dmw's DR noob megathread

[dmw88]

Rather than continue to make individual posts for my DR questions I will be posting in this thread from now on.

 

My first question (in this thread) is...

 

Ive finally pushed a FM to the point that I am pathing AI and I am curious about elevators. I have an elevator that moves between 3 floors. Is it possible to have AI make use of this elevator in their patrols?

 

As always thanks in advance.

[Oktokolo]

Might want to read the wiki page Elevators, multi-floor for how to properly set up elevators and make pathfinding work in areas not reachable by other means.

[dmw88]

I read the article on setting them up but dont recall anything about pathfinding in there. Ill recheck

[dmw88]

Hmmm I see it says the AI should automatically use the elevator. Mine are not for some reason. Could this have to do with the placement of my patrol nodes?

 

Edit: every area of my map is reachable by stairs.

Edited February 20, 2019 by dmw88

[Oktokolo]

Maybe, the route via elevator is not shorter than using the stairs (could be the case if the elevator is far away from the stairs).

Don't know, whether there is a way to add a travel cost to some area to make them prefer another route while still being able to chase you everywhere.

 

Try to block off the stais first to confirm that they can use the elevator at all. For this test you have to use aas32_flood on the floors that are then only reachable by elevator.

[Obsttorte]

IIRC ai will only use elevators if there is no direct way to reach the destination, for example via stairs. So if every area is reachable via stairs, they won't be using the elevator.

[Dragofer]

IIRC ai will only use elevators if there is no direct way to reach the destination, for example via stairs. So if every area is reachable via stairs, they won't be using the elevator.

 

This is what I remembered too, but the wiki page linked to in post #2 contradicts this after an edit made by Springheel on 2nd September 2016, which was left unchanged by grayman during later revisions of the same paragraph. So this would suggest AIs should be using elevators efficiently nowadays.

[VanishedOne]

Based on vague recollections of what I did to get the kitchen lift in ITB working and a check of the .map: it seems I have each atdm:mover_multistate_position set to target its corresponding func_aas_obstacle. Worth a try, anyway.

[JackFarmer]

 

This is what I remembered too, but the wiki page linked to in post #2 contradicts this after an edit made by Springheel on 2nd September 2016, which was left unchanged by grayman during later revisions of the same paragraph. So this would suggest AIs should be using elevators efficiently nowadays.

 

Yes, I recall a post (I think from Springheel) somewhere in the editor's guild. I think he also created a test set up to find out the AI behaviour when offering both an elevator and stairs and had this test running for several hours. I think the result was, that the AIs quite often preferred the stairs.

[Springheel]

IIRC ai will only use elevators if there is no direct way to reach the destination, for example via stairs. So if every area is reachable via stairs, they won't be using the elevator.

 

I believe grayman made a change somewhere along the line so they would use the elevator if it were the shortest route.

 

edit: here: http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=3029

[kingsal]

Hey you might want to check out prefabs/ mechanical/ 3 floor elevator to see how it's set up.

 

Make sure your AAS solid and AAS obstacle brushes are placed similar to how they are in the prefab. Ive broken my elevators a couple times by moving those even a few units off.

 

Also make sure the AI can get to the buttons and that the button's ride or fetch spawnarg is set up correctly. Ride is for selecting a floor while on the elevator and fetch is for calling the elevator to a floor.

 

Hope this helps!

[dmw88]

Question 2: is there a full list of who voiced what voicesets available? Id like to get some extra lines for conversations and itd be nice if they matched the existing actors.

[Springheel]

I don't know if there is a full list on the wiki--sometimes it's listed in the vocal.sndshd files, but not always. Which ones were you looking at?

[dmw88]

I checked the wiki, no luck. I will get back to you about which specific ones. Def the lord, still picking which to use for the second primary character

[VanishedOne]

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

[dmw88]

Ive seen on the wiki how to set it up so loot is not frobbable til a chest is opened. I have a chest type object with a glass top that is breakable. I want the contents unfrobbable until it is opened OR broken. How would I approach this?

[Destined]

You can have a look at the prefab chests for the setup of a frob-block box. Then you need to add a trigger that the box is deactivated, when the lid is borken. I would try the Stim/Response system with a Response on the lid that triggers the frob-block on death. Not sure if this works, but it would be the first thing that comes to my mind.

[Springheel]

Breaking the glass would need to destroy the frob-blocker permanently (so it doesn't activate again if the door is shut). I've never actually worked with broken glass before though. Maybe have the glass be frobbable so it captures the frobtrace? Although that won't work if it's a mix of glass and other materials.

[VanishedOne]

I'm pretty sure func_fractures trigger their targets when broken: I used that before to change the light image breakable windows were casting onto a floor. So I think you could have the func_fracture target an entity with a trigger Response that sets the chest contents frobable and then removes the atdm:target_set_frobable.

[dmw88]

Okay. Im just starting to add scripts to a couple maps Im working on (some for practice, 1 or 2 for eventual release) so Im not sure how this will work in practice. Ill revisit this in this thread if I cant work it out.

[dmw88]

Got a new question, this time about readables. Is it possible to feature an image on a readable? Like have a picture on a page in a readable book or something?

 

Also, Ive seen a lot of FMs have books as loot items but I cant find them in the loot list. Am I just missing them somehow? If not, how would I go about making an existing movable entity into a loot item?

Edited March 13, 2019 by dmw88

[VanishedOne]

Got a new question, this time about readables. Is it possible to feature an image on a readable? Like have a picture on a page in a readable book or something?

I think this would involve making a modified GUI declaration. http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=GUI_Scripting#See_also You can examine the existing GUIs in /guis/readables inside tdm_gui01.pk4

 

Also, Ive seen a lot of FMs have books as loot items but I cant find them in the loot list. Am I just missing them somehow? If not, how would I go about making an existing movable entity into a loot item?

It's easier to do it the other way round: change the "model" and "inv_icon" spawnargs on an existing piece of loot. Or make an entityDef that inherits from a loot class if you're going to be placing a lot of the same type.

[dmw88]

Is there a way to override the ase_100 error that pops up when a horse doesnt have enough room? I want to have a horse in a stable that is smaller than 100x100. It is visoble but not reachable by the player, so messing up the AI's behaviour is not a concern for me. I just dont want that message to appear for the player when they launch the FM.

[Destined]

I am not sure if horses have any idle animations, but if not (or if you don't need them), you could just insert them as a func_static. Or maybe it is possible to insert them as an animated prop (would have to investigat that furhter). As far as I have seen after a quick glance, the horses do not have any move animations, so it may be an idea to change their class to animated prop in general (at least until someone makes more animations for them).

[VanishedOne]

You can use a func_animate to have it play an idle loop.