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Project Lighthouse (SP)


lassev

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Well, so much for good news. Now I encountered one, whose relatives have undoubtly collapsed otherwise perfect projects. And I think it might be called either my own ignorance or, by another name, entity limit. At least, that's the only solution I can come up with, even if the symptoms are not exactly what I would have expected. That is, the symptoms look like this:

 

errorscr.jpg

 

Now, I have something like 1090 entities, in total. If the brush entity limit for SP is 512 (who knows the total entity limit (2048 or what), there's a chance my error arises from that source. Although, I cannot be certain.

 

This error comes up every now and then, most often, when I try to use some force power. As you can see, it's sound related, and I have never seen it before, only very lately with a couple of my latest compiles.

 

So, I'm sorry to say this, but if this error doesn't leave me alone, that is, if nobody can explain it, Project Lighthouse is sure to be delayed, if not BURIED entirely. Right now, it's totally unplayable, and I cannot finish it, because I can't test it.

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I don't think you hit the entity limit, one of my maps has 2175. Guessing from the error, it looks like a string problem, I remember getting an error because I made a name too long in Radiant. Maybe you have too many sound sources running at the same time. I don't know man.

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Thanks to good, old Leslie I found a reason for the error. Not a good solution, but at least a reason (if you want to know it, visit the thread on mapping / levels). So, basically my solution would be to cut down number of things in my map, including sound files, models, effects and such. Well, I'm quite taken aback because of that, because I never certainly and absolutely thought my map to have anything so much that it would overflow this kind of limits.

 

To my most trustworthy would-be beta testers I must now bring the bad news: I'm really surprised if I can finish this level to beta testing stage before my vacation, which is now quite near. I might have without this problem. With this? No way.

 

I'm, partly because of what I told above, deeply opposed to cutting down anything in Lighthouse_2, to prevent it from becoming some lousy, colorless map. This means, and I see few alternatives, that the will be Lighthouse_3. In effect, I have to split Lighthouse_2. I already know how to do it, and even if it means HUGE work and will result in some redundancy (Lighthouse_2 and Lighthouse_3 will share some common parts), it's the only way to go.

 

:( Sorry, but I cannot anymore promise Project Lighthouse beta anytime soon.

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I'll keep my eyes open for a solution.

 

BTW, if I may be so bold... don't ever say the word buried when talking about this excellent project! (it scares me). Seriously, Lassev, I'm sure there have been greater bugs squashed in the world of mapping.

 

Post the same screenie over at Massasi and all the other Radiant-type forums (and on that RichDiesel thread...everyone seems to be subscribed to that one). Maybe someone's encountered it before.

 

-clu

 

<EDIT>

The only reference I could find to that error stated that the G_FindConfigstringIndex function is used by the G_ModelIndex and G_SoundIndex functions. That "G_SoundIndex function" sounds like a promising lead since it seems to have something to do with that saber sound. Anyway, maybe make a post over at the Quake3World forums. That's where I found this thread

</EDIT>

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If you could get a hold of Ant, he'd be your best bet I guess. Still, he reduced things out of neccesity, an absolute last ditch option, I agree with you, cutting the level up intop two parts is far, far better. Have you decided where to cut it? If not, shall I play the old beta and look for bits that might work easiest (I imagine a fair bit has changed from that version but still...)?

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Update with the too many things to load problem.

 

Lighthouse_2 has now been split. It resulted in some redundance, with the hangar being included in both Lighthouse_2 and Lighthouse_3. However, this concerns only the skeleton of the hangar. A huge amount of entities were removed in Lighthouse_3 hangar, because those entities were only relevant to Lighthouse_2.

 

I haven't compiled Lighthouse_2, but it should basically be OK. Lighthouse_3 didn't even host any leaks, of which I'm quite surprised. The splitting wasn't as bad as I had thought: by drawing huge boxes that spread over large parts of the map, then selecting select inside from the menus, and hitting backspace I removed large portions with little trouble.

 

The good news is that the beginning of the last cinematic (which I had scripted before this annoying problem) worked with no big problems. Some smoothening here and there and about half of the last cinematic is done. I would be reckless to say I can finish the beta in the few evenings I have left, but who knows? Maybe I will be able to give you a barely working beta :)

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Glad to hear you got through this problem man, it sure is annoying to hit a problem you never anticipated at all eh! How long is your vacation again?

 

It sure is annoying. The whole mapping / scripting business seems to follow the path: for every two meters forward, you slip one meter back. Well, I'm fairly confident that by merging some sound files into one bigger file (I have this possibility with a bunch of files) I should be able to stay away from the loading limit, whatever it might be.

 

My vacation will stretch about two weeks, maybe a little more. It was my plan to let you have that time to play around with the beta, and then after my holiday I would make the few changes I suppose there has to be - and let Eldritch have the map at PCGameMods. And let Leslie have the map for Review.

 

We will see how it turns out.

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Originally posted by lassev

It was my plan to let you have that time to play around with the beta, and then after my holiday I would make the few changes I suppose there has to be - and let Eldritch have the map at PCGameMods. And let Leslie have the map for Review.

*cackles devilishly* Muahahhaaha, we don't think we'll be letting that one out for public release, do we precious? We'll keep it to ourselves, yes...

 

*cough*

 

I mean, i'll post it right away. :D

 

Seriously though, I hope it gets resolved before your vacation. If not, have fun and finish it off when you get back. :)

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Well. The next couple of weeks are going to be quite quiet. I'll make Lighthouse available for download to some trustworthy beta testers. Despite my best efforts in a limited time, the beta is not quite as finished as I would have liked it to be. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing interesting things from the testers, once they get into business.

 

Then, after a few weeks, this level will be published. So, basically, this level is finished except for some small and minor things. It has been a long road, but hopefully worth it.

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So far I have been informed there are a lot of errors to be found in the beta. So, keep your heads cool. I can't say I wouldn't have expected some errors to be found, but now it seems there are some totally new errors also.

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Lassev, I appologise for the delays on my part, I am desperately trying to finish and release Occupation 2 before I go mad, I assure you as soon as that is done my full attention will move to the beta and I wil get a report to you before you return man, sorry :o

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No need for apologies, Kengo. Rather, I should express my apologies, because the beta seems to be in far worse condition than I even feared. It may well be, that it is quite unplayable at certain points. If you encounter so bad difficulties as Clu did with the beta, I can only suggest that you will completely abandon testing it, until I can (after my holiday) get some better version for you all beta testers to download.

 

It shouldn't take long for me to build a better beta, when I get home (getting home will take some time, though).

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Lassev, I actually only had that one error, so not a big deal in my eyes.

 

I have only gone through the first level, but just for the record, this is one of the best and most well designed SP levels I have personally played. Very immersive, fun and well thought-out. I'll post more once I have gone through the whole thing.

 

Well done!

 

-clu

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I felt the first beta was by a mile one of the best, most innovative, varied and high quality maps I'd played, I am sure the second beta will be an improvement on that, so I wouldn't be too hard on yourself Lassev man! :) Occupation 2 should be done today or tommorow, and after that I will get to work on the beta report, you worked extremely hard to get it to us before you went on holiday, I feel indebted to test it before you get back because of this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now I'm more or less back at business. I have received Kengo's excellent beta report, and I'm going to implement the changes he suggested. They concerned mainly lighting (it seems my brightness and gamma settings are different from those of everybody else). Well, I guess I must (again) boost the lighting up. There was also an issue of models not showing in the game. They were just ordinary models of the original game, so it's a bit puzzling, although it was a problem I can say I was afraid of hearing about, because I had seen it with my own eyes on the computer of one friend of mine.

 

Well, those were the main issues. After reading Kengo's beta report I must comment here (or remind) that this level will contain some puzzles that are perhaps even harder than the ones the original game included. That is the nature of this level. There is some combat to be found, quite enough actually, but just swinging your saber won't get you very far in Lighthouse. However, there will be a walk-through included in the final release (most probably written by the famous author Kengo).

 

I still don't know what's Clu's JO, because he gets the error previously reperted that Kengo didn't report on the other hand. Eldritch has not sent me a report either - he must be awfully busy moving around, but I'm positive I'll get it one day.

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Don't hold your breath waiting for my response, lassev.

 

I haven't had a computer that'll run JO since I started moving a few weeks ago... and I won't have one that can for another 2 weeks or so. :(

 

I did have a chance to play a couple of minutes of it, but I don't think it'd add much. Still, i'm sure it's great.

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Ah, Eldritch, that's terrible news! I was truly looking forward to get a report from such an august person as you are. I'm not saying two weeks in the future would be too late, but... um... I was kind of hoping to release Lighthouse by that time. Well, we'll see what happens.

 

Still, the whole thing with missing .md3s is solved. It's a strange problem, though. Strange and strangely logical. To be exact, the whole story is here:

 

When you install JK2Editing tools 2 you will get in your models/map_objects folder a bunch (big one, too) of models used in the original game. They aren't there, if you don't install the editing tools. To be precise, the textures of the models are there, but the models themselves aren't. Why this happens is easy to explain. Raven had all these "missing" models as misc_models. They are turned into map triangles in the compile. After that you only need the texture, not the model itself. So, to save some space, Raven dropped those models out.

 

I, on the other hand, had used them as misc_model_breakables that are not turned into triangles. So, they were missing on computers not having editing tools 2 (don't ask me why Kengo, the great mapper, didn't have Editing tools installed, but I'm anyway happy he didn't, otherwise I would never have learned of this problem). So, I solved the issue same way as Raven did: by having all those models as misc_models.

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Could you generate the same effect as a misc_model_breakable by making an invisible func_breakable and targeting a misc_model to it? Since you can target misc_models at func_rotatings, _trains, _doors, _plats, etc, to make the model "part" of the entity...

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Originally posted by lassev

(don't ask me why Kengo, the great mapper, didn't have Editing tools installed, but I'm anyway happy he didn't, otherwise I would never have learned of this problem)

 

Because I'm a moron :) Sorry about that...Still, thanks all the same man, you're too kind :D Do you want me to begin with the walkthrough, cause you know flattery will REALLY get me moving!

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