Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[SteveL]

edit: is there any key for moving 3d view to selected object?

CTRL+mouse wheel click in orthoview does that.

 

No idea about your ai question, but I'll be interested to know the answer too!

Edited December 28, 2013 by SteveL

[Springheel]

Model tris are not going to have as much impact as thinking.

[hank morgan]

This line appears in tdm_defs.script:

 

#define BIT( num ) ( 1 << ( num ) )

 

I can't find examples for >> or ^, though.

 

Thanks. I took that as meaning I write my function as BIT( variable ) but I still get the Unknown Punctuation error on that line.

[SteveL]

Is there any way to detect in a script whether the player is currently engaged in lockpicking?

 

EDIT: NM, just found Obsttorte's responseScript.script which I'll study first.

Edited December 29, 2013 by SteveL

[Goldwell]

Is there any good way to create a bubbling effect for the water in a pot which is cooking on a stove?

[Sotha]

Goldwell, you could make a custom particle effect.

[demagogue]

Or a custom animation / shader for the water surface. Or both.

A steam particle and bubbling sound fx will also go a long way.

[Goldwell]

Or a custom animation / shader for the water surface. Or both.

A steam particle and bubbling sound fx will also go a long way.

 

Yeah I currently have a bubbling sound with a steam particle but if you look inside the pot its rather lack luster

[Goldwell]

nevermind

Edited January 1, 2014 by Goldwell

[SteveL]

Can wooden exteriors somehow be made to work with rope arrows?

 

I finally stopped messing with scripts last week after discovering that the AI behaviour I was trying to implement had already been done much better by Obsttorte -- so I'll nick his solution instead -- and started work on something that might be a viable small first FM. I have an out-of-town setting on a road, where a little economy has sprung up around a Builder outpost, serving travellers. Problem is, I need the playable area to be hemmed in by a wooden stockade, and the only 2 buildings I've done any detailed work on are a good fit for a stockaded stonghold but don't fit one that's got a stone curtain wall. And I had a progression plan involving rope arrows. But if there are rope arrows, the player will expect to be able to climb over the stockade. Even if I built a bit of extra map to support that, all visportals would be open while the player was on top of the stockade.

 

It strikes me that rope arrows are tricky for mappers. They're always the first thing I buy in missions with a shop, so I reckon you don't want to deny them to the player. But it makes settings with a lot of wood tricky. Are there ways to get round it? (Other than playerclip of course, I hate games doing that to me!)

[grayman]

You could put an architectural feature along the top of your walls that either prevents rope arrows from sticking, or prevents the player from climbing to the top.

[SteveL]

You could put an architectural feature along the top of your walls that either prevents rope arrows from sticking, or prevents the player from climbing to the top.

 

Any suggestions?

 

I *did* think along those lines but I've not managed to come up with anything plausible yet. Defences are meant to keep people out not in, and metal/stone don't tend to sit on wood. Do you think I could get away with it during detailing, when I can pile impassible stuff against the exposed bits of the inner wall?

[grayman]

You could put a tarp or awning along the top of the wall.

 

Something like this, but sized to fit your situation.

 

[SteveL]

True, those could be useful...

[RJFerret]

I wouldn't disbelieve metal reinforcement. Wood tends to degrade quickly, only lasting a few years. Cap it with metal flashing to disperse water, and you create a great home for insects...I mean you shelter the pores of the wood from weather.

 

So bands of metal, like metal strapping perhaps?

 

In lieu of just a wood stockade, overhanging shrubbery or vegetation?

 

Since awnings everywhere might not look believable, nor overhanging plants everywhere, alternate the two? (You typically wouldn't put up an awning where blowing tree limbs might tear into it anyway.)

 

Design a cliff wall rising on one side so you only need stockade for limited parts?

 

If a cliff, then a wall of rock/boulders instead?

 

PS: Grayman, psst, your shader was not found. ;p

Edited January 2, 2014 by RJFerret

[AluminumHaste]

How about something like this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwaEr0M_TGw

[Flanders]

How about barbed wire or rows of metal spikes for keeping intruders out?

[RJFerret]

How about something like this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwaEr0M_TGw

 

LOL. Now that's a great way to turn the lazy designer's invisible wall into something less lame, props to them. (Admittedly can be time constrained designers too, sometimes someone else dictates the apparent laziness.)

 

So with that in mind, I suggest a ledge along the wall, fulcrum at the top, counter weight log hung high on the outside. If someone gets on the ledge, it functions as a catapult, flinging them off into the skybox. It's totally plausible as a trap for folks outside scaling their way over/in.

 

PS: May all your walls be visible.

Edited January 3, 2014 by RJFerret

[RJFerret]

Oh! Duh.

 

Another option would be to plaster the wall's interior. That would negate rope arrows, and the need for more heavy handed treatments.

[SteveL]

Hah! to the microsoft solution I think I'll attempt a combination of market stalls with awnings, metal reinforcement, junk and boulders all of which would fit ok. And I'll use a bit of plaster on the buildings inside the enclosure. Thanks for the ideas guys, you stopped me going straight back to the drawing board again.

[Jasp]

just in case it happens to you: If you add a caulk texture to something and it disappears, and you dont know why. If you try a few times and with other textures and you search in the wiki and the forum for a fix - then: Disable your filter->caulk and have a coffee.

[Bikerdude]

How to reduce memory useage: avoid malloc errors.

 

Im working on a map atm and Im try to optomise it, I'm caught between trying to create loats of FS to reduce Draw calls and the need reduce memory footprint.

 

Atm Im hitting 1.2GB allocated and 700-800Mb in use and while Im editing with DR and TDM open Im hitting 2-3.5GB allocated which eventually leads to a malloc crash.

[kyyrma]

I'm having a bit of trouble setting up rain with emitters in my map.

 

I changed from rain patches to emitters like suggested, and got a major improvement in FPS. Now I have emitters spaced about 64 units from each other or so, covering the whole street area. My problem is that the raindrops vanish if looked at from a certain angle.

 

If I stand directly under an emitter, and look straight forward (level to the ground) I can see the rain falling from it. If I look a bit down however, the particles vanish. This has got me stumped.

Edited January 6, 2014 by kyyrma

[Sotha]

Yeah, I fought with this one back in the day.

The thread is here:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12091-rain-particle-problem/page__view__findpost__p__242847

 

I think I had to make custom particles for the rain to circumvent the issue. This one:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12091-rain-particle-problem/page__view__findpost__p__243035

 

The solution worked for Transaction-mission. If you want to have a look how I made the rain performance decent, feel free to examine the map, of course.

[kyyrma]

Thanks Sotha, I'll look into them!