Editing Tip of the Day

[Fidcal]

Post any editing tips you have in this thread; anything you think some mappers might not know. Make sure it is complete and simple and clear so even I can understand you.

 

 

Here's my first:

 

To get an AI to frob something, eg, a lever (doesn't work to pick up and carry) create a path_interact entity. You can include it in a normal pathing patrol. Give it these spawnargs:

 

ent <name of entity you want the AI to frob>

target <next path entity (if any)>

 

Note that the AI won't walk to this entity; you have to use a path_corner to get him where you want then target to the path_interact to get him to frob.

[Sotha]

Fantastic idea!

 

When creating stairs or other similar objects, always do it the following way:

1) create first step

2) align textures perfectly for this first step

3) put on texture lock

4) clone the step into multiple steps.

 

This way you do not have to align textures for each and every step. For some reason I often seem to forget this basic rule and create step, clone it and then I have a full staircase of steps to align.

 

I also want to elaborate that doing simple things in another order may save you a lot of trouble and time!

[Fidcal]

Yes, same with beams. But it depends on the texture and the situation whether you want them all to be identical. You certainly want the same orientation and scale. With beams you then want to scroll some beam textures along so they are not all identical. I recently saw a random texture thing I've not tried yet might do this. Not sure if I saw it in a menu or a script.

[HappyCheeze]

You can bind some unlit fires to an NPC (like a zombie) and shoot it when a fire arrow, he'll erupt in flames, but the flames won't damage him. You could also light him with a candle. I'd bet theres some way to make that actually kill the creature, or at least cause it damage.

[Sotha]

You can bind some unlit fires to an NPC (like a zombie) and shoot it when a fire arrow, he'll erupt in flames, but the flames won't damage him. You could also light him with a candle. I'd bet theres some way to make that actually kill the creature, or at least cause it damage.

 

Hey that sounds cool. One improvement suggestion:

When the the light gets the fire stim, target a trigger multiple, which delays for a 120-240 seconds and then turns the fire off. Surely the flames will not burn forever?

 

You could make the fire damaging by starting a trigger timer which applies the stim damage to the target every few seconds. Remember to switch off the timer when the flames are doused.

 

This could be used for some kind of puzzleish final confrontation with some uber powerful creature..Or it would be hilarious to sneak up a sleeping zombie and light him up with a candle!

[Baddcog]

Put caulk all all the faces outside of your map.

 

Then hit Filter>Caulk. Now you can see into your map from the outside.

 

And if you keep Caulk filtered you can fly around and see all the backfaces the player will never see, the more of them you caulk the easier it is to see/select things in 3d. (it can also help your performance, unseen faces of Func_statics don't get culled during compile like unseedn faces between world spawn brushes).

[STiFU]

Hmn, I was just thinking, if you guys collect enough tips, they could be displayed on the DR splash screen while loading.

[HappyCheeze]

Hmn, I was just thinking, if you guys collect enough tips, they could be displayed on the DR splash screen while loading.

 

This is an excellent idea!

[Fidcal]

Tip to help find materials in Dark Radiant's materials browser. I think this is originally by Serpentine.

 

Point to Textures (or any tree)

Shift + Right key to fully open the tree

Type the key letters of what you want to find

Up/down arrows to go to next/previous occurrence.

Esc to get out of input field

 

Oh yeah, avoid F3 because that is likely to switch to render mode which in my case crashes DR.

[Fidcal]

Can't select a vertex on a brush or patch? We've all done it right? No matter what you do it just won't select <curse curse>.

 

Chances are it's an entity and you forgot to tab to primitive mode like you would if resizing. It's easy to forget especially if there is only a single primitive like a one patch func_static. Just use the Tab key (or the select Group parts button) then V for vertex mode again. Now you should be able to select it.

 

Now what about lights? When you are trying to grab that pesky little centre vertex? Anyone?

[Serpentine]

Oh yeah, avoid F3 because that is likely to switch to render mode which in my case crashes DR.

 

And now you know why I made sure to mention that in the most vague and unhelpful way ever! I dont crash, but it does lock up DR for a minute or three.

[SneaksieDave]

I believe that's when it's loading in all the high res versions of the textures. Shouldn't be every render mode toggle.

[HappyCheeze]

Need to put a texture on a bunch of brushes and want to do it fast?

 

Click the mouse wheel on the texture to copy it, than

 

to paste it naturally: shift+mousewheel click

 

To just paste it: ctrl+mousewheel click

[Fidcal]

With DR, if I select render mode and leave it a minute I get the 'Dark Radiant has stopped working' message, 'close program y/n?' etc.

 

That mousewheel paste I can never remember because paste natural is not often enough for me to get used to it. But been using it a lot the last few days.

[HappyCheeze]

Just give the render mode some time, especially if you have a lot of lights, usually it pulls through and renders everything

[Fidcal]

What even after Windows says it has crashed?

[HappyCheeze]

What even after Windows says it has crashed?

 

Hm, does the screen go grey?

 

I'm not sure

 

Try leaving it on for a few mins, go eat some lunch or something and see if its done anything

[Xarg]

'.. has stopped responding.' Isn't ALWAYS a death sentence for a program. Usually yes, but not always. Sometimes it's just grinding away on it's own and needs a bit of time to tell Windows that it's still alive.

[Fidcal]

Well then the Windows report that the program is no longer working is more f* bullshit from M$oft. I've been using that for years and always assumed when it said the program had stopped working it meant the program had stopped working so hit the close program button.

[Jesps]

You can move, rotate, and rezise brushes/patches as well as move and rotate models in the 3d view.

[Fidcal]

I've left this 20 plus minutes and still render crashed so if it's going to recover it's not of any practical use anyway.

[Dragofer]

For me, pressing f3 causes no delay whatsoever. I could almost be proud of my dusty laptop, if it weren't that there's absolutely no difference between f3 and no f3 (except for the void being black).

 

In any case, performance can be improved I believe by making house trim (i.e. beams on the roof, brush desks) func_statics. As referred to in http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Performance:_Essential_Must-Knows#func_static_v_worldspawn_Brushes

 

 

[Sotha]

Ever wondered what was the name of that one specific spawnarg?

Ever wondered what spawnargs exist for a given entity?

 

1) Select entity

2) Right-click into the Entity Inspector window, and choose "Add Property...", which brings you to a treeview with all spawnargs.

 

(Thanks greebo)

[stumpy]

it doesn't actually list all the spawnargs, there are other spawnargs you can add that are not listed, usually it the shaderParms.

[Fidcal]

Also most of those listed are not relevant so the important ones are lost in a big list. I usually click 'show inherited' first as often it shows the ones you want but not all. It is possible to set up entities so the important ones are actually listed in the normal properties so you only need change them. You can see that for instance with a door it shows locked and lockpicks and used_by. But I think there is a problem that you can't remove them and there are some spawnargs that if not used should not be there at all not even as a default. Sometimes "-" can be used but not always.