What are the two Most Annoying DarkRadiant Issues?

[Tels]

*cough*concavebrushes*cough*

 

Impossible with the D3 engine. Brushes are per default convex.

[ungoliant]

can't be impossible, I remember a thread where someone imported brushes from an unreal editor that were concave and they worked in DR/TDM. maybe it was imported as a model though... don't remember.

 

edit: found the thread. yeah it was imported as a model. damnit.

Edited September 28, 2010 by ungoliant

[Bikerdude]

I was asking for real annoyances, things that break your workflow,

 

Then out of my very small list that i can think right this second -

• Some textures are transparent when selected, so you cant see what your doing when trying to manipulate said textures - 002318 002336

• When I create a decal from a brush face I would like said decal to be 1 unit (@grid 0.125) away from said face be default. Its a right pain when trying to select a Decal when DR selects the brush under it instead.

[Fidcal]

I think we should post 'support' and 'oppose' to existing proposals. Nobody is going to use up their two dream wishes if it has already been proposed! So in theory nothing will stand out as a common annoyance.

 

I support re-distribute columns/rows.

 

Also support texture scale anchor.

 

I oppose decals being created away from the surface.

[SneaksieDave]

On the hope I wasn't too wordy (trying to back up my statement!) and everything prior is flushed, boiled down:

 

1. The texturing problems I mentioned in my two posts (I would guess they're related) really frustrate, and

2. Perhaps some kind of logic to help avoid/remove doubled entities as they're a common enough problem.

[Bikerdude]

I oppose decals being created away from the surface.

Why..?

[stumpy]

texture aligning on patch faces, on normal brushes you can easily align faces by putting the x y z number in the box in the texture editor after you've aligned the first brush in the series. With patches you have to move the texture with the arrow button and align it by sight.

 

The other major pain is the snap to grid icon is next to the cut up brush with brush icon and they look the same so if you pick the wrong one you have to delete what you've just made as its now in several bits instead of one.

[Melan]

Since what I suggested first would be hard to implement, how about...

• A hotkey for the Rotate and Scale (Arbitrary Transformation) panel? Similar to the Surface Inspector and Layers, it is an often-used tool, but there is no hotkey to bring it up (as far as I know), and using the mouse is a bit inconvenient. This should not be too hard to do

[Fidcal]

There is a shortcut option though maybe no default is set. Its TransformDialog in the shortcut keys list.

[Fidcal]

Why..?[opposing decals being created away from surfaces.]

Some decals (grime, stains) need to be flush and some (foliage, dirt) need to be slightly away from the surface. I use more of the former than the latter. In addition, when using the auto option in the brush menu to add a decal to a surface, such decals would overlap each other if say you put several on all the surfaces of a room, like this hash shape #.

 

Now an option would be acceptable much like the option to create clones at an offset.

[Melan]

There is a shortcut option though maybe no default is set. Its TransformDialog in the shortcut keys list.

Ah, thanks!I looked through that menu, but didn't know which function to change.

Edited September 29, 2010 by Melan

[Bikerdude]

Ah, thanks!I looked through that menu, but didn't know which function to change.

Just look for transform in the list Melan - I have had mine set to 'R' since DR 1.2.2 :-)

[Fidcal]

Also worth keeping in mind the DR controls wiki article. It is multiple keyword designed so you can search down for almost anything, eg, resize, rotate, transform, even dialog, would all find the entry eventually and each entry gives the shortcut name and the default control (if any.)

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Dark_Radiant_Keys

[grayman]

Some decals (grime, stains) need to be flush and some (foliage, dirt) need to be slightly away from the surface. I use more of the former than the latter. In addition, when using the auto option in the brush menu to add a decal to a surface, such decals would overlap each other if say you put several on all the surfaces of a room, like this hash shape #.

 

 

I always put all decals 1/8 off their host surface.

 

I've found that placing 2 decals in the same area causes ZF if they're co-planar. I would put one 1/8 off the surface and the other 1/4 off.

 

 

Is there a problem with that?

 

Also, how can you tell which ones are supposed to be on the surface and which are supposed to be away from it?

[stumpy]

I always curve the folage decals so that where the stem would be its further away from the wall than the leaves.

[Serpentine]

I really don't run into many issues, so I can only put in these 'small but handy improvements'.

 

The only really minor thing that annoys me is the 'set x on y' spawnargs do not offer special action/selection button. Other than that I'd like to have an option for a simplified version of the surface inspector/patch inspector in the tab view. Because I'm all kinds of lazy.

[Xarg]

My biggest beef with DR right now is.... creating entities.

 

Right click - create entity. (This might be due to my resolution... but) the window appears, but it's too tall. I double click the side of the window, and it goes from poking off the top, to poking off the bottom. Maximise the window, place my entity.

 

Problem - If I go to place another entity, the entity window appears in full screen, but it's unusable, cant see anything properly, cant select anything

 

Workaround - Save, close DR, reopen DR, then I can place 1 more entity before that problem comes back. Placing models does not cause this.

 

Can provide a screenshot if necessary.

[Fidcal]

No, there's no problem I know of with moving decals out a little so if it looks right to you and it works OK then it should be fine.

 

The two 'types' of decal are what I call thick and thin (technical term.) Foliage, thick dirt, and so on need to be clear of the surface. Blend types like soot, stains, grime, can be flush.

 

As far as auto goes. Imagine this lot which I did in Heart. If they were produced clear of the surface then every one would be wrong because they would all overlap on concave areas like rooms and all have gaps on convex surfaces like buttresses and pillars and I would have to manually resize every one to be a tiny fraction different in area than the surface it is covering.

 

 

[edit] btw you only see half of the decals because 50% are facing the other way.

[Bikerdude]

ok, if not move the decal how about fix DR so that when I click on a decal it selects that always instead of the brush under it..?

[Fidcal]

ok, if not move the decal how about fix DR so that when I click on a decal it selects that always instead of the brush under it..?

Erm... what if you want the brush? At the moment you can click twice to get the decal or if you are working a lot with decals then filter out brushes.

 

There may be a good case for saying that you have generally finished with the brush by the time you add a decal so want the decal 99% of the time? Mmm.. It is odd actually that DR normally selects the top item in camera view but mostly not with decals. Sometimes it does and I often try to look from the side so I can see if it has zero width before proceeding.

[Bikerdude]

There may be a good case for saying that you have generally finished with the brush by the time you add a decal so want the decal 99% of the time? Mmm..

yeah its a right pain, so what I do normally is when I have a bunch of decals selected I paint them and add texture and then make FS so that I can always select them first.

 

but you say click twice..? so while holding the shift key I just left click twice and this will then select the decal instead of the brush..?

[Fidcal]

Yes, when you keep clicking on camera or ortho it cycles through all the items below the mouse. So in camera try to get an angle so you can see what is selected. Sometimes the decal is selected first, sometimes second; mostly second.

[OrbWeaver]

edit: found the thread. yeah it was imported as a model. damnit.

 

Yep, the mathematical definition of Doom 3 brushes doesn't allow for concave shapes.

 

2. Perhaps some kind of logic to help avoid/remove doubled entities as they're a common enough problem.

 

I wonder if this could be done heuristically, such as by flagging any brush if over 80% of its volume was contained within another brush, or by flagging any entity with both the same entity class and the same origin (within a tolerance) as another entity.

 

My maths isn't good enough to say whether the brush one is easy or not though, and I have had little experience with the brush code itself.

[Fidcal]

But how would that be indicated to the player? Do you mean the player would hit a button 'test for and select any rogue clones'?

 

It seems to me the current offset was created for this purpose. I generally set a big grid just before cloning so the clone jumps right out. If I had a dozen things selected by accident I should notice them. I've long since defined the Insert key as the clone key (same as Dromed) rather than Space.

 

I may be asking for trouble but I recall being plagued with clones years ago (I think I had 120 tables in Thief's Den's kitchen!) but just don't see this problem anymore.

[OrbWeaver]

But how would that be indicated to the player? Do you mean the player would hit a button 'test for and select any rogue clones'?

 

Something like that, I was thinking a long time ago that there ought to be a "Validate map..." dialog somewhere, which would be a place where tests such as this could be added and displayed in a simple report (with options to highlight or find the offending entities/brushes and so on).