Please ask your basic (newbie) questions in here.

jrt on 27/7/2007 at 19:09

Thanks I'll give it a shot.
OK didn't work, could you be more specific. Tried trigger scripts and others stuff from another tut I found on the
internet.

Benvox2 on 29/7/2007 at 08:13

Alright so I will launch the Editor from the launcher and T3 Itself from the launcher once to "activate" it then I should be able to continue using them both without my T3 game getting messed up?

Thanks heaps!

nomad of the pacific on 29/7/2007 at 08:34

No, anytime you use T3Ed, you'll have to use the launcher to start the game again. The launcher rewrites the registry each time you use it to point it to the right directories.

jrt, there are a lot of properties that need to be set to make your mesh into a movable object. I can't remember them all right now, but look at the properties for some of the other movable objects, or you could just create a crate or something and them change it's mesh to what you want under Render.

Beleg Cúthalion on 1/8/2007 at 07:17

Since it's a newbie question: What does the size of a mission in TDS depend on? I think I read somewhere that Krellek's Labyrinth was something special because it was huge but I cannot compare it to The Bridge right now, which is also quite big but contains a lot of free space. So...what would be the condition(s) for making a mission nearly as big as the TI/II ones?

nomad of the pacific on 1/8/2007 at 08:47

A rather difficult question to answer. You can create a HUGE mission if it's devoid of all detail. Complexity and lighting affect frame rates. When frame rates become too low, your mission is too big and it's time to chop it in half. A very subjective criteria, I know, but still the best we've got. (There is a hard limit on the number of properties you can have, so if you've got a lot of things going on, you might hit that one. Don't worry about it, though, because no one has hit it but me and I'm not sure how I managed it. Just keep backups. The first sign that you have hit the limit is that your level won't run and won't load in the editor, so you can't fix it and all your work will be lost. :p )

Tazonne on 1/8/2007 at 10:15

How can I trigger something like this: Garrett enters a room, when he reaches a specific point, a burst of light/flash appears(just like the one when lauryl appears). At the exactly the same time, in front of G an ai appears, and after a matter of seconds another burst of light, the ai disappears and object appears on the ground... :erm: hope I don't ask for too much, or that I didn't confuse you...
And another thing. Is it possible to teleport G from a location only when he has some specific items in his invetory ?

Beleg Cúthalion on 1/8/2007 at 13:37

I hope Tazonne won't slap me in the face..:p

Quote Posted by nomad of the pacific

You can create a HUGE mission if it's devoid of all detail. Complexity and lighting affect frame rates. When frame rates become too low, your mission is too big and it's time to chop it in half.

But the limit for "greatest one-piece level possible" (I know it hardly exists) is not the frame rate itself but has the same "conditions" as the frame rate (i.e. lots of polygons, lights etc.), hasn't it? So if someone would make a mission like the original Southquarter, the same amount of buildings per area, rooms and objects, maybe more NPCs but less lights (maybe during daytime), how big could someone make it, if necessary without the possibility to look for a quarter mile (i.e. a nicely convoluted part of town) down the streets? Approximately...?

And what gets the Engine really down (save for the lights, judith somewhere told that he avoids more than three lights from any perspective)? NPCs? Objects? Lots of brushes? I know from some DromEd missions that it's getting tough with a lot of NPCs and we all know those certain rooftop views with disappearing walls etc.. Is it the same with T3Ed? I'm sorry that I'm only a theoretician (maybe someone could persuade me to have a look at Komag's tutorial...), but I do want to know what is possible with that machine.

Tazonne on 1/8/2007 at 16:15

Slap you in the face for what ? :joke:
Anyway, it's a game engine, too much of everything will start killing it...
Save for the lights(in particular shadow casting lights), I guess that too many brushes do kill it. Especially those that are complicated, badly aligned, intersected with other brushes. I think the editor will take a hard blow if you start building cathedrals or castles with complex architecture out of brushes. That's why they introduced the static meshes.They perform way better.
And you have to be careful with large zones. On one hand because you have to light them intelligently and on the other hand because you can't split the area in half with a zone(it's too big and it gives errors).

GlasWolf on 1/8/2007 at 18:46

Quote Posted by Tazonne

This shouldn't be too difficult. You'd need to create a volume and link it to your AI (with, say, a triggerscript link) and item (with an Association link), with the AI and item both set as bHidden=True bOutOfWorld=True. Then (cutting and pasting wildly...) and add a script with:

Code:

When linked volume(s) [Myself] are breached by [Category Player]
Shift screen color from RGBA [Int] [Int] [Int] [Int] to RGBA [Int] [Int] [Int] [Int] in [Float] seconds
Set [bOutOfWorld] to [False] on linked objects of [TriggerScript] (your AI)
Set [bHidden] to [False] on linked objects of [TriggerScript] (your AI)
Delay [Float] GAME seconds
Shift screen color from RGBA [Int] [Int] [Int] [Int] to RGBA [Int] [Int] [Int] [Int] in [Float] seconds
Set [bOutOfWorld] to [True] on linked objects of [TriggerScript] (your AI)
Set [bHidden] to [True] on linked objects of [TriggerScript] (your AI)
Set [bOutOfWorld] to [False] on linked objects of [Association] (your item)
Set [bHidden] to [False] on linked objects of [Association] (your item)

You'll have to work out the RGBA figures for yourself, but black to white might work.

Quote Posted by Tazonne

And another thing. Is it possible to teleport G from a location only when he has some specific items in his invetory ?

I think what you want to do here is set a flag when you pick up the item in question, then query whether it's true when he enters the teleport location.

Ziemanskye on 1/8/2007 at 20:53

As for size limitations: You've got a StaticMesh limit (about 2Mb), which you can expand the vertexpools to get around, a zone limit (1023, which is way more than even a large level ought to need anyway), a property limit (which I've never hit, but Nomad has), and a brush limit (which I've hit, but no-one else seems to have). You also have a physical limit (er, lots: but there is an edge to the space you can build in) and assorted performance limits if you want people to be able to play the level.

You can have up to 6 lights visible (by the engine: not the player) before it starts to further impact frame-rate, though part of that is number of objects touched by the light radius and number of shadows being cast, and whether they're catching normal mapped surfaces of not.

Beyond all that, it's a game engine: too much of anything will kill it, so bOutOfWorld-ing NPCs when they're too far away, forcing particles to simplify (and/or turn on/off) will help, as will simple brush work with well defined portals.

If you really want to see what's capable in terms of big levels, well... give me a few more months.