Door Handles

[Springheel]

One thing that continually stands out when I look out our screenshots is the lack of doorhandles on the doors. Any chance we could get a modeler to do one basic one? It doesn't even have to animate right now. Just having it available to the mappers would be great.

 

(I'm pretty sure DeepO did some but I don't know where they are).

[sparhawk]

A basic one should be given to the coders so we can make sure that it get's implemented properly.

[Springheel]

I'm not sure what the coders need to do with it right now? It's just a model attached to the door, right? AFAIK, you don't specifically frob the handle unless you're in lockpicking mode.

[sparhawk]

Yes. And how are we supposed to do this if we have no model to start with? But if you attach it properly to a door, I guess we can work with it as well.

[Springheel]

I still don't get it. Do you have someone who is starting on lockpicking right now? If not, then you won't need a handle until then, right?

[sparhawk]

And when I start? Then I will have to groan and moan for a model like with the lightgem until I get one?

[oDDity]

No you won't, I'll make one in half an hour when you need it.

ANyway, the reason the lightgem took so long is becasue we couldn't decide on a design.

[sparhawk]

Next time I ask you directly. That's faster and I know it will work, and there is no wasting time with endless discussions about the design.

[Springheel]

I don't think lockpicking is anywhere on the horizon yet. By then we'll have lots of different door handles. I just want one for our mappers to use in the meantime so the screenshots (and movie) with doors won't look so conspicuous.

[Domarius]

I think the confusion between Spar and Spring is that:

 

1. The door handle will be frobbable but not the door

2. The entire door will be frobbable, the handle is just part of the mesh, but adding it to the mesh will affect the Z (depth) size of the door and affect sound prop code maybe?

 

Other than that, I'm not sure what the big deal about modelling handles for doors is yet. I would think you just add the handle to the door mesh and upload it as one model file.

[Ishtvan]

I don't think we have any models for doors yet do we? Mappers are just using brushes for now, not a model, unless I'm mistaken.

[sparhawk]

Handles are sperate objects and should NOT be included in the doormesh. Otherwise they wont be frobbable obviously. A handle must be tagged on a door so we can properly pick it when we start implementing this.

 

Doors are nothing specialy. They are just a brush with a CDarkmodDoor entity assigned to it. We don't need special models for the doors.

[Ishtvan]

FM authors can use models for the door if they want to, though they don't have to. Hmm, separate frobbable entity that stays stuck on the door and moves with it when it opens/closes, sounds like a job for entity binding.

[sparhawk]

Doors definitely have to be entities. Otherwise they can't be frobbed, and this would be bad for opening them. If this is a problem, then maybe we can create a doorsurface, but I don't know how I would apply the frobhiglight, because I think this is only possible for entities because it requires the shaderparms to work.

[Domarius]

But in all the thief games, you frob the entire door, not just the handle - they are one object.

 

(Well except when it comes to lock picking and the handle rotates by itself but this is a different issue )

[sparhawk]

I have to check it. I seem to think that you frobbed the handle individually if it were locked. Well, I guess in the end it doesn't matter much. I thought it would be easier for modelers/FM authors because this way they will have to create all kind of doors when the handle is attached, while otehrwise they can just plugin the one they like.

[Springheel]

Yeah, we had talked about having lots of different kinds of locks of differing difficulty levels, so it would have to be easy to mix and match them. I didn't think it was very hard to attach a model to an entity and have it move. Perhaps it is. If so, then it isn't important right now.

 

And Dom is right, in the original games you didn't frob the lock specifically, just the door. However, for our lockpicking I think we had talked about just frobbing the lock. I can't recall. However, if we're able to frob two different parts of a candle, then it should work for doors too.

[sparhawk]

I also seem to recal that we said you should frob the lock.

[Domarius]

I'm happy with that.

[Springheel]

Well, we'll probably have to go back and revisit lockpicking when the time comes, but that's a feature that can wait. As long as keys work, lockpicking can be left until near the end.

 

But it would still be nice to get some handles on those doors if it isn't much work, just for the sake of the screenshots.