Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Geep]

Yup, that's what I tried first, after you suggested it.

I guess extending your "head" name feature to the ragdoll class could be a nice project for TDM 2.11. Or if not, TDM 99.99.

[thebigh]

I have a map that I want to be purchasable from the shop. It works fine in-game when I buy it. But how do I change its name, description, and icon from the default values?

Edited February 16, 2022 by thebigh

[datiswous]

On 2/9/2022 at 9:25 PM, Geep said:

I have a atdm:env_ragdoll_skeleton_white, with a def_head of atdm:ai_head_skeleton_skull. The skeleton is frobbable. When the skeleton is frobbed, the skull doesn't highlight. Is there a relatively easy way to do so?

Make a new head definition with the following code:

entityDef atdm:ai_head_skeleton_skull_frob
{
"inherit"	"atdm:ai_head_skeleton_skull"
"frobable" "1"
}

Then in DR you set def_head to atdm:ai_head_skeleton_skull_frob

It's a bit crappy solution and it also doesn't work when dragged, then the frob higlight turns off. But I post it here in case somebody knows what to do about that.

[thebigh]

On 2/16/2022 at 6:56 PM, thebigh said:

I have a map that I want to be purchasable from the shop. It works fine in-game when I buy it. But how do I change its name, description, and icon from the default values?

I figured it out. Open your def/custom.def file (or make a new one if you don't already have it) and add the following:

entityDef ShopItem_map_of
{
    "inherit"           "atdm:shopitem_base"
    "itemClassname"     "atdm:map_of"
    "displayName"       "Map"
    "displayDesc"       "A map of Sebastian Creep's hovel"
    "image"             "guis/assets/game_maps/map_shop_icon"
}

The last three lines specify the in-shop name, the description, and the little graphic icon respectively. You'll have to provide your own graphic because TDM doesn't yet have a default one. Otherwise just comment that last line out to omit the icon entirely.

[datiswous]

2 hours ago, thebigh said:

I figured it out. Open your def/custom.def file (or make a new one if you don't already have it) and add the following:

I wonder if you can't just add these as spawnargs to the specified shop entity

[thebigh]

There may be spawnargs for that but if so I have no idea what they might be.

[datiswous]

This is what I see in DR without having a custom dev file:

 

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by datiswous

[thebigh]

Sure, I can see what the spawnargs are on the shopitem_map_of. That's not the problem; the problem is that I don't actually place those entities in the map myself. The atdm:shop generates them. I have no idea how I would tell the atdm:shop to change the displayDesc spawnarg on some shopitem_map_of that it created itself and whose name I don't know. But since I can just specify the required information in the custom.def file I don't need to muck about with it at all.

[Geep]

 

Then in DR you set def_head to atdm:ai_head_skeleton_skull_frob

It's a bit crappy solution and it also doesn't work when dragged, then the frob higlight turns off. But I post it here in case somebody knows what to do about that.

Tried it. It works as advertised, i.e., a bit crappy. To get the skull highlight to stay on when dragged, I tried hard-coding a "frob_peer" spawnarg on ...skull_frob, referring to the ragdoll skeleton body instance by name. Didn't make a difference.

Unless a brainstorm arrives, I'll leave this as it was, on the pile of minor unsolved mysteries.

[Geep]

Minor followup...

On 2/1/2022 at 2:53 PM, Geep said:

I have a atdm:bonfire and a large surrounding trigger hurt. If the player extinguishes the bonfire, I'd like that shut off the trigger hurt. Possible?

Several folks responded: just target the trigger_hurt from the bonfire.

But when I finally got around to testing that, it didn't work until I also did "set target on flame" "<trigger hurt name>"

[Amadeus]

12 minutes ago, Geep said:

But when I finally got around to testing that, it didn't work until I also did "set target on flame" "<trigger hurt name>"

That's strange; the light_bucketflame_small entities throughout Written do not require the "set target on flame" spawnarg, only a target to the trigger hurt. Must be something different with the bonfire entity

[Geep]

I noticed I could get stuck when walking over the extinguished bonfire, so threw some playerclip atop it. But then, there's this broader question...

To prevent a player from getting stuck, is an underfoot surface of playerclip and nodraw-solid equivalent?

Equivalent with respect to how walked-on material sounds?

[Dragofer]

36 minutes ago, Geep said:

To prevent a player from getting stuck, is an underfoot surface of playerclip and nodraw-solid equivalent?

I dont think it makes a difference - just that playerclip will always make stone sounds.

What I found to be especially prone to getting the player stuck is sloped surfaces with stuff around them, so I try to simplify the collision of surrounding stuff as much as possible by drawing nodrawsolid brushes.

[joebarnin]

If I create a trigger_once, but give it "wait" "1.0" spawnarg, it behaves like a trigger_multiple: the trigger is not removed after firing, and fires again every 1.0 seconds.

Bug or Feature?

[thebigh]

Can't you have the trigger_once target a trigger_relay with a "wait" "1.0" spawnarg and have that target your effect?

Alternatively it's probably possible to make a trigger_multiple impersonate a trigger_once by setting

* "wait" "-1"

* "delay" "1.0"

but I haven't tried this.

[joebarnin]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. The "wait 1.0" on the trigger_once was a mistake by me - I didn't mean to have that spawnarg on the object. What happened was, I had a trigger_multiple with a wait on it, and then I converted it to a trigger_once but forgot to remove the wait. Then I noticed that the trigger_once wasn't behaving like a trigger_once - it was behaving like a trigger_multiple. I removed the "wait" and it starting behaving properly.

So my post was just academic; I'm just wondering if that behavior is expected. Or perhaps this comes under the heading of "If you do something weird, you might be weird results".

[thebigh]

Getting weird results by doing weird things with existing effects is often a great way to discover cool new tricks.

[Geep]

Surprising. I thought that a trigger_once is actually deleted from the game once it fires. But that can't be true. Or it least not in this case; I suppose the wait could suppress the deletion.

[thebigh]

On 2/20/2022 at 7:23 AM, Dragofer said:

I dont think it makes a difference - just that playerclip will always make stone sounds.

 

Is there any such thing as nodraw_silent? I can think of a few niche applications for it.

[Geep]

Didn't see one off the shelf. Speculatively, maybe a custom .mtr with this might work:
 

textures/common/tdm_nodrawsolid_none
{
    none
    noshadows

    qer_editorimage textures/common/nodrawsolid // You could make a custom editor nodrawsolid_none texture too
}

 

[Spooks]

On 4/1/2016 at 8:40 PM, VanishedOne said:

Am I doing something wrong, or does 'set <spawnarg> on <prop>' just not work to stop the prop spawning on a given difficulty level (meaning I'll have either to place a key in DR and bind it instead, or to do something to remove the entity after map load)?

"def_attach6" "atdm:prop_key_simple_steel"
"pos_attach6" "belt_back_right"
"name_attach6" "perimeter_key"
"set name on perimeter_key" "perimeter_key"
"set inv_name on perimeter_key" "the exterior door key"
"set diff_1_nospawn on perimeter_key" "1"
"set diff_2_nospawn on perimeter_key" "1"

The 'Attaching Props to AI' wiki page refers to this post and the follow-up by Obsttorte to state that "You cannot directly vary the presence of a def_attached item by Difficulty Level. A work-around is to clone your AI, then make them differ in their diff_n_nospawn spawnargs and their attached items." The very next reply in the thread after Obsttorte, to my amusement, was me also being unhelpful.

Just about 6 years later (!) I'm in a better position to answer this question. You can use spawnargs to handle the case of props on AI without having to resort to cloning said AI, so if someone wants to edit the wiki with my info I'd appreciate it.

The way to do it is with diff_x_arg_y and diff_x_change_y rather than diff_x_nospawn. You set up the key (or whatever else) to spawn on the AI conditionally per difficulty setting rather than not spawn conditionally after it has already spawned.

 

Here is a visual example of the kind of spawnargs you need to put on your AI. This, for instance, will spawn a named, grey key on the belt of the AI only on the easiest difficulty. Do not give any 'default' values to these spawnargs, leave them undefined and only define them like this. The other way around — pre-defining these spawnargs (ie setting them as usual) and then "blanking" them through diff_x_change/arg_y — that doesn't work.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Spooks

[thebigh]

That's pretty cool! But is there even a reason to use the def_attach method instead of placing an actual key and using bind and bind_to-Joint?

[Geep]

23 hours ago, Spooks said:

so if someone wants to edit the wiki with my info I'd appreciate it.

I'll do that today.... Done

22 hours ago, thebigh said:

But is there even a reason to use the def_attach method instead of placing an actual key and using bind and bind_to-Joint?

If you bind a key, the AI can't use it to open a door. So mostly best for keys to chests, etc.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Geep
wiki update done

[Spooks]

Hey, did someone manage to make a version of the forge builder that uses weapons ie is not a civilian? I remember somebody struggling with this but I searched this thread and got no results.

[thebigh]

Hi all. I'm starting to learn to make my own custom models and I'm having trouble assigning a material to the model.

 

I have a .lwo file of a wooden plank under games/darkmod/fms/ringd/models/darkmod/props/plank1.lwo

Diffuse and normal textures are under ringd/models/darkmod/textures/plank1.tga and plank1_local.tga

The TGA files are not RLE compressed and are oriented to bottom left as always.

 

What do I need to add to the mission's .mtr file to get this to work?