Please ask your basic (newbie) questions in here.

Flux on 22/6/2008 at 16:53

It's not about being paranoid. I do clone myself, keep in my mind which actors I do. However, back in the days, for any unreal engine, I've seen people banging their head on the keyboard for a long time just because of this copy-paste thing. The chances of this ridiculous bug happening is low, but I see nothing wrong with this kind of seemingly implausible warning since people are quick to jump into conclusion "omg this editor is so buggy, I'll stick with..."

You know, so many people pop their head in, ask a few questions then never release anything...

Also, hence the rank of "resident know-it-all",:) I'd like to hear your comments about (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1744047#post1744047) this
Reply in a separate thread if you wish, I'd prefer that actually. I remember discussing about lights/level limits and missions being playable on low-end rigs some time ago with Judith, you and me.

Beleg Cúthalion on 22/6/2008 at 18:21

@AI running into each other: I solved this by placing one guard further away from the first patrol marker...rather simple, but I'm eying some "following script" anyway. Just simpler and bullet-proof. Oh...at least I hope so.

@havoc: If you're indeed such a technical freak; T3Edding still offers a broad field of exploring unlike DromEd for instance. Approximately two years ago there must have been a lot of nerds around here digging deep and creating rough drafts of rope arrows and swimmable water and then most of them left. Now it seems to me that people would have to start again where others left years ago. :erg: So, if you feel underemployed...:sly:

Oh, and about the story (and I fear my technical skills are even lesser than what I think about stories or gameplay) – this Garrett-has-been-trapped-and-imprisoned story has already been subject of a couple of TDS FMs (and there are few!), so right after the story about that mystical artifact this is the most often used type until now. If you don't mind me meddling in your affairs, I'd rather suggest something like breaking into a prison like you did in Cragscleft. Simply because I haven't played a lot of FMs (at all and) like that yet.

Ziemanskye on 22/6/2008 at 18:22

Performance things are a bit of a pain in this engine, because most of the people who are making missions have higher specs than the people playing, as far as I can make out. I'm on a fairly weak system (as I tend to harp on about), which means I'm rather more paranoid than most people are: I genuninely can't play quite a few of the FMs that have been released just because of how they've been built for a bigger rig. It's been a bit of a stick I've been beating the other Cabal guys with for a while now, but they're learning how to appease/distract me :ebil:

His specific problem, with it only happening around certain flames, probably just means that it's either a light too far, or more likely a weakness in the graphics card/chip itself with regards to particle effects - my previous system was a bit like that; would crap out over things that shouldn't cost much (that was a GF5500, I'm on a GF6150go now). The type of thing where shaving a MaxParticleCount property from a 10 to a 7 in all the emiiters in the scene would probably avoid the slowdown just because there's a little too much overdraw for that setup to cope, and would barely affect how it looks either.

Best way to test things is to get someone with a weaker system to have a poke about for you and see where it sticks/stops/chugs/whatever. Keep him on a list somewhere for beta-testing your next map :p

Flux on 22/6/2008 at 19:04

Thanks for the detailed explanation but I was actually referring to the fact that even someone with geforce3 card can say "I enjoyed this level", and that level happens to be largest one up to now and its diorama of "toggle lights that touches too many objects" is completely red. And I can also say it is relatively complex with regards to "number of visible shadow casting lights per scene, number of ai & patrol points"

Seriously, when I shipped first beta version of Valley, I knew all my beta-testers rigs and if someone told me by then a player like Sting could play it one way or another, I wouldn't believe...

Of course he'd have problem around flames, everyone does. What surprises me he can still play it. What really puzzles me, you have gf6 and he has gf3...:confused: And you say you can't play some missions...where he can...His cpu isn't bright either.

Maybe the Cabal guys should start a uproar against your stick.:p :joke:

Let's see how different players will respond to my query of "performance feedback"...Not that one level should be a benchmark but the case piques my
interest if that level almost does what people considered as blasphemy regarding optimization before. Add to that, I have ambient lights with 200-255 radius in every scene, which are not "ambient-vertex". Yes, I'm a normal map junkie.:p

Judith on 22/6/2008 at 19:29

Quote Posted by Flux

Maybe the Cabal guys should start a uproar against your stick.

No worries, the revenge will be sweet once he gives us playable version of his map for beta tests :ebil:

Quote Posted by Flux

Add to that, I have ambient lights with 200-255 radius in every scene, which are not "ambient-vertex". Yes, I'm a normal map junkie.

:eww: It's hard to imagine how your layout looks like with "lights that touch too many objects" filter turned on.. Is there a scale for that? ;)

Flux on 22/6/2008 at 19:53

Heh, looks like doom3 hell level.:p

(http://images.bittersense.com/valleyred4.jpg) http://images.bittersense.com/valleyred4.jpg

More ambient lights with less radius didn't change anything the on framerates at all, so I left it that way. I know hard to believe, in many areas setting them to ambient vertex only effected 1-2 fps and that was on only some obscure angles. So they are all omni-no shadow.

havoc211 on 22/6/2008 at 20:45

Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion

I largely just love problem solving. I have a story to tell and the engine is how I go about telling it. So if I need something, I'll stand the engine on it's ear if need be to get it done. If it can't be done, I'll punt. lol.

Quote:

Oh, and about the story (and I fear my technical skills are even lesser than what I think about stories or gameplay) - this Garrett-has-been-trapped-and-imprisoned story has already been subject of a couple of TDS FMs (and there are few!), so right after the story about that mystical artifact this is the most often used type until now. If you don't mind me meddling in your affairs, I'd rather suggest something like breaking into a prison like you did in Cragscleft. Simply because I haven't played a lot of FMs (at all and) like that yet.

Well, I have 3 dvds full of FMs that I haven't touched yet. I don't know how they all implemented their breakouts. Mine isn't so much about breaking out as it is about Garrett finding the plot on the way. It's just a convenient means to an end the which idea I liked. Has a lot of room for some laughing that I expect to plumb. To that end, it's kindof like westerns. They all tend to be alike in many ways; but, who would turn their nose up at another 10 episodes of Deadwood.

To me, it's not what the plot is, it's how it's executed and how well the story is told. If it's compelling and well constructed, it'll be worth it. If not, it'll deserve feeding to wu's pigs and perhaps the recounting of that tale by Benny.. after a few pints of course.

Abru on 23/6/2008 at 18:08

Quote:

@havoc: If you're indeed such a technical freak; T3Edding still offers a broad field of exploring unlike DromEd for instance. Approximately two years ago there must have been a lot of nerds around here digging deep and creating rough drafts of rope arrows and swimmable water and then most of them left. Now it seems to me that people would have to start again where others left years ago. So, if you feel underemployed...

I think the Most important thing for us is 3ds-->Tim Converter :sly: ;)

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96152)
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94544)

… and simply creating really good missions. ;)

Beleg Cúthalion on 23/6/2008 at 19:10

...and a custom tool to create matlibs without 3D Studio Max, if that's in fact still on the agenda.

havoc211 on 24/6/2008 at 02:40

Quote Posted by Abru

lol. Got my photoshop manuals dug out this afternoon and got it installed again. I think my old version of 3dsMax is only 5.0. I'll have to install it to check if the updates are applied for 5.1, I don't remember and the disc faces are soot damaged. They survived a house fire.

Is there a list somewhere of all the plugins needed for these two apps?

Oh, and got your tools this afternoon too, thanks ;)