Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[demagogue]

I think it would be smart to go ahead and start a "Newbie thread" that covers all newbie questions in one place, as with the TDS Forum. It doesn't have to be this one, just for future reference.

 

Aaanyway, I was going through the A-Z Tutorial, and right about the time you make the pool of water, I fixed some leaks, thought I got them all. Now it won't Dmap again, but when I hit Pointfile, it says "Could not open pointfile: E:/games/ ... /TutorialMap.lin" I don't know why since it's been working up to now.

 

So if I have a leak I can't find it, but it's troubling just that Pointfile suddenly, inexplicably doesn't open! There isn't any ".lin" file either; not sure what happened to it.

Any ideas?

 

Edit: I started a map from scratch and Pointfile didn't show up again. So whatever it is, it isn't something I messed up in that first map, but a general problem I'm having with DR.

Edit2: But it does Dmap and Map just fine, so that's ok.

Edited March 24, 2009 by demagogue

[Baal]

What error message does dmap print to the console?

[Komag]

I've never had this problem so I can't help, sorry!

[demagogue]

Ah, I was looking through that huge line of text at all the red words, that I didn't notice the simple Error message at the very bottom: Multiple entities named 'ambient_world'.

 

Edit: Ok, the A-Z tutorial has you make an ambient for the water, and when I made it, it got the same name as the first one we were to make "ambient_world" (maybe I just copied it?), when obviously it should be named something like "ambient_pool".

 

So I assume the simple answer is to just rename the second one (and generally speaking always rename copied or new entities); so I'll do that.

Edit2: Yes, that did the trick. Dmaps and works fine now.

 

BUT that still doesn't tell me what happened to Pointfile.

Or does it only work when there's actually a leak and I'm supposed to get that message if there isn't one?

 

Edit3: Tested with an intentional leak. Ok, I'm getting it. You have to Dmap it with the leak, get the error, then you run Pointfile and gives you the redline. Otherwise, I suppose, there's nothing for it to say and you get the "Could not open..." message. Well, it's news for me anyway.

Edited March 24, 2009 by demagogue

[Komag]

Yes there is only a pointfile when there's a leak, so if you actually fixed the leaks and had a different problem remaining then there would be no pointfile

[Baal]

Multiple entities named 'ambient_world'.

That shouldn't happen. The editor renames copies so there are no two entities with the same name. Can you reproduce this?

[demagogue]

Yes, I reproduced it just now. I selected the "ambient_pool", hit space, moved it out, and now both are named "ambient_pool". Did it again ... and again. Using DR version 0.9.12.x86, the one just released March 12.

[Komag]

Hmm, odd, that was an old problem but I thought it was totally fixed - Greebo will have to respond...

[Baal]

Did you update an older installation of the editor? Maybe it's an outdated module .dll.

[demagogue]

Nope, fresh install of the Mar 12, 2009 version. Most dll's are dated around 1/2009, the oldest is like 10/2008.

 

Edit: To address the next post, yeah, dlls in the \modules directory are all dated March 12.

Edited March 25, 2009 by demagogue

[Baal]

I'm thinking of the dlls in the \modules directory. They should be dated march 12. But that was just a vague idea anyway.

[demagogue]

Aha, the Entity Properties are case sensitive.

 

When you clone, the "name" indeed changes. But following the tutorial I added a new value "Name", which overruled the "name" property but didn't replace it; the "name" remained. BUT the "Name" didn't change when I cloned it, only the "name" changed. The clone still carried the same "Name". And that led to the error when I dmapped it, and I had two "Name"s that were the same, even though the two "name"s were still different. (Sorry if the explanation is confusing.)

 

There's a subtle trap a newbie might fall into.

 

The Tutorial ought to warn you about case-sensitivity when you're entering values by hand. (Edit: To be fair, it does warn you about double names later on.)

But it wouldn't hurt for DR to look for traps like that if it's possible/practical.

Edited March 25, 2009 by demagogue

[Baal]

The Tutorial ought to warn you about case-sensitivity when you're entering values by hand.

But it wouldn't hurt for DR to look for traps like that if it's possible/practical.

Yes, I will report that to the bugtracker.

[Mudkipz]

Hi

 

Could someone tell me how to make an archway intersection, similar to what is shown on the vaulting junctions tutorial, but instead of having a 4 way junction, I want a T-intersection between two vaulted corridors.

In dromed, it was as easy as making two cylinder brushes intersect, but for some reason I cant seem to find a nice way to do this (with brushes) on dark radiant.

Although my main interest is to know how to pull this off with only brushes, I'd really appreciate if someone told me an efficient method to do this with patches.

 

Thanks

[Komag]

I personally would definitely use patches, particularly since they are much better to texture. You quite simply just need three patches set up as arches/bends for the ceilings, then drag the proper vertex points to all meet together at the intersection.

 

I've made a short instructional video - will put up soon...

[Komag]

Okay, here's a tutorial video that shows the basics of setting up a T intersection with arches.

 

Good quality version:

http://www.shadowdarkkeep.com/files/KomagTut_Arches_3m.wmv (154MB, 6:49, 3mbps)

 

Low quality version:

http://www.shadowdarkkeep.com/files/KomagTut_Arches_1m.wmv (52MB, 6:49, 1mbps)

 

 

(I plan to make a series of these tutorials for a variety of subjects eventually, to go along with the basic tutorial)

[SneaksieDave]

DarkRadiant, is it any wonder we love thee?

[demagogue]

I am really bowled over by DR so far ... certainly compared to Dromed lol.

That patch video inspired me to make some rolling foothills up to a little house, and a cliff down to the water below, entirely out of big patches, and it worked just peachy. Really unimaginable before!

 

Just another quick thing. Looking back at the A-Z tutorial, it actually uses the term "Name" at the bottom of page 2 ("In the Entity Inspector select the 'Name' line"), so for now that could be changed to "name" as a quick fix so some newbie like me doesn't type the wrong thing in. Also needs to switch "L" and "J".

 

Edit: Oh, I guess there are a lot of changes it'll have to make as DR updates anyway ... Might wait until everything's a little more settled and do it in one big swoop.

Edited March 26, 2009 by demagogue

[Flanders]

Just another quick thing. Looking back at the A-Z tutorial, it actually uses the term "Name" at the bottom of page 2 ("In the Entity Inspector select the 'Name' line"), so for now that could be changed to "name" as a quick fix so some newbie like me doesn't type the wrong thing in. Also needs to switch "L" and "J".

There can be some errors in the tutorials. You can create an account and help us keep the wiki's up to date and error free.

 

Edit: Oh, I guess there are a lot of changes it'll have to make as DR updates anyway ... Might wait until everything's a little more settled and do it in one big swoop.

DR and the mod are changing continuously, better to keep the wiki articles up to date as much as we can. Especially on the things you mention that can be misleading for starting mappers.

[SneaksieDave]

I took care of two instances of case in the article, thanks. But yes, making an account is a good idea (assuming it extends beyond members at this point).

[New Horizon]

Great video.

[OrbWeaver]

Good quality version:

http://www.shadowdarkkeep.com/files/komagtut_arches_3m.wmv (154MB, 6:49, 3mbps)

 

I believe the reason your first patch was created sideways is that the orientation of the patch follows the 2D view, so if you create it from the top view, you get a horizontal patch etc. Watching the video carefully, it looks llike the last 2D view used before creating the patch was the side view, which would be consistent with this behaviour.

 

Try selecting the brush in the top view before you create the patch, and see if the patch is created horizontally; this certainly works in my tests.

[New Horizon]

Hope you don't mind Komag, I posted a link to the low res version on TTLG. Thought some folks might find it interesting

[Komag]

No problem! (but why not both, or why not only the good version?)

 

(and that's good to know about the patch orientation - I'll try that out)

[demagogue]

Two buggy things to ask:

 

1. This room suddenly turns into a no-mans land when I walk into it (I'm inside in this screenshot); the floor goes black, and the walls, ceiling, and sound disappear, and when I walk to a connecting hallway, that part is ok, but looking back into this room it's completely blacked out at the intersection with the hallway, like a portal turned off (though there's no portal there).

 

And I noticed when I did "r_showportals", all the portals everywhere turned green, even ones very far away behind lots of walls, when I looked at them inside this room. What's funny is that there's nothing particularly remarkable about the room itself I can figure. Am I doing the portal on the door wrong?

 

2. Other is kind of hard to see, link. I made a patch, thickened it, pushed the end verticies in to make it a bit smaller. Then I noticed the bottom seam doesn't connect, so you can look right through it, through the non-normal side. There aren't verticies right on the seams to close it. Is there a way to either close it, or at least keep light coming through it?

Edited March 29, 2009 by demagogue