Wishlist For Darkradiant

[AluminumHaste]

I'm still waiting for the floor option for placing entities. I've gotten back to working on my map and I'm on the outdoor starting area that is supposed to be forested, and placing these trees is soooooooooo tedious.Placing the trees on the top down view is really fast, I just wish that I could place them on the Z plane with just a touch of a button.

[greebo]

I'm still waiting for the floor option for placing entities.

 

You'll be waiting quite some time, so better get yourself something to eat in the meantime.

[AluminumHaste]

 

You'll be waiting quite some time, so better get yourself something to eat in the meantime.

 

LOL I know, you are a very busy guy and I am very grateful that this team has you to work on it, you are one incredible programmer dude

[Fidcal]

This is not a serious request as I am of the view we should almost be in feature freeze and concentrate on finishing what we've got. So it's basically an idea I just had having briefly looked at the conversation editor thread (which I regret I cannot find time to test at the moment.) In Thief, 'conversations' go way beyond actual conversations.

 

My idea is a gui editor that uses script functions. A general purpose script library is accumulated with simple operations like for example, teleporting an item or adding an entity A to player's inventory. Yes, there may already be an entity or s & r or something for that - let's just suppose there isn't. A function is added to this general script library to receive an entity name and add it to the inventory. The function is given extra labels to show in the gui.

 

The mapper wants to add an entity to the player inventory mid-game without frobbing. He calls up the script editor gui and all available functions are listed including say Move. He clicks on Move and options are to input/select an entity name and to select a destination, eg, a coordinate in the map, or a place marker entity or indeed, to choose player inventory.

 

Such a feature might enable a task sequence of such functions so the mapper might set up a series of steps, eg,

1. Display glowing message
   
2. Play spooky voice announcement
   
3. Add magic orb to player inventory
   

Even after release, users can contribute new functions to a central library to be included in a future tdm update as well as including them in his own map.

 

Don't know how easy/realistic the above would be to implement compared to just having a good solid list of ready-made script functions for mappers to customise and use in the normal way. Or maybe even easier for the script writer to just create a new entity to do a certain task anyway?

[greebo]

Yes, I think I know what you're thinking about. I think some GUI for atomic script actions is actually useful, and you could be able to do some pretty funky stuff with that.

 

(What you can't easily have is some sort of "state", i.e. variables that hold values or loops.)

 

A similar version of such a script library is already implemented for the S/R effects, but they are specifically designed for S/R, of course.

 

Conclusion: definitely useful, definitely feasible, definitely a future feature.

[Fidcal]

I wonder if a script editor might be added to DR? Just a simple plain text editor that would save with the same name as the map and when the mapper renames and resaves his map it might automatically resave the script file too - much like it does with the layer file. I rename often and need to remember to rename the script file. I would probably still use my favourite text editor generally but if I already have my map loaded in DR then one click and I can adjust a script, confident it is the correct script, without having to load my text editor and navigate to find the script.

[greebo]

This has been proposed before (several times, I think). The overall problem is that adding a script editor to DarkRadiant is that this implies reinventing the wheel to some extent. You'd need to teach DarkRadiant something it has not been aimed for to start with (namely being a good text editor). There are so many good text editors out there, and I would need to replicate a large part of their functionality (writing a text editor is not trivial).

 

Such an editor would always be too simple for most people's preferences (no syntax highlighting, no tab size preferences, no auto-completion, no ) - even you stated right from the start that you wouldn't use it most of the time! Very little motivation to start such a large feature.

[HappyCheeze]

This has been proposed before (several times, I think). The overall problem is that adding a script editor to DarkRadiant is that this implies reinventing the wheel to some extent. You'd need to teach DarkRadiant something it has not been aimed for to start with (namely being a good text editor). There are so many good text editors out there, and I would need to replicate a large part of their functionality (writing a text editor is not trivial).

 

Such an editor would always be too simple for most people's preferences (no syntax highlighting, no tab size preferences, no auto-completion, no <favourite feature here>) - even you stated right from the start that you wouldn't use it most of the time! Very little motivation to start such a large feature.

 

How about creating a custom TDM scripting language set for Notepad++?

 

I believe it is possible to import user defined languages, like a plugin.

 

NP++ is amazing, and linux users can run it under WINE.

[Fidcal]

@greebo: No problem. I was thinking there was already full text editing functionality but now I can't think of anything that is not a single line. But even if not used yet, is there not a form input function that is essentially a simple multi-line text editor? I'm not suggesting a lot of work be put into this. Of more interest might be just integrating the save/rename thing even if there were no editor.

 

Maybe I should just explore this 'save copy as' and keep the same name for the main map I'm working on.

[greebo]

A multi-line text widget is indeed available, but it hardly is comparable to what users are used to, I'm afraid. The console is such a widget, IIRC.

 

I can look into that widget sometime, there's not much I can promise anyway, as usual.

[Fidcal]

Not of great concern - give it the lowest priority. It was just an early idea as I enter this field.

[Crispy]

How about creating a custom TDM scripting language set for Notepad++?

 

I believe it is possible to import user defined languages, like a plugin.

 

NP++ is amazing, and linux users can run it under WINE.

That would be quite possible and doesn't require programming knowledge in most editors. You might even be able to find Doom 3 script syntax highlighting definitions for popular editors floating around the net, in which case all you need to do is load them up. And make a wiki entry about them.

 

If you can't find any, all you'd really need to do is start with the syntax highlighting definition for some C-like language and modify the keyword lists. That would do pretty well at least for starters.

[HappyCheeze]

That would be quite possible and doesn't require programming knowledge in most editors. You might even be able to find Doom 3 script syntax highlighting definitions for popular editors floating around the net, in which case all you need to do is load them up. And make a wiki entry about them.

 

If you can't find any, all you'd really need to do is start with the syntax highlighting definition for some C-like language and modify the keyword lists. That would do pretty well at least for starters.

 

Doing a quick google search isn't giving me too many good leads.

 

You can do C in NP++. I'm not sure how you'd customize it.

[New Horizon]

Doing a quick google search isn't giving me too many good leads.

 

You can do C in NP++. I'm not sure how you'd customize it.

 

I recall that there was a tutorial on 3d buzz awhile ago that had a text editor with all the settings for D3 editing. I might have downloaded it, I'll look it up.

[AstralninjA]

I believe that would be ConText.

 

http://www.contexteditor.org/

 

DoomScript here: (right click-save as)

 

http://www.contexteditor.org/downloads/highlighters/DoomScript.chl

 

://http://www.contexteditor.org/downlo...oomScript.chl

 

://http://www.contexteditor.org/downlo...oomScript.chl

 

://http://www.contexteditor.org/downlo...oomScript.chl

 

~Daniel

[HappyCheeze]

Cool, thanks Daniel, that should help.

 

I found this tutorial for making custom languages in N++, http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2...in-notepad.aspx

 

my class starts soon so I won't be able to do anything till after.

[New Horizon]

I believe that would be ConText.

 

http://www.contexteditor.org/

 

DoomScript here: (right click-save as)

 

<a href="http://www.contexteditor.org/downloads/highlighters/DoomScript.chl" target="_blank">http://www.contexteditor.org/downloads/highlighters/DoomScript.chl

 

://http://www.contexteditor.org/downlo...oomScript.chl

 

</a>~Daniel<a href="http://www.contexteditor.org/downloads/highlighters/DoomScript.chl" target="_blank">

</a>

 

Yes, that's it. Thanks.

[jdude]

Okay this has very likely already been mentioned but a particle viewer would be so extremely handy. When I go to doom3 and do the particleeditor command [or whatever it is] the game just crashes on me. Also transparent sound shader bubbles in the 3d view would be awesome, I find them obstructing the 3d view too much.

[greebo]

Yes, this has been suggested since the beginning. It heavily depends on having a capable renderer and the corresponding full-blown shader system, both of which are not ready for this kind task yet.

[Fidcal]

Mmmm... Just trying in a plain text editor and even reloadDecls crashes doom after changing the prt file. The only way I could get it to work is:

 

gameError

ReloadDecls

map name

 

So the above could be put in an exec file and used with a small test map with the particles right in front of the player start. This is similar to reloading xdata for readables.

[greebo]

???

 

Is this a wish for DarkRadiant?

[Fidcal]

This just reminded me. Wasn't there a map launcher in DR? I mean to dmap and/or testmap or something? I never tried it before because it wouldn't have a hope with my old system. Can't see a button or menu option now so maybe it got retired? Or did I imagine it?

[greebo]

Yes, this feature has been discarded months ago, it didn't turn out to be very useful. I'm using a "bind" shortcut myself for compilation.

 

bind "F7" "disconnect;dmap test;map test"

[Flanders]

When I go to doom3 and do the particleeditor command [or whatever it is] the game just crashes on me.

Does it really crash? For me it just takes a long time, it looks like it crashes but it's loaded after one or two minutes.

[Fidcal]

'disconnect'? Not heard of that one - have to look it up. I'm a bit wary of binds for things like dmap - I use a wide range of keys including the keypad so it would be a key near others. If I'm playing a mission and accidentally hit the wrong key I might go into a long dmap and load a map I don't want then have to reload the map I do want. I use ultra short names and paths then history - map b/m/41.

 

If the particle editor takes that long then it is probably reloading the map anyway. As I recall, the particle editor is only a gui text input so it is probably easier to start with a template prt in a text editor with lots of comments to remind you what each thing does. One day...