Xarg's mapping thread.

[Xarg]

Figured I might as well open this at some point, just come across a problem. After an editing session, closing DR, then opening it a bit later, suddenly the map won't load. The error it's spitting out is

 

Failure reading map file:

(file path)

 

Failed parsing entity 164:

Parsed invalid value '}' for key '0'

 

 

Opening the .map file in notepad and scrolling down, this entity is the atdm:target_addobjectives entity. Comparing it to the entity just above it, it doesn't look like it has any random }'s floating around, and the last save-as-copy I made (a few hours back now) loads fine. Wondering if this breaking is common?

 

Edit - found the problem.... was using " " in an objective description, changing them to ' ' fixed it.

Edited March 24, 2012 by Xarg

[Xarg]

Ok, question time. I have a door I only want 1 person/group of people to notice is open, and do something about. Is it possible to set the flag to go shut the door by team? Having the wandering guard come and investigate this particular door is unintended behaviour.

[Xarg]

Another question - Is it possible to attach an item to an NPC's belt, then when you pickpocket it, it triggers an event? I want this guy to get REAL mad when this item disappears. Failing that, I guess I can just go with having it set aside and find some way to trigger it otherwise with some extra path entities.

[Sotha]

Try using stim&response system. attach the object on the ai. select the object, choose s&r. give it response frob and select the trigger effect. Make it trigger a script or entitywork that do whay you need.

[grayman]

Ok, question time. I have a door I only want 1 person/group of people to notice is open, and do something about. Is it possible to set the flag to go shut the door by team? Having the wandering guard come and investigate this particular door is unintended behaviour.

 

There's no way to do it by team.

 

However, you can get the same results by setting this spawnarg on each AI you DON'T want to notice the open door:

 

"chanceNoticeDoor" "0"

 

Put that on your wandering guard and he'll ignore the open door.

[Xarg]

Hm, that would solve 1 issue, but create others. Perhaps instead, I could have a brush that sets that spawnarg to 0 on the guard when he gets near the door, and another that sets it back to 1 as he leaves the area? That should be doable, I think. Another question, is there any way to manually set the alert threshold an open door gives, ie door to random building gives alert level 0-1, door to critical building gives alert 4-5?

[ungoliant]

I could have a brush that sets that spawnarg to 0 on the guard when he gets near the door, and another that sets it back to 1 as he leaves the area? That should be doable, I think.

 

That gave me an idea. I understand the team is looking for ways to reduce AI's sharp vision of the player from long distances. Maybe it would be possible to bind some sort of concentric sphere(s)/box(es) of triggers to the player, that when an AI pass through it, it would increase/decrease the ability of an AI to see the player?

[grayman]

Perhaps instead, I could have a brush that sets that spawnarg to 0 on the guard when he gets near the door, and another that sets it back to 1 as he leaves the area?

 

Yes.

 

Another question, is there any way to manually set the alert threshold an open door gives, ie door to random building gives alert level 0-1, door to critical building gives alert 4-5?

 

No.

[Xarg]

Thanks for the advice Grayman... if I can't set a manual alert level to the open door, perhaps I can rig up an alarm brush that'll ramp up the alarm when he gets close enough. I'll take a look at the possibilities in the next day or two, just waiting on feedback atm.

[Xarg]

This is probably a silly question, but how hard is it to reskin/retexture a model? I have a particular AI with a particular attachment I want to feature in my FM, and I think I could retexture the Arch Mage to get what I want, though I'm unsure about the attachment and the characteristics I'd want it to have.

[Sotha]

This is probably a silly question, but how hard is it to reskin/retexture a model? I have a particular AI with a particular attachment I want to feature in my FM, and I think I could retexture the Arch Mage to get what I want, though I'm unsure about the attachment and the characteristics I'd want it to have.

 

Yeah I am also interested in this. It would give fantastic possibility to do unique AI if you could just open an existing AI texture and make it into a new skin.

 

Bruises and blood on head and body, pallid skin, vampire teeth...

[Baddcog]

Paint over the skin to make it what you want.

 

Save as new name.

 

In a skin file you list the skin name, model name, old texture , new texture. Very easy.

skin [u]animals/bc_rat_dark[/u]
{
model [i]models/md5/chars/simple_animals/ratz/rat.md5mesh[/i]
model rat

[b]bc_rat[/b] bc_rat_dark
  [b] bc_rat2[/b] bc_rat2_dark
}

underlined is skin name, so in editor give it 'skin 1' prop, then you can hit skin and it'll bring up a list (and you choose skin name to replace the 1)

 

italic is the actual model name (in this case i'm not sure what model rat references - but you can have 20 models listed here if you want, any of them that have one of the bold names will be replaced by the name that follows that) (we use it a lot for multiple thing [ie:stove and gate both use same rusty metal, both share skin for clean metal]

 

Bold is two different shader names that go on one or both of the models listed above. The name that follows is the shader name that replaces the bold name.

------

 

Of course for a dynamic scene the player could see a good looking ai walk around a corner. Fight with thugs, swap skin/ crawl back around corner all bruised up.

[Xarg]

Ah, that explains how to swap the skins, which is useful, now I (and all other interested parties) would love to know what's involved in creating that new skin. I assume an existing skin can be opened up and have its colours edited (for a simple colour swap), but what if a new outfit (using my Arch Mage example, if I wanted to change the front of his robes but leave the majority of it as-is) was desired? I assume this is where things get more complicated?

[rich_is_bored]

If the new outfit is the same general form you can paint a height map or normal map to add new bumps/dents or flatten things out. It's not easy hand painting bump maps however. You might want to practice with a wall or floor texture first just to get the hang of it.

[Xarg]

Thanks Rich, I'll have a look into trying some of that out in the near future. If I'm lucky, might be able to con a friend into making a model for me that I'll donate to the mod (even if one does exist, it's unlikely to be the same shape so it should be good)

[Springheel]

Yeah I am also interested in this. It would give fantastic possibility to do unique AI if you could just open an existing AI texture and make it into a new skin.

 

If you already know how to use a graphics program and can make TDM texture shaders, then making skins is drop-dead easy.

 

1. Find the texture you want to replace (this is the only tricky part...you may need to open the character's md5mesh in a text editor to find out which textures it uses).

 

2. Open that texture in your favourite graphics editor and save as a new version (or, if you're looking for cheap and easy, replace the original file and save it in your mission folder structure and you're done).

 

3. Copy the original texture shader and substitute the path and name of your new texture.

 

4. Create a new skin shader like Baddcog described above.

 

5. Add "skin" "[skin name]" to your entity.

[DeTeEff]

With a bit of help from Springheel I changed most of the look of regular people to create the ghosts in A night to remember.

 

The people consists of several parts as can be seen in the md5mesh-file. Took me about a year to figure out (I tried several times and yelled some and tried some more...more yelling and the mission was stashed away and then came an opportunity to use it in a contest. New tries and screams and then I finally got it right )

 

Unpack the mission and look at the skin-file...

 

skin nobleman/spirit

{

model models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman1/tdm_ai_nobleman.md5mesh

model tdm_ai_nobleman1

 

models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman1/tunic models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman/spirit_tunic

models/md5/nobles/nobleman1/shoulderpads models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman/spirit_tunic

models/md5/nobles/nobleman1/collar1 models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman/spirit_tunic

models/md5/nobles/nobleman1/legs models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman/spirit_tunic

models/md5/nobles/nobleman1/belt models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman/spirit_tunic

models/md5/chars/inventors/engineer2/engineer_collar/ties textures/common/nodraw

textures/common/shadow textures/common/nodraw

tdm_buckle textures/common/nodraw

tdm_npc_hand models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman/spirit_hands

}

 

Here you have all parts of the nobleman...As you can see most of them take their graphics from "models/md5/chars/nobles/nobleman/spirit_tunic". The graphic to the belt buckle is in this picture as well but you'll need to add that line " tdm_buckle" and point it to what you want, in my case nodraw as I wanted to remove it...

[Sotha]

I see the ingredients of a cool wiki article entry in here...

[Xarg]

Indeed, the stuff written here will prove useful to many, I think.. next up will probably be a question regarding altering animations, seems Arcturus is having success using Blender for this? (Don't feel any particular need for haste in discussing this one - the majority of animation alterations I'd want to do wont be in part 1, though there is 1 animation I wouldn't mind changing for a certain lad holding a list of things).

Edited April 23, 2012 by Xarg

[Xarg]

Messing around with a func_activator. Have it bound to an AI patrolling between 4 rooms, using it to change which team he's on based on which room he's in. What's happening is, the room he starts in (Room2) sets him to team 6, he's supposed to be hostile until he chases the player into Room1 which is supposed to set him to team 0. Problem is, the activator is firing itself immediately on map load, changing him to team 6, then disabling itself so it no longer changes him to team 0 when he reaches Room1. Is there any way to reactivate that activator? Or have an activator made that can be used repeatedly?

[Obsttorte]

hey Xarg,

 

there's a spawnarg called "stay_on", if you set it to "1", the activator should not be disabled

another spawnarg "start_off" controlles, if it is active on map start

you can trigger the func_activator to activate/deactivate him

 

hope that helps

Edited October 15, 2012 by Obsttorte

[Xarg]

Haha wow, how did I miss that? Thanks Orb! The testing continues.

[SeriousToni]

He's working on it again..

There might be hope!

[Xarg]

Haha, that is in a test map where I aim to test out a bunch of stuff in an environment where next to no effort is spent on geometry or texturing etc, but, the successful results will more than likely be introduced to the FM. So far I've got location based team assignment down, next up is location and/or proximity based acuity, attempts at mimicking pupil dilation/contraction, path changes and hopefully I'll have a crack at "cinematic" camera work too. Keep this on the down-low, but I might even attempt setting things on fire....

[demagogue]

Speaking of re-skinning AI, I wonder if I could squeeze out some AI reskinned as a Turkish Janissary, sultan, noble woman, imam, and peasant, I mean minimum possible to sell it ... and just attach a turban or our beloved fez and maybe a little darker complexion to some faces. Ahem, sorry, this isn't where I parked my thread... I'll get back to you guys on it. (You know what else we could use though, animations for lute playing... Just saying. Ok I'm out of here heh.)