Newbie DarkRadiant Questions

[Fidcal]

Hello all, I'd like to use the female model present in the heart of lone salvation mission, but I have no idea how to get it into my map. I can't find it when I open up the map with the editor. Is there a simple way to get that model into my mission ? I just need a female character even if the voices don't work.

 

Thank you.

 

First close Dark Mod and Dark Radiant.

 

Extract all the files from heart.pk4 into the heart game folder.

 

These are the files and folders you need to copy to your own fm. If you have a game folder already for your map then put them in there. If not then put them in the darkmod folder but of course they need to be included with your distributed FM eventually. You have to keep the paths as shown.

 

af/noblewoman.af

def/heart_female.def

def/heart_noblewoman.def

materials/helena.mtr

models/md5/chars/nobles/noblewoman [all files]

 

When you have the above copied over then run Dark Radiant and open your own map. If you select create entity in the normal way you should see a new virtual folder called heart underneath darkmod and she's in there under AI > nobles. If not, check your paths.

[Serpentine]

I have discovered something unsettling i've not seen before. If I creep really near the walls and look where two brushes are flush agains each other, the seams between can be seen in the 3D-view...is this normal? I cannot remember I've seen it before? I've tried to use the clipper tool to be really sure there is no gap, but no luck...there is no leak...

 

Yeah it started happening a while back, it's a known issue (and might be fixed already)

[Dragofer]

Yes, I saw that a lot on my inexperiencedly made map in the renderer. In-game they were not there. Hopefully though, that problem should be purged now with my brand-new 30 min house.

 

Which brings me onto my question, is it possible to rotate doors so they are in line with the grid? They were a pain to visportal, involving 0.125 grid sizes. Dragging vertices appears to be no good, as there are no draggable vertices here...

[Fidcal]

I am having some trouble with moonbeams in my map. I was working from Mortem Desino's instructions from this thread, and added his prefab beams to my map. Trouble is, it only displays in the editor, and cannot be seen in the game. I have tried to retexture it to sfx/moon_light_rays, sfx/moon_light_rays_dim and sfx/yellow_light_rays, or rebuilding it using cylinder patches, but to to no effect. What could be the problem?

I tried this and was about to agree when I saw a faint glimmer. It is very dark even when I turned off all lights but the ambient and even turned that low. But then I increased the property shaderparm7 and found that increases its brightness. I assumed that would be in the range 0 to 1 but I turned it right up to 3 and it was very bright.

[Serpentine]

Vertices are draggable, you just need to select them first (and make sure you have mover tool selected, makes life a lot easier)

 

Visportals dont have to be flush on the doors surface anyway, you just need to make sure the VP surface (not the purple nodraw) is in/on the door when it closes. Doors should snap to grid correctly at >1grid, but since they are models you wont be able to adjust their vertices directly, however you shouldn't really need to

 

As it's been said, you should hardly ever have to go lower than around 2-4 grid size, let alone to 0.125... I think I might to that once in a day to adjust some patchwork/decal or something. If you find yourself doing this often please feel free to ask if there's not an easier way to do something

[Fidcal]

Yeah it started happening a while back, it's a known issue (and might be fixed already)

Huh? I assumed that was a new feature so you can see where brushes adjoin even when they are the same texture. I was undecided whether it was useful or distracting. Still not decided. Are you sure it's not a new feature? I did look in preferences camera to see if it could be turned off but could not see anything.

 

Still, if you say it's a known issue then that's OK. I won't shed any tears if it goes but I almost think it could be useful if it could be buttoned on and off.

[Fidcal]

Which brings me onto my question, is it possible to rotate doors so they are in line with the grid? They were a pain to visportal, involving 0.125 grid sizes. Dragging vertices appears to be no good, as there are no draggable vertices here...

I hardly know where to start here. You should never need to mess with vertices on normal doors and no need to rotate to the grid; only to the doorway.

 

If a model door then create, rotate to the doorway if necessary then if needed fine grid and line it up. Always keep in mind the grid size so you don't then start building on a fine grid. Drag out a visportal brush so it clips into worldspawn top bottom and sides and roughly make contact with the door on its visportal surface.

 

If you create a brush door then create it aligned in the doorway from the start to a decent grid size (the width of a double door handle roughly.) Is the doorway at 90 degrees or some unusual angle? If it is at an angle then consider making a much longer wider door and cut it down with the clipper tool to be parallel with the walls.

[Melan]

I tried this and was about to agree when I saw a faint glimmer. It is very dark even when I turned off all lights but the ambient and even turned that low. But then I increased the property shaderparm7 and found that increases its brightness. I assumed that would be in the range 0 to 1 but I turned it right up to 3 and it was very bright.

 

Thank you, that took care of it.

[Manwe]

First close Dark Mod and Dark Radiant.

 

Extract all the files from heart.pk4 into the heart game folder.

 

These are the files and folders you need to copy to your own fm. If you have a game folder already for your map then put them in there. If not then put them in the darkmod folder but of course they need to be included with your distributed FM eventually. You have to keep the paths as shown.

 

af/noblewoman.af

def/heart_female.def

def/heart_noblewoman.def

materials/helena.mtr

models/md5/chars/nobles/noblewoman [all files]

 

When you have the above copied over then run Dark Radiant and open your own map. If you select create entity in the normal way you should see a new virtual folder called heart underneath darkmod and she's in there under AI > nobles. If not, check your paths.

 

Thanks a lot, that worked.

[dumpkin]

Hello, two questions for you

 

1. I wanted to make the static model "wardrobe.lwo" pushable.

I found out by chance that I had to create and use a clipmodel (wardrobe_cm.ase)

instead of collision model (wardrobe.cm).

With the collision model I could walk right through the wardrobe, except for some random collisions depending

on the viewing angle of my player.

Is there any relevance to the fileformat ".lwo"?

 

2. I made a brickstone out of a brush, exported it to .ase and made a collision model for it.

The brickstone works fine, except for one thing: I can frob and take the loot that's laying invisbly behind it in the wall without removing the brickstone first.

 

Any advice? Thank you!

Edited July 18, 2010 by dumpkin

[Fidcal]

1. lwo is just a model format made with the Lightwave 3D software or compatible. I forget the exact reason but we did have problems with quite a few models that might potentially be made moveable and this was the best fix rather than making a cm. I'd have to search the private forums to remind myself. greebo might remember as I think he did these and he would probably use Blender and save out as ase (DR couldn't export ase at that time.) It might simply be that the clipmodel has to be an actual model rather than a cm file with lwo format models.

 

2. These are some of the things you can use to give preference to frobbing one object in front of another:

 

Give the brick the property/value: frobbox_size 15 (keep as small as will work so 5 or 10 might do.)

 

If that doesn't work then give it frob_bias 1.9 and the loot behind it frob_bias 0.1

 

Another trick is frob_distance 40 on the loot. Make this as small as possible but test that it still can be frobbed and test that it is not so difficult as to annoy players.

 

The first above - frobbox_size should be enough though.

 

If the loot is moveable make sure it's cm is clear of the surround. I had something like this in Chalice of Kings and sometimes when players frobbed the brick it pushed the loot back through the stonework and it was lost!

[Baddcog]

how can I make a patch that is destroyed when player touches it? (I guess a brush would work too)

[Fidcal]

Don't know. Some ideas to explore...

 

Try converting it to a trigger_touch entity. Precious little info on this. It calls a script that could be set to delete it. I guess maybe the spawnarg script is put on it. Problem might be if something else touches it. Maybe it takes a specific entity name? Suggest google.

 

Try making it a func_static with hide 0 and giving it a touch response and for the effect give it trigger with a target of itself it should disappear. Alternatively target a delete entity. I can give you more info on this if needed.

[DeTeEff]

Huh? I assumed that was a new feature so you can see where brushes adjoin even when they are the same texture. I was undecided whether it was useful or distracting. Still not decided. Are you sure it's not a new feature? I did look in preferences camera to see if it could be turned off but could not see anything.

 

Still, if you say it's a known issue then that's OK. I won't shed any tears if it goes but I almost think it could be useful if it could be buttoned on and off.

 

Ahh, nice, then I know I'm, not alone.

[Bikerdude]

Ahh, nice, then I know I'm, not alone.

Same here, bug tracker for it - http://bugs.angua.at/view.php?id=2250

Edited July 19, 2010 by Bikerdude

[grayman]

how can I make a patch that is destroyed when player touches it? (I guess a brush would work too)

 

You can make the patch a frobable func_static, then give it a Frob response whose effect is a trigger.

 

The trigger target can be a func_remove, whose target is the name of the patch.

 

Touch the patch and it's removed.

[aidakeeley]

!alioV

[KaiserJohan]

Got a few question about AI:

 

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/3657/16171936.png

 

Basically I want a mute AI that won't do any idle actions either. I also want him to hide untill triggered, and then run to a path_corner

 

1) Can you use anim_rate_run to adjust run speed, just like anim_rate_walk?

 

2) How do you make the AI completely mute? Tried no_idle_chatter and bark_intervall stuff, but he still makes "coughing" sounds like twice per second.

 

3) say the AI starts hiden (he cant be seen or heard). Using Hide 2, will a trigger reveal him and make him continue his path?

[Fidcal]

1. Don't think so. I think the only thing is anim_rate which changes all including run.

 

2. Give the AI:

def_vocal_set

atdm:ai_vocal_set_mute

 

3. Hide only works with func_static. Instead use atdm:teleport or a script.

[KaiserJohan]

A few more q's, this time about emitters;

 

1) Is there any fade in / fade out for emitters? Like say some smoke.

 

2) Is there any way to preview the emitters? Most emitters looks really wierd ingame.

 

3) Can you resize emitters?

[PranQster]

Is there a good way to make a brush or entity to have a solid color for the texture? Say, for instance, that I wanted to make a simple solid blue (or any color) object with no discernible texture. I had looked but did not notice anything for that in the textures. Hoping for something along the lines of what might be "smooth_colorable" or "flat_shade_colorable" which defaults to white, black, or grey..

[rich_is_bored]

@KaiserJohan

 

1. The individual particles in an effect can fade out. I'm not so sure about the effect as a whole. There are a couple fade related script events and you also have the spectrum material shader keyword that might work.

 

2. DoomEdit has a particle browser with a preview pane. DarkRadiant currently does not.

 

3. Not directly. The rotation hack might work. You could alternatively copy the particle declaration and make a few changes.

 

@PranQster

 

You'll have to make a material shader. It's pretty easy.

 

For instance, this would make a grey material...

 

textures/common/clay
{
   {
       blend    diffusemap
       map      _white
       rgb     0.5
   }
}

 

You can learn more about material shaders in the texturing section on modwiki.net.

[PranQster]

[quote name='rich_is_bored' date='21 July 2010 - 09:11 PM' timestamp='1279768286' post='224511'

@PranQster

 

You'll have to make a material shader. It's pretty easy.

 

For instance, this would make a grey material...

 

textures/common/clay
{
   {
       blend    diffusemap
       map      _white
       rgb 	0.5
   }
}

 

You can learn more about material shaders in the texturing section on modwiki.net.

 

Awesome. Thanks!

[PranQster]

My next newb question...

 

I want an entity to rotate at a certain speed for a certain time. I succeeded doing that with 'func_rotating'. But my problem is that I need it to reverse direction on the next trigger, like with atdm:mover_door.

But atdm:mover_door can only move 90 degrees. I need this object to rotate about 72 degrees per second for 15 seconds, for a total of 1080 degrees. then on the next trigger, it needs to do the same, but in the opposite direction.

 

Is there a property to func_rotating which I am not finding, or is that a one way street??

 

Could I make the whole entity rotate 180 degrees on the Z axis each time it gets triggered (instantly, not over the 15 second move time)?

Edited July 22, 2010 by PranQster

[rich_is_bored]

You could try using a series of target_setkeyval entities to change the key value pairs for the func_rotating. The only problem is that most key value pairs serve only as spawn arguments meaning once the object has spawned changes to the values will not have an effect.

 

An alternative might be to bind two func_rotating entities. If both entities spin in opposite directions at the same speed they'll cancel each other out but if one spins twice as fast then you'll end up with a contraption that can spin in either direction simply by toggling one func_rotating on or off.

 

But things could get complicated nesting entities within other entities especially if the object's movement can be interrupted. You might think about writing a level script. This will make moving things instantly easier too.