Kingsal on 3/4/2017 at 22:47
Hello TTLG,
I usually lurk around the TDM forums as a mission author and contributor over there. As a side project, I'm working on a humble T2/ dromed mission for release within the next month or so.
So far, I really dig dromed and I've had a lot of fun looking over the enormous horde of tutorials and community support for the dark engine games. Its impressive and daunting to say the least.
I've come across a few basic questions about dromed, any help would be much appreciated.
1. Is it possible to increase the move speed of the WASD controls in dromed?
2. Is there a way to dump a mission object list somewhere including the object IDs? How about brushes?
3. Does dromed have "fit texture to surface" function?
4. Can I scale brushes relative to and edge? for instance scaling only in the +y dimension rather than uniformly from the middle of the brush?
5. I've noticed some FMs import T1 characters into T2. Is there a tutorial somewhere for this?
Thanks everyone!
skacky on 3/4/2017 at 23:48
Hey, nice of you to drop by for some DromEding! I can answer some of your questions:
1. You can use the command speed_fac to increase camera speed, but it also increases rotation speed. You can use the command rotspeed_fac to decrease it. I like to use speed_fac 8 and rotspeed_fac 0.25 myself.
3. There is no auto fit like in Hammer or Radiant. There is, however, a new texture mode with NewDark; AlignExt. You can activate it by selecting a face and clicking on AlignNorm then AlignBr. You can then resize a texture to your heart's content until it fits the face. You can also flip it by entering a negative value.
4. No, brushes have to be resized from the middle. It's a bit cumbersome and takes some time to get used to. I rarely resize by hand now, I enter dimensions directly instead.
Tannar on 4/4/2017 at 05:05
Welcome to the Thief fora. Glad you decided to give Dromed a try.
5. There is a tutorials page listed in the link that Larry gave you where you can find lots of tutorials for lots of things. Unfortunately, there really isn't a very good tutorial for importing T1 resources into T2. (
http://southquarter.com/dromed/?p=80) Here's the only one I could find. But you might try dong a search here and see if you can find some threads that discuss it. There are probably many.
Yandros on 4/4/2017 at 11:12
Someone I thought (belboz or gumdrop maybe?) long ago made a pack which included some T1 creatures for T2 - I believe it was burricks, fire elementals and one other. It included the resources including sound files and schemas, and also I think a version of the T2 dark.gam which already had them set up. I know I've done missions based on this setup before, but am not sure if I have the original package - I'll look for it at home tonight. And welcome to Dromeding!
Unna Oertdottir on 4/4/2017 at 11:31
This is DarkArrow. Look in files/BCB.zip
(
http://darkar.mbnet.fi/) http://darkar.mbnet.fi/
Cardia on 4/4/2017 at 12:43
Great! its good to have an experienced author in Dromed.
Yandros on 4/4/2017 at 14:38
Thank you, Unna!
LarryG on 4/4/2017 at 15:26
A Simplistic Process To Import T1 or TG Creatures into a T2 Mission* Open up a T1/TG DromEd instance
* Open up the hierarchy to the creature you wan to import into T2
* Inspect the properties of the creature, looking for any references to other T1 archetypes
* Add those you found to a list
* Open up the hierarchy to each archetype on your list, looking for any references to other T1 archetypes
* Go to step 4 until you no longer find T1 archetype references
* Open up a T2 DromEd instance (do not close the T1/TG instance)
* Starting at the
bottom of your list,
* Look for the referenced archetype by name in the T2 DromEd hierarchy.
* If found already existing in the T2 hierarchy, skip to the next item up on your list (go to 8a).
* If not found, create it, adding each property of the archetype exactly as found in the T1/TG hierarchy (i.e look at the the archetype in T1/TG DromEd and copy property by property to the T2 archetype).
* When you get to any property referencing an external file (bitmap, model name, texture, etc.) jot that down on another list.
* Since you are processing your list of archetypes to create in reverse order, by the time you get to one which references another, that other will already exist in the hierarchy to be referenced.
* Process the next archetype up on your list (go to 8a) until you have processed them all into the T2 hierarchy.
* You've done a lot of work you don't want to lose, so save your gamsys either as a .cow or .gam (or both), with a new name.
* Copy the external files you put on your files list from your T1/TG directories to your T2 directories, saving the files in the exact corresponding folders.
* Using a HEX EDITOR of your choice, open up each .bin that you copied to the T2 directories and look for internal references to texture files. If found, copy them from the TXT/TXT16 folders in the T1/TG directories to the corresponding ones in your T2 directories.
That should get you started.
NOTE: There are some tools that others have written which might prove useful in some of these steps. I refer you to (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144469) Important: Resources for Mission Authors.
NOTE: You are also likely to need to copy sound schema files and reload your T2 schemas. So be sure to find a clean copy of the T1/TG and T2 schemas. Copy any needed schemas from the T1/TG schema files to your T2 directories before you reload schemas. There are instructions on how to modify and reload schemas elsewhere. Again, (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144469) Important: Resources for Mission Authors.
Note: You can save a lot of time and typing by using the NewDark
Export feature. With it, you can export a hierarchy archetype's properties to DML. You can then import the DML to T2 using the
dbmod_load command, but only after you have created the empty archetype in T2 first to receive the properties. The name of the archetype in the T2 hierarchy must be exactly the same as in T1/TG. Follow the steps above as written, just use Export/Import to copy the properties for you.
Note: A T1/TG creature .bin file can be upgraded to be a T2 .bin using the MESHUP utility. Again, (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144469) Important: Resources for Mission Authors.
Note: There are remodeled, higher resolution, versions of most T1/TG creatures. Again, (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144469) Important: Resources for Mission Authors.
Kingsal on 4/4/2017 at 17:08
Hey everyone, wow thanks so much! This a lot of good information and its already paying off.
I haven't played around with all the tools yet, but they look extremely helpful.
One more quick question for now. If I load Dark Arrows game sys will I be able to load the information I currently have in my own? I'm still a little fuzzy on how that works. Can I load elements from several gamesys files and save them out a single one for my mission?
I'm really excited to get the creatures in. I'll give it a shot tonight and report back.
