Final Testing: Manaan: Murky Depths

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 7:38 am

Well... the problem with having a transition map of water to no water and back. Say I have my jetpack with it's bubble effects and jets, well if I head indoors, i still have those same effects, which isn't very realistic. What is possible though is setting a space underwater map, where the regular ships are replaced with underwater vehicles like the manta sub and mini sub. Not sure if that'd be all that more fun than regular space combat though.

Protector_Pulch · Post by **Protector_Pulch** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 7:45 am

So you've to find an effect which is neither definately related to an underwater environment nor to a dry environment:

I'd recommend no effect (you could say it works with an invisible gas that instanly dissolves in water) or a blue fire (it's magic^^)

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 11:48 am

Hmm, i have a bit of a problem, that snowballs into multiple problems. Some of the windows i'm using(which are vital to the map), do not have any collisions. So, i added collision by using invisible collision boxes. These boxes do fine for blocking the character, however ordinance can go through. I just now noticed that this fix has a couple annoying side effects. The most annoying being the fact that the AI believe they can shoot through. This turns the map into more of a western shoot out, with the ai shooting through windows on both sides.

Post by **Teancum** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 11:54 am

I'll send you a special wall I had Vyse make me. It uses an alpha channel in the texture for transparency, so you set it to all white in Zero, (which makes the texture visible), then before you munge you set the alpha to all black, which makes the texture invisible.

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:46 am

Sounds good, it might resolve a lot of the problems i've been having with the windows.

RC-1290 · Post by **RC-1290** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:46 am

Is there still Kolto on manaan? If so, you make it so when you go outside, you suffocate and at the same time are being healed...

sorry, that was stupid

but still, you could make the bacta room a kolto room...not that it makes a lot of difference tough

RevanSithLord · Post by **RevanSithLord** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:00 am

suffocate and at the same time are being healed...

lmao.

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:34 pm

Just an update. Much of the map has been fixed, i'm going to attempt adding the doors back, hopefully I don't have any problems. Once I get all of the main stuff working, i'm hoping to add one or mabye two new abilities to the map. First, you should be able to lock certain doors by shooting their respective panels. This should help cut off major routes as well as even out the advantage on the map. I also hope to add the ability to shoot out the generators, thus shutting off the main power to the base. If I can get that working, the lights should go out as well as any minor electrical equipment.

I am considering allowing the power to the shield generator to be cut, thus shutting off some of the shields on the windows to the water, allowing you to access the airlocks to the outside areas of the map. Chances are I won't get that far though.

Post by **-_-** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:12 pm

Astute wrote:Just an update. Much of the map has been fixed, i'm going to attempt adding the doors back, hopefully I don't have any problems. Once I get all of the main stuff working, i'm hoping to add one or mabye two new abilities to the map. First, you should be able to lock certain doors by shooting their respective panels. This should help cut off major routes as well as even out the advantage on the map. I also hope to add the ability to shoot out the generators, thus shutting off the main power to the base. If I can get that working, the lights should go out as well as any minor electrical equipment.

I am considering allowing the power to the shield generator to be cut, thus shutting off some of the shields on the windows to the water, allowing you to access the airlocks to the outside areas of the map. Chances are I won't get that far though.

Awesome Astute! Always appreciate how much effort and time you put into ur work.

Post by **EraOfDesann** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:17 pm

-_- wrote:Awesome Astute! Always appreciate how much effort and time you put into ur work.

That's why I single him out from the rest of the modders; Astute is an explorer.

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:11 pm

I have quite a bit of an update for the map.

>Finally! the windows are fixed. Ironically enough, an obscure .option file was calling -nocollsion, thankfully now my facility is airtight.
>In an attempt to redo the lighting so you could cut the lights out, the lights instead overwrote the previous vertex lighting. This results in the full effect of lighting on objects and characters, so if you go near a window you get that nice blue tint, or if your in a dark room you will go dark. The only problem is i'll have to do some extra lighting to fix problem areas.
>The scripting system, from what i've seen, is immensely powerful. To those of you who requested outdoor/indoor fighting(airlocks and such), i'm convinced that it would be highly possible with this system(though it's trivial for me to implement it now). The downside to the system is it's so dang hard to implement and debug. I've been working on both the base lighting thing and the lockable doors and i've not made any progress with either.

Here is my code for both, hopefully someone can spot an error, or possibly an easier route. Red lettering is just notes. Green lettering is just definitions of the different objects.

--This is the door panel code i've been working on. Not the greatest piece of work i've done, but it seems like it's the only route to getting this effect to work "Note that the unpaneldeath1 code is not present because I could never get the paneldeath1 to work."
OnObjectKillName(paneldeath1, "lock1") -lock1 is the doorpanel
OnObjectRespawnName(unpaneldeath1, "lock1")

function paneldeath1()
BlockPlanningGraphArcs("lockconnection1") -lockconnection is the plan
OnPlayAnimationName(disabledoor, "lockdoor1") -lockdoor1 is the door

end
function disabledoor()
RewindAnimation("open")
PauseAnimation("open")

end

--This is the light on/off code, i've gotten the first region to work(base lighting), however i've yet to get the "lights off" to work.
DeactivateRegion("SubMasterRegion") -SubMasterRegion is just a big region that encompasses the "darkness" effect
OnObjectKillName(shutofflights, "MasterConsole") -simple, the console you destroy to cut the power
OnObjectRepairName(turnonlights, "MasterConsole")

function shutofflights()
ActivateRegion("SubMasterRegion")
DeactivateRegion("MasterRegion") -Master Region is the base lighting
KillObject("engine1") -engine1 is just a generator, ignore it

end
function turnonlights()
ActivateRegion("MasterRegion")
DeactivateRegion("SubMasterRegion")
RespawnObject("engine1")

end

I'm still trying to get the hang of the scripting so be prepared for careless errors.

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:54 pm

Oh well, the lights out thing I was going to do is impossible with what I have set up. Don't get me wrong, it's entirely possible to do, however since some of my ground is terrain the effect is scewered because the terrain will not change will lighting. I'll reserve this effect for a later underwater map. As for the doors, no progress yet.

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 4:04 pm

Another update, after numerous trys to get dynamic lighting in some of the rooms, i've decided to scrap my current lighting and start from scratch. The entire level will start out with ambient lighting at 0, and i'll add lights to each room so that each room has a unique feel to it. I have one question though, does anyone think this could cause massive lag?

Here is a good example of what it looks like at 0, 0, 0 (I've still got my regular lights in)

Alpha · Post by **Alpha** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 4:17 pm

I think it depends on the lighting quality option in the user's video options. That and the texture quality option. If anyone experiences lag they can just turn those down and it should run smoothly. (Looking forward to this by the way

I loved the BF1 underwater map).

Protector_Pulch · Post by **Protector_Pulch** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 12:50 am

It looks extremely good, and has a great creepy feeling. Nice work, Astute.

Post by **-_-** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:05 am

Definately has the KOTOR feeling. I wonder if flashing lights are possible..

Alpha · Post by **Alpha** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:37 am

They're possible, because they are on quite a few BF1 objects.

Ace_Azzameen_5 · Post by **Ace_Azzameen_5** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:56 am

Astute wrote:I'm not really sure how you would do a indoor/outdoor battle unless you could disable to jetpacks indoors and the bubble trails and such.

You could use vehicles and Soldier damage regions outside. It would be really cool if someone modelled a swim jet pack for the republic. You could post a request thread. Might want to put your name in the thread so people will know its an experience modder asking as opposed to a "stick a stormtrooper head on a clone" person.

Asture, do you know about Shadow regoins? They have independant ambient light settings. This way each room will still be unique with lighting set on low.

Astute · Post by **Astute** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:58 pm

Hmm, well my problem with lighting right now is that directional lighting has no effect on objects, so the main ambient settings are overriding certain rooms i've placed lighting in. What i'm trying to do with some of the rooms is make them have regular lighting(well lit rooms), and others with barely any lighting. So far it looks like i'll need to play with the lights so more to get the effect i'm looking for.

Oh btw, I figured out how to do "airlocks" using the scripting system. Some of the scripting options include checking for different classes entering regions. I could make it so only the scuba trooper class could go underwater while i'll the other ground troops take the alternate route. If i only had an effect that made it looks like the room was being filled with water then i'd be set for making an airlock.

Blackdutchie · Post by **Blackdutchie** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 2:05 pm

:O nicelyness of highest lvl.