GlasWolf on 8/8/2005 at 18:37
Quote Posted by Ziemanskye
Only question that really remains then is which version to tweak?
Firstly, I haven't played v3 yet. Based on v1 and v2, I have to admit although the outside area is pretty spiffy looking, it's a waste of a map load IMO. Is it feasible to combine them and walk in (pick?) the front door (or add an alternate entry point as ProjectX says) and up the steps to the previous start point? That would be the best of both worlds.
You've already mentioned most of my bug finds: NPCs attacking the rustmites, furnace doesn't hurt player (or NPCs :ebil: ), loot glow satchel in the pagan's room, there's a scroll clipping into a table (furnace room), remove arrows, add smesh file and structure, add loading screen.
I was looking at the map/mission name thing, it's a bit odd isn't it? If only the tags were based on the filename then it would be easy, but it seems to be some other label associated with the map. Castle1 is labelled castle in the MapRooms.sch, for example. I noticed the pre-mission briefing for Townhouse correctly uses the tds_townhouse label, but displays (null) in game. Weird.
potterr on 8/8/2005 at 18:42
Back again after a well earned holiday...and have had a chance to do a bit of testing.
I tried version three of Schism with GarrettLoader and could run around the entry area quite easily, click the glyph and loading up the next area causes a crash same as before....Not tired GlasWolfs fix just yet though.
Also (the important part) found a problem with Schism and GarrettLoader, for some reason when T3 crashes with it it locks the save game files (I think) so that when GL tries to back them up it gets a zip method error and crashes. A fix for this is to delete everything in the savegames folder (except user options) and it should install properly again. I have only done limited testing with this so it may not be accurate.
Ziemanskye on 9/8/2005 at 11:18
Potterr - try the missing smesh solution, the more votes it works the better. Also, that GL problem might be why people were having trouble before (some people re-installed a lot trying to get this to work - the amount of time and effort people have put in to this is staggering)
GlasWolf - The front door thing is always going to be a sticking point. My arguments are simply that the level is supposed to be set early in the morning in a public place of worship. Walking in the front door is quite feasable for how I think of churches. There probably ought to be a side-door somewhere I suppose, which would generally be locked.
Not using the front door also brings problems of where else are we going to get in? There isn't a sewer, there are no grounds outside, and most of the windows are in kind of odd places and probably not the type which open.
As for the outside being a waste of a loading zone, well yeah, really it is. Easiest just to cut it out I suppose. I can always use it later, maybe even expand it into a small town area in front of the cathedral, put a couple exits to other missions in if I build any more... Maybe, for now it's probably easier just to cut it out.
We can't combine the two areas and pick/enter the door. It's as simple as that if we do that, it ruins the light effect from the long shadows. And as mentioned, picking the door open doesn't feel right to me. And it would increase the ibt size yet again, may not actually line up on scale anyway, and would likely mess with the missing smeshes again, so, no that ain't going to work.
And is there someone out there who can check the ibt files - I want to know if they contain any of the gamesys for a level. I think that might be related to getting the name to appear in the mission (one error I get in my logs is EnterMissionObject not found, which is wrong in terms of needing one to set up the difficulty settings, but maybe it needs an archetype in the level to hold onto the name settings, so if that stuff gets baked in like how I think it does anyway I could try that).
:erm:
Ziemanskye on 9/8/2005 at 15:41
I've had an idea.
It may not prove to be a good one.
I can move the forge up a little, and move it's corridor out a bit, so that the guy in there can actually get out into the rest of the building, and I think with the extra space I can provide a 'service door' on the side of the building, and have the exit glyph uncover a second one elsewhere when it appears. Not quite get back to where you started to exit, but probably close enough.
Fitting the exterior around to make the player able to get to the side door will be a larger endeavour, and will basically mean the level ends up in two quite large pieces if it works, but I think the concept is sound.
If I do that though - is it worth considering this as a district (so just flavour text rather than a briefing, at least until you click a glyph to enter the place), or should it all just be the mission?
GlasWolf on 9/8/2005 at 18:14
The front door security thing I'm fine with, I did think about the open access to places of worship as well. It does sort of make you ask why the people inside are hostile though... can of worms, that one.
Is the long shadows thing to do with the properties of the two areas?
Anyway, you'll be glad to hear that I've got a simple solution to all your problems. Make the front door the entrance to the Townhouse. Put a loading zone in the Townhouse attic, leading to a concealed entrance on the top floor of Schism.
Yes, yes I know - you can thank me later. (Now you know why I don't design missions...)
Crispy on 10/8/2005 at 11:28
Genius! It shall be called... Schismhouse! :cheeky:
Re: open places of worship - Well, yes, but they're not leaving the door unlocked for Garrett, are they? :) They're leaving it unlocked for actual worshippers. Unfortunately for them, Garrett can get through unlocked doors too... (Must be a special Keeper ability.)
Ziemanskye on 10/8/2005 at 12:37
Now if we could just get him able to see through windows....
;)
Ziemanskye on 10/8/2005 at 14:34
bah!
Outside area is now expanded a bit, to include a side passage down to the door beside the forge.
I was planning a graveyard and a small street area, but the lighting messed it all up. I forgot Directional Lights don't stop casting, ever.
The volumes only relate to how far the shadows go (ie, all the way along the volume), which meant that there was either a seriously crippled performance through collecting shadows from all the way across the map to apply, or a lot of inexplicable bright spots from the non-shadowed bits of the directionals, either of which would occasionally turn off entirely because of finally falling out of a zone/portal. Sunlight just doesn't disappear like that (not quite, not even here in Scotland).
ProjectX on 22/8/2005 at 19:37
Quote Posted by Gestalt
Is there any reason map authors shouldn't just include their own default.ini files in the .zip? That way people that just want to play a map don't have to fiddle with their vertex pool settings and so forth. Doing this would also let FM authors decide on the strength of gravity (useful for submarine or airship levels) and change a few other things.
I think the property "gravity" might help (although I could be wrong). This is settable via a script.
potterr on 22/8/2005 at 19:57
The next release of GarrettLoader (1.11) handles the vertexpools for each FM. This is done by checking for a file called PCVertexPools.ini in either the root folder of the zip (I.E. the root folder of the T3 install) or a folder called "Fan Mission Extras" off the root T3 folder. The file should basically contain
Code:
[PCVertexPools]
DynamicVertexPool0=31457280
StaticVertexPool=26214400
StaticShadowVertexPool=15728640
obviously changing the actual figures to the requirement of your FM (its been noticed that the above figures for schism causes crashes on a few PC's, halving the values works ok).
What I was also wondering is what else could/needs to be adjusted in the user.ini file for FMs?
