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FireflyPDP

By FireflyPDP
in JA Coding

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FireflyPDP Newbie

FireflyPDP

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Hey all, I'm a newcomer to these forums, but I really really really need your help!

 

Basically, I'm part of a 3-man team that has to make a mod for a school project. We chose Jedi Academy because the Q3 engine was a lot easier to use than something like the Unreal engine. The problem is, none of us really have any modding/scripting/editing/etc experience! Me and one of my teammates are programmers, but we've never done scripting for an engine before. Our other teammate has some very basic experience with Maya, but that's about it.

 

We've had to learn pretty much everything else on our own, without even knowing where to start (because our stupid instructor hasn't even taught us how to use any of these tools)! I grabbed GTKRadiant to do level editing, and since then, our "artist" on the team took over that job. He wants me and the other guy to concentrate on learning scripting. The problem is, we both don't know where to look! I downloaded the JA SDK, but when I opened the .sln file in Microsoft Visual Studio 2003, there were like 50+ files! I have no idea where to look... I don't even know if I SHOULD be looking in the JA SDK for all this! I'm so lost!

 

I just now discovered these forums, so I registered, trying to scour them for information. They do have a lot of answers to the questions I had, but most of them don't make any sense to me. You've gotta understand, I'm a newbie to modding and scripting, so I don't understand any of it. I've used C before, so the code looks familiar, but I have no idea what it does, or where to even begin.

 

So could you guys help me out? I just need to figure out how to do some scripting. It's so hard to find tutorials or anything on how to do scripting... Our mod is a FPS still, so it shouldn't be too much of a change from the JA scripting. Basically, here's some of the stuff I'd like our mod to do (I think this falls under scripting/coding):

 

- Change the default weapon so that the player doesn't get a lightsaber and starts with his fists instead.

- Change the loading screen (and maybe add a briefing message).

- Add music and a few new sounds.

- Add AI opponents (which behave pretty much like Stormtroopers in SP mode)

 

I have some more things I'd like to be able to do but I think they fall under the mapping/modeling category and not coding.

 

None of this sounds like it would be very difficult to do, but since I have no experience with this mod, it's hard for me to tell. Can you help me out guys? I'd REALLY appreciate it! Btw, we're planning on this mod being a Single Player game... is that possible to do?

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Tinny Newbie

Tinny

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Well, I can help you through that but its beneficial if you learn a bit of what you are doing. First look at the testmod tutorial they give in the instructions. It tells you how to make a really basic change to the game. If you get that to work or don't, we'll keep helping you :)

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FireflyPDP Newbie

FireflyPDP

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Trust me, we're learning it. It's just hard to figure out when you have no idea where to start! :p

 

Okay, me and my teammates spent the entire day going through stuff, and we figured out how to modify basic settings (weapon velocities, damage, etc) in the game. And after reading through the forums some more, we also figured out how to disable the lightsaber and give the player the Melee weapon. but we still dont know how to make the player's default weapon Melee. right now if you disable the lightsaber, the blaster pistol becomes your default weapon. We're trying to get rid of that.

 

Right now I've been scouring these forums for more information on how to change the text on the briefing/loading screen. Some posts have referenced some kind of ui_missionbriefing file, or some .menu file, or some briefing.str file... I don't see these files anywhere! Where can I find this stuff? Right now we're just blindly looking through the .c files and header files, seeing if there's any kind of information we recognize. Some values we change, and we don't even notice the difference in the game. It would really be nice if someone told us where to look!

 

Also, with the JA SDK (MP), can you only make multiplayer mods with it, or can you do single-player as well?

 

EDIT: ok, we commented out more lines in g_client.c and were able to get Melee as our default weapon and we were also able to disable force powers! Still not sure about the briefing file though... please help!

 

EDIT #2: also, how can make the player choose a default player model? Like, say for instance I want the player to have some generic human male model as his player. I also don't want him to be able to choose which player model he wants. How do I fix it so he can't choose and just gets what we give him?

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razorace Newbie

razorace

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Actually you shouldn't have to make code changes to do any of the stuff you mentioned.

 

- Change the default weapon so that the player doesn't get a lightsaber and starts with his fists instead.

Use a ICARUS script to change the weapons when the player spawns. See the ICARUS scripting manual for details.

- Change the loading screen (and maybe add a briefing message).

Just find the image using for it and replace it with what you want to use. There's plenty of examples on the jka file servers to learn from.

- Add music and a few new sounds.

Same.

- Add AI opponents (which behave pretty much like Stormtroopers in SP mode)

It's just a matter of adding the NPCs by adding them as items in the map editor.

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FireflyPDP Newbie

FireflyPDP

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It's just a matter of adding the NPCs by adding them as items in the map editor.

Do you know how to do that? I'm using GTKRadiant v1.3.13

 

EDIT: also, once you're done making adjustments to the SDK and all, how do you create a full-fledged mod? I mean, how do you put it all together so other people can use it?

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razorace Newbie

razorace

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NPCs count as a map entity. Just scan thru your map entity options until you find what you're looking for.

 

As for the final product, you place everything into a .pk3, add docs/screenshots/etc, and then place it all in a .zip file. There's tons of examples to reverse engineer on the jka file sites.

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SMoKE Newbie

SMoKE

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The NPC's:

In GtkRadiant, right-click in the grid-window and press NPC -> NPC_Stormtrooper

 

The ICARUS-guide:

Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy/GameData/GtkRadiant-1.4.0 (or GtkRadiant-1.3.12)/Tools/ICARUS Manual.doc

 

The Splash screen (is that what you needed?):

Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy/GameData/Base/assets1.pk3\menu\splash.jpg

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FireflyPDP Newbie

FireflyPDP

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yeah i have a friend who used GTKRadiant and he said not to get the latest version. he used 1.3 so i just grabbed that one.

 

The NPC's:

In GtkRadiant, right-click in the grid-window and press NPC -> NPC_Stormtrooper

 

The ICARUS-guide:

Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy/GameData/GtkRadiant-1.4.0 (or GtkRadiant-1.3.12)/Tools/ICARUS Manual.doc

 

The Splash screen (is that what you needed?):

Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy/GameData/Base/assets1.pk3\menu\splash.jpg

i figured out how to do the models thingy... but i cant find the Tools folder in the GTKRadiant directory, so i dunno where to find the ICARUS manual. also, i was actually looking for the loading screen when you load up single and multiplayer levels (i know they're two different screens; i was looking for both)... but that splash screen is a good start. (EDIT: nm, i found the others! thx!!!)

 

so once u get the .pk3 created, how do u tell the game to run it? is that just going into the "Mods" section on the JA main menu and selecting it? sorry, im a big noob at this...

 

and sorry about the delay in posting... i haven't forgotten u guys! i've just been swamped with another game project i've been working on all semester...

 

EDIT: oh yeah! i noticed that the mirror textures for the map are indeed working, but only when i stand right in front of the mirror, and only if im facing it at just the right angle... otherwise, it looks like the mirror is missing. does anyone know how to fix that?

 

i also dont know how to do doors and triggers and stuff, but i think my friend can help me with that.

 

EDIT #2: my friend also showed me PakScape, so now i can actually go through and alter the .pk3 files in the game... that's pretty cool. lol

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SMoKE Newbie

SMoKE

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To make the mod show up in the "Mods" menu, do this:

1. Make a folder in GameData called <the name of your mod>

2. Put the .pk3-file inside it

3. Make description.txt and put it inside GameData\<the name of your mod>\

4. Type (in the description.txt): ModName v1.0 (or something like that)

5. Launch JKA and go to the "Mods" menu and see if it's there.

 

And these crappy mirrors are a pain to make working properly, I know how to do it, but I always try to go around them...

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FireflyPDP Newbie

FireflyPDP

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thx for the instructions! :)

 

do you think you'd be able to explain how to get mirrors to work properly? that'd be really helpful. our game level is an office building, and so naturally there's restrooms. and what restroom doesn't have mirrors? :p

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SMoKE Newbie

SMoKE

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Click here to download a really überquick mirrormap I made, and see how it's all done.

 

Well, on the other side of the mirror-brush, there must be the "void"

Room->misc_portal_surface->mirrorbrush->void

otherwise it won't work properly, I think.

 

Remember that the player must NOT be able to look at two mirrors at once!

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MDN14 Newbie

MDN14

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You dont have to have the "void" I have made a few maps and had the miror line up with a wall and on the other side of that wall was annother room in the map. You just have to create the shader for the mirror correctly and place the misc_portal_surface correctly and it works great. Here is a screenshot of one of the maps I made, the mirrored floor in this map has the void on the other side, but the TVs have annother room behind them:

super shiny/mirror floor:

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/3723/screenshots/b8.jpg

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/3723/screenshots/b7.jpg

 

TV:

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/3723/screenshots/b5.jpg

 

 

 

Annother map I made, you cant really see it in the shot, but above the sinks is a mirror:

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/11700/screenshots/b8.jpg

 

 

 

Mirror and TV shader:

textures/hr_tournament/mirror
{
qer_editorimage	textures/HR_Tournament/mirror.tga
portal
q3map_material	Glass
sort	portal
   {
       map textures/hr_tournament/mirror
       blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_COLOR
       depthWrite
       alphaGen portal 4000
       tcMod scale 3 3
   }
   {
       map $lightmap
       blendFunc GL_ZERO GL_SRC_COLOR
   }
}

 

 

super shiny/mirror floor:

textures/hr_tournament/marble_mirror
{
qer_editorimage	textures/HR_Tournament/marble_mirror.tga
portal
q3map_material	Marble
sort	portal
   {
       map textures/hr_tournament/marble_mirror
       blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_COLOR
       depthWrite
       alphaGen portal 6000
       tcMod scale 2 2
   }
   {
       map $lightmap
       blendFunc GL_ZERO GL_SRC_COLOR
   }
}

 

 

Both textures can be found in Jedi Knight 2 I think. It was just some standard marble floor that I took from JK2 and the mirror was the standard mirror texture that comes with the game as well. I dont have any personal web space to upload files on, so if you dont have access to JK2 maybe someone can get the textures for you.

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dumbledore Newbie

dumbledore

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EDIT #2: my friend also showed me PakScape, so now i can actually go through and alter the .pk3 files in the game... that's pretty cool. lol

 

lol, .pk3 are just .zip renamed to pk3... if you have a zip extractor / packer you can just rename the files and use it...

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ensiform Newbie

ensiform

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To make the mod show up in the "Mods" menu, do this:

1. Make a folder in GameData called <the name of your mod>

2. Put the .pk3-file inside it

3. Make description.txt and put it inside GameData\<the name of your mod>\

4. Type (in the description.txt): ModName v1.0 (or something like that)

5. Launch JKA and go to the "Mods" menu and see if it's there.

 

And these crappy mirrors are a pain to make working properly, I know how to do it, but I always try to go around them...

 

making a copy of your jamp shortcut and adding +set fs_game moddir to the target is a much better way of loading your mod.

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FireflyPDP Newbie

FireflyPDP

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You dont have to have the "void" I have made a few maps and had the miror line up with a wall and on the other side of that wall was annother room in the map. You just have to create the shader for the mirror correctly and place the misc_portal_surface correctly and it works great. Here is a screenshot of one of the maps I made, the mirrored floor in this map has the void on the other side, but the TVs have annother room behind them:

super shiny/mirror floor:

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/3723/screenshots/b8.jpg

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/3723/screenshots/b7.jpg

 

TV:

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/3723/screenshots/b5.jpg

 

 

 

Annother map I made, you cant really see it in the shot, but above the sinks is a mirror:

http://www.pcgamemods.com/core/11700/screenshots/b8.jpg

 

 

 

Mirror and TV shader:

textures/hr_tournament/mirror
{
qer_editorimage	textures/HR_Tournament/mirror.tga
portal
q3map_material	Glass
sort	portal
   {
       map textures/hr_tournament/mirror
       blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_COLOR
       depthWrite
       alphaGen portal 4000
       tcMod scale 3 3
   }
   {
       map $lightmap
       blendFunc GL_ZERO GL_SRC_COLOR
   }
}

 

 

super shiny/mirror floor:

textures/hr_tournament/marble_mirror
{
qer_editorimage	textures/HR_Tournament/marble_mirror.tga
portal
q3map_material	Marble
sort	portal
   {
       map textures/hr_tournament/marble_mirror
       blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_COLOR
       depthWrite
       alphaGen portal 6000
       tcMod scale 2 2
   }
   {
       map $lightmap
       blendFunc GL_ZERO GL_SRC_COLOR
   }
}

 

 

Both textures can be found in Jedi Knight 2 I think. It was just some standard marble floor that I took from JK2 and the mirror was the standard mirror texture that comes with the game as well. I dont have any personal web space to upload files on, so if you dont have access to JK2 maybe someone can get the textures for you.

where the heck do i put that code??? o_O and what is a shader?

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SMoKE Newbie

SMoKE

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A shader is a simple text document defining how a certain texture behave ingame. You just put all that stuff above into a text editor like NotePad and save it as yourmap.shader inside GameData/Base/shaders/

 

Then you add this line in shaderlist.txt:

yourmap

 

And u should also put yourmap.shader in a .pk3-file...

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ensiform Newbie

ensiform

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A shader is a simple text document defining how a certain texture behave ingame. You just put all that stuff above into a text editor like NotePad and save it as yourmap.shader inside GameData/Base/shaders/

 

Then you add this line in shaderlist.txt:

yourmap

 

And u should also put yourmap.shader in a .pk3-file...

 

and must be inside the shaders folder in the pk3 file...

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