Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[thebigh]

If I change a shaderparm on an AI in a script using $BennyGuard.setShaderParm( parmno, newval), how do I get that to propagate through to the AI's head and weapon entities?

[joebarnin]

6 hours ago, thebigh said:

If I change a shaderparm on an AI in a script using $BennyGuard.setShaderParm( parmno, newval), how do I get that to propagate through to the AI's head and weapon entities?

Maybe call $BennyGuard.getAttachmentInd() with incrementing values on the id (starting with 0), to get all the attached entities, and call setShaderParm on each of them. 

[thebigh]

Hmm, I can't seem to make any changes whatsoever to attached entities, either using this method or using getHead() and getWeaponEntity(). setShaderParm() does nothing. Not even remove() or unbind() have any effect. It doesn't seem possible to cause any changes at all to an attached entity. Oh well, so much for that mission concept, LOL.

[joebarnin]

Maybe you have to call setShaderParm on the attachment before explicitly attaching it?

What exactly are you trying to do?

[thebigh]

I'm trying to get burn-away to work like it did in Doom3. Basically, I've given Benny a skin that's his usual outfit but with an irregular, clumpy alpha channel over the top of it. I also made similar skins for his head and sword. These have things like

{
	    blend diffusemap 
	    map models/md5/chars/benny/benny_body_d
	    alphatest parm3
	}

in the material definition so that by varying shaderParm3 in-game I can get Benny to look like he's dissolving into clumps of ash, like the imps did in Doom3 when you killed them. Works perfectly for all the materials on his body, but not his head or weapon.

void alphadjust( float x ) {
    entity Sword = $Benny.getWeaponEntity();
    entity Head = $Benny.getHead();    
    $Benny.setShaderParm( 3, x );             //works perfectly
    
    $Sword.setShaderParm( 3, x );             //does nothing    
    $Head.setShaderParm( 3, x );              //does nothing    

    $Sword.remove();             //does nothing    
    $Sword.unbind();             //does nothing    


    return;
}

 

[joebarnin]

Cool idea! The fact that remove() doesn’t work either makes me think that the getWeaponEntity call isn’t returning the correct object. I’ll do some experimenting when I get home later in the week.

[STRUNK]

@thebigh
$Benny_head.hide(); works. So maybe $Benny_head.setShaderParm( 3, x ); will work too.

 

[thebigh]

Okay, I've been playing around with this a bit and it looks like getHead() and getWeaponEntity() are not returning what I expect. If I go in-game and enter ListEntities in the console, I find out that Benny's head and sword are called Benny_head and CMeleeWeapon_atdm:moveable_longsword_9 respectively.

 

void alphadjust( float x ) {
    entity Sword = $Benny.getWeaponEntity();  //what does this actually return?
    entity Head = $Benny.getHead();           //what does this actually return?

    $Benny.setShaderParm( 3, x );             //works perfectly
    
    $Sword.setShaderParm( 3, x );             //does nothing    
    $Head.setShaderParm( 3, x );              //does nothing    

    $Benny_head.setShaderParm( 3, x );        //works perfectly
    
    //$CMeleeWeapon_atdm:moveable_longsword_9.setShaderParm( 3, x );    //won't work because variable names can't contain a colon


    return;
}

 

And in any case I'd prefer not to have to rely on knowing beforehand what the name of the entity is going to be, because later versions of TDM might change it and break my mission; and names containing an entity ID number definitely will change during mapping.

Edited August 23 by thebigh

[STRUNK]

@thebigh
 

void test() {
	$Benny_head.hide();

entity child;
float i;

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    child = $Benny.getBindChild(i);
    
    string class = child.getKey("spawnclass");
        
        if (child.getKey("spawnclass") == "CMeleeWeapon") {
        child.hide(); //child.setShaderParm( 3, x );        
        }
    }
}

Maybe that will always work?
(The Sword is BindChild 0 when sheathed and becomes 1 when drawn it seems)
 

Edited August 23 by STRUNK

[thebigh]

Yep, this works! 

[joebarnin]

On 8/23/2026 at 5:24 AM, thebigh said:

Yep, this works! 

Looking forward to seeing what this looks like!

[thebigh]

45 minutes ago, joebarnin said:

Looking forward to seeing what this looks like!

 

I'm hoping to get the mission done before the end of the year. The map itself is unlikely to be too big, but there's a lot more fiddling with material defs and scripting than I anticipated. 

[taffernicus]

Can't the decal be applied to the “mover_door” or “mover_door_sliding” class?