Questions From Garreth

[Garreth]

Started my own question topic, instead of posting all over.

 

To start off i have some real problems , I tryed to have a model key function like a doorhandle on a cabinet, now it shows up in game but not in the editor so i cannot remove it, and one of those keys became a black box propably with changing its class.

I need to get rid of em but they cannot be seen or selected in the editor.

Then there is this mirror problem. It shows glitches when viewed from the side. Propably interferes with a portal i think.

And the glass lights up in the dark when viewed from the side.

Realy unrealistic for glass to act this way.

 

 

 

 

[Baddcog]

Mirror tex is pretty buggy. I believe you can only have it vertical (no angles) and it needs to be sealed on all sides (like water) or it leaks and you get weird visual issues.

 

I tried using it on an angled model as part of the model and as a stand alone brush surrounded by model but it never worked right.

 

I think you should be able to look up entity name for the key if you named it. I forgot exactly where in the menu that would be though.

[Fidcal]

One of the causes of an entity becoming invisible is when the model is inherited as with a key. So if you change it to a different entity then it no longer inherits any key properties including the model so it has no visible model at all. The way to do that is before changing to func_static or doorhandle, set 'show inherited properties' in the top left corner of entity inspector, select the model and click the arrow button on the right to actually fix it. So now when you UNselect 'show inherited' it still shows. Now if you change it to func_static it won't lose the model.

 

In your case it's too late - so do this to fix the broken ones:

 

• 
   
  
• Go to where the handles are
  
• In the console enter g_showEntityInfo 1
  
• note down the entity name(s)
  
• In Dark Radiant use the Entity list
  
• If you type in the name it will list and select it.
  
• Even though invisible you can just hit backspace to delete it.
  

 

 

Yes mirror texture is a bit odd. I recall you cannot have more than one flat mirror texture surface (presume in one area) or neither will work. I think this must be to prevent cumulative reflections which would screw up rendering.

[Garreth]

The key had a name but the box is still there, but il fix that in the end by saving the entire thing as a map, since i cannot select it it will not be included.

I must have broken that model badly.

[Fidcal]

If you search for the name in entity list you need to make sure the search box is closed, maybe even lost the entity list focus before using backspace to delete.

 

But anyway, drag selecting everything and saving a map is a clever idea. Just remember to turn off all filters, make sure nothing is hid, make sure all layers show, make sure all regions show, etc. etc. I'll keep that in mind if I have a massive screw up with lots of unselectable broken stuff.

 

I wonder what happens if you drag select everything then invert the selection then backspace?

[Tels]

Whenever I had these "invisible" entites in the past (sometimes even without ever touching the entities, like an AI was suddenly invisible and caused a leak after I removed the room around it), then I had resorted to opening the map in an editor and delete the offending entity manually. This however, means you need to know where it's origin is, which can be tricky.

[Garreth]

I am now at making loot, instead of just placing stuff you all have seen many times, but i am puzzled by how to do this, the wiki is not stating much either.

 

 

And for sound.

In the wiki is written

All the Dark Mod ambient sounds are saved in the /sound/ambient/ambience folder. Fire up your preferred Media Player and pick one that's suitable for your map. We will use the sound darknessfalls.ogg for this tutorial.

 

The according sound shaders are stored in the /sound/tdm_ambient_ambience.sndshd file. Open it with the text editor of your choice and find the name of the sound shader. Our chosen sound is defined in this block:

 

darknessfalls{ description "Made by Darkness_Falls" sound/ambient/ambience/darknessfalls.ogg}The string outside of the curly braces is the name of the sound shader. We will need it for accessing it later via DarkRadiant.

 

Where do i find those files ?? i looked in the darkmod and darkradiant folder

Edited February 24, 2011 by Garreth

[Fidcal]

You can create some normal loot then select the model property and change the model.

 

All Dark Mod assets are in the pk4 files which are zip files. But you can select and preview sounds in Dark Radiant when you create a speaker so no need to examine the sound shader or ogg files normally.

[Garreth]

I can create a speaker, and put a looping sound in it for a clock, only it is not audiable in game, i changed the distance and stuff, but nothing.

Implementing sound should be as easy as in FPS creator, that stuff was real easy, just select from the dropdown, at a suited sound file of preference anywhere on your pc.

 

I also have these brushes cut out and textured like gems and gold. they look real good, how can i use those as loot?

What are the exact parameters to make that work, i have been fiddling with it for hours.

It are not models, just simple textured brushes, anyway of converting that inside DR? I can save them as prefabs but the Model selection menu will not let me select a prefab.

From what point will brush become a model?

 

I am dizzy from trying stuff, i need sleep.

[ocn]

I've found that I need to apply these properties to sounds for them to be audible:

s_mindistance

s_maxdistance

s_volume

s_looping

Some sounds just don't work, don't know why.

[Fidcal]

Yes, and put s_volume at 0 for max loudness, and decrease it to negatives to lower it with a minus sign eg, -5

I agree those sound props ought to be in the speaker already so they can be just altered but there are a thousand such jobs and not so many volunteers ...

 

• 
   
  
• Select a brush loot
  
• Menu > script > export as ase
  
• Save it in eg, darkmod/models/mymap/
  
• Menu > File > reload Models
  
• Create another static loot and change its model to yours. (a moveable can be done but more work.)
  
• Set its inv_icon to guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons/default or guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons/loot_icon_generic
  

You can create your own icon by taking a well-lit close up screenshot of the loot against a textures/darkmod/sfx/black_matt background. If you do this I'll give you more instructions how to process it.

[Garreth]

Thanks

Should i save them in Bmp Jpg Png or Tga?

I use fraps for this, since F12 is not working.

When i am done with this i will release it as a loot pack.

[Fidcal]

256 x 256 tga to test then later convert to dds. Needs the icon in an alpha channel with a soft dark edge. A loot icon has to fit between the hud text so a bit narrower than other inventory icons.

[Garreth]

So i need to end up with a 256 x 256 dds, or 256 X 240 for the hud text?

Anyone knows how to scale down a image in gimp so it would fit In a 256 X 256 picture

either it seems to small or the acctual image falls off the edge of the 256 frame. i need a way to zoom the picture out so it falls in the frame.

I am sure the function is real easy but i cannot find it.

if i would change the resolutionof the pic, then the loot is to small if i make the canvas smaller the picture just go's smaller along with the frame making the loot seem distand and pixeled.

The other option makes the picture to big and the frame to small.

That is, if i cut a selection of the loot obj, from the full picture and paste it in a 256 X256 frame.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Garreth

[Tels]

So i need to end up with a 256 x 256 dds, or 256 X 240 for the hud text?

Anyone knows how to scale down a image in gimp so it would fit In a 256 X 256 picture

either it seems to small or the acctual image falls off the edge of the 256 frame. i need a way to zoom the picture out so it falls in the frame.

I am sure the function is real easy but i cannot find it.

 

There are two different functions:

 

* "scale image" - this will simply scale the image down/up by compressing/expanding the pixels to a smaller/bigger count of pixels

* "canvas size" - this changes the size of the underlying canvas, but keeps your image (as long as it fits)

 

http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-tutorial-quickie-scale.html

http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-tutorial-quickie-crop.html

 

If you need different parts of your image to be smaller/moved around, it is best to work woth layers. Press CTRL-L to get the layer dialog. You can there f.i. clone the current layer. With the cloned layer, you can chop it up, or scale it without touching the underlying background layer.

 

Hope that helps.

[Sotha]

Howsabout new wiki articles:

"Speakers" describing the common way to get speakers to work.

"Loot" describing the common way how to get loot ingame and how to make non-standard things into workable loot.

 

Offloading the accumulating mapper knowledge into the wiki would make it easier for new mappers not to figure out everything by themselves.

 

Would be quite useful...

[Fidcal]

Absolutely. That's why I've done scores of such articles. (you should have seen it 4 years ago - I couldn't even make a door.) But it's time as ever that is in short supply. There are already at least two articles on speakers. What is really needed there is the def altering so the most used properties show by default and you only need to set them.

 

Creating new loot is rare by comparison and relates also to creating custom items and to creating inventory icons which in turn relates to using at least 3 different paint programs.

 

I should be writing these articles instead of mapping.

[Sotha]

Absolutely. That's why I've done scores of such articles. (you should have seen it 4 years ago - I couldn't even make a door.) But it's time as ever that is in short supply. There are already at least two articles on speakers. What is really needed there is the def altering so the most used properties show by default and you only need to set them.

 

Creating new loot is rare by comparison and relates also to creating custom items and to creating inventory icons which in turn relates to using at least 3 different paint programs.

 

I should be writing these articles instead of mapping.

 

Yes, the wiki is very valuable source of information. But the burden of writing the wiki articles should not fall to only you, me (yep, I've written many articles as well), or anyone else who have contributed so far.

 

I was thinking that if Garreth could record the things he has learned here briefly in the wiki.

 

If most of the mappers would let some of their knowledge to spill on the wiki, more info would be available to everyone without taxing individual wiki article writers too much.

 

New mappers are particularily keen in revealing basic things which may be surprisingly difficult to figure out how to do them when you can't yet "speak dark radiant.". If such info was recorded in the wiki, no one would need to learn them the hard way.

 

If I understood correctly, anyone can write an article? Or do we have a policy of restricted writers? My view is that all mappers should be welcome to add their techniques and lessons in the wiki, as long as the article quality is maintained: keep the article clear, concise and easy understand.

[Garreth]

I was thinking about writing a few compact tutorials, il get to it when i feel lke it, otherwise it turns out to be bad.

And all the texture manipulation can be done in gimp, you just load the picture in it, then open a new window make a 256 frame, scale the picture down and guestimate, then copy the picture to the 256 frame, position, retry other scale if necesary then (merge-anker layers if you had a previous image in the 256 frame) add alpha channel to it and use a eraser big spray to reveal the opacity layer and at thesame time make a black haze around the obj, keep klicking to get a nice smooth haze, name and save, then convert to dds, wich i havent done yet..

But i am getting there.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Garreth

[Fidcal]

I think anyone wanting to write for the wiki should post in the I want to help forum because I think spambots forced registrations to be manual.

[Garreth]

to what kind of file format should i save the images, gimp cannot directly convert to dds.

And i know some file formats have quality loss, should i just save it back to tga, and then convert those to dds?

[Fidcal]

Yes, save and test in game as tga so you can quickly adjust in Gimp if needed and use reloadImages in the console.

[Garreth]

guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons/loot_icon_coin_stack_gold

 

I cannot seem to find the guis map

what path should i use, and where would the origin be?

Then i am ready

 

The wiki say's

inv_icon | string (D3 path to icon file) Points to an icon that is to be displayed on the player HUD when the object is selected in the inventory. (This can also point to a shader name.)

 

Note that you don't need to specify the file extension.

Without a extention it can never find the picture right, and should i put the _'s

in the name of the picture itself?

 

Edited February 26, 2011 by Garreth

[Fidcal]

If the path does not already exist you need to create it.

 

For tga....

darkmod/guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons

 

For dds...

darkmod/dds/guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons

 

You then put your new icons in there. The path actually put in as the entity property inv_icon only needs the relative path guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons/ plus the icon filename of course. You don't need to put the extension, doom3 will look for both.

 

I don't know what you mean by _'s. Just use any distinctive sensible name such as goblet_blue_icon.tga. Stick to lower case.

[Garreth]

So i made these maps and put the picture in.

C:\Games\Doom 3\darkmod\guis\assets\hud\inventory_icons\amethist_big

Then i put in the guis\assets\hud\inventory_icons\amethist_big line on inv_icon

I just found out none of my icons work, when i pick up a lantern or mine it say's tools sometimes and i cannot cycle trough, no sound and no icon....

Is the path of files i made interfering with the game?

Pfff maybe i need a reinstall.