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Ocn's questions on TDM editing.


ocn

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Instead of cluttering up the forum with separate topics I though I'd collect them all here, since my queries will most likely be abundant. Hope that's okay... I thank everyone in advance for their patience and efforts to help me out. In return I will make a video tutorial(s) of things I learn for TDM dummies (I am a film maker, so the quality can be expected to be well above the average youtube effort). I am also available for musical scores and sound design/ voice acting (myself and a few acting friends that might want to help out - though some degree of foreign english accent can be expected).

 

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First question:

 

I need a dead AI... I can't find the appropriate ragdoll and the ragdolls heads are a little too unattached to their bodies for my liking (ie severed and far away). There's no properties that I can see which I can add to an AI to kill it off. How's this accomplished?

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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Instead of cluttering up the forum with separate topics I though I'd collect them all here, since my queries will most likely be abundant. Hope that's okay... I thank everyone in advance for their patience and efforts to help me out. In return I will make a video tutorial(s) of things I learn for TDM dummies (I am a film maker, so the quality can be expected to be well above the average youtube effort). I am also available for musical scores and sound design/ voice acting (myself and a few acting friends that might want to help out - though some degree of foreign english accent can be expected).

 

Acting friends, eh?

We could always use new vocal sets....:ph34r:

 

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First question:

 

I need a dead AI... I can't find the appropriate ragdoll and the ragdolls heads are a little too unattached to their bodies for my liking (ie severed and far away). There's no properties that I can see which I can add to an AI to kill it off. How's this accomplished?

 

I'm sorry, I didn't undestand what is the problem with ragdoll bodies.

You can find more skins for them by giving the ragdoll spawnarg "skin" with value "x" in the entity editor. Then click on the skin property and a button choose skin appears. This will open a dialog in which you can see al the skins available for the ragdoll. At least ragdoll_commoner has several skins available. Also you can change the head with the def_head property. See wiki for AI heads.

 

As for killing AI's it is simple:

Select any func_static in the game.

In the upper menu choose entity->stim/response.

Select response

Select type trigger

Right click the effect list and select add new.

Select effect "kill"

Give the target the entity name you want to die.

 

What you did is:

set the func_static to listen for trigger response. Once it gets it it produces the effect kill for the named entity.

 

You can put a button which targets this func_static or you can select ANY piece of worldspawn and give it in the entity editor spawnarg "target" and the name of the func_static. Everything the worldspawn targets, is targetted when the map starts.

 

It is really worthwhile to learn the stim/response editor. You really can do magic with it.:D

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Acting friends, eh?

We could always use new vocal sets....:ph34r:

 

 

Send me some scripts to work with and I'll see what I can do.

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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I'm sorry, I didn't undestand what is the problem with ragdoll bodies.

 

 

Ok. The commoner ragdoll looks alright. I chose the nobel one which had its head way above its body. Some setting I have to fiddle with I presume.:wacko:

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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I think some of the ragdolls are not set up because they are made up from other things. So let me give an example. Say you want a dead combatant priest.

 

Create a live one first to copy from:

 


  •  
  • Create entity > darkmod > AI > Builder > atdm:ai_builder_priest_combatant
  • With it still selected, click top left of Entity Inspector: Show Inherited Properties.
  • Select the following lines in the list and click the green arrow button at bottom right so they show in the short list:
  • def_attach1
  • def_head
  • offsetHeadModel
  • model
  • Click top left of Entity Inspector: Show Inherited Properties to deselect it to show short properites.
     


  •  
  • Create entity > darkmod > Ragdolls > Bodies > atdm:env_ragdoll_builder_guard
  • Back to the live one and select the model line so it shows at bottom.
  • Back to ragdoll and click green button at bottom right to copy the model property over.
  • Repeat with def_head and offsetHeadModel
  • You can't attach the hammer as they fall off so if you want one then create it separately and place it:
  • Look at the live one and look at the name under def_attach1 which in this example is atdm:moveable_holy_hammer
  • Deselect the live one.
  • Create entity > darkmod > moveables > atdm:moveable_holy_hammer

 

If you want to change the head then select it on the ragdoll and at the bottom is a button to choose another head. At the moment the head doesn't highlight when you frob in game. I don't know if that bug is fixed in the next update.

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I chose the nobel one which had its head way above its body. Some setting I have to fiddle with I presume.:wacko:

 

That shouldn't happen...I'll have to check it out.

 

edit: Ah, there was something incorrect in the entitydef, thanks for pointing it out. If you notice any more floating heads, let me know.

 

Send me some scripts to work with and I'll see what I can do.

 

I'm a bit swamped with getting 1.03 out the door now, but if you poke me in a couple weeks I can put something together.

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I'm a bit swamped with getting 1.03 out the door now, but if you poke me in a couple weeks I can put something together.

 

Cool :)

 

Thanks for the... err... heads up, by the way.

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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Where can I find a "blood spatter" object put on top of my exclusive white linen? I've searched through the database several times and I can't locate one.

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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You can do that with decals, It's a texture you apply to a surface, easiest way to do is to select a surface you want to place it on ( ctrl-shift click surface) then use the create decals button, load a decal from media tab to texture browser and place it on the decal (still selected) by clicking on the decal in the texture browser.

Doing decals this way is good because it lines up with the surface and you avoid Z-fighting , you can resize the plane offcourse, it will be kept planar to the original.

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Blood splatters in TDM are not objects, they are decal textures with transparency. Here is how to make them:

1) select brush surface (CTRL+LMB)

2) in the texture tree, go to darkmod/decals/blood

3) choose an appropriate bloodstain

4) near the right edge of your upper menu bar, there is a command named "create decals for selected faces"

5) resize your blood splatter as you wish

 

[edit]beaten like a red-headed stepchild!

Edited by Melan

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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Blood splatters in TDM are not objects, they are decal textures with transparency.

 

:blush:

 

[edit]beaten like a red-headed stepchild!

 

:laugh:

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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You can do that with decals, It's a texture you apply to a surface, easiest way to do is to select a surface you want to place it on ( ctrl-shift click surface) then use the create decals button, load a decal from media tab to texture browser and place it on the decal (still selected) by clicking on the decal in the texture browser.

Doing decals this way is good because it lines up with the surface and you avoid Z-fighting , you can resize the plane offcourse, it will be kept planar to the original.

 

I tried. And it shows up in the 3d view of the editor, but not in-game.:blink:

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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Do not use textures/darkmod/decals/blood/

 

Use textures/decals/splat*

 

Yes, that means using D3 assets, but the TDM assets are the same anyways. And they won't work for some reason. The splat textures do.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Do not use textures/darkmod/decals/blood/

 

Use textures/decals/splat*

 

Yes, that means using D3 assets, but the TDM assets are the same anyways. And they won't work for some reason. The splat textures do.

 

Excellent! Thanks, Sotha. :)

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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Excellent! Thanks, Sotha. :)

 

Actually, file a bugtracker so we can find out why ours won't work.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

 

"Remember: If the game lets you do it, it's not cheating." -- Xarax

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Actually, file a bugtracker so we can find out why ours won't work.

 

Done: #2452.

 

This is a known thing, since it says following in DR material description for the darkmod/decals/blood: "Not for mapping use. Use textures/decals/splat*"

 

It seems intentional.. But why? :huh:

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Probably to do with they are fadeables spawned in-game from damage and time out within N seconds? So at game start they have already disappeared by the time you look during the few seconds before rendering while moveables drop into position etc.

 

But then, aren't we supposed to be able to mop up blood with water arrows? I can't remember if that is implemented in TDM.

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Probably to do with they are fadeables spawned in-game from damage and time out within N seconds? So at game start they have already disappeared by the time you look during the few seconds before rendering while moveables drop into position etc.

 

Isn't that backwards logic? If this was true, the TDM blood assets would be the ones that work, because the D3 blood fades away...? Still I don't understand. If the material shaders are carbon copies, how could they behave differently?

 

edit: This is a total shot in the dark, but doesn't D3 have parental controls regarding blood? Is it possible that this is related? The D3 textures are called "splat" but the TDM textures say "blood", yes? what if parental controls search for shaders with the word "blood" and disable?

Edited by ungoliant
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Isn't that backwards logic? If this was true, the TDM blood assets would be the ones that work, because the D3 blood fades away...? Still I don't understand. If the material shaders are carbon copies, how could they behave differently?

 

edit: This is a total shot in the dark, but doesn't D3 have parental controls regarding blood? Is it possible that this is related? The D3 textures are called "splat" but the TDM textures say "blood", yes? what if parental controls search for shaders with the word "blood" and disable?

 

Ah, no, parental control has nothing to do with that. The first paragraph is what happens, it fades away. The TDM decals are indeed fading out. There is a reason, because D3 only has two types of decals:

 

* always visible, stays forever

* vanishes after X seconds, which is limited to (I don't know exactly) like 30 seconds

 

Our blood decals, tho, should be visible forever, until some water arrow washes them away. Thus we cannot use type I (they can't be switched off) and we can't really use off-the-shelf type II (they would vanish).

 

So greebo cleverly hacked it so that the blood sprayed by AI is a type II decal, and refreshed every X seconds, until it is washed away, where we simply stop refreshing it and it goes away after X seconds.

 

That is also the reason why you don't see them in game - they vanish X seconds after map start. The refresh intervall might well be 1 second. (Need to look into shader what the actual time is).

 

Someone should turn this post into a wiki article...

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

 

"Remember: If the game lets you do it, it's not cheating." -- Xarax

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Looks like a really good start. :wub:

 

Obviously you are at home with DR.

 

Thanks... :)

 

Does anyone know of a good screen recorder to record gameplay? Haven't ever tried recording games before. It's for the TDM video tutorial for dummies that I'm gradually attempting.

 

I've tried Camstudio which wouldn't do it. And Taksi which also just recorded a black screen.

Edited by ocn

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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