Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Spooks]

I think it would be great to have a comprehensive material reference page in the wiki, with code and pictures, since these questions repeat quite often. It's a huge task, but it would be great to have something like this: https://docs.unrealengine.com/udk/Three/MaterialExamples.html

https://www.iddevnet.com/doom3/materials.php fills the gap well enough, I think. idtech4's materials aren't as complex as UE3's. At the very least a mirror of iddevnet's resource over at our wiki would be better than the nothing we have now, though, as you never know when a site might go down.

[peter_spy]

I'm using this and the reference page from ModWiki, but for someone who isn't used to write code, that isn't enough IMO. There are too many things that can go wrong, and your ability to troubleshoot is second to none when you're just starting.

 

I've been writing down the examples I managed to figure out, and those you all helped me with, in my WIP thread, so that may someday be used as a base of references for someone who doesn't want to learn GLSL.

 

[Destined]

Is there a way to loop an animation for an AI? I want an AI to sit down and just repeat the eating animation. I can get the effect by having two path_anims that target each other. However, I may later want this animation to be part of an RIT-network, which is why it would be better to either have a "repeat animation between x and y times" or a "repeat for a specified/random time (like for path_wait)". I think I could get the first effect by introducing chance spawnargs to the path_anim, but this might require a lot of fiddling around to get the random time I want the AI to sit and eat.

[Obsttorte]

You could write a custom anim for that purpose. I think it supports looping. You may find more detailed info either on the wiki or by checking the script files shipped with the mod.

[Springheel]

There is a path_anim_cycle (or something like that), that is supposed to do what you like. I can't recall if it's working or not.

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Path_Nodes#path_cycleanim

[Destined]

Ah, thanks! I will try that.

 

I already took a look at the definitions of the idle animations as well as the md5anim files and could not find any keyword that looked like it would introduce looping. It did not occur to me that another path entity could be required

[Springheel]

I have really, really vague memories of having trouble with it a few years ago, so don't get too excited yet. It may or may not be fully working.

 

There is another feature that was added two updates ago that allows you to add a counter to pathnodes, so that might be another option. I used it for the conversations in A New Job but have since completely forgotten the specifics.

[Destined]

I have tested the path_cycleanim and at first glance it appears to do, what it is supposed to. But I will keep in mind that it might cause problems. I will take another look this evening.

[Obsttorte]

I already took a look at the definitions of the idle animations as well as the md5anim files and could not find any keyword that looked like it would introduce looping.

You may find more detailed info ... by checking the script files shipped with the mod.

scriptEvent float playCycle(float channel, string animName);

Continuously repeats the given animation on the given channel. Returns false if anim doesn't exist

[Destined]

Hm, I should read more carefully

[Obsttorte]

Path_cycleanim should do the job. But if not, you have at least an alternative.

[Destined]

I have just now encountered a strange problem: I wanted an AI to go down a narrow alley as one possible pathway. However, it would not walk down this way. So, I checked the AAS and noticed that for some reason the AAS is interrupted in the middle of the alley. It looks like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwma43a79ljnaub/interrupted%20AAS.jpg?dl=0

The alley is surrounded by mosnterclip and the floor is one worldspawn brush with a constant width of 75 and a height of 121 units, so I can see no reason why this happens.

[Obsttorte]

If there is no clip or worldspawn in that area that could cause this (maybe a monsterclipped pipe at either side?) you could try to delete the aas file and rebuild the pathfinding data. Maybe it is just a mistake during the generation of said data. I had this happen to me occasionally in regards to the proc files (borked collision models for worldspawn/fs).

[Destined]

I deleted the aas file and re-dmapped, but it did not help. After checking all the surrounding brushes, I saw that a visportal is exactly where teh gap in the AAS appears. After deleting the visportal it works. But now I miss the visportal in this place

[Obsttorte]

Visportals shouldn't cause this

 

You could try placeing a new one, probably in a slightly different position.

[Destined]

That is what I thought. I moved it to the other end of the alley, but this caused the same error.

This is how it all looks:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/38h9o4vd7xdt18a/Alley.jpg?dl=0

 

This is the sealing structure made up from caulk brushes under the entities:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lfy0v6k551rffjc/Alley-sealing%20structure.jpg?dl=0

 

The visportal intersects the monster clip and reaches to the caulk:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9c94i44jom0v7dc/Alley-sealing%20structure%20no%20monsterclip.jpg?dl=0

[grayman]

The only way a visportal brush will stop an AI from walking through it is if one or more of the 5 non-visportal faces is something other than textures/common/nodraw.

 

Did you make the visportal using "Brush->Make Visportal"?

[Destined]

You were right. I actually made the visportal via "Brush->Make Visportal". However, I cut the brush (afterwards) to make the smaller section in the middle. With that, the new planes were added as caulk, which is why the visportal now had one side as caulk and blocked the AI. Such a small mistake and it does not work. This really can be frustrating at times... Luckily, there are people here who can (and will) help

[teh_saccade]

Is it possible to use - or _ in naming of .pk4? Or other symbols other than non-international alphanumeric?

eg, #my_mission-01.pk4

 

--

 

// answer:

 

// albe#_ric-3.pk4 <--- still loads the same, even if I rename the pk4 and fms/alberic3 to this.

// so I guess symbols are fine to use and alberic3.pk4 mission is now called !£$%^&()é.pk4

 

// but would the mission downloader recognise this, as the game doesn't mind at all even if I use international characters and symbols in the pk4 name once it is downloaded..?

 

fk it it doesn't matter

Edited May 17, 2017 by teh_saccade

[grayman]

The character "_" appears quite often.

 

I can't find any instances of other non-alphanumeric chars being used. That's not to say they won't work. Experiment!

[nbohr1more]

Dashes "-" in the path to assets in def files (materials, sound shaders, entity defs, etc) will cause

the asset to fail to load. So if you create a custom folder named after your mission and it includes

a dash then it will break.

[teh_saccade]

Already tried and tested, fellas - underscore is the only common-use acceptable character outside of alphanumeric that doesn't cause any issue.

Thanks for the fast response.

/splash/levelname_loading.tga

 

think the image dimensions either 640x480 or 512x512 (is 512 only for video), origin is top left corner?

 

// unexpected side effect of messing with non-alphanumeric chars is that it has unchecked all but the installed mission as being completed... :/ *sigh* just have to do them all again. Also managed to get missions to install twice in the same folder (alberic) http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=927834699

Edited May 18, 2017 by teh_saccade

[RPGista]

Ok guys, so I was going to play test some models I had lying around here so I could release them, but alas Im stuck with a DR problem, the models are not showing textures, they are not black, as if the textures were in the wrong format, they are nodraw, which means the pathing is wrong somewhere. I have already tested these sword models in game before and Im pretty sure they are the same ones, I checked the links in the ase and materials and what not and couldnt find anything wrong. I know a couple of details changed regarding pathing for DR after the standalone thing, so, what am I missing here?

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by RPGista

[teh_saccade]

I notice that you have no skin name for the model, which might explain the no-draw...

 

Do you have the file:

/skins/sword_naue_02_dark.skin

.skin is required to link (.,/dds or ../texture to model, texture defined by the associated .mtr.

The article is a little confusing to read but hopefully it makes sense...

 

Is it a player / ai weapon or an object..?

I've yet to catalogue the entitydefs inherited values for these differences.

 

 

// for future organisation, if you will be importing a lot of older models or making new (to be able to more easily remember/find where they are for mtr and skin) - it might be worth trying to use structure convention, eg,

/materials/models/darkmod/weapons/sword001.ase/materials/models/darkmod/bathroom/urinal002.ase 

and apply same convention to dds / textures, materials, definitions, etc... (cos this stuff is confusing...).

Edited May 18, 2017 by teh_saccade

[RPGista]

Hey, thanks... Indeed I had forgotten to carry over the skins and def files. Its been a while. I should have a few new models for the community in the next days.