Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Jnon]

I'm glad this wasn't an issue on my end, I was having trouble with the ambient_world settings on my map at some point.

[BoilerDunce]

Anyone have any idea why textures that I replace with portalsky would retain the texture they had before being replaced, after saving the map and running dmap?

[grodenglaive]

Maybe that the portalsky was not set up correctly.  Do you have an "info_portal" sky entity in you map that is surrounded by a cube having your sky texture? Is it working on other brushes?

Or maybe the dmap failed and it is just showing your previous map when you run the game? 

[snatcher]

I cannot figure out a setup for 3x companion triggers 

• T1 - On by default
• T2 - Off by default
• T3 - Off by default

If player touches T1 it disables itself and activates T2 and T3.

If player touches T2 it (triggers something and) deactivates itself and T3 and activates T1 again.

If player touches T3 it (triggers something and) deactivates itself and T2 and activates T1 again.

Any ideas?

[joebarnin]

off the top of my head....

• Make them all trigger_multiple
• Initially, T1 is enabled, T2 and T3 are disabled
• Each calls a script function
• T1 script function call $T1.disable(), $T2.enable(), $T3.enable()
• T2 script function calls $otherTrigger, $T1.enable(), $T2.disable(), $T3.disable()
• T3 script function calls $otherTrigger, $T1.enable(), $T2.disable(), $T3.disable()

[snatcher]

Thanks, joebarnin. It works. I even managed to make it work (to some extent) with stims/responses.

Having completed 90% of my project - which was an ok experience - I am actually having good fun now with the final touches. I was toying with non-euclidean ideas but some concepts sound good in theory but fail in practice and I think it is time for me to go back to basics  

[snatcher]

I have a very basic glass material that works just as I want: no reflections, no distortions... simply a solid, transparent material:

textures/virtual_rooms/vr_glass
{
	glass
	translucent

	qer_editorimage textures/virtual_rooms/vr_glass_ed

	{
		blend blend
		map textures/virtual_rooms/vr_glass
		alpha 0.1
	}
}

I would like however to add some depth to it and I have a heightmap with some artifacts but I am unable to make it blend nicely.

heightmap details:

• tga
• no alpha
• grayscale (white = high / black = low)

I have given up and I am moving on but I post this here in case anyone has an idea.

For the record, this is what I am doing with other materials, which works just fine:

textures/virtual_rooms/vr_floor
{
	stone

	qer_editorimage textures/virtual_rooms/vr_floor_ed
	diffusemap textures/virtual_rooms/vr_floor

	{
		blend bumpmap
		map heightmap(textures/virtual_rooms/vr_floor_heightmap, 2)
	}
}

Edited August 15, 2025 by snatcher

[grodenglaive]

Is there a strikethrough modifier for the readables?

[Geep]

No.

Some lousy alternatives if you really, really need this: maybe fake something by using the overlap of title and body text. Or make a readable with a custom background with strikeout (or text plus strikeout) burned in.

[Bergante]

A Question about mission start-map and DR handling
Is it possible (and how ?) to load the saved changes made during gameplay in DarkRadiant ?
This way, these changes could be used to create a new starting map .
DR asks for Project-files but i can only adress the mission-map - not a save 

EDIT
mmm  - no quick answer
perhaps i should explain the thought behind :

Spoiler

by doing so one/mapper could handle mapping in a different way 
construct the map near to finish - but for the polishes it could be easier to do 
example : final design - you put in all different stuff you think could fit in places - 
moveables or into inventar (maybe def them as moveable or to be layed down(loot or similar))
than start the mission and arrange them the way you like / they fit best
(any Decoration or where Moss- Vine- Rope- fits to ones comfort )
mapper will have the player view ! to know things can be seen / used the intended way
after have done so - save the map - go back to DR - load the save
now you can delete stuff not used - give new defs (static/loot .....)
and the DR save will create the final start-map
and : mappers could test in the map what will be needed to do climbs jumps ---
arrange this to still possible by placing a little pot/Book/crate in a range but doesn't cause attraction - so in this special place it will be possible but by making it static (later in DR )
not to be used elsewhere 
and .....
 

the wiki only tells that map-/game- changes - save Data are stored in different manner 
but not how DarkRadiant can gain access to it !
most mappers will be used for the normal style 
but for me as an unteached ;  fine tuning would be of much more comfort 
[especially for what i have in mind ( to @snatcher -)]

please - any answer is welcome ( yes and how ; No ; perhaps - don´t know )
if - NO --- than put this into  " Wishlist for DarkRadiant "
think it would/could be of use to everyone 
 

Edited August 26, 2025 by Bergante

[BoilerDunce]

Is it normal for something like a long line of brushes to get distorted when rotated?

I am copying and rotating a fence and the fence posts are becoming skinner.

[Geep]

On 8/24/2025 at 11:56 AM, Bergante said:

Is it possible (and how ?) to load the saved changes made during gameplay in DarkRadiant ?

I'd vote it NO. I'm thinking that a "save game" just copies the process's memory and registers into one big mostly unstructured blob file, and "load" just reverses that process. I don't see anyway for DR to work with that.

[Bergante]

1 hour ago, Geep said:

I'd vote it NO. I'm thinking that a "save game" just copies the process's memory and registers into one big mostly unstructured blob file, and "load" just reverses that process. I don't see anyway for DR to work with that.

Thx 
discovered this in the meantime : 

could it be useful to get the (discribed above) functionality 
(? to move somewhere in game - place an entity - and save it in DR ? )
or to have the right position shown in DR - to do it there ?
in Wiki discribed under  " Hot Reload "
it´s discribed as one way road from DR to TDM 
what about the inverse ?

Edited August 27, 2025 by Bergante

[datiswous]

9 hours ago, Bergante said:

could it be useful to get the (discribed above) functionality 
(? to move somewhere in game - place an entity - and save it in DR ? )
or to have the right position shown in DR - to do it there ?
in Wiki discribed under  " Hot Reload "
it´s discribed as one way road from DR to TDM 
what about the inverse ?

With game connection, you can update the game view with updates from DR. You cannot change anything back from TDM to DR except from the camera view.

As far as I understand you can:

• Make changes to the map in DR and imidiatelly preview them inside tdm in same position.
• Change the camera view in DR and sync that with tdm.
• Change the camera view in tdm and sync that with DR.

[Geep]

On 8/26/2025 at 10:24 AM, BoilerDunce said:

Is it normal for something like a long line of brushes to get distorted when rotated?

I am copying and rotating a fence and the fence posts are becoming skinner.

Maybe. I try to ideally only rotate once from a grid-aligned object, to minimize problems. So in your case, have a grid-aligned fence segment from which you copy and rotate each segment separately.

Or you could temporarily go to a rather fine grid if you have to do cumulative rotations. But in my experience that sometimes can cause other problems... objects in question disappearing, mysterious lighting artifacts.

[grodenglaive]

A lamp using a custom light texture will not cast shadows no matter what I do It shines right through the wall. If I revert the lamp to the original TDM texture (biground1_streetlamp_8fold), it works normally. I literally just copied the original texture and changed the contrast. It is still the same size TGA file, so I don't see the issue. 

When I put the new texture in the lamp properties, the texture appears in the game just fine (but without shadows). I tried adding the "noshadows 0" spawnarg and that made no difference. 

 

So I figured I needed a custom material file to go with it.  Using the material editor, I cloned the original light material and referenced the custom texture there. No dice, the lamp still will not cast shadows. I tried adding "forceShadows", which again made no difference. 

To trouble shoot, I tried using the original tdm texture file in my custom material and it also won't cast a shadow.

It seems like custom light materials are broken or am I just missing some other step?  

 

[AluminumHaste]

You have nothing in diffuse map on the left? Not sure if that even matters here.

[grodenglaive]

38 minutes ago, AluminumHaste said:

You have nothing in diffuse map on the left? Not sure if that even matters here.

Thanks, there's no diffuse maps on the other lights either, so I guess it isn't used here. 

[grodenglaive]

Well damn - I just remade it on a different style lamp in a test map and now it's working! I have a lot to unpack here

[edit] ok, reloaded the lamp, texture, material in the project and now it works! Don't know what I did, but I'll take it

[edit] it was the folder structure.

 

Edited August 31, 2025 by grodenglaive

[ERH+]

Can't find it but I remember someone working on two sided shadows on textures, maybe on plant leaves. both sides are illuminated by light (one side less) and you can see shadows casted on surface on both sides of it. Could be nice on thin window's curtains.

[Arcturus]

@ERH+ That would be this?

 

[AluminumHaste]

Yeah I remember that, it was very promising but it kinda fizzled out due to how much work it was to redo textures to get it working.

[ERH+]

I have something that works as a directional microphone: wherever the player will look, the func_listener will be teleported. For some reason if I rotate away from lets say a pond where you can hear water, I can still hear water as if one of sound channels had not been updated (the microphone is definitely not above water as I can hear it picking new sounds - from where I'm currently looking at). I have no idea how func_listeners work, or how sound propagation between visportaled rooms can be messed up if you set func_listener's origin to new location.

Edited October 20, 2025 by ERH+

[ERH+]

Does anybody have a working gui overlay using a camera image? I'm thinking about changing the player's perspective like in a horror movie: suddenly you are looking at yourself from a window above the street, from behind a curtain. You control the body but game becomes a third person perspective for a moment. I have problems with setting the camera image as gui overlay.

Edited October 24, 2025 by ERH+

[datiswous]

I don't, but I was also thinking about this.

Maybe it helps to check out the code of the spyglass gui,

Edited October 24, 2025 by datiswous