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demagogue

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So I'm kind of getting the desired result if I first convert my brushes to a func_static then change the classname to light. The problem is that this appears to cause bugs at least in the editor: You need to do this conversion at origin 0 0 0 otherwise the mesh will appear offset. Even if you do this however, the model won't move when you move the light in DarkRadiant, although its vertices appear in the correct position... looks like a bug to be honest.

8MAEusI.png

Update: I found a way around this particular problem! What I need to do is the following steps:

  1. Create my light brushes and convert them to a func_static.
  2. Separately create my light entity somewhere nearby and give it all the needed properties.
  3. Look at the model number in the name on my func_static entity. Then select the light entity and give it the property "model func_static_1".

Now the light will use my brushes as a model without any glitches! Only problem is that this method raises a few questions: What happens if I delete the original func_static, can I do that or must I keep it somewhere on the map separately? In fact, what if I were to export this light as a prefab, without the original func_static entity included... would the brushes be exported accordingly with it and stick?

Update 2: Just answered my own question. Unfortunately the original func_static must also be placed somewhere on the map, if I remove it the light's model turns into a black box. In this case: How can I make the func_static completely invisible and non-colliding, so that it's only there to be referenced but its mesh is only really used by the light entity?

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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Had a longer discussion on Discord about the lights (thanks go to @peter_spy for offering quite a bit of help). In the end I figured out a way to obtain what I want... a little hacky if you're strict about the setup, but I looked into every method I'm planning to use and everything seems to be in order not something I'd expect to break in future TDM versions.

There was another list of things going through my mind, as I'm trying to take notes for multiple features I plan to use at various points. To count down another question off my list:

Is there a map setting that permits me to have lower gravity? Yes, I know this isn't scifi and I'm not trying to make space ships or anything (hmmm... should I though...): I'm thinking of using this for stuff like surreal realms or hellish worlds and that sort of thing. I'm okay with the setting being universal to that map (not area based) but will want it to affect everything including the player (who can jump higher and fall more slowly) as well as physical objects like if you pick up and throw a candle.

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Since TDM is derived from Doom 3, changing the gravity should be as simple as changing the "gravity" spawnarg on a worldspawn brush. Haven't tested how well this actually works nowadays, though.

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1 hour ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Had a longer discussion on Discord about the lights (thanks go to @peter_spy for offering quite a bit of help). In the end I figured out a way to obtain what I want... a little hacky if you're strict about the setup, but I looked into every method I'm planning to use and everything seems to be in order not something I'd expect to break in future TDM versions.

There was another list of things going through my mind, as I'm trying to take notes for multiple features I plan to use at various points. To count down another question off my list:

Is there a map setting that permits me to have lower gravity? Yes, I know this isn't scifi and I'm not trying to make space ships or anything (hmmm... should I though...): I'm thinking of using this for stuff like surreal realms or hellish worlds and that sort of thing. I'm okay with the setting being universal to that map (not area based) but will want it to affect everything including the player (who can jump higher and fall more slowly) as well as physical objects like if you pick up and throw a candle.

I think, what you want to achieve can be achieved with a force field. MAybe you could also change stuff in the player entity (see the limits wiki page), but I am not sure if these limits can explicitly defined or if they are set via other args

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6 hours ago, Dragofer said:

Since TDM is derived from Doom 3, changing the gravity should be as simple as changing the "gravity" spawnarg on a worldspawn brush. Haven't tested how well this actually works nowadays, though.

Thanks: Changing the "gravity" spawnarg in worldspawn does just what I want. Though like many untested features it's not free of bugs: The player remains stuck in the air after setting that to any custom value, they only fall again if they are moving. No idea why horizontal movement is required for vertical movement to work then, I need to open a bug report.

I was going to next ask how I can create AI conversations using the existing voices, but I already figured that out easily: You can explore any voice on a speaker, then even point directly to that ogg file from the conversation editor.

Something I couldn't find on the wiki still is how to have characters do some more complex animations; I already know how to find an animation in the "md5 animation viewer" then set it on a path. But for example: How do I override the default idle animation, or walking animation, or sitting animation... so when a character normally does those things they use a special override for each one? For instance: When they sit down, sit like a beggar instead of like on a chair. I've even seen some FM's make guards pee on trees (particle effects and all) but how is even that achieved? Also many FM's have characters armed with non-standard weapons, like spears or maces... where do I find those in a format that allows me to def_attach them on an AI so it also changes their fighting behavior?

And I'm assuming that if an animation doesn't show up in the md5 viewer, something like it doesn't exist? I was hoping for a few extra ones... such as praying (eg: for builders) or dancing (could have sure used that at the banquet in my FM).

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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2 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Thanks: Changing the "gravity" spawnarg in worldspawn does just what I want. Though like many untested features it's not free of bugs: The player remains stuck in the air after setting that to any custom value, they only fall again if they are moving. No idea why horizontal movement is required for vertical movement to work then, I need to open a bug report.

This is a corner case that will be used in like 0.01% of times at best. I'd suggest not to waste developers' time, they have tons of work as it is.

Edited by peter_spy
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6 hours ago, peter_spy said:

This is a corner case that will be used in like 0.01% of times at best. I'd suggest not to waste developers' time, they have tons of work as it is.

It's a small bug with an obvious feature, no crime in reporting it. Smaller things have been reported over time. Some bugs take years to fix (as a general rule, even outside of TDM) so I'm sure time can be found at the devs own pace.

Any thoughts on my last question about complex character animations and effects please? I forgot to add another little question to it last night: Whenever I design the bathroom of a house, I run into having no proper toilet and sink... there is a metal bathtub that's perfect but what about toilets and sinks and maybe even a cabinet with glass doors? I know I've seen them in at least a few other FM's, I think one was Not An Ordinary Guest which had complete and modern bathrooms in its hotel.

Also I've seen some FM's with marble floors that reflect a cubemap. What are the reflective types of stone called so I can find them in need? I've experimented with different textures in the Stone directory but never found shiny surfaces.

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5 minutes ago, MirceaKitsune said:

It's a small bug with an obvious feature

It's not a bug, as it was never shown or promised anywhere as a feature :) Doom 3 didn't use it AFAIR, so it's more like some kind of leftover code.

Maybe it was built upon and used in Prey, as it had some more crazy features, like walking on walls upside down, but I don't recall that either.

Edited by peter_spy
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10 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Something I couldn't find on the wiki still is how to have characters do some more complex animations; I already know how to find an animation in the "md5 animation viewer" then set it on a path. But for example: How do I override the default idle animation, or walking animation, or sitting animation... so when a character normally does those things they use a special override for each one? For instance: When they sit down, sit like a beggar instead of like on a chair. I've even seen some FM's make guards pee on trees (particle effects and all) but how is even that achieved? Also many FM's have characters armed with non-standard weapons, like spears or maces... where do I find those in a format that allows me to def_attach them on an AI so it also changes their fighting behavior?

And I'm assuming that if an animation doesn't show up in the md5 viewer, something like it doesn't exist? I was hoping for a few extra ones... such as praying (eg: for builders) or dancing (could have sure used that at the banquet in my FM).

Peeing is an animation that you can find in the md5 animation viewer. It is called "urinate". Adding particles to animations can be done via frame commands, if they are not already included (like it is the case for urinate). You can even call scripts and do other stuff at a certain frame of an animation with these commands.

For different weapons on AI, you can check out this Wiki page, although it is not complete. Apparently, it is sufficient to simply def_attach the weapon you want and the rest is automated like when you attach a torch.

Additional animations are rather difficult. Some only require specific channels of the AI, so it works that you first play that (e.g. sit) and then use an animation that only uses the upper body. However, praying would be rather difficult in this regard, because the animation you would most likely need is kneel_down, but the AI stands up during animation itself, so I assume that you cannot couple it to another animation.
And dancing is very difficult to animate, if you don't want it to look compeletely silly. I have only dabbled in very basic animations and have seen that even something like that is difficult to get to look realistic. Dancing has quite complex movements and as a consequence is way harder to get right in animations.

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2 hours ago, Destined said:

Peeing is an animation that you can find in the md5 animation viewer. It is called "urinate". Adding particles to animations can be done via frame commands, if they are not already included (like it is the case for urinate). You can even call scripts and do other stuff at a certain frame of an animation with these commands.

For different weapons on AI, you can check out this Wiki page, although it is not complete. Apparently, it is sufficient to simply def_attach the weapon you want and the rest is automated like when you attach a torch.

Additional animations are rather difficult. Some only require specific channels of the AI, so it works that you first play that (e.g. sit) and then use an animation that only uses the upper body. However, praying would be rather difficult in this regard, because the animation you would most likely need is kneel_down, but the AI stands up during animation itself, so I assume that you cannot couple it to another animation.
And dancing is very difficult to animate, if you don't want it to look compeletely silly. I have only dabbled in very basic animations and have seen that even something like that is difficult to get to look realistic. Dancing has quite complex movements and as a consequence is way harder to get right in animations.

IMO TDM would benefit immensely from Mixamo free animations and even characters, "You can use both characters and animations royalty free for personal, commercial, and non-profit projects" their FAQ page, this of course if any TDM animator would be willing to import them. 

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5 hours ago, Destined said:

Peeing is an animation that you can find in the md5 animation viewer. It is called "urinate". Adding particles to animations can be done via frame commands, if they are not already included (like it is the case for urinate). You can even call scripts and do other stuff at a certain frame of an animation with these commands.

For different weapons on AI, you can check out this Wiki page, although it is not complete. Apparently, it is sufficient to simply def_attach the weapon you want and the rest is automated like when you attach a torch.

Additional animations are rather difficult. Some only require specific channels of the AI, so it works that you first play that (e.g. sit) and then use an animation that only uses the upper body. However, praying would be rather difficult in this regard, because the animation you would most likely need is kneel_down, but the AI stands up during animation itself, so I assume that you cannot couple it to another animation.
And dancing is very difficult to animate, if you don't want it to look compeletely silly. I have only dabbled in very basic animations and have seen that even something like that is difficult to get to look realistic. Dancing has quite complex movements and as a consequence is way harder to get right in animations.

Thanks, that clears up quite a bit. I now remember reading about those frame commands briefly a while ago. This sort of thing is why I love idTech4... people can point out it's a 15 year old engine all they want, it's still cutting edge tech to me 😄

So simply giving the AI an animation with effects using a path_anim node should work, the effects happen automatically for existing ones? Like peeing animation has particles, dice playing animation has the dice roll sounds, etc?

I'm still assuming that to override the animation of a specific AI, I need to use a spawnarg on either the path (ideally) or the AI entity. Like if I want the AI to walk using a specific walking animation, can I give the path_corner a direction in that sense? Or like my previous example... if I want an AI to sit on the ground using the beggar animation, can I tell path_sit I want an override when the AI uses it?

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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14 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Thanks, that clears up quite a bit. I now remember reading about those frame commands briefly a while ago. This sort of thing is why I love idTech4... people can point out it's a 15 year old engine all they want, it's still cutting edge tech to me 😄

So simply giving the AI an animation with effects using a path_anim node should work, the effects happen automatically for existing ones? Like peeing animation has particles, dice playing animation has the dice roll sounds, etc?

I'm still assuming that to override the animation of a specific AI, I need to use a spawnarg on either the path (ideally) or the AI entity. Like if I want the AI to walk using a specific walking animation, can I give the path_corner a direction in that sense? Or like my previous example... if I want an AI to sit on the ground using the beggar animation, can I tell path_sit I want an override when the AI uses it?

Yes, usually the animations already have the required particles and sounds. Regarding AIs playing cards or dice, take a look at the AI prefabs. There are ones for playing cards as well as dice. In case of playing cards, the animations are defined on the playing cards and do not need to be definded on the path-entity. Just take a look at the spawnargs they have. There are several "replace_anim_*" spawnargs, that define which animations will replaced with which, when the prop is attached.

I am not sure which other walking animations you mean. There is the option to let an AI run towards a path_corner with the "run" spawnarg on corner the AI should run to. Apart from that, I am not sure, which other walk animations there are, or which you want to use. One option would be the said "replace_anim_*" spawnarg on props. You could create a dummy-prop without a model, replace any animation with the respective spawnarg, and def_attach it to the AI. Also not sure which animation you mean for the beggar. Do we have one, where he sits on the ground? I did not see it...

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4 hours ago, Destined said:

Yes, usually the animations already have the required particles and sounds. Regarding AIs playing cards or dice, take a look at the AI prefabs. There are ones for playing cards as well as dice. In case of playing cards, the animations are defined on the playing cards and do not need to be definded on the path-entity. Just take a look at the spawnargs they have. There are several "replace_anim_*" spawnargs, that define which animations will replaced with which, when the prop is attached.

I am not sure which other walking animations you mean. There is the option to let an AI run towards a path_corner with the "run" spawnarg on corner the AI should run to. Apart from that, I am not sure, which other walk animations there are, or which you want to use. One option would be the said "replace_anim_*" spawnarg on props. You could create a dummy-prop without a model, replace any animation with the respective spawnarg, and def_attach it to the AI. Also not sure which animation you mean for the beggar. Do we have one, where he sits on the ground? I did not see it...

That covers it I think. Yeah running was one idea I had, "run 1" on the path_corner does what I want. For the rest "replace_anim_* anim" is exactly what I was looking for... I mainly needed "replace_anim_idle" and "replace_anim_idle_sit".

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Idle_Animations

Edited by MirceaKitsune
Removed a question I found the answer to
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Any news on the assets I was looking for please, if any exist in TDM by default? I was looking for shiny marble stone floors, as in ones that have cubemap reflections (realtime would be ideal but I haven't see any of those). Also is there anything resembling a modern toilet and sink so that normal bathrooms can be designed?

I also wanted to double-check something else, so that I can better understand visportals and not make the same performance mistakes as my previous FM; I have an outdoor map where the boundaries are textured with textures/smf/portal_sky. Is it safe to use this texture on brushes that can be seen from all sides as well, in order to create sealed portals around them? Like can I make a sky pillar? Obviously the player will not see what's behind it but see the skybox through it as normal, that's the intent... just making sure it will work that way though. The idea is to use additional sky brushes along rooftops (where the player can't normally reach and see any anomalies) to create additional sealed areas.

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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Another one before I forget again: Is it possible to make path nodes trigger an entity when an AI reaches them?

I'm mainly thinking of path_sit / path_sleep / path_anim here: It would be very useful if paths that cause the AI to temporarily spend time on them could trigger an entity. First when the AI enters that path (eg: sat down) then when the AI exits that path (eg: stood up). Could be used to have something like a gate that only opens while an AI is sitting on the chair and closes again once they get back up, so the player has to sneak through while the character is sitting.

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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32 minutes ago, grayman said:

Yes

look up path nodes on the wiki

Oh... I did before posting this but it seems I missed it. Looking at their page again, I understand a path_* can target other entities the same way it targets other paths, in which case they will get triggered? So for instance: If I have path_corner_0 and path_corner_1, and path_corner_0 has the spawnargs "target0 path_corner_1" and "target1 trigger_relay", the AI will continue to path_corner_1 but trigger_relay will also be triggered at that instant?

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23 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

I was looking for shiny marble stone floors,

I've tiled a room floor with darkmod/stone/flat/smooth/marble_pattern02_checker_polished. In-game, it has a nice sheen, a subtle "oil slick" rainbow-y effect. I suspect if you search "polished" in the Texture Media, there's a few more good candidates.

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10 minutes ago, Geep said:

I've tiled a room floor with darkmod/stone/flat/smooth/marble_pattern02_checker_polished. In-game, it has a nice sheen, a subtle "oil slick" rainbow-y effect. I suspect if you search "polished" in the Texture Media, there's a few more good candidates.

That seems to be the one, thanks! I prolly need to look for the ones ending in _polished then. Only annoyance is that the cubemap it's using seems to be both super low-res and also has sharp edges around the corners due to the cube faces not connecting properly; Would be nice if that could be improved. I currently have a dark unfinished interior which makes this easy to see.

dividing_2020-11-14_15_40_49.thumb.jpg.8f932470ac296b363d3dac27116f4605.jpg

What about a proper toilet and sink? Any way to find those in the default assets so I don't have to make unfinished bathrooms with very limited alternatives?

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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Regarding bathroom fixtures, yeah, mostly you have boards with holes, buckets, chamberpots, wash basins. These are historically apt for the medieval period. I view TDM as covering up to about 1860 in terms of technology. Indoor plumbing was available to ancient rulers in some countries, and to rich people in the West in the 1830s. But not to the masses until the 1880s and well into the next century.  (It helped to invent toilet paper in the 1860s).

So you could have an early-style water closet, with the water tank near the ceiling, in a royal manor house. Not a standard asset that I know of.

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Okay. Another quickie before bed: Is it possible to have an AI who always turns their head toward the player as a fun little effect, whenever the player is within a given range from the character? Must work as the player moves around of course. Obviously I want this for a non-hostile AI as for a hostile one this would logically imply they're seeing you.

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14 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Okay. Another quickie before bed: Is it possible to have an AI who always turns their head toward the player as a fun little effect, whenever the player is within a given range from the character? Must work as the player moves around of course. Obviously I want this for a non-hostile AI as for a hostile one this would logically imply they're seeing you.

Yes. You have to extent the ai's base script. I think Springheel already utilized this as an aberation of my trigger_look script. Probably for "A New Job".

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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