Sotha's mapping thread

[Springheel]

Yay!!! You're addicted!

[ungoliant]

Hooray for TDM addicts!!! I would turn tricks on the street to play good TDM FM's. I need my fix.

[Fidcal]

Hehe. There is no escape.

[Sotha]

I'm not addicted!

I can stop mapping any time I want. Seriously...

 

Now I'm gonna do something else, just to prove you wrong!

 

*opens DR*

[Aprilsister]

 

Hee hee hee...

[Sotha]

Yep. I feel nowadays proficient enough with DR so that there is not much questions to ask here.

 

And I'm gonna also keep the amount of progress screenies to a minimum with his mission.

 

Here is an exception, which probably captures the soul of the upcoming mission. Just to whet peoples appetite...

 

[nbohr1more]

I've been so limited with my "at home" PC time that I now have a backlog of missions to complete but having another Sotha mission in my to-do list is a good thing indeed !!!

 

Looks great!

[Springheel]

I like the geometry, but the ground seems very light-blasted...at first I thought it was snow!

[Melan]

A mission set at full moon?

[Noisycricket]

I like the geometry, but the ground seems very light-blasted...at first I thought it was snow!

 

I thought it was lightening.

[Fidcal]

I suspect it's been brightened for the forums?

[Sotha]

Noisycricket wins.

 

I never played with weather before, gotta do new things to stay fresh.

[Sotha]

I don't know if Tels reads this, but I was too afraid to ask this in the 1.03 thread. I don't want to harrass the creators in their.. well... creation.

 

[...] problem [...] create "water" from patches, then make them an entity (but not atdm:liquid) for performance reasons.

 

On water:

 

What is the official supported way to do water? Swimmable water pools are covered by the wiki. But howsabout a rainwater puddle? It should:

• Look like a puddle
• Splish splosh when the player water walks/sneaks over
• Douse candles.
• Cause ripples when something is thrown there.
• Cause a big splash when the player jumps in it

I am working on this kinds of things just recently and you seem to have an insight how to do it properly. Puddles cannot be made from brushes, because patches look more realistic puddles (organic shape and all.)

 

Here's what I've tried:

• Puddle shaped patch with water texture, converted into func_liquid

This turns off candles and causes ripples when the candle hits it. However, it does not make any water sound when the player walks on it. It does not splash when the player jumps in it. Bad.

My best result is:

• Puddle shaped patch with water texture, converted into func_liquid. This is placed on top a slim func_static brush with tdm_nodrawsolid_puddle.

Turns off candles, causes ripples when candle hits it. And makes splish splosh when walked upon. However, it still won't make a big splash when the player jumps in the puddle. I do get a satisfying sound, however.

 

I think the last one is the one I'm going to be happy with. Will there be complications by choosing this path?

[Tels]

I don't know if Tels reads this, but I was too afraid to ask this in the 1.03 thread. I don't want to harrass the creators in their.. well... creation.

 

 

 

On water:

 

What is the official supported way to do water? Swimmable water pools are covered by the wiki. But howsabout a rainwater puddle? It should:

• Look like a puddle
• Splish splosh when the player water walks/sneaks over
• Douse candles.
• Cause ripples when something is thrown there.
• Cause a big splash when the player jumps in it

I am working on this kinds of things just recently and you seem to have an insight how to do it properly. Puddles cannot be made from brushes, because patches look more realistic puddles (organic shape and all.)

 

Here's what I've tried:

• Puddle shaped patch with water texture, converted into func_liquid

This turns off candles and causes ripples when the candle hits it. However, it does not make any water sound when the player walks on it. It does not splash when the player jumps in it. Bad.

My best result is:

• Puddle shaped patch with water texture, converted into func_liquid. This is placed on top a slim func_static brush with tdm_nodrawsolid_puddle.

Turns off candles, causes ripples when candle hits it. And makes splish splosh when walked upon. However, it still won't make a big splash when the player jumps in the puddle. I do get a satisfying sound, however.

 

I think the last one is the one I'm going to be happy with. Will there be complications by choosing this path?

 

Remarks: Don't use func_liquid. (Just don't use it.) Use "atdm:liquid_water". Maybe this already solves your problems?

 

As for the splash, I think it might be if you puddle is too shallow, that this triggers bugs with our "splashing" and sound code. I think if you aren't at least ankle-deep in water, the code doesn't consider you in water at all. (Also, the splash might be a "small" splash because there is extra code to make a small splash when the water is shallow, but I am no water expert

 

Anyway, if you avoid using worlspawn patches/brushes for water, and use atdm:liquid_water instead, you are already 99% there

[Sotha]

Remarks: Don't use func_liquid. (Just don't use it.) Use "atdm:liquid_water". Maybe this already solves your problems?

 

Oops. I wrote here incorrectly. It is and was "atdm:liquid_water."

 

As for the splash, I think it might be if you puddle is too shallow, that this triggers bugs with our "splashing" and sound code. I think if you aren't at least ankle-deep in water, the code doesn't consider you in water at all. (Also, the splash might be a "small" splash because there is extra code to make a small splash when the water is shallow, but I am no water expert

 

Ok. It looks like if the water is puddle-shallow, no water footsteps will be made on an atdm:liquid_water-patch. Small objects do cause splashes and sound, but not the player. Good thing this is easy to circumvent with the nodrawsolidpuddle-thingy.

 

 

Anyway, if you avoid using worlspawn patches/brushes for water, and use atdm:liquid_water instead, you are already 99% there

 

Okay I'll use my current setup. Thanks a lot for insight!

[Tels]

Ok. It looks like if the water is puddle-shallow, no water footsteps will be made on an atdm:liquid_water-patch. Small objects do cause splashes and sound, but not the player. Good thing this is easy to circumvent with the nodrawsolidpuddle-thingy.

 

I think this qualifies as bug, the player should make a small splash if he steps on a water surface.

[Mortem Desino]

I skimmed the idPlayer code. It seems that it only checks if the player is within a volume of liquid (of which patches evidently don't qualify).

[Tels]

I skimmed the idPlayer code. It seems that it only checks if the player is within a volume of liquid (of which patches evidently don't qualify).

 

Ah, true. One of the reasons why you should not use water-textured patches unless you put a water volume under it. (I don't think it would be ever easy to support water-texture-patches-without volumes, because how would one know how "deep" is something in the water? perpendicular to surface and then "through it?)

[Sotha]

After playing Jesps excellent new mission (and after hot sauna and ice cold beer) I decided to make a mission of tiny/small size category. It continues the Porter story shortly after Glenham Tower.

 

Argh. Failed my target. After a very fruitful mapping session last night, I realized that the mission has grown. It is definately going to be my standard small/medium size category.

 

General progress breakdown assessment:

Basic geometry: 80%

Details: 5%

Plot(planned): 95%

Plot(implemented): 1%

Entities: 0%

[Aprilsister]

Argh nothing...

[Fidcal]

There is a theory that the creative process is just using us to write its own stuff. I would like to say I don't believe it but something stopped me.

[Sotha]

Oh noes, I'm too dumb to figure out how to do this. It's probably dead simple, but I just can't get it right now.

 

Problem:

• I have a thunderstorm. The thunder sound is heard everywhere in the map. I have an inside location in which the thunder sound should not be heard. I have a single corridor going to the silent location from the noisy location.
• The thundering is controlled by a trigger_timer which triggers the flashing and the sound every now and then.
• To stop the thundering I need to trigger the trigger_timer in order to make it stop the thunder.
• Basically I need two triggers at the each end of the corridor. On the silent end the trigger switches off the trigger_timer. On the noisy end the trigger switches on the trigger_timer.
• Problem is that the trigger_timer can only be triggered on and off, on and off. I cannot deliberately switch it off.
• I cannot use trigger_once, because I need the thunder to be re-enabled when the player apporaches the noisy end. I cannot use trigger_multiple either, because the player could move in a way that the thunder plays in the silent end, but not in the noisy one. That would be too unreliable: the player could stand in the trigger volume and cause the trigger_timer to change it's state to a random one depending how long the player stands in the volume!

How to pull this this through?

[Fidcal]

This is the old no 'on/off' signal problem. I think I solved it with some linked triggers a while ago. I'll have a look. I think I posted it in detail on the thread about the drawbridge (whatever happened to that?)

 

I'll take a look.

[Fidcal]

This is what I was thinking of...

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Lever%2C_switch%2C_2-way_target_sets

 

It might work to do what you want but I think there is a better way. Use the method I used for destroying the Heart at one location only. It triggers exclusively when you enter and it triggers excluvisely when you exit so it should not trigger at the wrong time.

 

Basically it is two invisible optional location objectives (like return to start) but one of them is set to NOT. Then you fill in the target field. Probably you need them both to be reversible. So, player enters corridor and this triggers the thunder off (you could put a delay in between if necessary.) Nothing else will happen until you leave the corridor to go back out again when the objective completes because the player is NOT in the location so it toggles the thunder ON again.

 

[EDIT] Tip: Set the objectives visible to start with while you test then change them later.

 

[EDIT2] You would need the location clip brush to extend throughout the silent area so it's not practical if this is extensive. May need something else. Mmm...

[Tels]

How to pull this this through?

 

Write two simple script functions, one for turning it off and one for turning it on, then target them from trigger_multiples places so that the off is triggered when the player comes from one end and the on is triggered when he comes the other way.

 

(e.g. the off trigger on the inside side of the corridor, the On on of the outside side of the corridor).