Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[RPGista]

About the malloc error, I dont remember changing anything significant in a working map version (the one that was released), and since it was mostly a cosmetic update (with the conversation issues fix), no, I do not have any backups. Is this caused by excess of entities, some kind of conflict? I did put my own bench model there as a test and I saw an error about it on dmap...

Edited January 29, 2013 by RPGista

[Fidcal]

Go back to your released version then and work forward to see what precisely triggered the error.

[grayman]

I remember discussing this problem around the time of the Vertical contest.

 

IIRC, it's a rendering problem with the z buffer. While backing away, at some point the dirt texture is going to think it should paint on top of textures that can be even several units in front of that wall, as indicated in Moonbo's snaps above. You can even see the effect in DR with certain textures. It's probably some floating point problem in the renderer, when it calculates the distances from the camera to the surfaces involved.

 

So, @Moonbo, the only solution available to you is to pull your door away from the wall behind it until the effect goes away at the farthest distance you expect the player to be able to see it.

 

Or, cut your door into the wall and place the dirt texture in such a way that none of the dark bits paint over the doorway.

 

Or, don't worry about it. We've seen it often enough in existing missions.

[grayman]

About the malloc error, I dont remember changing anything significant in a working map version (the one that was released), and since it was mostly a cosmetic update (with the conversation issues fix), no, I do not have any backups. Is this caused by excess of entities, some kind of conflict? I did put my own bench model there as a test and I saw an error about it on dmap...

 

You don't have snapshot turned on in DR? If not, I heartily recommend doing that. Snapshots have saved my butt a few times.

 

Edit->Preferences->Autosave, then click the "Save Snapshots" button.

 

You might find that it was already selected, and that you have snapshot backups in your maps/snapshots folder.

[Moonbo]

Thanks guys, I'll probably just erase the grime :-(.

[nbohr1more]

Thanks guys, I'll probably just erase the grime :-(.

 

There is a material property for decals:

 

polygonOffset 1

 

which is included in DECAL_MACRO

 

that should stop z-fighting.

 

If the DECAL_MACRO keyword or polygonOffset 1 property is not in your material file then

you will have z-fighting.

 

If one or the other are in your material file, and this is still happening, then this is a bug in the renderer.

 

You might be able to compensate by increasing the polygon offset value eg; polygonOffset 2.

[Moonbo]

Thanks nbohr1more, I'll look into it, but messing with material shaders in general scares me :-P.

 

I've got a general question about map size and map performance. I'm putting some finishing touches on my map so-far in order to send it to Bikerdude to get his once-over. As part of this I went back and played through the start of my map, and to my surprise there was a pretty significant drop in performance. I double checked to see if there were any visportals, etc that were busted but everything seems to be in good shape. I even erased all the lights and still, the framerate was poorer than before. It makes me wonder...is there some sort of effect on performance just based on overall map size? My map isn't massively large, but is it possible that it's hit some sort of "critical mass" which dings performance?

[Baddcog]

Biker will be able to give you good advice on that when he sees it, but map size really shouldn't effect performance at all if it is portalled well.

 

Of course maps in later stages will be slower than earlier... ai thinking, more tris, shadows, etc...

 

But size alone should really only effect load time.

------

 

Since you said 'I'm putting some finishing touches on my map so-far' I am going to guess you maybe sprung an internal leak.

 

I just had one myself that took an hour to fix, basically a u shaped hallway. Each end of the U was leaking to the other under the floor. All the portals worked seems to work (they were green [aka showing up] and they would close. But the portals in the middle of the u would close off, the ones on the ends ...well anyway...

 

Sometimes you spring a leak from one zone to another. If portals are sealed right they will still be green and work (close and turn red) but not always properly. It won't crash due to leak because it's all within the hull of the map.

But it can diminish performance in areas because more of the map is open than you intended.

=======

You said you deleted all the lights which really are the largest performance drain.

 

Next would be AI probably. Did you add like 10 of them between testing periods?

---

Obviously if performance was good, you changed some stuff and then it was bad, something happened along the way to effect it.

 

The obvious guesses are >tons of lights, tons of ai, internal leaks...

[Obsttorte]

Regarding internal leaks: the console command "r_showTris 3" shows you what is currently rendered. This way you can look up if something is rendered that shouldn't.

[Springheel]

Here's another method: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Performance:_Essential_Must-Knows#Internal_Leaks

[Baddcog]

funny, after I posted that I went in game and was getting some spikes down to 40 and 20 fps from 60 that I hadn't noticed before. I realized this time I had quite a few programs running in the background. I shut them down and was back to a smooth 60. (vsynch)

[Jesps]

Is it possible to call a map script when the player presses a given key on the keyboard?

[Obsttorte]

What kind of key. Should it be one associated with a certain command (like the "map" key or so). If so it should be possible. In general I guess not.

[Fidcal]

There is a console command to call script so it should be possible to do it by binding a key something like this:

 

bind "F6" "script myscript"

 

You would need to inform players that they must set the bind either in Darkmod.cfg or manually in the console (or I think it might be set in an autoexec.cfg in the pk4 but that needs care to not conflict with anything the player has set. Needs a bit of thought but might be possible.

[Obsttorte]

This sounds messy.

 

@Jesps: Can I ask you what exactly you are aiming for. This would make it easier to provide solutions.

[RPGista]

Having a bit of a problem setting up darkmod to play my missions' "project" - appearently DR is working fine and referencing everything in the mission folder as I edit it, but the project path in the darkmod exe is not working (I remember seeing that there were changes to this somewhere) - was locating an older version in maps folder, instead of finding my mission folder and using those files. Can someone show me an example of how to set up darkmod to play a project in this version?

[Obsttorte]

+set fs_game mymap?!

[Fidcal]

The shortcut should target: TheDarkMod.exe and include the argument: +set fs_currentfm gamefolder

 

I've also got the shortcut start in field as the gamefolder too but I don't know if it's essential.

[Obsttorte]

Actually it should be even enough to write the folder name into the currentfm.txt file.

[Jesps]

This sounds messy.

 

@Jesps: Can I ask you what exactly you are aiming for. This would make it easier to provide solutions.

 

Say I have two functions in my mapname.script file; one called foo() and one called bar()

Now I want the map to call foo() each time the player presses e.g. 'A' and bar() when he presses 'D'. It is not important exactely which keys are used, and it is ok if they overlap with other funtionality, such as movement, since I can just teleport the player to a blue-room, and have him look though a camera.

[Obsttorte]

There is a script function called getButtons(). The problem is that it only reacts distinguishable to mouse keys/keyboard in the following manner. If nothing is pressed it returns 16, if a keyboard key is pessed it returns 48, if the right or the left mouse key is pressed it return 17, and if the middle mouse button is pressed it returns 20. There is another script function called getMouseGesture() which returns numbers according to the moving direction of the mouse. I don't know which numbers exactly as I didn't tested it. mouseGestureFinished() returns true if the player is not moving his mouse.

[Jesps]

Hmm... so it can only tell if a button has been pressed then :/

[Obsttorte]

Seems so. But if you only need two buttons anyway, you could use the left mouse and middle mouse button for example.

[Sotha]

Jesps, could you achieve it by having an item in your inventory and the player would select it and press enter, which would call the script? ("Remote control button A" and "Remote control button B" inventory items)

 

Or is it a minigame? Could it be done with a gui that is overlaid in player view, usable with the mouse? ("steampunk cannon controls: turn left, right and fire buttons.")

 

Sounds intriguingly unusual, is this for the unusual mission contest?

[RPGista]

The shortcut should target: TheDarkMod.exe and include the argument: +set fs_currentfm gamefolder

 

I've also got the shortcut start in field as the gamefolder too but I don't know if it's essential.

 

Ok, so I put this there and now Im kicked out of TDM when its booting, some doom3 fatal error, Im sure its something obvious Im missing...

"C:\Jogos\Doom3\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe +set fs_currentfm remembrance"

 

The mission folder is located inside darkmod\fms