Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Dragofer]

@JackFarmer Turns out you can just put in another line in the darkmod.txt:

Title: Hidden Hands
The Lost Citadel

The 2nd line only gets shown in one place as far as I could see: Currently Installed Mission.

 

[JackFarmer]

@Dragofer

Yeah, this works perfectly for the installed mission display, but in the "Available Missions" list only the first line gets displayed.

[joebarnin]

I noticed that some missions with long names display correctly and some don't:

I think it's a problem with mainmenu_newgame.gui, specifically this:

        windowDef InstalledModTitle
        {
            rect        0, 45, 280, 50
            text        "gui::currentModName"
            forecolor    0.4,0,0,1
            textscale    0.35
            textalign    1
            font        "fonts/carleton"
        }

The rectangle that the mod name fits into is the entire width of the overall rectange (0-280). Depending on how the string wraps, this may or may not result in content beyond the edge of the rectangle. I think something like "rect 15, 45, 250, 50" works better. I copied the base mainmenu_newgame.gui into my FM's \guis folder and made that change to the rect, and the mission name displays better, no matter how long it is or how it wraps. You could try this for your mission. Although that file has this warning in it:

 * Mission Authors: DO NOT EDIT, INCLUDE OR OVERRIDE THIS FILE IN YOUR MISSION PK4.

Not sure how dangerous it is to override this file.

Edit: I'll submit a bug report

Edited May 10, 2020 by joebarnin

[ricon]

Hi!

I just installed radiant, I was seeing a tutorial on YT and the guy right clicked and added an entity. He choosed some character. I tried to do the same, to give the very very first steps in dark radiant, but when I right clicked and choose the option add entity, there were no entitys. Like if the library was empty...Maybe I did something wrong when installing dark radiant. What should I do?

 

To understand my question, I am refering to the 00:50 part of this video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urxCGMz8pmQ

[JackFarmer]

What happens if you try add a speaker via the same context menu?

Did you install both DR and DM?

 

[Dragofer]

5 minutes ago, ricon said:

when I right clicked and choose the option add entity, there were no entitys.

That sounds like DarkRadiant hasn't been told where your darkmod folder is. You can check this by clicking on File in the top left of the screen -> Game/Project Setup -> set Game Type to The Dark Mod 2.0 (standalone) and set the path to your darkmod folder (i.e. D:/games/darkmod).

While you're here, I'd also type a name into "Mission". This will setup a folder for your mission in darkmod/fms where your .map file and later other mission-related files get stored.

[ricon]

5 hours ago, Dragofer said:

That sounds like DarkRadiant hasn't been told where your darkmod folder is. You can check this by clicking on File in the top left of the screen -> Game/Project Setup -> set Game Type to The Dark Mod 2.0 (standalone) and set the path to your darkmod folder (i.e. D:/games/darkmod).

While you're here, I'd also type a name into "Mission". This will setup a folder for your mission in darkmod/fms where your .map file and later other mission-related files get stored.

Problem solved, it was like you said. Thank you!

[ricon]

Btw, where should I save the map for testing?

 

I did as in the video, but said couldnt load the map. Tried many things without success.

 

I saved the map in a new folder. I wrote also, in the command line, "testmap nameofmap.map" and nothing...

[Dragofer]

7 hours ago, Dragofer said:

While you're here, I'd also type a name into "Mission". This will setup a folder for your mission in darkmod/fms where your .map file and later other mission-related files get stored.

@ricon I forgot to say that, if you did what I suggested above, you'll also need to put a darkmod.txt into the folder of your mission (darkmod/fms/name_of_mission/darkmod.txt), and "Install" the mission in The Dark Mod. Maps should be saved in darkmod/fms/name_of_mission/maps.

Like this The Dark Mod can see your mission folder and the .map files inside it. I've attached a darkmod.txt that you can use and edit.

darkmod.txt

[ricon]

Very useful information, I will check that!

[Jedi_Wannabe]

I've got a dude sitting at a table in front of a plate of food. How do I make him take a bite and eat? I see nothing regarding eating on either of these wiki pages:

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

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Animations,_Postures,_Controlling_AI_(for_Mappers)

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Animation_List#Sitting_Animations

Edit: I didn't want to double post but also wasn't sure if my other post really pertained to the new release of DR as it may be a folder structure issue I am having.

I am having issues creating readables.  When I use a prefab and the readable editor it complains about XData info being contained in a PK4 that cant be found and asks to rename it. In game the GUI does not display and is blank then freezes my inventory when frobbed.

Here is the order of events: I had a bunch of good working readables, made with DR 2.6 months ago, upgraded to 2.8 last week and couldn't get new readables working. Downgraded back to 2.6 and got ONE MORE made and working but all others I try to create are janked. Same behavior when I tried using 2.8 again, and between TDM 2.07 and the 2.08beta(ver6) it is no different.

What extra info would be helpful to investigate? Thanks a ton.

Did a little more experimenting and backed up my xdata folder, deleted it from my mission folder, created a new one then tried to make a fresh readable entity from scratch and still to no avail. All the old readables still work just not the new one. In the new xdata file that was autogenerated in my new xdata folder, it has the text info for the new readable that will not work but none of the stuff for any of the old readables that DO still work. Curiouser and curiouser. What am I missing?

I’d also like to add that since quarantine leaves me unable to record voices for conversations, I was hoping to fill in some lore with readables. It’s pretty much the last thing I have to work on before my next alpha run. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Jedi_Wannabe

[joebarnin]

Jedi, I follow these instructions: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Readables_Prefabs. Specifically, the "Inserting Readables Prefabs" section. The key is you have to extract prefabs.xd from one of the pk4s in the DM distribution (tdm_prefabs01.pk4 I think). Then you open that prefabs.xd file in a text editor and copy/paste from it (per the wiki instructions). One last thing you have to do is rename the 'xdata_contents' spawn arg on your readable to match the name you gave the xdata name header in your XD file. Save your xd file, and at that point you should be able to use the Readables Editor.

Edit: Here are the complete steps, mostly from the wiki, with a couple of extra ones at the end:

• First make your own plain text xd file, eg, mymap.xd. (Do this BEFORE launching Doom/TDM else it won't load it - you'll have to exit and open TDM again.) (you just need to do this once).
• In your map editor, in orthoview, point to where you want the readable, RMB, insert prefab, select a readables prefab. There are images at Fonts Screenshots so you can see what the fonts look like.
• With the readable selected, in Entity Inspector note the xdata name from xdata_contents. (tip: highlight then Ctrl+C to copy it)
• In the TDM distribution, within tdm_prefabs01.pk4, find the file prefabs.xd
• Open prefabs.xd in a text editor and find that xdata name you copied (tip: F3 to search (usually) paste in the name)
• Select & copy the complete xdata section including the name and the last end curly bracket. (tip: look for a few blank lines then the next xdata header name.)
• Paste it into your own xd file, eg, mymap.xd.
• Still in your own xd file, change the xdata name header, eg,
  from book_gothic_bamberg to eg, nightwatch_logbook.
• Save and close your xd file.
• In DR, in the Entity Inspector, change the xdata_contents Property to the new name (e.g., nightwatch_logbook)
• At this point you should be able to use the Readable Editor. It will update your XD file automatically.

Edited May 21, 2020 by joebarnin

[Destined]

13 hours ago, Jedi_Wannabe said:

I've got a dude sitting at a table in front of a plate of food. How do I make him take a bite and eat? I see nothing regarding eating on either of these wiki pages:

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

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Animations,_Postures,_Controlling_AI_(for_Mappers)

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Animation_List#Sitting_Animations

In order to play animations you can simply use a "path_anim" path node. Then you have to add the "anim" spawnarg to define, which animation you want to play. You can view all animations in the MD5 Animation Viewer in the Entity tab. If I remember correctly, the animation "idle_eat_carrot" also works for other food that lies in front of them. It could also be that this generates a carrot. Just try it out. In this thread, there is a discussion about a frame rate drop, while playing the eating animation, but it describes that the AI picks up food in front of it.

[Jedi_Wannabe]

Thanks guys, I am two for two on new readables so it's going good!

As for the dude eating, I will experiment and hope it doesn't slow down the room he's in too much.

Thanks again, ya'll are the best.

[Bienie]

I'm now at a stage where most of my work is done on my map and I'm mostly hunting down known bugs before beta. There are a few that have been a thorn in my side for a while now... I'll take them one at a time so it doesn't get confusing.

First one is as follows. I have two clocktowers in my map, but to the player they seem to be only one. They are right next to eachother in two different vis-leafs. For performance reasons I can't have a single tower that connects two rather large areas with VPs. Anyway both towers use the sound "clock_tick01_loop" that the player can hear from street level. The problem is that this speaker seems to ignore vis-leafs entirely so both clocks are heard, and even indoors in places where it should not reach. I've tried setting "s_global 0" and "s_omni 0" but neither have any effect. Is there a spawnarg I can use? Or do I need to make some kind of custom sound shader? Is there some other bug I might be missing? It's definitely not a VP leak, I checked that quite thoroughly.

[HMart]

42 minutes ago, Bienie said:

I'm now at a stage where most of my work is done on my map and I'm mostly hunting down known bugs before beta. There are a few that have been a thorn in my side for a while now... I'll take them one at a time so it doesn't get confusing.

First one is as follows. I have two clocktowers in my map, but to the player they seem to be only one. They are right next to eachother in two different vis-leafs. For performance reasons I can't have a single tower that connects two rather large areas with VPs. Anyway both towers use the sound "clock_tick01_loop" that the player can hear from street level. The problem is that this speaker seems to ignore vis-leafs entirely so both clocks are heard, and even indoors in places where it should not reach. I've tried setting "s_global 0" and "s_omni 0" but neither have any effect. Is there a spawnarg I can use? Or do I need to make some kind of custom sound shader? Is there some other bug I might be missing? It's definitely not a VP leak, I checked that quite thoroughly.

Does the sound shader has the "no_dups" global keyword? It prevents sounds to play if they are already playing but I don't know if that will mess with the loop. 

If it does, then I can only think of scripting the entities making the sound, so one of them stops playing sounds, when the other plays the sound.

 

 

[Bienie]

26 minutes ago, HMart said:

Does the sound shader has the "no_dups" global keyword? It prevents sounds to play if they are already playing but I don't know if that will mess with the loop. 

If it does, then I can only think of scripting the entities making the sound, so one of them stops playing sounds, when the other plays the sound.

 

 

No it doesn't have that keyword, but the problem is not that there are double sounds, if so I could simply delete one. The problem is that the sound travels through all visportals and caulk seals. I have no idea what would cause this, or how to change it.

[grayman]

Make sure you have "s_occlusion" set to "0". Counter-intuitively, this setting means that the sound should travel through portals and fade with distance traveled.

Also set "s_omni" to "0". This prevents the sound from being "omnipresent" everywhere.

Btw, "no_dups" doesn't mean sounds won't overlap. It means that once a sound has played, the next time it plays, if there are multiple choices, pick one that didn't just play. This keeps, for example, AI from continuously barking the same thing repeatedly when there are choices he could make.

[Bienie]

57 minutes ago, grayman said:

Make sure you have "s_occlusion" set to "0". Counter-intuitively, this setting means that the sound should travel through portals and fade with distance traveled.

Also set "s_omni" to "0". This prevents the sound from being "omnipresent" everywhere.

Btw, "no_dups" doesn't mean sounds won't overlap. It means that once a sound has played, the next time it plays, if there are multiple choices, pick one that didn't just play. This keeps, for example, AI from continuously barking the same thing repeatedly when there are choices he could make.

Unfortunately adding "s_occlusion" "0" didn't change the sound from going straight through everything The "no_dups" thing could be quite useful for certain situations though, thanks for that info ^^

[grayman]

Are you sure you don't have an internal leak?

[Bienie]

That was my first thought too and I looked through it quite thoroughly I would say, but seeing as the sound is penetrating through several closed VPs that can't be the case. Also if there was a leak my performance would be terrible as that would mean more than half of the city was rendering at once. Then I landed on the suspicion that it could be something in the sound shader for that sound forcing it to be s_omni or something but that's not the case either. Now I'm frustrated and completely out of ideas... I suppose if there is no solution it can just be a silent clock tower, but I like making a sound in the background.

[STRUNK]

@Bienie

Did you try building a box around the tower (so  you are 100% sure there are no leaks) and spawn in there, to check if the sound is still comming through?

I had a problem with sound getting through wall's and I was sure there were no leaks so I tried the above and concluded there must be a leak somewhere. It was caused by having a piece of func static that I had to change to a brush.

[Bienie]

@STRUNK, @grayman, I think I figured it out after some more experimenting... turns out my towers were worldspawn, and apparently when a speaker is embedded within a brush it behaves in this peculiar way. Learn something new every day I guess ^^

[STRUNK]

@Bienie

Ok good!! On to the next bug then : )

[HMart]

2 hours ago, Bienie said:

No it doesn't have that keyword, but the problem is not that there are double sounds, if so I could simply delete one. The problem is that the sound travels through all visportals and caulk seals. I have no idea what would cause this, or how to change it.

Ah ok I read that wrong, sorry. 

Quote

Btw, "no_dups" doesn't mean sounds won't overlap. It means that once a sound has played, the next time it plays, if there are multiple choices, pick one that didn't just play. This keeps, for example, AI from continuously barking the same thing repeatedly when there are choices he could make.

You are right I forgot about that.

Edited May 24, 2020 by HMart