Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[nbohr1more]

 

This is a stock light texture which uses brightround, like many others, as its falloffimage:

 

lights/tdm_lanternlight

 

{

lightFalloffImage makeintensity( textures/lights/brightround )

{

forceHighQuality

map textures/lights/tdm_lanternlight

colored

zeroClamp

red ((.02 * sintable [(time * ( 1 + Parm3 ) ) ]) +.98) * Parm0

green ((.02 * sintable [(time * ( 1 + Parm3 ) ) ]) +.98) * Parm1

blue ((.02 * sintable [(time * ( 1 + Parm3 ) ) ]) +.98) * Parm2

}

}

 

 

 

I've literally been through all suitable stock light textures and they all cut off to black like this when they're set to project, it's strange.

 

 

 

Try

 

 

 
lights/tdm_lanternlight_dragofer
 
{
  lightFalloffImage makeintensity( textures/lights/xfalloff )
 
  {
    forceHighQuality
    map textures/lights/tdm_lanternlight
    colored
    zeroClamp
    red ((.02 * sintable [(time * ( 1 + Parm3 ) ) ]) +.98) * Parm0
    green ((.02 * sintable [(time * ( 1 + Parm3 ) ) ]) +.98) * Parm1
    blue ((.02 * sintable [(time * ( 1 + Parm3 ) ) ]) +.98) * Parm2
   }
 
}
 

[Dragofer]

Try:

 

Thanks, with a little bit of extra work it's now looking realistic when it moves towards and away from walls and corners, except for a graphical glitch - the lamp now shines in both directions. Here were my steps:

 

 

 

- textures/lights/xfalloff needs to be just lights/xfalloff

- The falloff image wasn't quite right because it's bright only in the middle, so the lamp became very weak when it came close to surfaces.

- So I duplicated the file and cropped off one half in Gimp so that it's bright on one end and becomes dark on the other end. The lamp intensity now changes realistically, but there's that glitchy backward ray now.

- This was exported as .tga without RLE compression, origin at the bottom left. Also tried with RLE compression and/or origin at top left, same outcome.

 

 

Some troubleshooting I made:

- I've tried to exclude the possibility of a technical error by re-exporting the original. Another thing I did was to duplicate the original and inside of that file recreate the original bidirectional gradient. Both worked normally.

 

- The cropped version was only half as long as the original, so I made a new version: I duplicated the original, deleted everything and filled in a new gradient. That didn't change anything - the backward ray was still there.

[Melan]

I'm asking here, with hopefully more success than on the main page: What is your favourite flickering light texture?

[Bikerdude]

Can't remember the name, but its the one with the most random flicker, I think its the one using the "s_shader" "light_flicker_104" that also happens to be the least obtrusive.

[AluminumHaste]

I like the one that flickers in time with the machine sound of the round generator.

[Melan]

More questioning!

 

How large can a map_of.tga image (the in-game map thingy) be? Can I get away with something like 1280x960? More than that? Or is that going to cause problems for people?

[nbohr1more]

2048x2048 is the largest that (AMD) 2006 vintage hardware will support (nvidia had 4096x4096 support then).

I guarantee that anything 5yrs old or newer can handle far more than that, but it's a good baseline.

 

Edit: DX10 hardware is required to have 8192x8192 support. DX11 and higher require 16384x16384.

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476876%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

So 8192x8192 or higher as of 2007 hardware.

[Bikerdude]

More questioning!

 

How large can a map_of.tga image (the in-game map thingy) be? Can I get away with something like 1280x960? More than that? Or is that going to cause problems for people?

the map res I used for BCD was very similar

[Melan]

It was more like 800x1024, and it had a transparency layer behind it to round it our to 1024x1024. Won't my image get stretched, or become larger than the screen are for people playing on lower resolutions?

[nbohr1more]

I'm pretty sure it auto-scales but you need to include a good baseline window def and ideally you want to make your image in HD aspect then squeeze it into a standard

aspect and let the engine stretch it back to HD. I can play with the map in BCD tonight to check the behaviors and verify. (I fixed it a few times so that's one I'm getting familiar

with, though I would defer to Obsttorte or Grayman for true expertise in GUI behavior.)

[Nico A.]

I'm getting a leaked warning but can't figure out why.

 

The map only consists of a single room yet. Its walls are all covered with patches that are all bulged somewhat to make it look organic. The only entities are the player start and an ambient light, both well placed inside the room and not between patches or something.

Also, I get a could not open pointfile error in Dark Radiant.

 

Does someone have a tip what I could check to track down the origin of the problem?

 

edit: even after removing all the patches the problem remains.

 

edit2: I had to delete the room for whatever reason and create a new one. Now everything works. Would still be interesting to know what caused these errors...

Edited May 3, 2016 by Nico A.

[Bikerdude]

Drop me a Pm of the map and I will find and show you where the leak is..

[Aosys]

I once got a leak that I couldn't figure out for the longest time; turns out it was because a func_static's origin was out in the void, which apparently DR doesn't like. Dunno if that was your problem here?

[Obsttorte]

You can use the pointfile to track down leaks.

[Nico A.]

You can use the pointfile to track down leaks.

Dark Radiant says there is no pointfile, even after the dmap.

Thanks for the PM offer

I deleted the room and now I can't recreate the problem anymore. Moving on...

Edited May 4, 2016 by Nico A.

[Melan]

Moar questions! (Although not strictly TDM-related)

 

What kind of simple, free software would you recommend to rip the audio track from a video file? Especially if there are multiple audio tracks.

[Bikerdude]

Where is the video file, online or local..?

 

If you have the file there are a number of of online sitres that do this, eg -

 

http://audio-extractor.net/

[Melan]

Thanks! Got the job done.

[Melan]

Newbie-ing intensifies!

 

Is there a relatively simple way to make a patrolling AI follow another patrolling AI?

[Bikerdude]

Im sure someone did this, but can't recollect who..

[SteveL]

Springheel did it in A Reputation to Uphold. I don't know how he did it. but the FM folder is fms/follow if you want to unpack the pk4 and take a look.

[nbohr1more]

Pretty sure path_follow_actor is what you want. Yes, A Reputation to Uphold does it.

[Spooks]

I'm trying to get a func_portal with a lod_bias to work, but when you start the map func_portal doesn't close the portal. You have to change the LOD setting in game for it to activate. Alternatively, you have to type tdm_lod_bias_changed in the console. Is this a known bug?

[Bikerdude]

There are 2 arg's you have to apply -

• portal_dist
• dist_check

I dont beleve you can use LOD bias on a func_portal.

[demagogue]

So say I wanted non-violent but still functional gameplay. How would I set it up so that when a hostile AI touches the player (or within a proximity if AI don't touch players) the player teleports back to the entrance, as if caught & thrown out? (Digi's Tales of the Pentetant Thief did this in T2.)

 

I suppose AI weapons should be taken out too, but if that complicates things too much, perhaps making them not give damage, and a hit does the teleport.

 

I'm not commited to this yet, but I want to see how it plays. The player probably won't be armed or doing anything illegal, aside from sneaking around some.