The RichDiesel University Tutorial Questions Thread.

[Darth-Nasty]

Questions about skies:

 

1. How do i make a custom skybox shader using textures i have?

 

2. How do i use the sky shaders from maps ive downloaded?

 

3. How come when i try to use some skies all i see is black squares with white outlines?

[silverwest]

What is a .nav file, and where do they come from? Does it have anything to do with bots? Cause I don't have one, and my bots act dumb...in CTF they'll pick up the flag but never take it home.

[Shadriss]

Ok, a little bit of progress on my problem (and those of at least three other people I've found so far...)

 

Tried another compile, ,and got the following errors :

 

Entity 0, Brush 709: duplicate plane (x 12 brushes)

NumPoints (70) exceed MAX_POINTS_ON_WINDING (64). Sample points: (144.00 -384.00 0.00) (144.00 48.00 0.00) (144.00 480.00 0.00)

 

Anyone have any clue what these mean, ,or maybe where I could find out?

 

"You'd wear this silly helmet too, if you'd pulled all your hair out in frustration!"

[RichDiesal]

How would i get the textures for the swamp map in signle player?

Yavin textureset.

 

first, my some of my ambient sounds are too loud, specifically the fire ones. is there a way to make it softer without actually editing the wav file that came with the game?

Not as far as I know. You can lower the volume of a WAV rather easily with most sound editing programs, though. I would suggest Sonic Foundry Sound Forge.

 

also, is there a way to create custom soundsets?

Edit the sound/sound.txt file - make a custom one for your MOD. You may be able to just add a new txt file in that directory and have it work - dunno, haven't tried it yet.

 

I load up the MP side of JK2, and "/devmapall ffa_dantooine.bsp". Result?

Will it load in SP?

 

Entity 0, Brush 709: duplicate plane (x 12 brushes)

NumPoints (70) exceed MAX_POINTS_ON_WINDING (64). Sample points: (144.00 -384.00 0.00) (144.00 48.00 0.00) (144.00 480.00 0.00)

Do a brush search for 0,709 and delete that brush. Problem solved.

 

How do i make a custom skybox shader using textures i have?

A bit complicated (tutorial coming soon). For now, if you want to mess around with it, just copy any of the other sky shader scripts into a new shader script for your sky and change the paths to direct it at your sky textureset.

 

How do i use the sky shaders from maps ive downloaded?

Copy the shader script to your custom shader script file. Copy all of the textures into the correct directories that it references. Load the textureset that your shader references in Radiant. Apply to brush surfaces.

 

What is a .nav file, and where do they come from? Does it have anything to do with bots? Cause I don't have one, and my bots act dumb...in CTF they'll pick up the flag but never take it home.

A .NAV is a single-player enemy navigation file. MP navigation is done via a WNT file, which is created as explained in http://jk2ed.jediknightii.net/botroute.htm

[Shadriss]

Thanks much rich. But a question : You quote both of the errors I reported, but only gave a solution to one. THose were two seperate errors.

 

SO whats the too many points on winding thing?

 

And while the Dantooine map didn't load in SP, i had another map with a similar issue that would have, had there been a SP spawn point in it, which I never put in, ,since I use MP entities.

 

THanks much!

[RichDiesal]

Ahh, I thought that was for that first brush too.

 

That occurs (I think) when you have too many vertices on a brush. Find a brush with several hundred vertices and split it up into more.

 

I may be thinking of another error, not sure. Look through the last 10-15 pages of posts and find a post called "MAX_POINTS_ON_WINDING". It explains it there.

[Shadriss]

Again, thanks.

 

OOC - What was the SP question for, anyway? Thinking I had used SP entities in an MP map, did ya? Hehe. Nope. I may be a relative Noob to this, but even *I* know not to do that!

[RichDiesal]

Oh no... sometimes JK2 in MP just doesn't want to load maps that aren't in PK3s, for no real specific reason. If it loads in SP and not MP, that means that it's not the map - it's JK2 causing the problem. If it doesn't load in either, then something is wrong with the map itself.

[Shadriss]

*GASP* But that would mean that *JK2* Doesn't like me! Or any other mapper for that matter! Can such a thing trully be true! Perish the thought!

 

Actually, that doesnt surprise me too much. Nothing EVER works as well as you'd like it to. Thanks once again for the help, and for getting my mappin career (such as it is!) back on track.

 

"Ok, so after I got my stress problem solved, I used this stuff called Rogaine... and look what it did to me!"

[Shadriss]

Rich, Me and Wes Marrakesh have been having a discussion on the side, and we think we've found a MAJOR error in your tuts! In the MP mapping lesson, you give a rundown on player start requirements for the different modes of play. With one exception, they are, of course correct.

 

That exception seems to be Capture the Ysalamiri. In you tut, it says this :

 

A Jedi Master or Catch the Ysalamiri map will use info_jedimaster_start to determine where the lightsaber/ysalamiri will spawn at the beginning of the match.

 

This implies that a CTY game is essentially the same as a JM game (IE similar to the Dark Forces II MP game "Kill the Fool With the Ysalamiri). However, the in game rules state this:

 

Rules: Join with your teammates to capture the enemy's ysalamiri. Return it to your base and remember it negates all force powers

 

So the game is saying it's more like CTF. SO the question now presents itself - Does the CTY game mode use the JM start as you stated, but we use two (one for each side), or does it use the CTF player starts and entities?

 

Hate to bash, but this is really odd... We promise not to burn you at the stake though.

 

"DRINKS ARE ON THE HOUSE!"

[Wes Marrakesh]

I would think that it would use team_CTF_redflag/blueflag just like CTF.

m8 Shadriss! We found a kink!

[Ah Boon]

ok, i had posted my problem before and i will post it here again.....

[Ah Boon]

ok, i had posted my problem before and i will post it here again.....

 

how do i make a crusher in MP where the crusher falls on you and crush u then go back up.

 

and

 

how do i make my pillars and my floor respawns after it had been cut off?

[Achillesz7]

Friends,

 

I want to use the sky shader associated with the background texture file "test_bk" but I can't find anything in the skyshaders that uses this background. Does anyone know how to activate it? It's the background file with the orange sky and the mountains...BTW I'm using GTK Rad... Thanks for the help!

 

-Achillesz7

[RichDiesal]

So the game is saying it's more like CTF

Oh...well damn. I thought it was "pick up Ysalamiri, run with it till you die and drop it." Never actually played it, so I don't know. Ah well, will change that asap.

 

Because let me confirm that CTY is worthless. Just sayin.

 

how do i make a crusher in MP where the crusher falls on you and crush u then go back up.

Make it a func_door and check the CRUSHER flag... give it a high DMG value to insta-kill. Easy enough.

 

how do i make my pillars and my floor respawns after it had been cut off?

You DON'T! Everything will respawn when the map cycles (between rounds if it's a duel, after a full match with any other mode). No other way to do it without recoding the engine.

 

I want to use the sky shader associated with the background texture file "test_bk" but I can't find anything in the skyshaders that uses this background. Does anyone know how to activate it?

I don't think that has a shader to go with it... you would need to make one on your own or... use something else.

[Ah Boon]

Originally posted by RichDiesal

 

Make it a func_door and check the CRUSHER flag... give it a high DMG value to insta-kill. Easy enough.

 

 

 

thats where the problem lies.... 'high' dmg value? i set it dmg 1000000 and it still doesnt kill :/

[RichDiesal]

Really. What does it do?

[Achillesz7]

Rich,

 

Thanks for answering my question Rich....So now, my next one is HOW do you make a skyshader. I really, REALLY want that one background for my level...I'm tired of seeing the same old bespin skyshader, if you know what I mean. So, I'm interested in making one but the question remains, how? Thanks for your help!

 

-Achillesz7

[Ah Boon]

Originally posted by RichDiesal

Really. What does it do?

 

i wont kill me unless i 'jump' thru the trrigger in the game

[RichDiesal]

i wont kill me unless i 'jump' thru the trrigger in the game

Neh, I have a feeling you're using a trigger_hurt, which you don't need to do. Set the damage value on the func_door/func_plat and make it a CRUSHER. Then literally have the func slam the player into a wall.

 

If you really want to use a hurt trigger, you'll need to have your trigger brush completely fill the top of the shaft that it crushes you in.

 

So now, my next one is HOW do you make a skyshader.

A bit complicated. My advise to you would be to make your own .shader, copy an existing sky over, and just change all the paths filenames. That's a place to start. I will have a full tutorial on it eventually, so just wait if that's not enough.

[Wes Marrakesh]

you say to make every brush detail, but wouldn't you have to make areaportals in all the wall because doesn't VIS go through details and drawing what is behind?

And i STILL don't understand why you can;t areaportal windows.... what can you do to make a LOS-sensitive portal in windows?

[Ah Boon]

thanks rich! after i finish this, i might actually release the public beta!

[~Rebel_Monkey~]

i have a question about custom textures. My textures work in the editor, but when you try and load the map it says " textures/ob163/radioactive2.jpg dimension not a power of 2" It IS!! This is frustrating...

[Wes Marrakesh]

did you type sv_pure 0 first?

[RichDiesal]

you say to make every brush detail, but wouldn't you have to make areaportals in all the wall because doesn't VIS go through details and drawing what is behind?

And i STILL don't understand why you can;t areaportal windows.... what can you do to make a LOS-sensitive portal in windows?

Why would you want to? All an areaportal does is stop the room beyond it from being drawn until the entity that is blocking it is moved. Since a window is transparent, you don't use one. Same with transparent doors - no areaportal is necessary.

 

you say to make every brush detail,

Actually, no, I didn't. Generally speaking, you should make ever brush inside the overall structure of your map into a detail brush (everything except the outside hull, so to speak). There are cases where you would want structural brushes in the middle of your map, however (called "forcing a split"). I just haven't gone into when those cases are just yet.

 

have a question about custom textures. My textures work in the editor, but when you try and load the map it says " textures/ob163/radioactive2.jpg dimension not a power of 2" It IS!! This is frustrating...

That's because the dimensions of your image need to be in powers of 2. Re-edit your image and make the total X and Y dimensions into numbers that are powers of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, or 1024).