Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[DeTeEff]

1. I extremely recommend not working with tiny tiny brushes (especially not csg-subtracting tiny brushes).

 

That door plaque can be a "cylinder" patch, instead. For adding the number '2', you can reach into plain-old-doom-3 textures and apply a decal with the number 2 on it.

 

(And don't forget to turn the whole plaque into a func_static when you're done)

 

Thanks for the support! I kinda fixed it with some patches...but for the number decals in the doom library, how exactly do I go along with those?

[Melan]

Please explain me what I am doing wrong with DDS. I have created diffusemaps, normals, editor images and (where needed) speculars for my textures, assembled the necessary material file, and they show up correctly in game. I have also created DXT1-compressed DDS images from the original TGAs and put them (e.g.) in the /dds/textures/darkmod/window/ornate folder as specified in the wiki. However, the diffusemaps don't show up, only the speculars/normals:

 

 

Where am I going wrong? I moved the TGA originals to a different folder for testing purposes.

[Serpentine]

Can you paste your material shader in here? think I know what you're doing wrong but just want to be sure.

 

Also did I give you the finished version of those textures? can never remember these things.

[Melan]

Serpentine: not yet; I have one but not the others (I think you did some work on the diffuse for those gothic arches as well). I also sent you two new ones yesterday.

 

Here is an example shader:

textures/darkmod/window/ornate/round_pearly_white
{
glass

qer_editorimage textures/darkmod/window/ornate/round_pearly_white_ed
diffusemap 	textures/darkmod/window/ornate/round_pearly_white
bumpmap 	textures/darkmod/window/ornate/round_pearly_white_local
specularmap 	textures/darkmod/window/ornate/round_pearly_white_s
{
	if ( parm11 > 0 )
	blend 	gl_dst_color, gl_one
	map 	_white
	rgb 	0.40 * parm11
}
{
	if ( parm11 > 0 )
	blend 	add
	map 	textures/darkmod/window/ornate/round_pearly_white
	rgb 	0.15 * parm11
}

// TDM Ambient Method Related
{
	blend	add
	map		textures/darkmod/window/ornate/round_pearly_white
	red		global2
	green	global3
	blue	global4
}
}

I copied them out of the original material files.

[_Atti_]

I had a problem like that, and it was because i didnt convert the dds.-s right.

If you use the compressonator prog.

First you need to create mipmaps, with box filter 1x1, only then you compress.

 

Wiki link about converting to DDS

[Melan]

I used the GIMP plugin, but didn't check the mipmaps. I will try that to see if it works.

 

[edit]Apparently, it does. Check your mipmaps![/edit]

Edited May 30, 2010 by Melan

[_Atti_]

I want to add the following scene to my fm:

A guard sometimes walk to a specific place says a custom thing and when finished going to another corner path to continue on its route.

 

The path is set up alright he takes his detour on occasion.I guess it should be set up with conversation but how do i get him to do it properly each time he goes there, i want it to be repeating ,( with maybe more sounds in the shader so its varied) .

I tried a few variation with conversations, also path_talk but guess thats not for that.

 

My questions are:

 

Should the conversation_info be targeted from the corner_path where i want him to perform the convo?

How do i send him back on his way when finished?

Edited May 31, 2010 by _Atti_

[Mortem Desino]

Thanks for the support! I kinda fixed it with some patches...but for the number decals in the doom library, how exactly do I go along with those?

Here's a sample picture. The gold part was made by "capping" a cylinder patch.

 

For the letter, I would use a decal patch. To texture it, there are some letters and numbers under textures/decals (not textures/darkmod/decals).

 

All the alphabet decals are in an 8x8 grid, so in your surface inspector ('s' hotkey), one character will fit under .125 x .125.

[_Atti_]

Or you could use this method:

Here

but i guess the above is simpler

[DeTeEff]

Here's a sample picture. The gold part was made by "capping" a cylinder patch.

 

For the letter, I would use a decal patch. To texture it, there are some letters and numbers under textures/decals (not textures/darkmod/decals).

 

All the alphabet decals are in an 8x8 grid, so in your surface inspector ('s' hotkey), one character will fit under .125 x .125.

 

Ahh, I tried dabbling with those decals a few days ago but coudn't get it to work...

 

But a new try a moment ago resulted in a nice plaque

 

Thanks for the help!

 

BTW _Atti_ that sign-thing that according to Fidcal will be available in 1.03 seems real nice

[Fidcal]

_atti_ : There may be a problem with multiple triggerings of conversations. I have to set up a test map but not had time yet. You can set up a conversation but it might possibly only trigger once...

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Conversations

 

So, the question is what do you trigger it from? If you only want an actual speech then normally you want the player to hear it right? So you can trigger it from a trigger_multi entity. Set up a brush for the player to walk into and make it a trigger_multi then add target to the start conversation entity.

[_Atti_]

hm , no i dont necessarily want the player to hear it, as its most likely he will hear it anyway, also by triggering this way the actors should be standing there or close to the spot ready to do the convo, and my actor should not do this but patrol around, take this detour ,make his comment and go back. Its really something like a chatter that the ais do all the time i just want to make it happen in the correct place with a custom sound.

[Fidcal]

OK, set up a trigger_timer entity. This does not need a brush. Place it anywhere but logically near the point of use and not in the void. Give it these properties:

 

wait 40 [seconds - change it to how often you want it to repeat and it wants to be longer than the longer speech]

random 10 [seconds to vary from above, eg, it would make 40 vary from 30 to 50]

target your start conv entity

target2 temp light or door [place nearby. It will go on and off as a test so you know it is working. Delete the light and this target2 later]

 

As before, I cannot guarantee the conversation would trigger more than once. Let me know if it does.

[DeTeEff]

*sigh*

 

This might be a simple question, but how on earth do I make a simple mirror on the wall. I have checked in Bikerdude's nice mission 'Business as usual' and figured out i need a Worldspawn brush with one side 'textures/water_source/water_reflective_3' and all other sides NoDraw. But the mirrror is totally dark and only works when I take noclip and slide almost into it. Has this something to do with visportals or skyboxes or anything?

Edited June 2, 2010 by Fieldmedic

[stumpy]

actually its nodraw on five sides and the mirror texture on the side the player is, and you cant have another mirror texture behind it or in front of it else you get a strange hole, you can have them side by side though, if you want a warpy mirror then you put another brush in front of it with the warp glass texture on the side that faces the player, all the other 5 side nodraw texture, or to make it easy you could have two patches and have mirror texture on one patch and any of the glass textures on the other patch. mirror is only viewable in game, in the editor it will always look grey.

[DeTeEff]

actually its nodraw on five sides and the mirror texture on the side the player is, and you cant have another mirror texture behind it or in front of it else you get a strange hole, you can have them side by side though, if you want a warpy mirror then you put another brush in front of it with the warp glass texture on the side that faces the player, all the other 5 side nodraw texture, or to make it easy you could have two patches and have mirror texture on one patch and any of the glass textures on the other patch. mirror is only viewable in game, in the editor it will always look grey.

 

Yes, I have added NoDraw on all other five sides...In the editor there is this grey untransparent glass-look, but ingame there is only a black hole...If i turn on Noclip and slide almost into the mirror, the mirror works just as I slide into it...

 

EDIT Somehow I have succeeded To save time rendering, I had copied the bath room to a small testmap. The mirror didn't work in that map, but I tested in the original map, then it worked...strange...

Edited June 3, 2010 by Fieldmedic

[Snakebite]

I am trying to create a roof for a building. I am not really sure how to do that. Playing around with the editor I created a hexagon brush and resized it until it made a trapeze shape. I rotate it to the angle I needed it and cloned it, mirrored it and so I have the top part. The side part I made it from a triangular prism, clipping it to the other brushes. It looks ok in camera view. But on grid it seems to have small imperfections. Also since I cannot snap it to grid I am afraid it can do some Z fighting.

 

After playing around more I can do the top part with normal (not prismed) brushes, but it requires another clipping above to make a good angle.

 

I would like to know if there is a good/clever way to do it or I would appreciate any hints.

[Melan]

Usually, for a regular roof, it's easiest to

1) start with a square shape

2) cut off the sides with the clipper tool so it becomes a triangular prism

3) create the roof part with another thin square brush, texture it

4) rotate this part until it lays on the top of a side of the prism

5) clone it and rotate it to create the other side

6) where the two roof halves meet, snip off intersecting parts with the clipper tool

[Snakebite]

Ok. New one. I need to place a ladder but no one of the available ones fits my needs. Should I build my own. And so how can I make it climbable?

Or how can I resize the available ones?

[Serpentine]

Making your own isnt too bad, just remember to make it into a func_static (select all the brushes/patches -> right click in ortho view -> make func_static)

 

To make something a ladder, just find the "ladder" material (textures/common/ladder, its a yellow texture with the word "ladder" all over it) and apply it to a brush covering the rough area of whatever you want to make climbable.

[demagogue]

Yes, I have added NoDraw on all other five sides...In the editor there is this grey untransparent glass-look, but ingame there is only a black hole...If i turn on Noclip and slide almost into the mirror, the mirror works just as I slide into it...

 

EDIT Somehow I have succeeded To save time rendering, I had copied the bath room to a small testmap. The mirror didn't work in that map, but I tested in the original map, then it worked...strange...

 

I think this is your issue, not 100% sure, but it's good to know this about mirrors anyway. Keep in mind that mirrors literally render a new room behind the mirror, and that's what the reflection you see is. That means if the room the mirror is in isn't visSealed from the area behind the mirror, the engine is also going to render some of the area behind the mirror along with the "mirror room", and that's where you can get a black hole effect (which is usually a sign that the engine is trying to render something odd, e.g., the area behind the mirror), along with other weird artifacts like it working just as you slide into it, and maybe a close wall from the back area will get rendered, etc. In short, it usually means you need to internally seal the bathroom with visPortals and make sure the area behind the mirror is sealed off too. It happens a lot with mirrors, so it's a familiar problem.

[killhour]

I need to set some gears to rotate x number of turns over 5 seconds when a lever is pulled, and do the same thing in reverse when the lever goes the other way. I tried doing this with doors, but it doesn't work if you tell it to rotate more than x number of degrees. What's the best way to do this?

[Fidcal]

This is one way you might try. It seems complicated but I'll break it down into sections:

 

You'll need to do this for every gear. I'll just describe one.

 

Without a script I don't think a rotator can change direction so we make two, one invisible to turn the visible one the other way...

 

Create a small (just a few units cube) nodraw texture at the centre of rotation

Convert it to a func_rotating entity

Give it the spawnarg speed 100 (adjust to taste) This also sets the direction so -100 would rotate the other way.

Give it start_on 1

By default it rotates around the vertical z axis like a normal door. To change that...

give it either x_axis 1 or y_axis 1 to change the axis of rotation.

 

 

Repeat the above for the visible rotating gear to rotate the opposite way to the above.

But give it start_on 0

give it bind with the name of the first rotating brush to attach it.

 

 

Target both from the lever, ie, target1 > brush, and target2 > gear.

 

 

When you push the lever one way it should stop the invisible brush and start the gear the other way and vice versa when you hit the lever again.

 

That's the theory but I never tried it so let me know if it works!

[Fidcal]

No. Just re-read your brief and you want it to stop after 5 seconds right? Phew! Give me a few minutes......

[killhour]

No. Just re-read your brief and you want it to stop after 5 seconds right? Phew! Give me a few minutes......

 

It has to rotate along the model's axis too, not the worldspace one. They line a circular room and rotate the dome when a lever is pulled.