Wishlist For Darkradiant

[jdude]

On a lot of the models and maps that came with the DM I get texture issues.

For example I took these pics:

 

 

 

Did I set up the editor wrong or is this a known problem?

[greebo]

Mine looks mostly ok, apart from the windows. Have you correctly set up the fs_game stuff and the engine path? Which version are you using, the 0.8.1 release or a snapshot?

[SneaksieDave]

Although I guess it's not a bug thread, while we're at it, I often get such strange unfound shaders as well. Just one example is in snow.map, render mode vs. textured. Not sure why this would be happening:

[greebo]

That's probably because DarkRadiant has still problems with the shader's map expressions defined in the material files. Same goes for addNormals() and such. Could you rise an issue on the tracker? There is already a "parent" issue about this, I think it's called "Support for MapExpressions" or similar.

[SneaksieDave]

Okay, I wasn't sure what to qualify it as, so I just made it general and gave it a nonspecific name just mentioning the symptom:

 

http://bugs.angua.at/view.php?id=253

[greebo]

Thanks!

 

How are your plans for the weekend? Would you care to give the S/R editor a quick test run on Friday or Saturday (if I'm finished till then, that is)?

[SneaksieDave]

Not really sure at this time (fly by seat of the pants style; could be big plans, could be no plans, heh). I am definitely way behind where I want to be on DR lately though (especially there are a lot of verifications piling up which I want to catch up on). As for S/R, I will definitely give it a shot, it looks really neat. I hope others who know the system will follow up as well, because I definitely am not experienced with S/R.

[greebo]

Ok. Just wanted to ask you as your observations are very detailed.

 

As for the S/R system itself, it's probably up to Fidcal, PinkDot and Schatten to judge if the system can do anything. Fidcal, how's your motivation about trying the editor before the next release?

[Fidcal]

I'm well motivated - in fact I had already took another very quick look at S & R earlier today. Thing is, although I know a bit about S & R I am a total beginner with DR and Doom editing generally so I have been trying the last week or so to get familiar with mapping first. But progress has been real slow because of the fragmented info (which is why I was pushing for one big beginner's tutorial)

 

In other words, if I was using Dromed I could knock together all kinds of S & R tests very quickly but not with DR. For example, I grabbed a crate earlier and added a water response with the intent of testing it by shooting at it with a water arrow. But so far there are no selectable responses built in except to trigger a script. But of course I don't know the names of any scripts let alone any parameters they might need... haha!

 

I wanted to look at the (supposedly) fire stim on a torch but have been unable to make a proper torch! Duh! I made a couple of things with arrows that thereafter could not be selected in xyz or camera so had to abandon that test map! You see I'm hampered by gross ignorance at the moment.

 

Anyway, if you just want feedback on the interface itself I'll take another look later. I do have one or two things about the interface to mention but I want to spend an hour with it. I'll probably dig through some existing test maps but is there much use of S & R in there to look at?

[Fidcal]

OK, now posted on the S & R thread.

[greebo]

You're were a bit too quick on the draw, I'm afraid. Judging from your post, you don't seem to have used the latest build, which has the overhauled Stim/Response editor in it. Please see the other thread for details and a new download link.

[jdude]

Mine looks mostly ok, apart from the windows. Have you correctly set up the fs_game stuff and the engine path? Which version are you using, the 0.8.1 release or a snapshot?

 

I'm using the vanilla 0.8.1 release of Dark Radiant. I'm fairly sure I have the fs_game path set up correctly. When I click the texture in the texture viewer to see which one it is it comes up correctly and it renders correctly in lighting preview.

 

Also It's worth noting that transparent textures such as decals in render lighting mode display as black for me.

[greebo]

I just opened a DarkRadiant 0.8.1 and the results look nearly identical for me. Perhaps this is because you have an outdated mod version (.mtr files)?

 

The black decals are a pending problem, the support for more complicated shader stages is not yet there, I'm afraid.

[sparhawk]

Don't know if this has already been mentioned, or is planned. What I would like to have in DR is a display list filter. The purpose would be to filter stuff that can be seen based one certain characteristics. So for example, I want to be able to switch everything off and only show lights. Or only models of a certain kind. Or only brushes that use a certain texture.

I know we have discussed display groups, but this would be a different feature, although it would be rather similar implementationwise. The reason why I think this would be usefull is, because I often look in other maps for some features that were done there. I guess that many mappers, especially beginners will do this as well. However in a decently sized map, it's quite hard to find anything, especialy if you are not the author of it.

Another feature that would go in a similar direction is, to position the camera by specifying an entity or absolute world coordinates. So I can look in the mapfile for the name and then find it in the editor. For this it might be usefull to have a function in the SDK that tells you the name of an entity you are looking at. Not sure of this already exists. I once wrote a function that shows you the distance to an entity you are currently looking at, so if such a function is not available, it would be easy to add and a supplementary function in the editor would make finding an entity quite easy.

[OrbWeaver]

Don't know if this has already been mentioned, or is planned. What I would like to have in DR is a display list filter. The purpose would be to filter stuff that can be seen based one certain characteristics. So for example, I want to be able to switch everything off and only show lights. Or only models of a certain kind. Or only brushes that use a certain texture.

 

That's exactly what the Filter system allows you to do -- you can filter by entity class (worldspawn, light, func_static etc), texture (e.g. hide all textures/common/visportal) or "object" (which currently means brush or patch IIRC). Both negative and positive filtering is provided, with sequential operation (i.e. hide all entities, then add back all of the entities of class "light") and regular expressions ("hide textures/common/.*").

 

Take a look in the .game file in the install/games directory to see the current filter definitions, which should demonstrate how you can write your own.

 

Another feature that would go in a similar direction is, to position the camera by specifying an entity or absolute world coordinates. So I can look in the mapfile for the name and then find it in the editor. For this it might be usefull to have a function in the SDK that tells you the name of an entity you are looking at. Not sure of this already exists. I once wrote a function that shows you the distance to an entity you are currently looking at, so if such a function is not available, it would be easy to add and a supplementary function in the editor would make finding an entity quite easy.

 

Greebo might know more about this; I have a feeling there is already a "jump to entity" feature of some description, which might already be able to do this (or could be upgraded to do so).

[greebo]

The filtersystem is already in place since DarkRadiant 0.8.0, I think. Look at Menu > Filters. For defining custom filters I've written this small tutorial.

 

As for the camera to entity stuff. A similar feature already exists: go to Entity List (shortcut: L) and click on the entity's name, the camera is immediately positioned near the entity's origin.

[sparhawk]

Oh, thanks! I hope that NH is getting along with the manual. I think it's definitely needed with all these functions.

[PinkDot]

When we rightclick on the enity's properties list we get Add Property or Delete Property commands. Could we also have Copy / Cut / Paste Property as well?

[greebo]

Sounds like a nice feature. If you add it to the Bugtracker, its chances of being implemented will increase significantly.

[PinkDot]

Done.

 

For the future reference - is it better to post some ideas here or straight to the bugtracker?

[greebo]

For (initial) discussion or feedback of features, the forum is definitely better, but ultimately they should go to the tracker, otherwise they will be forgotten. If it's a straight bug without any need for discussion, it can be added right to the bugtracker.

[NeonsStyle]

Would it be possible to have it save permenantly the colours I choose for the editor? Currently it forgets everytime I reload it.

 

As for the editor. What can I say, I love it. I love it more than GTKRadiant 1.4. I hated 1.5. DR is soooo well thought out, everything is exactly where you need it. You can tell the person/s who did it, had experience mapping, since it promotes efficient use of mouse clicks/keys. So far, I have no other wishes for it other than that one. Well, actually there is one. I'd like an option in preferences to get rid of that extra window for XY axis. Make it optional. Its only lil thing, but it annoys me to have to close it everytime I load it. I use cntrl tab to change coord view. I think the extra one is superfluous, though I'm sure others use it, so it should stay but be an choice.

 

Venus

[OrbWeaver]

Would it be possible to have it save permenantly the colours I choose for the editor? Currently it forgets everytime I reload it.

 

The colours should be saved, perhaps there is something wrong with your installation?

 

I'd like an option in preferences to get rid of that extra window for XY axis. Make it optional. Its only lil thing, but it annoys me to have to close it everytime I load it. I use cntrl tab to change coord view. I think the extra one is superfluous, though I'm sure others use it, so it should stay but be an choice.

 

What extra window? I have only ever seen one XY window unless you specifically request a new one from the appropriate menu (View -> New XY View or something).

 

It sounds like you have something wrong with your configuration files, perhaps you should delete everything under C:\Documents and Settings\<your_user_name>\Application Data\DarkRadiant and try starting afresh.

[New Horizon]

It sounds like you have something wrong with your configuration files, perhaps you should delete everything under C:\Documents and Settings\<your_user_name>\Application Data\DarkRadiant and try starting afresh.

 

I find that when starting DR for the first time, the extra xy window will pop up...but usually after I close it, it saves and I'm done with it.

[NeonsStyle]

The colours should be saved, perhaps there is something wrong with your installation?

What extra window? I have only ever seen one XY window unless you specifically request a new one from the appropriate menu (View -> New XY View or something).

 

It sounds like you have something wrong with your configuration files, perhaps you should delete everything under C:\Documents and Settings\<your_user_name>\Application Data\DarkRadiant and try starting afresh.

 

ahh that fixed the colour problem. Yeh same as Horizon says,... if I load my map though it doesn't... so its not a big deal... I'd gotten so used to closing it, I'd not noticed it actually doesn't come back up when u save your map with it closed. Still though, it'd be nice to have an option to choose if I want it or not. But as I said... its a very tiny issue and there are other things more important I'm sure.