Messages

1906

Mapping / Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?

« on: October 25, 2009, 01:38:23 am »

Thanks everyone. I guess the consensus is big-city urban, so that's what I'll work on. For now I'll try to do a set of RMA tiles for streets so that there's a skeleton form to build off of.

Regarding languages, for now I'll probably try to minimize the text on billboards and ads. But I don't see visual signs of all sorts going away any time soon. I see them proliferating, but who knows in 80 years.

I'm also planning to build first in a more western style and later we'll see what can be done about creating different city styles for the different cultures.

Looking at other RMAs, I've got a maximum of 12x12 256 tiles. If we're talking big, tall buildings, that only leaves me with space for a couple city blocks down one main thoroughfare. I'll do my best to design it so that the tactical options for maneuver aren't channeled too much down the street, but may need to find some creative solutions.

1907

Mapping / Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?

« on: October 24, 2009, 10:00:38 am »

Thanks guys. One problem with urban big city is what to do about language? Store-fronts, advertising, they all need signs and text. How should that be handled? Should there be one language per culture and we have to create different maps based on different cultures? Or is it not that big of a deal?

1908

Mapping / Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?

« on: October 23, 2009, 07:23:45 pm »

I've been looking through the list of maps and the suggestions for new maps, trying to decide what I should work on first. Ideally, I'd like something comparatively simple so that I can start to get a feel for how it all works before getting too deep into complex geometry.

Since I'm new around here and others have a better sense of what's urgent and what's not, I thought I'd post up the few things I'm considering at first to hear what people think is most urgent (also, if someone else is working on it, let me know). They are:

1. Working on the Desert or Ice RMAs. I imagine the geometry would be pretty simple for these and it would give me an opportunity to learn how to set up RMAs. Right now they've each got very few tiles.

2. Working on a map for one of the terror sites/infrastructure attacks -- probably government offices or a big factory.

Any suggestions on which is needed more? Is there something else I've missed that would be a better place for me to start?

1909

Mapping / Re: Some questions before getting started

« on: October 23, 2009, 03:13:04 pm »

Thanks Martin, a couple notes.

2. I just checked entities.ufo and it appears that misc_particles does not have a name key.

3. I'm still a little confused. What exactly is the tracing code? Will using abnormal heights interfere with actual game mechanics or just the link between the camera and the map?

1910

Mapping / Some questions before getting started

« on: October 23, 2009, 10:56:08 am »

Alright, I've gone through the tutorial and I've got my shed and hedges. Got some soldiers, enemies and civilians in the map. I've tested out func_rotate and func_breakable, the materials feature to blend two textures, and I've got a little staircase. Before I start work on something that matters, I wanted to clear up a few questions I had about mapping and UFOAI.

1. I've built a little test thing to see at what heights the soldier can see over walls when standing and crouching. Standing, they can just see over my 44-tall wall, but not the 52-tall. Crouching they can just see over 28 units, but not 36. I know that there are currently new soldier models in development. Does anyone know if the visibility heights will change with the new models?

2. Is it possible to have a func_breakable spawn a misc_particle that loops? I know the entity has a particle key that will call a particle when it dies, but I'm using that for an explosion and I'd like to be able to call fire or smoke to continue going after the explosion. There's a targetname key as well for the func_breakable, but the misc_particle doesn't appear to have a name key. Is this possible?

3. Is the 64-units-as-one-level a technical limitation or a designing "best-practice". For instance, if I have a canyon and I want the floor of the canyon to be level one and the top of the canyon to be level two, can I make the canyon walls 128 units high? I would do this mostly so the player doesn't have to cycle through extraneous levels. But it might also come in handy if I've got a hill outside a house. If a floor at 68 units inside the house is level two, but a hill outside at 68 units high is level one, will this cause any problems? Or is the level system just for the ease of cycling up and down the levels?

4. I believe I've read somewhere that trees do not block sight. Is that correct?

5. And a style question... I've noticed that most of the structures appear as late-20th, early-21st century buildings. Is this is a conscious design decision that's been made by the team to keep things looking current, or is there scope for creating "futuristic" looking buildings (within reason, of course)?


Sorry for the long list. Thanks for any answers anyone's got.

1911

Mapping / Re: New Wiki Article: Mapping for Dummies

« on: October 20, 2009, 10:19:19 am »

No worries about the inconvenience. I got everything working in the end. I can work on modifying the Wiki as I go along, but I don't want to make changes if my information isn't correct. For instance, you said ufo2map.exe wasn't in the /tools/ folder, but that's where it installed to for me (see attached). I found success by copying it into the /UFOAI-2.3-dev/ folder. If that's how it's supposed to go I can update the Wiki accordingly.

1912

Mapping / Re: New Wiki Article: Mapping for Dummies

« on: October 19, 2009, 11:22:59 pm »

Ok, got my test map in-game. All is well. Couple things:

1. There's no build menu as mentioned in the wiki. I tried compile>compile the map, but it threw an error:

Code: [Select]

GLib-WARNING **: passing a child setup function to the g_spawn functions is pointless on Windows and it is ignored**-WARNING **: exec_spawn_process - failed to spawn process [19] [Failed to execute helper program (Invalid argument)]
2. I compiled by running ufo2map, but had to move the file into the Radiant folder (couldn't find DLLs). Is this right and should I modify wiki with a note about this? Don't want to go changing instructions the wrong way.

1913

Mapping / Re: New Wiki Article: Mapping for Dummies

« on: October 19, 2009, 10:48:01 pm »

I bypassed the final problem by reloading UFORadiant a few times to delete the wayward keys. I then made sure I completed each entry by hitting ENTER and that allowed me to input everything correctly. I guess I should have taken the tutorial literally there!

1914

Mapping / Re: New Wiki Article: Mapping for Dummies

« on: October 19, 2009, 10:37:19 pm »

Thanks Matt. Working my way through now. Here's my observations:

1. When I browse to specify the path to ufo2map, it doesn't actually put the path in the field. If I type it out manually it stays there, though. Wiki might also mention that it's in the /tools/ folder.

2. Several of the textures mentioned in the tutorial are no longer there. Not a big deal.

3. Many of the key shortcuts mentioned have not worked for me. They often say, press [key] to bring up [this window]. But pressing it does nothing for me and the windows are usually just something over on the panel on the right. Am I missing something or is this related to GTKRadiant?

4. I'm having trouble setting the map lighting at this part of the tutorial. First, it looks like maybe you've changed the way day and night lighting are done, as they have their own key's now.

Second, if you look at the attached screenshot, the keys and values don't seem to be going in right. I got the maxlevel going fine, then added a light_night. When I tried to add the value to light_night, the key name disappeared and I no longer had the ability to select and edit the key. I tried adding a new one and ran into the same problems, and sometimes putting in one value or selecting one key would erase or replace values for another one.

Anyway, please don't read these as complaints. Just trying to give feedback as I move through the tutorial. Thanks!

1915

Mapping / Re: New Wiki Article: Mapping for Dummies

« on: October 17, 2009, 07:52:10 pm »

Two questions about the "Prepping the software" section of the tutorial.

1. When I unpack the .pk3 files (into the same folder) and move them out of the folder, UFORadiant no longer loads the textures. Did I do something wrong? If I move them back, the textures load fine, but I suspect it needs to be able to read unpacked textures if I'm to use any custom ones that aren't packed up.

2. It says to go to the "Build" menu and choose customize to set the Final Build settings. My UFORadiant doesn't have a "Build" menu. Is this ([ufo2map] -bounce 0 -extra "[MapFile]") supposed to go under the engine path in the preferences setting?

I'm using UFORadiant from the latest full game .exe put up by Destructavator in the forums. Thanks.

1916

Artwork / Re: Skeletal Animation Practice

« on: October 05, 2009, 10:16:59 am »

Very nice Destructavator! Would you mind providing a screenshot of the skeleton itself? I've never learned how to do that but would like to try at some point.

I know it's just a short clip you threw out as a sample, but the final shooting pose looks a bit odd. The shoulders ought to be turned at a slight angle to the target. I found a bunch of useful pose shots in a military manual on pistol marksmanship that might help with visual reference. Check out Fig 2-10 and Fig 2-15.

1917

Design / Re: [Suggestion] More weapons, items and so on

« on: September 27, 2009, 11:07:08 am »

Many of the rifles used by American spec-ops forces today are direct descendants of rifles used in Vietnam (M-14, carbines like M4s), so it's not so clear that in another 70 years things will be completely different. It might be worth looking at trends today to see what could be extrapolated for future development. For instance, customizability is key to the new SCAR system, with interchangeable barrels and chambering to work in different circumstances. This kind of system might provide more flexibility in tactical planning for the early game, without requiring a whole lot of different models to be made.

1918

Mapping / Re: Mapeditor for UFO:AI

« on: September 27, 2009, 10:01:37 am »

I'm still getting the same problem with your installer Destructavator. I've turned everything off on Vista, tried the Standard and Basic themes and gone into the settings where you can turn every feature off individually but it's still the same. If I run in 256 colors the windows seem to operate correctly, but I can't see well enough to do much.

Thanks for the all the effort, guys. If there's anything else I can provide to help you track down what's causing it, let me know. But if other people are running fine with Vista I suspect it's just this laptop. It wasn't made for running things like this.

1919

Mapping / Re: Mapeditor for UFO:AI

« on: September 26, 2009, 02:22:26 pm »

New drivers installed from Dell website (Intel's wouldn't install, I think a vendor issue). Still having the same visual oddities as before.

I also get an error on startup: "Could not load ufos/entities.ufo". I click OK and it loads up the program (this was always happening, forgot to mention it).

If I load in 256 colors, the windows appear to function correctly (but I can't see well enough to actually do anything). Here's the log of what it outputs in the bottom window.

Code: [Select]

**-Message: OpenGL window configuration: colour-buffer = auto, depth-buffer = none
GL_VENDOR: Microsoft Corporation
GL_RENDERER: GDI Generic
GL_VERSION: 1.1.0
GL_EXTENSIONS: GL_WIN_swap_hint GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_paletted_texture
**-Message: No Anisotropic filtering available
**-WARNING **: Lighting mode requires OpenGL features not supported by your graphics drivers:
**-Message:   GL version 1.3 or better
**-Message:   GL_ARB_vertex_program
**-Message:   GL_ARB_fragment_program
**-Message:   GL_ARB_shader_objects
**-Message:   GL_ARB_vertex_shader
**-Message:   GL_ARB_fragment_shader
**-Message:   GL_ARB_shading_language_100
**-Message: OpenGL window configuration: colour-buffer = auto, depth-buffer = auto (fallback)
**-Message: OpenGL window configuration: colour-buffer = auto, depth-buffer = none
**-Message: OpenGL window configuration: colour-buffer = auto, depth-buffer = auto (fallback)
**-Message: OpenGL window configuration: colour-buffer = auto, depth-buffer = none
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'CameraFreeMoveBack'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'CameraFreeMoveDown'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'CameraFreeMoveForward'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'CameraFreeMoveLeft'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'CameraFreeMoveRight'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'CameraFreeMoveUp'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'ToggleCamera'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'ToggleParticleBrowser'
**-WARNING **: Shortcut not registered: 'ToggleTextureBrowser'
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/actorclip"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/nodraw"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/caulk"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/hint"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/ladder"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/origin"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/slick"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/trigger"
**-WARNING **: Texture load failed: "textures/tex_common/weaponclip"
**-Message: Showing 9 shaders.
**-Message: loading custom shortcuts list from C:/Users/sarahsmallfry/AppData/Roaming/UFOAI/radiant/shortcuts.ini
**-Message: commands import: data version 1:0 is compatible with code version 1:0
**-Message: parsed 129 custom shortcuts


1920

Mapping / Re: Mapeditor for UFO:AI

« on: September 26, 2009, 09:56:26 am »

I'm downloading latest drivers from Intel now (these haven't been updated since 2007 it looks like). But the card is "Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family". Should have thought of drivers but for some reason I never do...