Start Mission cleanup

[greebo]

I did the following:

 

Start TDM, hit "Start Mission" and choose "The Tears of Saint Lucia" from the list. Then I select "Install Mission". TDM is restarting (with the fs_game_base settings).

 

After restart, I hit "Start Mission" and see that Saint Lucia is the installed FM. I hit "Start this Mission" in the lower right. I see an empty screen (presumably the briefing), then I see the difficulty settings ("Retrieve the Sacred ashes/bones/shard/relic ..."), then comes the shop screen.

 

Is this what you see as well?

[Springheel]

No. I don't see the difficulty screen. However, I did not reinstall St.Lucia, as it already came up as the "currently installed mission", so all I did was press "Start". Maybe you have to reinstall to get the up to date files? I'll try that tonight.

[Tels]

Hm I think you just need to hit the "Start Mission" button - the screen you see is all you get, regardless how you launch the game. The only thing that's changing is the text telling you about the currently installed mission.

 

The tdmlauncher is invoked as soon as you hit "Install Mission". Then the FM/PK4 is copied and the game is restarted with the appropriate +set fs_game and fs_game_base parameters.

 

Does that work under linux? if not, what would be required to make it work? (Sorry, lost track of this)

[greebo]

Does that work under linux? if not, what would be required to make it work? (Sorry, lost track of this)

No it doesn't work under Linux yet. The source for tdmlauncher is in darkmod_src/dmlauncher, in case you want to look at it.

 

But beware that we don't need tdmlauncher for the next release, we will install saintlucia just as we had installed thiefs_den, and create a specific shortcut for it. The mission selection screen will be disabled in the release branch.

[greebo]

@Springheel: I saw this issue report here: http://bugs.angua.at/view.php?id=1169

 

I'd suggest using the in-game menu music as briefing background, it's subtle enough to let the vocals stand in the foreground. The GUI code for that is already there, and I can take care of that, if you want me to.

[Springheel]

I'd suggest using the in-game menu music as briefing background...I can take care of that, if you want me to.

 

Sure.

 

There are also some specific sound fx I'd like to add (like jingling coins or church bells) at various points, but that will depend on availability, time, and how the vocals fall.

[Tels]

No it doesn't work under Linux yet. The source for tdmlauncher is in darkmod_src/dmlauncher, in case you want to look at it.

 

But beware that we don't need tdmlauncher for the next release, we will install saintlucia just as we had installed thiefs_den, and create a specific shortcut for it. The mission selection screen will be disabled in the release branch.

 

Since we will put TD into the release too (most of its assets are needed anyway), we could also enable the mission selection. Would probably be a good idea to iron out small niggles with it. (if the deadline approaches, could still disable it and tell people to use the console)

 

However, as for the "install SL", as far as I understand, the launcer copies it outside the saintucia folder. How do we actually manage that, given that our zip file will contain "saintlucia" as top folder? *confused*

[Springheel]

Ok, when I reinstalled, it worked and I could see the objectives.

 

One annoying thing...when D3 restarts after installing, it messes up the gamma of my computer. I have the same problem when D3 crashes.

[greebo]

The gamma is saved/restored at D3 start and exit. If D3 is "interrupted", it can't restore your desktop gamma, so you need to go into your gamma settings and reset them to your regular values, unfortunately. I got used to firing up my laptop's screen settings tool regularly whenever I notice that the gamma might have changed due to a D3 crash.

 

The gamma setting being screwed after an FM install is a different thing. The loader also copies a DoomConfig.cfg over to the new location, and these settings are something ridicolous like gamma = 1.5 and brightness = 1. I usually have gamma = 1.21 and brightness = 0.8 on my weak laptop display. See gamma reference thread.

[Crispy]

Since we will put TD into the release too (most of its assets are needed anyway), we could also enable the mission selection. Would probably be a good idea to iron out small niggles with it. (if the deadline approaches, could still disable it and tell people to use the console)

I disagree, we're too close to the freeze and still have too much to do to worry about mission selection just now. Yes it would be nice to fix it, but I'd prefer to leave that until after SL.

 

However, as for the "install SL", as far as I understand, the launcer copies it outside the saintucia folder. How do we actually manage that, given that our zip file will contain "saintlucia" as top folder? *confused*

The launcher no longer copies anything anywhere. The old version of the launcher did, but the new version merely restarts D3 with fs_game_base set to darkmod and fs_game set to the name of the FM.

 

fs_game must refer to a directory which is in the top level of the D3 folder hierachy, like this:

 

C:

+ Program Files

+ + Doom 3

+ + + base

+ + + darkmod

+ + + myawesomefm

 

The above folder structure would allow the use of the command line doom3.exe +fs_game_base darkmod +fs_game myawesomefm to start the FM called myawesomefm. In Doom 3 terminology, myawesomefm is a mod of darkmod. Just like you can make mods of the Resurrection of Evil expansion pack.

 

This setup has some nice advantages. You don't need to worry about copying and replacing and restoring files; everything just works naturally with D3's virtual file system, with the FM able to override any TDM files simply by including them in its own folder.

 

The gamma setting being screwed after an FM install is a different thing. The loader also copies a DoomConfig.cfg over to the new location

As I understand it, the problem is that the loader doesn't copy over a DoomConfig.cfg - so Doom 3 just re-instates a default one (which is either default settings or the settings used for vanilla D3, I'm not sure which) which happens to have really bad settings. This needs resolving somehow. We need to figure out how to copy DoomConfig.cfg to and from the FM directories in a sensible manner.

[Springheel]

The gamma setting being screwed after an FM install is a different thing.

 

Would that still affect the computer once D3 is exited? It doesn't under normal conditions but it did yesterday.

[greebo]

On shutdown D3 should restore the gamma setting to the one it found when it started. That's at least my observation.

[Springheel]

Yes, that's what I normally observe as well. That's why I thought it was odd that it didn't happen this time.

[Tels]

I disagree, we're too close to the freeze and still have too much to do to worry about mission selection just now. Yes it would be nice to fix it, but I'd prefer to leave that until after SL.

The launcher no longer copies anything anywhere. The old version of the launcher did, but the new version merely restarts D3 with fs_game_base set to darkmod and fs_game set to the name of the FM.

 

fs_game must refer to a directory which is in the top level of the D3 folder hierachy, like this:

 

C:

+ Program Files

+ + Doom 3

+ + + base

+ + + darkmod

+ + + myawesomefm

 

 

So how would then the folder setup be that we need for saintlucia?

 

C:
+ Program Files
+ + Doom 3
+ + + base
+ + + darkmod
+ + + saintlucia

 

and what would darkmod respectively saintlucia contain? The former almost everything, and the latter only the "saintlucia.pk4" file?

[greebo]

So how would then the folder setup be that we need for saintlucia?

Think about how we did it for Thief's Den.

 

We don't need a "darkmod" folder, we just ship a "saintlucia" folder, and start the game with +set fs_game saintlucia.

 

C:
+ Program Files
+ + Doom 3
+ + + base
+ + + saintlucia

[Tels]

Think about how we did it for Thief's Den.

 

We don't need a "darkmod" folder, we just ship a "saintlucia" folder, and start the game with +set fs_game saintlucia.

 

Yes, but what role does then "fmloader" play and why are we discussing it at all? *mightily confused*

[greebo]

Yes, but what role does then "fmloader" play and why are we discussing it at all? *mightily confused*

The FM loader doesn't play a role in the upcoming release. Just don't worry about it.

[Tels]

The FM loader doesn't play a role in the upcoming release. Just don't worry about it.

 

Ah ok

[Springheel]

Ok, not a very inspired start.... Anyone know where the difficulty screen gui code actually IS? I searched all the guis for "difficulty" and "easy" and got nothing.

[greebo]

@Springheel: Just had a look at your briefing GUI - pretty cool, I might say. I can almost hear the voice-over.

 

I'm going to implement the briefing into main menu, but this will pose a challenge. The current briefing GUI is aimed at pure text at a fixed background, I need to come up with a good system to handle that.

[Springheel]

@Springheel: Just had a look at your briefing GUI - pretty cool, I might say.

 

Thanks.

 

Just to confirm, are you supposed to have to install a mission every time you load D3? I can't seem to see the difficulty screen unless I re-install the mission each time.

[greebo]

No, in the end of the day, when TDM is released, people will just use a shortcut to tdmlauncher.exe, which will always run the mod with the correct parameters.

 

The difficulty screens disappearing sounds like a problem which needs to be fixed sometime.

[Springheel]

Greebo, can you comment on this?

 

When I hit "Start Mission", the briefing played, but when the briefing was done I saw no options to continue. There were no visible buttons. I clicked around at the bottom and heard the sound like I was clicking buttons--once I managed to replay the briefing and another place started the map, but I never saw any objective screen or shop menu.

 

I'm not really able to adjust the difficulty menu right now because I can no longer access the "install mission" part of the menu (the only way I was able to see it before)

 

Are there supposed to be buttons displayed at the bottom of the briefing when it is done?

[greebo]

Hm. Do you have a startingMap.txt file in your darkmod/ folder? If not, you need to create one with saintlucia in it.

 

No, there should be no buttons at the end of the briefing, it should automatically proceed to the objectives screen - which is probably not happening, as the startingMap.txt file is missing.

 

Btw: you can skip the briefing by pressing ESC.

[Springheel]

I have a "StartingMap.txt" file in my Doom3/saintlucia folder. However, all it says is,

 

"saintlucia"

 

Is that all it needs?