Please ask your basic (newbie) questions in here.

GlasWolf on 28/9/2005 at 07:15

I think only the debug (opt) version of the exe allows this. Works ok for me.

Ziemanskye on 28/9/2005 at 09:46

Quote Posted by rujuro

Is there a trick to running a mission from the standard install directly from the .exe? I have generated .ibt's, and have placed them in the maps. When I try and run the mission by running "T3Main.exe missionname", it loads like it's blockloading the level, but then goes directly to the menu screen, never actually bringing the mission up. I'm using the editor version of the .exe.

The shortcut ought to be to t3.exe, not t3main.exe
And make sure you turn off WriteBlockFiles and turn on LoadFromResourseBlocks or whatever those two properties in the user.ini are (the number of times I've forgot that bit and wondered why it's not working....)

rujuro on 28/9/2005 at 13:25

Thanks for the replies. You may be right about only the debug allowing it. I wasn't able to get it to work using the t3.exe shortcut either. I decided to try and make it playable from the menu instead, so I have a new question for those of you who have done this:

I was able to get it to work fine from the main menu when running from my editor installation (I kept the inn briefing and stuff, just changed the entry.gmp to send me to my mission). However, when I switch to the game installation, it crashes during blockloading at about 20%. I remember there being an issue with static meshes not being there. It compained about WepDagger (something like that) missing, as well as a couple of skeletal meshes (protoguard and something else). The actual crash seems to happen when it tries to load something like My Level.None or something like that. Has anyone seen this? Strangely, that is not the name of my mission.

I tried putting the dagger in the dynamicallyloaded folder and that error went away, maybe I need to replace the skeletal meshes as well?

GlasWolf on 28/9/2005 at 18:00

Sounds like it. Don't think we actually solved the problem as such, probably some kind of error in the way the ibt is generated. Ziemanskye said there was nothing special about the .tim file required for Schism either. The paths the files should go into are defined in user.ini - the [ResPathsWhenBlockLoading] section defines the path for skeletal meshes as SkeletalMeshes\DynamicallyLoaded. If that doesn't work, try \Content\T3\SkeletalMeshes as defined in the [paths] section. As long as the required files are included in the zip, GL will copy them in (and out) no problem.

rujuro on 29/9/2005 at 01:57

Gah, nevermind, I found it, really stupid oversight on my part. Thought I had moved the .gmp, I hadn't.

potterr on 1/10/2005 at 23:28

Does anyone know how to attach an AI to a noose so that they stay there and don't fall?

ProjectX on 2/10/2005 at 17:43

do you want them to swing, as in hanging someone?

A rigidattachment to the noose, with offset changes, and then make the noose a point attachment might work...

Bardic on 6/10/2005 at 17:29

I have some questions about portals and when they stop the engine from rendering the zone past them.

Do Zone portals have a limit as to how many you can see through, like a long straight hallway with 10 portals evenly spaced, you can see the end or after 5 you get a black wall that would keep pushing back every time you passed a portal walking forward? I assume not, but if they are can that number be modified?

Also would that hallway be a little better with portals that were at angles rather than 90 degrees?

with flat portals, facing 89 deg means everything to your left is rendered, and facing 91 deg means everything to your right is rendered, correct?

with alternating angled portals when you stood against 1 wall facing the other you would render the zone you were in and probably just the zones to each side.

Or does the portal stop rendering when it is out of your field of vision rather than when you are facing an angle more than 90 deg different?

Ziemanskye on 6/10/2005 at 18:28

Portals occlude based on their shape relative to you, and their angle and some other stuff.

If you can't see the portal because it's out of your forward "cone", nothing through it gets rendered.

If you can see the portal in your forward cone but there's a wall between you and it, it acts as a mask between you anything beyond it (so things you can partially see through it if the wall wasn't there are rendered), but only if it's in the same Zone as you despite the wall.

If it's like before, but it's not in the same Zone, nothing beyond it is rendered.

It's based in part on the zones, which is why they're important - if you can see through a portal into a Zone, then that zone is masked by the shape of the portal on your screen to see what needs to be rendered (including other portals, if one portal doesn't completly mask out the next, then that next zone is masked by both portals so far to see what should be rendered, and so on). If you can't see a portal into a given zone, none of it is rendered at all.

If it's at an odd angle, or is an odd shape, technically the engine doesn't care, but I've heard rumours it can slow performance a bit. I tend to keep them rectangular and aligned to the grid for simplicity as much as anything else.

I don't know of a limit to how many you can see through, though they each represent a small performance hit (less than if they weren't included at all, but it's still measurable if you put enough of them in). Though if you have 10 portals in a hallway, and it's not because of things branching off it's either very long, and/or you have too many of them.

The stuff on the udn is a little misleading, but if you play with the debug menu commands to render in wireframe and the Sound>Portals display it might explain a bit better, or you can search the forums here - I had an argument with someone a little while back about how they work, but eventually remembered to include pictures that explained my case better.

DarkDragon on 8/10/2005 at 11:14

Ok, the other night I had everything ready...I packaged it up and thought...I better have one play test..and I discover that the Loot Percentage has stopped working.
I have altered nothing apart from a bit up tidying up, no scripts were touched.
Im also beginning to get very fed up, I just run into problems after problems.
If anyone can help, let me know please