DR. Where are they?

[greebo]

Entity based light sources do not emit light in DR. Will this feature be available in a further version of DR?

There are a couple of features that are not yet there in DarkRadiant, many of which are related to the renderer and the entity class hierarchy. I already started refactoring those entity classes so that they are more like the ones in Doom 3, but it's a lot of work and I'm not done yet.

 

I didn't find any undead creatures in DR. Where are they?

We didn't release undead for TDM 1.00, they had some showstopping bugs and we had to exclude them. Expect them in one of the next updates.

[Springheel]

skull_pork.lwo

 

That's a D3 model, not a darkmod one.

[Oszkár Winkler]

That's a D3 model, not a darkmod one.

 

You are right. Sorry.

[demagogue]

How can I resize a model?

 

You can't resize a model in DR, but if you really want it resized, you can still always do it in a modeling program like Lightwave or Blender (I think), and then follow the wiki entry for getting a new model in-game. It's not as hard as it might seem at first.

[SiyahParsomen]

How can I resize a model?

 

sometimes I use rotation for this. But in this way, model gives strange responses when you climb on it or even touching. So that, you should place the model where player can't access it, or give it solid 0 and place a caulk brush which spans the model. then no problem remains, but lot's of work.

Edited October 30, 2009 by SiyahParsomen

[Mortem Desino]

sometimes I use rotation for this. But in this way, model gives strange responses when you climb on it or even touching. So that, you should place the model where player can't access it, or give it solid 0 and place a caulk brush which spans the model. then no problem remains, but lot's of work.

Use clip_plusmovables instead of caulk. That way you won't give the renderer more work or draw extra tris if the caulk intersects other worldspawn. Oftentimes, the rotation matrix hack also creates visual anomalies with the normalmap and the specularmap.

[SiyahParsomen]

Use clip_plusmovables instead of caulk. That way you won't give the renderer more work or draw extra tris if the caulk intersects other worldspawn.

Oftentimes, the rotation matrix hack also creates visual anomalies with the normalmap and the specularmap.

 

yes, these can be a pain too. Infact, I pay attention on placing caulk, but couldn't understand why textures of model turn to awkward.

[greebo]

When you use the "rotation hack" to resize your models, the normals are not transformed properly. If I recall correctly, the normal vectors of a mesh need to be transformed using the transposed transformation matrix, otherwise they won't stay at 90 degrees to their planes. It's just not designed to be used that way.

 

If you have one specific model you need to be resized, you can post a help request here, and somebody (perhaps me) will resize it for you in Blender or Lightwave.

[SiyahParsomen]

When you use the "rotation hack" to resize your models, the normals are not transformed properly. If I recall correctly, the normal vectors of a mesh need to be transformed using the transposed transformation matrix, otherwise they won't stay at 90 degrees to their planes. It's just not designed to be used that way.

 

If you have one specific model you need to be resized, you can post a help request here, and somebody (perhaps me) will resize it for you in Blender or Lightwave.

 

I see, thanks for help. I'll keep it in my mind.

[Oszkár Winkler]

An important question:

 

I design a mission with the current (TDM 1.0) combat and/or environment system. Then the developer team changes how these work. Is there a way to keep the old systems for my FM?

Edited November 1, 2009 by Oszkár Winkler

[Mortem Desino]

Hypothetically, right?

 

Yeah. Whatever you put in a PK4 for a mission will override TDM assets. Suppose you need older rope arrow behavior. Put the old code under script/tdm_ammo_ropearrow_small.script and the old script will override the new.

[Oszkár Winkler]

Hypothetically, right?

 

Yeah. Whatever you put in a PK4 for a mission will override TDM assets. Suppose you need older rope arrow behavior. Put the old code under script/tdm_ammo_ropearrow_small.script and the old script will override the new.

 

Not definitely. If I plan a combat situation that works with the old system but fails with the new one, I need to have the old scripts.

 

What happens if I only have the new script? I mean, if I had the old one but lost it and the update contains only the new. Does the team have an archive base? (just for me?)

Edited November 1, 2009 by Oszkár Winkler

[Komag]

The main answer is that the team is going to try to avoid changing anything that will be a major disruption. But some things will get changed, it you might want to make a mission "update" after that

[Mortem Desino]

Well, nothing's stopping you from downloading TDM 1.0 again just to get the gamex86.dll and the old combat defs.

 

But Komag is right. TDM 1.0 is essentially a bunch of "finalized" stuff that, if further changed, might break maps. We tweaked it a ton before release, and perhaps tweak it one last time in a patch (after getting community feedback).

[Oszkár Winkler]

Well, nothing's stopping you from downloading TDM 1.0 again just to get the gamex86.dll and the old combat defs.

 

But Komag is right. TDM 1.0 is essentially a bunch of "finalized" stuff that, if further changed, might break maps. We tweaked it a ton before release, and perhaps tweak it one last time in a patch (after getting community feedback).

 

Hm... so TDM 1.0 is really a beta version. Is it a good idea then to begin a whole campaign for TDM 1.0 right now or should I wait for a "more final" update? Sorry for my stupid questions.

[Mortem Desino]

To name a few: you can create objectives, readables, map geometry, place models, and put AI patrols down. All of that is really unlikely to change.

[Crispy]

Nothing important is going to change, unless we really have to - and even then we'll be very careful about preserving the playability of existing FMs. Don't worry about it. All the future changes will be (1) fixing anything that's obviously broken, and (2) adding new assets/features which don't impact old maps.

 

If a game-breaking change is introduced, we'll either fix that ASAP, or tell FM authors how to revert their FMs to the old behaviour. But hopefully that shouldn't be necessary.

 

So please don't hesitate to go ahead and make your campaign.

[Oszkár Winkler]

Nothing important is going to change, unless we really have to - and even then we'll be very careful about preserving the playability of existing FMs. Don't worry about it. All the future changes will be (1) fixing anything that's obviously broken, and (2) adding new assets/features which don't impact old maps.

 

If a game-breaking change is introduced, we'll either fix that ASAP, or tell FM authors how to revert their FMs to the old behaviour. But hopefully that shouldn't be necessary.

 

So please don't hesitate to go ahead and make your campaign.

 

This is good news. Then I begin my story right away! Probably I will ask many questions here because time is a factor. If I have to find out everything by myself, my project would take years to be finished. I prepared everything. Story, characters, etc... but this is not official information yet.

 

Oh! I didn't find any real videos in the currently released FMs. It is possible to change the briefing screen to a video right? And can I connect my missions and videos for my whole campaign? So finally we get a PK4 which contains 5 missions and videos?

Edited November 2, 2009 by Oszkár Winkler

[greebo]

Yes, videos can be substituted. Not tested for campaigns, but entirely possible.

 

Beware that multi-mission support is planned, but not implemented yet. This is something we will hand in later down the road, but given the time it takes to create a full campaign (I hope you don't underestimate this kind of effort!) this won't stop you from starting it.

 

Recommendation: never start a campaign as your first mapping project. You'll fail, or it will suck huge balls.

[Oszkár Winkler]

Beware that multi-mission support is planned, but not implemented yet. This is something we will hand in later down the road, but given the time it takes to create a full campaign (I hope you don't underestimate this kind of effort!) this won't stop you from starting your campaign.

 

Recommendation: never start a campaign as your first mapping project.

 

Anyway, I still can publish my campaign in little parts, however the feeling would be different, so I guess I won't do it that way. Yes, I know. There is a hard road ahead of me. I already have mapping and game designing experiences (just a hobby), but this will be a hell of a ride! I was always crazy, so don't worry. Sometime I will finish it. Even if it takes years.

[Melan]

Better take a mission by mission approach and string together the pieces when everything is finished (unless the narrative forces the multi-mission structure). Frobber's KotP campaign, the Rocksbourg series, Sensut's Dracula/Báthory and my missions (which, except for Unbidden Guest, are interrelated and sequential) have all been released piecemeal. Completed campaigns released in one piece have been much less common (T2X, Calendra's Legacy and The Seven Sisters being obvious exceptions). Of course, if the missions are relatively small, a campaign may be easier to do.