Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[xlm]

Well, now, talk about early-onset dementia , I have my Project Setup and everything else as it should, but something about your reply made me realize I had encountered a related (if not the same) problem almost 1-2 years ago when I first tried mapping something, and I had even found the solution and I might have mentioned it under one of Springheels01 tutorials! I just had forgotten about it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my confusion stems from, I believe, two ways (or more, actually) of dmapping something and, generally speaking, "organizing" (yeah, well... ) your stuff: just lazily dropping your .map in darkmod/maps and type dmap mymission, which can be done without selecting the mission first (you could be playing some other mission and just load up your map whenever you want,) and the /fms/... way, where you actually have to select it first, which is kind of obvious when you think about it because how else would the computer know where to look, but I didn't do it because I never had to do it before. Stupid mistake, really—but at least it's not because of a typo.

Thanks, your comment actually helped. I'm still a bit confused by other things, but they are mostly that more advanced stuff with custom assets, so it's not that important and I'll get around that eventually. At least I got that nagging confusion out of the way, which was really driving me nuts.

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by xlm
Minor grammar mistake

[Geep]

Your post helped me understand the darkmod/maps use case (evidently called the "non-project" method), which my tiny, tidy brain [] couldn't quite grasp before. That will help inform my rewrite of the beginning part of A to Z Beginners Guide Page 1 that probably led you astray. Given the confusing shortcomings of non-project for non-trivial FMs, I'm going to steer the reader towards the "project" method (i.e., darkmod/fms/<FM>/maps) instead... what Destined may have intended with his "File Structure" section.

[Geep]

OK, I've updated parts of Page 1 (and a bit of Page 5) of the A - Z Beginners Guide, to cover a choice of using project and non-project file structures. That part's hopefully clearer and certainly longer, but I shortened the intro.

No plans to revisit rest of that guide. That would be Labors of Hercules.

[Geep]

I've further revised this. I've had to make some assumptions about the "non-project" form of file organization, where you place your .map file in <darkmod>/maps/, and any custom resources in sibling folders, for instance, <darkmod>/materials/.

The assumptions are:

1) That the current TDM version still supports non-project custom resources in this way

2) That DR will not be able to find the custom resources, because it can't set a Game Project location for those resources.

3) That a custom resource placed in a folder like <darkmod>/materials/ becomes global and visible to all FMs within <darkmod>, not just those in <darkmod>/maps/, but also those in:

a) <darkmod>/fms/<FM>/maps/ in non-pk4 form

b) <darkmod>/fms/<FM>/maps/ in pk4 form

Anyone, are any of those assumptions wrong?

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Geep

[Frost_Salamander]

I'm trying to create a 'door controller' for a locked door as described here: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Doors#Door_Controllers

I can't get it to work when the door is locked though. I want to have a 'lock plate' nearby that requires a key.  Basically any unlocking operation (lock pick, key) performed on the controller gets ignored and the door doesn't unlock.  I have put the usual lock properties on the door, and expected them to 'transfer to the controller' as described in the Wiki article.  This doesn't seem to happen in my case for some reason.

Has anyone got this working?  If so, another question: which entity to use for the 'controller'?  To test it initially, I used atdm:mover_button, but that isn't ideal because I don't want it to translate and disabling the translation creates a console warning and disables any interaction sounds.

 @Geep I noticed you added a separate section for this exact scenario, but using an older method: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Doors#Alternative_Method:_Door_with_a_Separate_.22Froblock.22_Lock_Plate.  Is that because you didn't have any luck with the door controller method?

[Geep]

1 hour ago, Frost_Salamander said:

I noticed you added a separate section for this exact scenario, but using an older method: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Doors#Alternative_Method:_Door_with_a_Separate_.22Froblock.22_Lock_Plate.  Is that because you didn't have any luck with the door controller method?

No, it's because Away 0 used that method, which was inherited from _Atti_'s original construction from a decade and a half earlier. So I don't have anything against the door controller method, but alas no real insight about it to share with you either.

[Geep]

Just looked at the wiki writeup. Maybe the "transfer of locking info" happens ONLY you use the alternative method with door_controller1 specified.
 

Quote

 

(Alternatively, you can give the door these spawnargs: "door_controller1" "<name of controller 1>", "door_controller2" "<name of controller 2>".)

When the game starts, it will transfer any locking information from the door to the controllers.

 

I'm thinking for a controller, just create a func_static plate, make it frobbable, have it trigger the door. There's a texture of a keyhole you can use on its face.

[Frost_Salamander]

24 minutes ago, Geep said:

Just looked at the wiki writeup. Maybe the "transfer of locking info" happens ONLY you use the alternative method with door_controller1 specified.
 

I'm thinking for a controller, just create a func_static plate, make it frobbable, have it trigger the door. There's a texture of a keyhole you can use on its face.

Just tried the alternative method with the spawnargs (e.g. door_controller1, etc), and it doesn't work at all - even if the door is unlocked.

Will keep playing with it. If I ever figure it out I will update the Wiki!

[Nort]

So about the newspaper GUIs: How do I fix them?

(I'm talking about these four warnings for each newspaper in the map:

WARNING:Window BackgroundFadeIn in gui guis/readables/sheets/newspaper_bridgeport01.gui: a transition does not have a valid destination var leftPageCurl::matcolor
WARNING:Window BackgroundFadeIn in gui guis/readables/sheets/newspaper_bridgeport01.gui: a transition does not have a valid destination var rightPageCurl::matcolor
WARNING:Window BackgroundFadeOut in gui guis/readables/sheets/newspaper_bridgeport01.gui: a transition does not have a valid destination var leftPageCurl::matcolor
WARNING:Window BackgroundFadeOut in gui guis/readables/sheets/newspaper_bridgeport01.gui: a transition does not have a valid destination var rightPageCurl::matcolor

)

I figure they're packed in some .pk4 file, which I don't know how to unpack, but I figure that instead of doing that, smart languages will usually let you replace a piece of scripting by writing a script outside the packed file, which will replace just that part.

...but since I can't look at the newspaper GUI scripts, I don't know what to write.

...and I don't know why this "bug" has been around for at least four years either. Come on, devs, just add the vars...

[Nort]

Update:

I've learned that pk4 files are just zipped, and that gui files are just plain text scripts, and so I'm now confident that I'll resolve the matter myself.

[Obsttorte]

@NortThis might help

http://old.mrhide.fr/doom3/guis.html

[Nort]

22 minutes ago, Obsttorte said:

@NortThis might help

http://old.mrhide.fr/doom3/guis.html

Thank you, but right after this post, I made the decision to start supplying the forum with hotfixes, and so the newspapers was the very first thing that I patched. I might still need that link, though, because it wasn't a perfect patch.

[Obsttorte]

On 5/2/2022 at 10:10 PM, Frost_Salamander said:

I'm trying to create a 'door controller' for a locked door as described here: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Doors#Door_Controllers

I can't get it to work when the door is locked though. I want to have a 'lock plate' nearby that requires a key.  Basically any unlocking operation (lock pick, key) performed on the controller gets ignored and the door doesn't unlock.  I have put the usual lock properties on the door, and expected them to 'transfer to the controller' as described in the Wiki article.  This doesn't seem to happen in my case for some reason.

Has anyone got this working?  If so, another question: which entity to use for the 'controller'?  To test it initially, I used atdm:mover_button, but that isn't ideal because I don't want it to translate and disabling the translation creates a console warning and disables any interaction sounds.

 @Geep I noticed you added a separate section for this exact scenario, but using an older method: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Doors#Alternative_Method:_Door_with_a_Separate_.22Froblock.22_Lock_Plate.  Is that because you didn't have any luck with the door controller method?

 

On 5/3/2022 at 12:04 AM, Frost_Salamander said:

Just tried the alternative method with the spawnargs (e.g. door_controller1, etc), and it doesn't work at all - even if the door is unlocked.

Will keep playing with it. If I ever figure it out I will update the Wiki!

The entity you are searching for is atdm:froblock.

[Frost_Salamander]

2 hours ago, Obsttorte said:

 

The entity you are searching for is atdm:froblock.

Thanks! That is indeed what I was looking for.  I've updated that section of the Wiki.  I've removed the 'alternative' method of using the 'door_controllerN' spawnargs because as described, it doesn't work.  If someone thinks it's valuable and knows how to communicate it in a manner that actually works, they can add it back.

[Geep]

Your edit makes sense to me, given your findings. Since you've now folded in atdm:froblock under the Door Controllers method, I've moved the section about "...Door with a Froblock Lock Plate", previously at page end (and that you had linked to in your post above), to just be a child and continuation of Door Controllers.

[Frost_Salamander]

24 minutes ago, Geep said:

Your edit makes sense to me, given your findings. Since you've now folded in atdm:froblock under the Door Controllers method, I've moved the section about "...Door with a Froblock Lock Plate", previously at page end (and that you had linked to in your post above), to just be a child and continuation of Door Controllers.

To be honest, I didn't even realise they were the same thing.  Mentioning doors and lids and highlighting separately makes it sound complicated. If that method predates the controller method and is a different thing, then I still don't understand how to use locks with controllers!

[Geep]

I'm thinking that door controllers is mostly a generalization and repurposing of the earlier froblock/chest/lid way of looking at things. As to the highlighting, whether you want a door to highlight when to frob the separate lock, or vice versa, I guess is up to the mapper. That's mainly what the method discussed under Chests brings to the table, I suspect.

[Obsttorte]

13 hours ago, Frost_Salamander said:

Mentioning doors and lids and highlighting separately makes it sound complicated.

It is, the printable version of this wiki section is 19 pages long!!! I mean, it's doors. If that needs such a wall of text to be explained, you probably need a whole book to describe optimization.

 

[Nort]

Is there a reason for the default eating animations not attaching any food and then destroying it? This is how it looks:

Quote

    anim idle_eat               models/md5/chars/guards/proguard/idle_eat.md5anim
    {
        no_random_headturning
        frame 90    sound_voice tdm_chew
    }

Otherwise, I can probably implement default food very easily, in a patch. Just let me know, or protest.

[Obsttorte]

IIRC the default setup is to attach an entity (like an apple) to the ai, which then overrides the respective animations.

 

EDIT: It seems there are no such props defined for food, although there is a wine bottle prop and I though I would have seen eating ai in the past. Probably mappers set the up on themselves everytime, which is cumbersome. So yeah, having some of these might be useful.

[Nort]

18 minutes ago, Obsttorte said:

IIRC the default setup is to attach an entity (like an apple) to the ai, which then overrides the respective animations.

 

EDIT: It seems there are no such props defined for food, although there is a wine bottle prop and I though I would have seen eating ai in the past. Probably mappers set the up on themselves everytime, which is cumbersome. So yeah, having some of these might be useful.

 

New animations can be defined in the user model definitions when needed, so it's actually only useful to know a reference at which frame one should attach and destroy the food.

...so I'll add it to my patch list. Soon everyone will be eating apples all over the place.

[Nort]

4 hours ago, Nort said:

 

New animations can be defined in the user model definitions when needed, so it's actually only useful to know a reference at which frame one should attach and destroy the food.

...so I'll add it to my patch list. Soon everyone will be eating apples all over the place.

I did an animation, but I chickened out at the last second and named it "eat_apple_lefthand" in accordance with a placeholder script. Now all you need to do, is add the line

Quote

"replace_anim_idle_eat" "eat_apple_lefthand"

on an entity definition.

My mages will use that animation now, but neither nobles, wenches, nor female rogues, eat at all, so it's not added to anything else. It's going to be a bit strange with apple eating mages - lol.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Nort

[Nort]

I ran into some bugs with the animation, but instead of bothering you with the details, I'm just gonna say that everything is fixed now.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Nort

[Obsttorte]

That is the right attitude

[Nort]

I ran into some new issues with the apples:

Update

Never mind. Apparently those are the wrong type of quotation marks. I didn't know Geany didn't convert those. Sneaky.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Nort