G_FindConfigstringIndex

[AKPiggott]

Does anyone know how to find out the number of shader surfaces in the level?

 

Also, are "clip", "caulk", "trigger" and the other system surfaces counted in this total? It would explain quite a bit if so, I've got the impression that SOF2Map probably ignores these textures as shaders whilst Q3Map2 takes them into consideration during compile. Maybe my shader surface total is only over 1024 when all the system shaders are taken into consideration. I'll try compiling without the system shader and see what happens.

[wedge2211]

As far as I know, q3map2 eliminates light entities, func_groups, and info_nulls during the compile process, so you can subtract all of those from your entity count in the final BSP. That should help your entity count quite a bit.

[AKPiggott]

I've compiled it again with SOF2Map, I was hoping with the structral brushes in place, it might've made an impact on the overflow error. I still get it, but it's once again even less frequent.

[AKPiggott]

One thing I've found that does fix the error is removing all of the new voices that I stuck in just before this error came about.

 

Perhaps that is the only solution.... which is bloody annoying, because I still have 20 or so lines of dialogue to stick in.

[AKPiggott]

Is there any playback rate for MP3s that JO supports apart from 44100?

[Emon]

44K! I didn't think it supported over 22K!

 

You should try the old JK technique. Open a voice from JO in Goldwave, select all and delete it, reduce length to the size of your file or smaller (easiest to just make it like .1 seconds, it'll expand), then paste your voice into that and save it. You can never go wrong with that.

[AKPiggott]

I remember trying a sound that wasn't 44K and I got an error saying it wasn't 44K or something.

 

What do you mean Emon? Replace unused JO sounds with blank files so that they are used instead?

[AKPiggott]

Oh yeah Emon, you might be able to help me with this.

 

I'm trying to stop enemies from dropping weapons when they die. I've devised one method that almost works:

 

I give the NPC a spawnscript which sets the NPC to undying and defies a deathscript.

 

The deathscript sets the NPC's weapon to "none", turns undying off and then kills the NPC.

 

The problem is in the deathscript. I can't find any way to kill the NPC without giving a targetname (the "kill" command in ICARUS) I've tried setting the health to 0, that doesn't work, neither does setting it to a negative number. The only way I can get this to work is to give each individual NPC an "npc_targetname" and their own unique deathscript which uses the "kill" command along with their unique targetname, that is a ridiculous way of doing it that will take far too long. Any ideas on any alternatives?

[master_thomas]

Maybe you could look for whatever keeps pistol holding imperials from letting go of their weaponry. Then try to apply that to the other gun holding NPCs (This could be a bit time consuming and I'm not at all sure this will work, this just came into my mind when I read the latest posts). As both AKPiggot and I said about pickups, you are a jedi master and have no need for them and so you ignore them and they have no purpose to you.

[AKPiggott]

I've also developed a theory to the level changing with keeping the saber colour.

 

Does anyone know if a custom MENU file can be launched through ICARUS?

[wedge2211]

I remember reading somewhere or other that there's some special texture that makes NPCs not drop their weapons upon death, perhaps "nodrop." You could, I suppose, blanket the level with a big one of those brushes...

[Leslie Judge]

I saw some of the JO mp3s that they are VBR mp3s. This can reduce the file size a bit.

 

Oh, and you can make a universal deathscript if you use parameters to give the NPC_targetname of the NPCs to the script. In the ICARUS manul you can find a very good explanation about the get command.

[Emon]

1. AK, I meant open a JO voice file, remove it's contents and paste your own voice in, then save it, so it's in the right format.

 

2. Custom menu files? I don't think so. I tried changing cvars in the HUD and other related menu files, no luck. What exactly is your theory?

[AKPiggott]

My thoery was you can get a MENU file to execute a console script as soon as its loaded, if you could load MENU files from ICARUS, then you can effectively load console commands. I saw the menu command in ICARUS before, but I only checked it out thoroughly yesterday, you can only pick from the "newgame", "main" and "bio" (objectives, I guess?) menus.

[AKPiggott]

OK.. it's been a hard decision but I've made my mind up...

 

I'm going to cancel........................... some bits of the level. There was some really cool bits I had planned for it... a puzzle at the beginning that required you to go around and interact with characters and a multiple path through the last third or so of the level which also had a bit of character interaction. This really does bother me a lot, but I have to remind myself that I did the exact same thing for all the BoaMs and all the ToaMs and those levels still managed to prove hugely popular with the community. Thankfully, the story elements of the level will still remain completely untouched and there are still lots of cool atmospheric stuff that I'll leave in the level.

 

I've always believed that mistakes and problems like this are a huge experience benefit. I still consider myself to be a relative newbie to the Quake III engine and there's still a lot I can learn. What I know now about the technical limitations of the engine is completely invaluable expereince for my next editing project.

 

Also, with all this cool stuff cancelled, it'll shave a while off of the release date. Actually come to think of it, all I've got left to do is the final cutscene and the level is finished.

[Emon]

Don't give up so easily. I have a few ideas I will try after school today.

 

What is the error you're getting now?

[Kengo]

Originally posted by AKPiggott

One thing I've found that does fix the error is removing all of the new voices that I stuck in just before this error came about.

 

Perhaps that is the only solution.... which is bloody annoying, because I still have 20 or so lines of dialogue to stick in.

 

Is there any chance it's something to do with these actual files themselves causing the problems, instead of you going over some kind of sound file limit for a level? I had about 13 meg of sound files in Occupation, almost all in cutscenes, do you have more than that?

 

Even if you can't solve the problem, your last post sounds really positive, and I think it's the right way to look at the situation. Like you said, you gotta play to the limitations of the engine, which can be a damn hard thing for ambitious level editors to do sometimes, but everything like this is a learning experience. In the long run even if not in the near future, I'm sure the lightsaber colour problem amongst others will get sorted!

[AKPiggott]

Originally posted by Emon

Don't give up so easily. I have a few ideas I will try after school today.

 

What is the error you're getting now?

 

The same one I've been getting all along. I got an e-mail back from Mike at Raven, here's what he's had to say:

 

First of all, sorry for the late response, I just got back from vacation.

 

Basically, it sounds like you have too much stuff on your map. The configstrings is just a chunk of memory that the game uses to store all the names of all the models, sounds, effects, etc. that it's going to need on the map and sends that to the cgame so the cgame can load up all those sounds, models, effects, etc. There's really no way for a mod to increase that limit right now. If you want, though, I suppose you could send me your .pk3 file (with your bsp, textures and any other files in it that I need to run your map) and I could take a look at what's eating up all your configstring room and make suggestions on how to optimize that. We're moving to another building this week, though, so I may not get to look at it until next week.

 

Basically, I've got to go along with the slightly stripped version of the level. Even if we could make the lightsaber thing go over more than one level, I can't be bothered with all the hassle of splitting it in two. What I am going to do is take what will make it into the level and develop it a bit more and make it better, that should help compensate for the stuff that was cut out.

[ioshee]

I understand you don’t want to split it into two levels, but just for educational purposes could someone tell me what that would involve? Every one keeps saying it would be a huge pain.

 

I assumed it would just mean saving your map as “mymap2.map”. Then you could delete half the level in the new .map file and the other half in the first .map file. After that couldn’t you just cause the second one to load when you reach a certain point with scripting and the like?

 

Please let me know if I’m misunderstanding the whole thingy.

[Kengo]

Originally posted by ioshee

I understand you don’t want to split it into two levels, but just for educational purposes could someone tell me what that would involve? Every one keeps saying it would be a huge pain.

 

I assumed it would just mean saving your map as “mymap2.map”. Then you could delete half the level in the new .map file and the other half in the first .map file. After that couldn’t you just cause the second one to load when you reach a certain point with scripting and the like?

 

Please let me know if I’m misunderstanding the whole thingy.

 

I don't think having a level change is the problem in itself. AK has a purple saber set for the level, and at the moment no one knows how to make a changed saber colour remain for any level after the first (because of the way it's done at the moment), and if Mace has a purple saber in the first level, then a blue one for the second, well, that isn't great for continuality purposes

[Emon]

I've tried running various console commands in various text files, no luck. I thought it might work in the hud.menu, but the console reports that it's all unrecognized.

 

I've also experimented more with the HUB option on the target_level_change. I accidentally put the BSP extention onto the mapname key, and when I tried to trigger it, I got messages in the console about how it couldn't find the file and didn't have access to save the game. That option is supposed to save your progress and load any that the next map has. It appears that it saves the data, but doesn't load it. If we had get and set cvar ents like in SoF2, and an ent to load a game, I could rig a version of it myself.

 

Is there any way to do a load command or autoload of any kind at the start of a level?

[wedge2211]

Couldn't you just load it as two separate mods? PARTY CRASHER PART 1 and PARTY CRASHER PART 2? That way, they would both be the "first" level.

[ioshee]

Well I'm color blind so I can't tell the diff between purple and blue sabers. So no problem...

 

...well no problem if he is making Party Crasher for color blind people only.

[master_thomas]

originally posted by Kengo

 

no one knows how to make a changed saber colour remain for any level after the first

 

Try someone from Raven. They should know, at least one of the makers. Whoever knows how they change the saber color to blue for every level, should know how this was done. When you know, change one word(blue) to another(purple) every time it appears in game. If you can't find the guys who would know, find the ones who designed the saber and go back to my second and third posts:). If niether can be found, either you're stuck stripping it down to a smaller size, or having someone steal Mace's lightsaber and being forced to use a blue lightsaber that was given to you by....................... On to level 2. Gives another personal objective:retrieve your lightsaber. One of the few purple ones before the galactic empire.:rolleyes:This is a large amount of work: new sounds, skins for the theif(or you could have the final boss pull it out of your hand with the force, which won't need any new skins:), more scripts, which you probably already have an overwhelming number of, inspiration on how to make a cutscene like the one in your cutscene article, which was very nice, etc.

 

In my map, which I keep making reference to, I only have one cutscene, which has little purpose (I have to struggle to explain the story because I don't have a microphone for voice acting:(, it shows Luke behind a forcefield and a bunch of reborn behind you.(There's no room for others because the level is a short introduction to what will be a series based on feedback on my first level). I need testers before I am done and ready to distribute. Mine haven't been ready for a month lol. First they kept asking for more time, then it wouldn't fit on a floppy, then they asked me to e-mail it to them(they are brothers), but their internet service won't allow that and they didn't tell me their e-mail addresses. I was done a while ago and have used the time to add that dynamic lighting I think I mentioned on this and made the bryar shots green(I was bored). I guess I'll look for beta testers on the forums.

 

Anyway, you have put much work on this map already and it seems to be the best JK2 map ever made:). More good luck from me.

 

To Ioshee, I'm sorry for you. My brothers-in-law are color blind too.

[Emon]

1. AK, if you don't want Mace to use other weapons, can't you just lock the player's weapon to the saber, or did that cause problems? You could also blanket the level in nodrop as someone else suggested.

 

2. Yes, the saber is "set to blue", so to speak, at the start of each level, but I'm almost completely certain that's hardcoded, which we cannot change.

 

If Raven didn't want to bother making entities for many different functions and for mod making (expandability), they should have let us just make our own entities.