Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Deshtat]

Alright! It's all working now! Thank you.

 

I just have a small problem : when the guards don't notice the player, the two of them try to stand on the exact same spot. Thus, once one of them managed to get there, the other one is "running in it", like if he wanted to push him.

 

Should I create two path nodes? Or is there a way to make the guard stand "somewhere around the path_corner" instead of "exactly on the path-corner" ?

[grayman]

Alright! It's all working now! Thank you.

 

I just have a small problem : when the guards don't notice the player, the two of them try to stand on the exact same spot. Thus, once one of them managed to get there, the other one is "running in it", like if he wanted to push him.

 

Should I create two path nodes? Or is there a way to make the guard stand "somewhere around the path_corner" instead of "exactly on the path-corner" ?

 

Make two path_corners.

[Deshtat]

Alright then. It works alright now. The guards tend to get a little confused on the door step, though, but they still run to the right spot. Thanks!

[grayman]

Define 'confused'.

[Deshtat]

I don't really know what they are doing, actually. It's like they're running in circle once or twice inside their room before they find their way out through the door. They make it out, but maybe not as smoothly as I thought they would. They tend to bump in the doorframe for some reason, even if it's a double-door exit.

 

In the begining, they used to stop running even before they went through the exit, because they wanted to investigate why the door was opened. I corrected this, though.

[grayman]

Have you monsterclipped the door properly, so that they can't bump into the doorframe? I.e. only leave them a tunnel through the middle of the door.

 

And place the spots where they're teleported to back from the door a bit, so that they don't have to do a lot of turning to align themselves to the tunnel, which should allow them to run right through w/o a problem.

[Deshtat]

I didn't know I had to do this. Now they get out faster. Thanks!

[grayman]

Cool.

[Deshtat]

New questions, now...!

I'm setting up a small scene : when the player enters the area, he will see a bunch of guards crossing a bridge above him. Technically, they just teleport on one side, cross, then teleport back into the void once they are out the player's view. I have a few issues with that.

 

- I don't want the guards to notice the player bellow : they have no way to reach him anyway. Also, at this point in the mission, the player doesn't have a ranged weapon, so he won't try to mess with them. I think I'm going to change their team, so they won't react to him, even he acts noisily.

The problem is that I want to use these same guards again later in the mission, and this time, they will be able to chase him. Is there a script command to switch teams?

 

- I don't know how to teleport them away, once they have crossed the bridge. Is there a way to call on a script once an AI has reached the right path_corner?

 

Thanks!

Edited June 6, 2015 by Deshtat

[Sotha]

Put the AI in team 5. You can change the team later with $ai.setTeam (team number);

I would also make them blind and deaf to make sure they do not react to anything.

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17160-easy-alert-ai-custom-behavior-recipe/

 

You can put a trigger_entityname at the end of the bridge. When the AI of a certain entityname reaches the the trigger, call a script that teleports all the AI ($ai.setOrigin (destination coordinates ); Be sure to reset the team and aquity spawnargs.

 

You can see how to this set up in Ulysses2.pk4. The player entry area has the trigger entitynames for the fleeing hostage AI.

[Deshtat]

Well, the teams scripts work fine, but they won't cross my bridge... It's the exact same system as the door scene, but the guards seem "stuck" in place.

Actually, I discovered something really weird : the AIs refuse to move an inch when they are in the bridge "room". They don't go to path_corners, and when they are alerted, they just draw their weapons. I even tried to hit them, but they won't chase me : they get their weapons away, and they throw rocks at me, even if I'm only two steps away from them.

 

It only happens this particular "room". These same guards can move with no problems in the next room, but something here seems to bother them.

 

It's like they glued their feet to the ground. They can see me, they can attack me, but they can't move. I really can't explain this. Have this happened with you?

 

EDIT : Alright, so now, they will only move if I create a random AI somewhere in the room, even if it does nothing special... I really don't get that. Does this have something to do with the game creating some kind of "navigation meshes" at the begining of the mission?

 

Like, for instance, if there is no AI in a room at the start of the mission, the game doesn't bother creating a pathfinder in this particular place? Which would be why my AIs get lost when I teleport them here frow an other room?

Edited June 7, 2015 by Deshtat

[grayman]

Like, for instance, if there is no AI in a room at the start of the mission, the game doesn't bother creating a pathfinder in this particular place? Which would be why my AIs get lost when I teleport them here frow an other room?

 

I mentioned this in my suggestion upthread.

 

dmap will create AAS areas everywhere that's accessible to AI. AAS areas are used by the pathfinding system to move the AI around.

 

If an area is inaccessible (for example, the top floor where an elevator goes, and there are no AI up there at map start), you get no AAS areas.

 

We've had people complain about this before: when they teleport their AI somewhere, the AI just stands there and doesn't move.

 

The solution is, for areas that are inaccessible (there's no way for a "map start" AI to get there), you place an aas32_flood entity on the floor. That tells dmap to create AAS areas for that area.

[Deshtat]

Oh so that's how it works! Thanks a lot!

 

By the way : when I teleport my guards, they keep their initial orientation. Thus, when they start running to the bridge, they have to turn around, and it take them some time. I thought that guards matched the orientation of the teleporter itself when it activates, but they don't. Is there a quick way to do this?

[grayman]

By the way : when I teleport my guards, they keep their initial orientation. Thus, when they start running to the bridge, they have to turn around, and it take them some time. I thought that guards matched the orientation of the teleporter itself when it activates, but they don't. Is there a quick way to do this?

 

Teleport them offstage, let them do their circling there to get their orientation correct, then let them run through another teleporter back to the bridge, so they're pointed in the correct direction when they come back onstage.

[Deshtat]

Well it worked alright! I think I can let it as it is. Thanks a lot!

 

One last thing for today : I have noticed a strange black box floating in my nearby water. It isn't solid, and it doesn't move. I have no idea what it is, and it doesn't appear in my editor.

 

 

Does anyone know what this is? I tried to delete the water, but it doesn't go away.

[SteveL]

That could be a could be a missing/broken model, or it could be a func_static that you made in DR from patches and/or brushes, then you somehow deleted all the patches and brushes within the func_static without deleting the func_static entity itself.

 

Either way, it's an invisible entity that you need to delete. You can find out its name by using console comand g_showEntityInfo 1 in game. Then in DR press 'j' to get the entity list and find it by its name. Select it by clicking on its name in the list, then click on your orthoview, and press backspace to delete it.

[DeTeEff]

In your mapfolder, delete the collision file (MAPNAME.cm) and redo a DMAP

[Deshtat]

That could be a could be a missing/broken model, or it could be a func_static that you made in DR from patches and/or brushes, then you somehow deleted all the patches and brushes within the func_static without deleting the func_static entity itself.

 

Either way, it's an invisible entity that you need to delete. You can find out its name by using console comand g_showEntityInfo 1 in game. Then in DR press 'j' to get the entity list and find it by its name. Select it by clicking on its name in the list, then click on your orthoview, and press backspace to delete it.

 

Wow, this command is really helpful. Thanks for the hint! I'll have to remember this later.

[Deshtat]

Hey there, it's me again.

 

I have a small issue right now : there is a fight scene between two AIs in the background of my level, that is supposed to be "normal" (like a training fight, for instance). The problem is that my guards keep getting distracted by it, since it makes a lot of noise. I don't want them to care about the fight, I want them to care about the player only.

 

Is there a way to do this?

 

EDIT : in the end, I just used the team system again x) It probably isn't the best way, but it works better now.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Deshtat

[Deshtat]

A small question for you people!

 

My first level is now fully playable, and I'm starting to make some cutscenes using the .roq files technique. The problem is that I don't know if the screen display settings can change the way the player sees them.

 

For instance : let's say I make some 16:9 videos, then I put them as materials on the in-game GUI. If a player plays the game in 4:3 display, will the videos be croped? Or, if he plays with some very dark luminosity settings, will the videos be darkened too?

 

These might be some noob questions, but I heard that they have been problems with the spyglass GUI display before, so I'd like to be sure ^^

[Goldwell]

.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Goldwell

[AluminumHaste]

A small question for you people!

 

My first level is now fully playable, and I'm starting to make some cutscenes using the .roq files technique. The problem is that I don't know if the screen display settings can change the way the player sees them.

 

For instance : let's say I make some 16:9 videos, then I put them as materials on the in-game GUI. If a player plays the game in 4:3 display, will the videos be croped? Or, if he plays with some very dark luminosity settings, will the videos be darkened too?

 

These might be some noob questions, but I heard that they have been problems with the spyglass GUI display before, so I'd like to be sure ^^

 

In order to fix the spyglass stretching, I made 4 or 5 different spyglass images with different amounts of stretch to compensate for widescreen strecthing and greebo made some code to pick which one to use.

Your roq will probably stretch, but won't know for sure until you try.

[grayman]

Me made code change.

[AluminumHaste]

Me made code change.

 

Less caveman, more magical being of pure intelligence.

[Deshtat]

Damn, that could really be a problem... x)

 

Well, I don't really mind the stretching, as long as it doesn't crop it, or it's not too shocking. But if I have to make 4 or 5 videos with different display settings for each cutscene, the mission folder will get really heavy...

 

I'll give it a try. Thanks! I may come back to you, since it's the first time I use GUI and materials...