Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Spooks]

Hey, so, how does parallelSky work? I can't get a light to shine through the portal_sky texture on a fresh 2.08 installation. "parallelSky 1" with or without "parallel 1" also in the spawnarg list do nothing, I've tried it in two different FM WIPs and the result is a regular parallel light. Does it have to be sized as big as the ambient_world light (covering the entire map)? That feels very counterintuitive to what the new feature is purported to do.

[Spooks]

Alright, so I did some more testing and it's just a bug fix for a very old glitch that I've encountered a lot as well, I thought it was going to be an ease-of-use feature but I suppose you just do the same sky light setup you would've before without having to deal with glitching shadows.

[Dragofer]

Is there some easy way to check by script whether an AI is unconscious? I've seen people around here using something like IS_UNCONSCIOUS, if I remember correctly, but as far as I'm aware those all-capitals words are only available in coding, not in Doomscript.

[joebarnin]

29 minutes ago, Dragofer said:

Is there some easy way to check by script whether an AI is unconscious? I've seen people around here using something like IS_UNCONSCIOUS, if I remember correctly, but as far as I'm aware those all-capitals words are only available in coding, not in Doomscript.

AI_KNOCKEDOUT

EDIT:

as in

ai guard = $atdm_ai_builder_guard_lesser_1;
if (guard.AI_KNOCKEDOUT)
    {
    }

Edit 2:

One more thing, if you knock out an AI and then kill him, I think AI_KNOCKEDOUT is still true. So if you want to check that an AI is knocked out but not dead use:

if (guard.AI_KNOCKEDOUT && !guard.AI_DEAD)

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by joebarnin

[Dragofer]

@joebarnin Thanks for the clarification via the example - I had always been trying to call AI_KNOCKEDOUT directly on the AI, in which case map loading fails because AI_KNOCKEDOUT is an unknown value. First declaring the AI as an ai and using it as a variable makes it work.

Oddly there's no listing of the AI_KNOCKEDOUT function anywhere on thedarkmod.com domain except for a forum post and a bugtracker, so I'm guessing you picked this up while browsing through the source code.

[joebarnin]

I think I found it in script files of other FMs? Or maybe, like you said, in the source code. I don't recall exactly.

[Destined]

9 hours ago, Dragofer said:

Is there some easy way to check by script whether an AI is unconscious? I've seen people around here using something like IS_UNCONSCIOUS, if I remember correctly, but as far as I'm aware those all-capitals words are only available in coding, not in Doomscript.

Depending on what you want to do, you could use the objective system. There is the "AI is knocked out" type, where you can specify if you want one specific AI or any of a certain type to be knocked out. Form there you can either call a script or set objectives as completed/failed. It might be easier than scripting, depending on what you want to do.

[thebigh]

Hi everyone, absolute novice Dark Radiant user here with what may be a stupid question:

 

I made a room with some ankle-high water in it. Initially I made it a simple rectangular room but, later on, realised that was boring and changed its shape to a trapezium. I did this by manually moving some of the edges of the brushes making up the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room. However, I am not able to highlight and move the edges of the water brush. Why is that, and how do I fix it?

[Geep]

It's configured as a multi-part entity (even if only with 1 part), in which you have to navigate to the particular part you want in order to resize. So, after you select the brush overall, hit TAB. Then you can resize it. Hit TAB again to return to the normal mode.

I had the same problem when first working with water.

[thebigh]

Thanks! That worked perfectly.

I'm sure I'll have lots more to ask later.

[Destined]

21 hours ago, thebigh said:

Hi everyone, absolute novice Dark Radiant user here with what may be a stupid question:

 

I made a room with some ankle-high water in it. Initially I made it a simple rectangular room but, later on, realised that was boring and changed its shape to a trapezium. I did this by manually moving some of the edges of the brushes making up the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room. However, I am not able to highlight and move the edges of the water brush. Why is that, and how do I fix it?

Welcome to the community! Keep in mind that the water entity can overlap with the walls. So if you just made the room smaller, you would not necessarily have had to resize at all. If the room got bigger or the overlapping part can be seen in another room, it should be resized, of course, but otherwise you can save some time.

[thebigh]

3 minutes ago, Destined said:

Welcome to the community! Keep in mind that the water entity can overlap with the walls. So if you just made the room smaller, you would not necessarily have had to resize at all. If the room got bigger or the overlapping part can be seen in another room, it should be resized, of course, but otherwise you can save some time.

I already have some raised plinths in the water made of solid brushes that overlap with the water. Good to know that won't cause me any problems. But from my experience mapping for other games I've come to prefer avoiding overlap wherever practical, mostly because bits of brushes jutting out everywhere makes the top-down view confusing. Everyone's workflow is different I guess. Maybe as I get more familiar with Dark Radiant my style will change. Who knows? For now I'm happy just to have successfully made a single room with no leaks and no Z fighting.

[Obsttorte]

On 7/11/2020 at 5:29 PM, Dragofer said:

@joebarnin Thanks for the clarification via the example - I had always been trying to call AI_KNOCKEDOUT directly on the AI, in which case map loading fails because AI_KNOCKEDOUT is an unknown value. First declaring the AI as an ai and using it as a variable makes it work.

Oddly there's no listing of the AI_KNOCKEDOUT function anywhere on thedarkmod.com domain except for a forum post and a bugtracker, so I'm guessing you picked this up while browsing through the source code.

AI_KNOCKEDOUT isn't a function, it is a boolean. You can find its definition in tdm_ai.script, line 80.

 

 

[thebigh]

I want to change the font on an immobile paper sheet. When trying to change the GUI definition in the Readables editor, Dark Radiant freezes up and has to be shut off with Task Manager. How do I fix this?

[Amadeus]

31 minutes ago, thebigh said:

I want to change the font on an immobile paper sheet. When trying to change the GUI definition in the Readables editor, Dark Radiant freezes up and has to be shut off with Task Manager. How do I fix this?

This sounds like the crash that happened in DR version 2.7. Check which version you have and make sure you have version 2.8, as this particular crash was fixed

Edited July 22, 2020 by Amadeus

[thebigh]

It was V 2.8 but maybe I flubbed something when I updated from the previous version, because uninstalling and reinstalling seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks for the help

[Geep]

The nice think about 2.08 is it reports all the ineffective visportals.

The bad thing is that then you have to fix them.

One question I've had, that's not clearly addressed in "Visportals/Multiple Joined Visportals": Can you "combine" 2 visportals at right angles (or more generally, non-coplaner)? That is, you have a vertical visportal, let's say across a corridor at a point that has an extensive hole in the floor. There's a horizontal visportal across the hole. Is it possible to make this arrangement work? If so, I imagine you have to make the vertical visportal's lower edge exactly touch the horizontal visportal active surface. Be good to know if this ever possible.

[Obsttorte]

@Geep: If I get you correctly (and it hasn'T been changed ) than yes, it is possible. Visportals edges have to touch either a worldspawn brush or another visportal, whereas in the first case the VP can even reach into the Brush, although this is probably not desireable (one generally tries to keep the VP's as small as possible).

[Geep]

Thanks, will stumble forward as before.

[thebigh]

I'm trying to get a secret swinging door to work but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

The idea is to have a shelf swing open when I unlock a nearby lock on the wall. However, on a model, the hinge isn't in the right place so I made a func_static with nodraw texture that will actually control the movement, with the shelf bound to it. Here's what I have:

The Key

name   shelfkey

The amazing invisible swinging door controller

classname atdm:mover_door

frobable 0

locked 1

pickable 0

used_by shelfkey

name swingdoor

The Lock

classname atdm:mover_button

target0  swingdoor

The visible shelf

bind  swingdoor

 

As far as I can see, this should work. It's the same setup used in, eg, Mother Rose, to control the secret doors. However, when I try the key it only makes the "locked" sound (emitted by the door and not the lock) and nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

[joebarnin]

The way I've done it is to make the Lock an atdm:froblock, with spawnargs: used_by=shelfkey, target=swingdoor

and then your swingdoor doesn't need used_by or locked.

Edited July 26, 2020 by joebarnin

[thebigh]

Yes, that's much simpler. Thanks

[Destined]

A button is no lock. So, if you use this entity, it cannot interact with a key, but you simply have to push the button to open the door.

The reason, that the shelf does not swing open like you would like, is because the origin is at the centre of the model and any operations use that as the point of action. I would suggest (if the space allows it) to just make it a sliding door. For that you simply have to enter values into the "translation" spawnarg for the direction in which you want the door to slide (and remove "the rotate" spawnarg, of course), which would avoid the complicated setup.

[Obsttorte]

Well, his setup isn't really complicated. A static model bound to an invisible door. I've used similar setups in the past either if I needed a model to rotate around a point different then the origin (for example a swinging chain).

[thebigh]

Back with another daft question...

 

I'm getting a small patch of light on one of my walls. I identified which light is causing it, (a test torchflame to illuminate a cellar until I get around to lighting the level properly) and there is no direct line of sight from it to the anomalous patch: I drew a long skinny brush from the center of the torchlight to the center of the patch to guide my eye, and to get there the light has to pass through no less than two func_statics and two worldspawn brushes.

What is going on? I'm not getting any sealing leaks or even any dropped visportals, and my worldspawns are definitely fat enough not to cause the "very skinny brushes cause light leaks" issue others have encountered. How do I fix it?

Edited July 28, 2020 by thebigh