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Firoso: Programming and voice acting. (and maybe mapping?)


firoso

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I have been following TDP since mid '06 but until recently have lacked the personal confidence in my programming as well as the time to volunteer to help, I've never worked with doom3 much, but hell, i'm writing a pretty extensive bot for WoW so... I'm sure I'll pick it up :-P... I've got experience in C and most of it's primary derivitives (C, C++, C#, Obj-C) and can pick up anything else that needs to be learned. And I've also done a great deal of map design for quake 1 and HL 1 so at the very least I understand what the mappers are up against and the importance of a good toolset.

 

I've also got some acting Experience and although I can't tell you what I'd be best at filling for a role, I'm sure I could find a place as a noble's guard or something (I don't have the deep voice that would be suited to city watch) my at home mics are kinda crappy but living on campus I'm sure I can get access to a recording studio and talk to the local broadcasting students.

I'm in yur forumz,

Makin' them frobbable.

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I have been following TDP since mid '06 but until recently have lacked the personal confidence in my programming as well as the time to volunteer to help, I've never worked with doom3 much, but hell, i'm writing a pretty extensive bot for WoW so... I'm sure I'll pick it up :-P... I've got experience in C and most of it's primary derivitives (C, C++, C#, Obj-C) and can pick up anything else that needs to be learned. And I've also done a great deal of map design for quake 1 and HL 1 so at the very least I understand what the mappers are up against and the importance of a good toolset.

 

I'll set you up as an applicant and Orbweaver or Greebo will likely have a chat with you. :)

 

I've also got some acting Experience and although I can't tell you what I'd be best at filling for a role, I'm sure I could find a place as a noble's guard or something (I don't have the deep voice that would be suited to city watch) my at home mics are kinda crappy but living on campus I'm sure I can get access to a recording studio and talk to the local broadcasting students.

 

We're handling the voice sets inhouse, as I'm recording them with local actors...but if you do decide to record a sample...send it my way all the same. :)

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Hey there Firoso, welcome to the forums. :)

 

The Dark Mod has actually two large coding projects going on: the first is the mod code itself (gameplay, scripting, difficulty settings, etc.) and the second is DarkRadiant, our customised editor. We need help in both of them, of course, but for my tastes, we need more help with the actual mod code.

 

I recently found that we don't have holy water arrows (yet), so this might be a good quest for a starter like you. It consists mostly of D3 scripting, which you as a C++ coder won't have a problem with, I reckon. The advantage of this task is that you can do it with the Thief's Den stuff right away, as it contains all the weapons and script code you need to get started. It's complicated enought to get you familiar with DEF files, scripting, arrow results etc.

 

We already have regular water arrows working, so you'd need to start from there. Let me know if you're interested in this task or if you have other preferences, I'm open to suggestions. :)

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Welcome, Firoso! Always good to have more of us programmers around the place. :)

 

The advantage of this task is that you can do it with the Thief's Den stuff right away, as it contains all the weapons and script code you need to get started. It's complicated enought to get you familiar with DEF files, scripting, arrow results etc.

No undead though. Doesn't matter, since he could just e.g. make it work on citywatch (and not on thugs) to begin with. Easy enough to change that later.

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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precisely what I was thinking on the city watch, I'm sure I'll need some assistance getting into the API a little bit, but between ya'll and the huge amount of public resources available I'm sure I can get something working here pretty fast, even if it's just an item rename :-P. Is there any developer that is willing to take me under thier wing and work with me via MSN or other IM for a little while until I'm familiar with the D3 environment?

I'm in yur forumz,

Makin' them frobbable.

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precisely what I was thinking on the city watch, I'm sure I'll need some assistance getting into the API a little bit, but between ya'll and the huge amount of public resources available I'm sure I can get something working here pretty fast, even if it's just an item rename :-P. Is there any developer that is willing to take me under thier wing and work with me via MSN or other IM for a little while until I'm familiar with the D3 environment?

I'm more than happy to guide you through that task, so feel free to ask me any question. However, I can't serve with instant messaging, as I don't have anything like that installed - and I'm generally not a fan of those for several reasons (e.g. they are hugely distracting and moreover nobody but us two benefits from the discussion). I'm sure we'll get you started soon enough without that as well.

 

I assume you've got the thiefs_den package installed and ready to go? You'll need a good text editor, maybe one supporting C++ highlighting, which works fairly well on the doom 3 script files (the syntax is somewhat similar). Also be sure to set the TAB size to 4. The editor should also support searching in multiple files, otherwise you'll be wasting too much time searching for entityDefs.

 

Let me know when you're ready. For starters, I suggest that you look briefly over the weapon_waterarrow.def and ammo.def files in the /def/ folder. It can be confusing at first glance, but we'll sort that out.

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I'm more than happy to guide you through that task, so feel free to ask me any question. However, I can't serve with instant messaging, as I don't have anything like that installed - and I'm generally not a fan of those for several reasons (e.g. they are hugely distracting and moreover nobody but us two benefits from the discussion). I'm sure we'll get you started soon enough without that as well.

 

I assume you've got the thiefs_den package installed and ready to go? You'll need a good text editor, maybe one supporting C++ highlighting, which works fairly well on the doom 3 script files (the syntax is somewhat similar). Also be sure to set the TAB size to 4. The editor should also support searching in multiple files, otherwise you'll be wasting too much time searching for entityDefs.

 

Let me know when you're ready. For starters, I suggest that you look briefly over the weapon_waterarrow.def and ammo.def files in the /def/ folder. It can be confusing at first glance, but we'll sort that out.

 

 

Cool beans, just finished looking over some scripting basics, very simple syntax, oop support, and a simple as hell thread model, sounds pretty straight forward, I appreciate the offer of help, I'll be re-downloading the definition files now as I am at work, but since I'm bored with the code project I'm working on here anyways, what the hell :-P(doom pun not intended). I'll get back to you if i have questions or when I feel like I have a solid grasp on the code.

I'm in yur forumz,

Makin' them frobbable.

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Okay, well my copy of TDM i just grabbed didn't want to extract so i'll just start it up again, I'm thinking about warming up with a mini mod that I was considering doing, wanted to know hwo much trouble you thought it'd be if I were to do it.

 

I've been playing the doom board game (yes board game) and it has this interesting thing where you draw cards for each marine giving them special traits (scout, close range expert, medic (better healing from medkits)... etc) I was wanting a dialog on regular doom 3 that lets you select some of these traits and implement thier effects, is that alot more work than I'm making it sound like? cuz if so I won't bother and I'll just focus on holy water arrows ^_^

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Makin' them frobbable.

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Okay, well my copy of TDM i just grabbed didn't want to extract so i'll just start it up again, I'm thinking about warming up with a mini mod that I was considering doing, wanted to know hwo much trouble you thought it'd be if I were to do it.

 

I've been playing the doom board game (yes board game) and it has this interesting thing where you draw cards for each marine giving them special traits (scout, close range expert, medic (better healing from medkits)... etc) I was wanting a dialog on regular doom 3 that lets you select some of these traits and implement thier effects, is that alot more work than I'm making it sound like? cuz if so I won't bother and I'll just focus on holy water arrows ^_^

Hm, I'm not sure if I understand your intention correctly - you're saying you want to choose certain cards and modify the player's properties based on the choice? It is definitely possible: first, you definitely need to do this in the SDK code (scripting alone won't take you far here). Then you'd have to create the GUI and the card graphics, implement the actions based on the GUI events and finally apply the modifications to the player before or after spawn. It could take a similar approach as I took with the Difficulty Manager, which pre-processes the spawnargs of the player right before spawn time, hence modifying the player's properties.

 

I expect that to be a few days' work (up to a few weeks), depending on how fast you learn.

 

The holy water arrows are most likely easier. :P

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holy water it is! I'll back burner that, the artwork would be out, I'd be changing the "cards" to something a bit more video game friendly. (just a list of traits that can chosen fallout style) and then some additional flags and code would have to go into weaspons... and item pickups... and the list goes on.

 

I just got Thieves den so on to looking at scripts

I'm in yur forumz,

Makin' them frobbable.

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I've looked at the defs, pretty much self explanatory, tho I'm curious as to why some ammo has 2\3 forms, one is attached to a weapon or something? the other is just a large quiver it seems, that makes sense (water arrows are rocket packs huh? :-P)

 

edit:

 

Took the liberty to poke around the scripts a bit, it's not exactly clear to me how water arrows are working precisely right now but it seems they're firing off a water stim, which the torch is responding to via an actee/actor type relationship, if this is true is it going to simply be a matter of triggering off a different stimulus for holy damage in very much the EXACT same manner, and subscribe ghoulies to use a custom response the causes them to dissolve into a pool of holy smiteage? cuz if so then that's half the battle, the other half would be setting up some sort of trigger to enable the holy effect in the first place.

I'm in yur forumz,

Makin' them frobbable.

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Took the liberty to poke around the scripts a bit, it's not exactly clear to me how water arrows are working precisely right now but it seems they're firing off a water stim, which the torch is responding to via an actee/actor type relationship, if this is true is it going to simply be a matter of triggering off a different stimulus for holy damage in very much the EXACT same manner, and subscribe ghoulies to use a custom response the causes them to dissolve into a pool of holy smiteage? cuz if so then that's half the battle, the other half would be setting up some sort of trigger to enable the holy effect in the first place.

Yes, well spotted, it's the stims that are the key. The water stim is spawned on the arrow result entity and has certain properties, like a given radius, a downwards velocity and a lifetime. Each torch has a response to the water stim and reacts by being distinguished.

 

You can look at the list of available stims in DarkRadiant's Stim/Response Editor, I guess there is already a HOLY stim somewhere in there. The first step would be to define a weapon, which carries both a WATER and HOLY stim.

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Yes, well spotted, it's the stims that are the key. The water stim is spawned on the arrow result entity and has certain properties, like a given radius, a downwards velocity and a lifetime. Each torch has a response to the water stim and reacts by being distinguished.

 

You can look at the list of available stims in DarkRadiant's Stim/Response Editor, I guess there is already a HOLY stim somewhere in there. The first step would be to define a weapon, which carries both a WATER and HOLY stim.

 

Didn't spot the HOLY stim, but the rest I gathered by looking through source. (I told you I learn fast...) SO I assumed that I'd need to give water arrows both types of stim properties, and then enable/disable the stim based on programmatic holy water useage.

I'm in yur forumz,

Makin' them frobbable.

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There are script functions which can be used to add stims of certain types to entities, but this won't be so easy for the holy water arrows. This depends on how we want to do it.

 

I also must admit that I don't know what the team decided concerning the way the holy water arrows are activated. Should it be the same way as in the original Thief game (use holy water inventory item, which triggers 30 seconds of Holy-ness) or should there be a separate weapon with dedicated holy ammonition (no fixed duration)?

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There are script functions which can be used to add stims of certain types to entities, but this won't be so easy for the holy water arrows. This depends on how we want to do it.

 

I also must admit that I don't know what the team decided concerning the way the holy water arrows are activated. Should it be the same way as in the original Thief game (use holy water inventory item, which triggers 30 seconds of Holy-ness) or should there be a separate weapon with dedicated holy ammonition (no fixed duration)?

 

wouldn't it be easier to have a weapon flag called holy? then holy could be arbitrarily assigned to anything so long as it's stim can be triggered, this could allow for holy swords in custom FM's etc. and you're also forgetting the useage of holy water fonts. So we need to account for mutliple methods of applying holy to a weapon (flashbombs can rely on holy for instance...) so however you want to do this...

 

Edit: looks like I can pass a void effect_damage_action(...) as a response for holypwned critters so all I really need to do is get an understanding on binding these and i could force water arrows to also be holy arrows at the same time, past that it's all about integrating the toggleing of said holy abilities.

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Should it be the same way as in the original Thief game (use holy water inventory item, which triggers 30 seconds of Holy-ness)

 

That was the decision, yes.

 

then holy could be arbitrarily assigned to anything so long as it's stim can be triggered, this could allow for holy swords in custom FM's etc.

 

That would also be a good thing, I think.

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great, so now we just need a concrete decision on how to go about this, and then i'll need to work with gree to implement whichever method we choose, I think that although the 30 seconds is easier, the more universal approach would definately benefit the project more, so really it's your call, I'm up to the task either way, but i'll definately need a bit of "hand holding" through this one :-P

btw, what editor do you all use? I'm planning to use UE32.

I'm in yur forumz,

Makin' them frobbable.

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The 30 second thing has already been decided on as the method for using holy water + water arrows. That doesn't exclude a "holy" property that mappers can use to create alternate weapons, however.

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I'm aware of the Springheel, but implementing JUST the 30 second timer is significantly more simplistic then implementing a full inherited Holy trait that can be attached to an item (holy crate ftw!)

I'm in yur forumz,

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If you're asking whether you should go ahead and do the more difficult one, the answer is...it depends. :) How much more difficult is it? Is it something you would personally enjoy doing or is it just tedious extra work?

 

Since our design docs don't require anything beyond the 30-sec T1-style holy water, whether you go further than that rests on how much benefit is to be gained vs how much it will cost the person doing it. (in other words, it's kind of up to you.) :)

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I like the idea of a general "holy" property of weapons. This is something we need to do in the SDK, though.

 

What we shouldn't do is to abuse the holy property for flashbombs or other "unholy" things doing damage. Use screwdrivers for screws, hammers for nails, I always say.

 

From what I gather, I see these steps

- Apply a (toggleable) holy property to weapons and possibly other objects.

- Define a script interface to toggle that option on or off.

- Make sure impacts of holy objects apply an holy stim to the object being hit.

- Make sure water arrows fired while player is in the "holy phase" are deploying it's holy stim on impact.

- Make sure sword collisions are applying the holy stim to targets being hit.

- Define a GUI element to indicate the "holy phase" - the player needs to know when "holy is on".

- Define a sound that's being played when the holy stuff is activated.

- Tweak the "holy water" inventory object, so that it triggers the "holy phase" on the player. What exactly is affected by this phase (sword, objects being held, or just the water arrow) should be optional for the mapper.

 

To answer your editor question, I'm using EditPlus2, but it doesn't really matter. Just make sure you have the TAB size set to 4 and use C++ highlighting for scripts. Oh, and use Unix-style line-feeds, where appropriate. UltraEdit is powerful enough to cover everything here.

 

The above list is not in chronological order, but you get the idea. I'd start with the first two, but it requires you to get into SDK coding. If that's not a problem for you, I'd say we need to get you set up with the darkmod_src repository, so that you can compile it. You won't be able to do everything via scripts.

 

This implies that you're granted Contributor status and you'll need to read through this thread. There are certain things you'll need to be aware of. It's not like you have to sell your soul or something (that's an optional point), but there are things like "not leaking" anything to the public unless it's decided to do so. This also includes being confidential about the code and such.

 

Scared or Ready to go?

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More than Ready. I'll have to get my hands dirty in the source, I've been dealing with C and C# more than Cpp lately but I'll be fine *goes to install VS2K5 fresh*.

 

On that note I want to thank the team for this opportunity to give back to a community that has given so much to so many people, including me over the past 10 years or so, and on that note... *fires up tortoise SVN*

 

I'll get back to you shortly, but I think I understand the general direction this will need to take.

 

Edit: Aww... *goes to get SVN Access* Epic fails... no anon read access...

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