Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[greebo]

I have discovered something unsettling i've not seen before. If I creep really near the walls and look where two brushes are flush agains each other, the seams between can be seen in the 3D-view...is this normal? I cannot remember I've seen it before? I've tried to use the clipper tool to be really sure there is no gap, but no luck...there is no leak...

The see-through decals are now fixed (yaah!) but brush joint lines are still visable (booo!) - http://bugs.angua.at/view.php?id=2250

I remember seeing people discussing the lines that show between brushes now, but can't find that discussion. Is there a way to turn that feature off? I keep thinking the lines are from an alignment issue.

This issue #2250 is fixed now in SVN.

[Shadowhide]

why grass edge textures invisible in game ?

[Fidcal]

Sorry shadowhide - I rushed the tutorial and missed out a step.

 

• 
   
  
• You need to make the patch a func_static
  
• Then give it the property shaderparm3 with value 0.5
  
• The value can be anywhere between 0.01 (thin) to 0.99 (thick)
  
• When you first change it to func_static you need to dmap again.
  
• Once dmapped you don't need to dmap again if you just change the shaderparm3 value
  

[Shadowhide]

yeah thanks,works fine now...

I happy with result

[Fidcal]

Intriguing...

[ocn]

Is there a simple way to dynamically control the transparency of certain entities? I keep searching for transparency, but I get nothing.

[nbohr1more]

Try "alphatest parm3" in the material definition

[ocn]

Try "alphatest parm3" in the material definition

 

Way over my tiny little head.

[stumpy]

Does setting an AI to team 14 make them neutral to everything, including the player. I don't want the ghosts to run off and tell the zombies that the player is in the building. There's no rats, the zombies ate them all.

 

 

Do zombies get extra heads or are they part of the whole model. I was trying to attach an item to a zombies head but they dont seem to have attachment points higher than their waists.

Edited February 28, 2011 by stumpy

[Carnage]

Since the last time I created an FM a lot of new features have been implemented. Things like Normal maps, and now LOD and SEED. Could someone briefly explain these features to me? What is the advantage of using these, do I have to use them, is it a lot of work to get them in my FM, what kind of features do you really need to have in your FM nowadays, what if I wouldn't use them would my FM look bad or have bad performance? At the moment I'm just building with DR and I haven't got a clue why I would need to use these features. Don't get me wrong, I understand from posts that these features are amazing, but I'm just such a noob that I can't really understand why they are amazing. Lots of thanks for explaining this to me.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Carnage

[AluminumHaste]

Since the last time I created an FM a lot of new features have been implemented. Things like Normal maps, and now LOD and SEED. Could someone briefly explain these features to me? What is the advantage of using these, do I have to use them, is it a lot of work to get them in my FM, what kind of features do you really need to have in your FM nowadays, what if I wouldn't use them would my FM look bad or have bad performance? At the moment I'm just building with DR and I haven't got a clue why I would need to use these features. Don't get me wrong, I understand from posts that these features are amazing, but I'm just such a noob that I can't really understand why they are amazing. Lots of thanks for explaining this to me.

 

Normal maps have always been there.

LOD

SEED

[nbohr1more]

Normal maps have been around since the mod began but you probably never noticed them because they are packed together into a "Material" definition and you would think of them as just a texture in DR.

 

LOD is primarily for large out-door scenes and the amount of LOD models is a little sparse so if the catalog of LOD entities does not have stuff you would use for an out-door scene you would need to make your own LOD models to get any benefit. There is a wiki about LOD and creating simple models (pretty much a billboard or two unless you are good with modeling or decimation.)

 

SEED is the mothership that runs LOD and Procedural content generation and Model Combining. One thing that almost any map can benefit from with SEED is that you can combine models together is a similar manner that Brushwork can be grouped into a func_static. It goes without saying that letting SEED randomly generate plants for your outdoor map will save you time verses manually planting those things.

 

Tels will probably be along to say more...

[ungoliant]

LOD and SEED. Could someone briefly explain these features to me?

SEED is the mothership

 

:laugh: nbohr you are so awesome

[nbohr1more]

Yeah, all my metaphors lean to the nerdy stuff.

 

I think I need to hang out with "The Fonz" or some-such and start using auto-mechanic metaphors...

Edited March 1, 2011 by nbohr1more

[Carnage]

So if I understand correctly, SEED is primairly used for larger FMs with lots of outside areas?

[Baddcog]

LOD means level of detail (not sure if you got that from above descriptions or links). It's basically highpoly nice model up close, lower levels of detail at distance, so things look pretty AND perform well.

 

Most likely it will end up where these are just in place. You put a tree model in your map. Then the player chooses if they want highest detail or lowest in the menu. That determines at which point the models swap, so a low end machine models will simplify closer to camera, on a very high end machine they may not simplify at all.

 

As stated though, not many models even have this yet. It's a lot of work and usually done while making the model. Most of our models were made years ago, this feature was created this year (late last year) so no old models were prepared for it.

 

LOD is mostly useful outside, large areas. If you are inside in small areas the map is probably already well optimized and you never see an object from far enough away to make the model lod change.

-----------

 

Seed can be useful for tons of stuff.

 

1- random generation of plants. You make a brush, assign it 'cattails/dense' (over simplified explanation) and it randomly generates a lot of cattail models inside that brushes boundries. or trees, mushrooms, thick/thin...

 

2- you can make a brush on a table, and have it random generate game pieces, or vases, whatever. So everytime that missions is started from beginning a table could have a blue vase, or a green vase, or loot... It will save and the same thing will be there the entire time that player is playing that map. But if you restart the mission something else will be there.

 

that can save you a lot of time placing 100 pieces of grass in an area. Just make the brush, make it grass, give it a count, done.

[Carnage]

Thanks for the explanations everyone. I understand the various features as much as I need to now. Now I can continue without worrying

[ungoliant]

basic scripting question. If you have a chain of entities targeting eachother to get to a script event, which entity is $this? is it the atdm:target_callscriptfunction entity, is it the button that the player frobbed to set off the chain reaction?

 

Anyway point being I can't get something to work with $this, so is there a way that i can reference the entity that directly called the atdm:target_callscriptfunction dynamically without naming the actual entity?

[Fidcal]

There was a big discussion on this in the last couple of months I think. Do a forum search because I can't remember how it was resolved.

[ungoliant]

found the thread, but I didn't see a resolution at the end relating to "$this". something linked to foreach spawnarg. Also, as somebody new to scripting, reading that whole thread opened up a lot of new questions as well, because its difficult to pick apart code from pseudocode when you aren't entirely familiar with all the syntax and classes.

 

So... new scripting questions. What are the macros/keywords available to reference entities? $target, $this, $activator?

 

also not sure if "->" operator was just pseudocode or if that is an actual operator that calls a local method belonging to the entity's class. is it just "." or does "->" work as well, or differently, or at all?

 

is there a useful list of such d3/tdm keywords or operators in a file buried somewhere?

[Fidcal]

It's took me a little while to find the thread I was thinking of http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11772-can-i-pass-an-entity-name-to-a-map-script/page__view__findpost__p__233360

 

I'll read it later and get back to you. I'm out of time at the moment.

[ungoliant]

thanks in advance.

 

Also, I think i made up $this in my head, probably saw some pseudocode somewhere and misunderstood it. I thought it worked properly because i didn't get an error on mapping, but upon further research, theres no error when referencing $dxlkjvnksrf either. I'm guessing $ only references actual named entities in the map file..? Back to the drawing board.

[Shadowhide]

how create firefly like on first screenshot of that gallery?

http://www256.pair.com/dram/files/website/galleries/blackheart%20manor/blackheart%20manor.html

[Fidcal]

how create firefly like on first screenshot of that gallery?

http://www256.pair.com/dram/files/website/galleries/blackheart%20manor/blackheart%20manor.html

I only have a vague idea. A firefly is a func_emitter. Click the model property then use the button bottom right to select a suitable particle effect, possibly tdm_glare_lamp_01.prt. Bind to something invisible that will move it along a path, typically a func_mover with nurb curves used as the path. You'd have to research spline and nurb curves both for doom3 in google, here in the forums, and on the wiki.

[SeriousToni]

I may missed this somewhere, but:

Is there a way to align an object automaticly to the floor or to another object underneath?