Dedit, Map Making Q's

[HangmanEXE]

TY FAQ

ALWAYS GO WITH 1st THOUGHT!!
That was what I thought it was 2 DAYS ago but didnt think it was that easy, an started second guessing myself an I started trying other ways to command msg it in.
... pissed off at self now...grr.

My transport tugs will track back and forth between 2 points (1 on each end for both which will be the stops). BUT I do need them to wait at each stop long enough to give players a chance to get on/off. Which was why I wasnt sure if doing the SlidingWorldModels was the way to go or not.

TY FAQ for the 2nd mental Bslap today, lol...( I app needed both)

HangmanEXE

[HangmanEXE]

Greetings Programs

Work continues, heres an update.

Since a white set of mobs an giving them custom names would require changing my map into a mod, which I dont want to do, here is my new plan....

I will learn how to do the display msgs that say who is being alerted to grid, then trigger a spawn. Anyone nearby will logicall know who it is.

As before 2 sided with my tugs being used to cross the gag inbetween them but now the forces will be red on one end an gold/yellow forces- representing the Unix system. (This may change to a green viral looking instead if I encounter any other major probs.)

Map Q------------------------------------------------------

FAQ, I figured out "accidentally" how to 50% make my doors work. Here is how I did it so far, tell me what you think.

Switch on platform triggers energy boarding ramp-ramp has player touch trigger bound halfway across to trigger top/bottom door-Doors are bound to rotating doors obj each -Rotating doors are linked to a point each to control their individual motion.
That right so far?

..here my prob.


Q- how would I cause it to close back?
I am going to set a switch inside that lets players close it themselves.

It seems like I would do the same as above but only adjust the door rotations but in the opposit way... BUT wouldnt that mean that I would have to bind a second set of doors an trigger the first set to go hidden?

HangmanEXE

[TronFAQ]

I think you're going to have to make the doors automatically close after a few seconds, by editing the properties. There's a property called OpenWaitTime that specifies how long the doors should stay open before closing again. The player will have to use the switch again to open them, if he/she didn't go through in time before they closed.

Any other way of closing the doors would get too complicated.

[HangmanEXE]

TY!! I never even noticed that entry.... so dang much to keep up with in Dedit. That way would be SO much better.


HangmanEXE

[HangmanEXE]

TRON tools...(input the OPEN command - this tells it to open).

...DUH! How about showing a command string example in full for ONCE to go along with that?!? ...(frustrated)... Man the documentation is total crap at times...
I feel like they want you to guess an fail when using it......


---------- Q -----------------------------------------------------------

Can one of you please tell me all the "proper" settings to have on a player trigger object located on floor? -for a walk over it type trigger

For some reason EVERY time I try to make one following the documentation, second I walk over it it causes me to crash out.
But I am not sure if its my player trigger or my rotating doors object doing it, so I need to check them by you guys to see whats going on.

Also if it helps..(an I know you said not to, an I normally dont , lol), but I checked it via LAUNCH button in Dedit this morning ...an it all works. But not while testing the trigger in game mp testing.

the trigger will set off the topdoor, bottomdoor objs. I had the command as ( msg topdoor trigger; msg bottomdoor trigger ). Whats wrong? Help...

HangmanEXE

[xistence]

Can one of you please tell me all the "proper" settings to have on a player trigger object located on floor?

Might not be so helpful in the first: whatever a 'proper' setting is, is defined by yourself and your needs.
But anyway: you don't actually need to use PlayerTrigger in specific, a default Trigger does its job as well in most cases.
A few things are to mention about trigger:
a) you might want to set 'ActivationCount' to -1, that way you can trigger this object infinitely, any number > 0 would set how many times you can activate.
b) for sure you need to set up at least on MSG under 'Commands'
c) you want to set the dimension of the trigger via... you might guess... 'Dimension' - correct! Unfortunately you can't use the bounding box in dedit, as for brushes. Triggers are too dumb to understand what you want from them (or another reason could be a weird logic of the programmers of dedit, choose an answer).
d) you want to have 'PlayerTriggerable' to 'TRUE'

I checked it via LAUNCH button in Dedit this morning ...an it all works. But not while testing the trigger in game mp testing.

Well, if you launch the map from within dedit, it always starts as a 'singleplayer map', not as multiplayer. Some circumstances can be different then.

For some reason EVERY time I try to make one following the documentation, second I walk over it it causes me to crash out.

Maybe you want to post whatever you have set/used as message for your trigger. Crashes can happen in a wide range of circumstances (textures, msg's, whatever you like).
A recommedation for that: do baby steps when proceeding, or work in 'sandboxes' (small maps just with a box inside out, a gamestart point and whatever you want to test or to check out. this reduces the confusing what might be interfering your process.). At least you should be able to 'reverse' your last steps, so you can exclude whatever might be the reason for your prob.

BTW.:
hopefully you already realized, that

10 PRINT 'if you hover with your mouse a label in the properties tab on an object, you get a tooltip with a short explanation. This can be helpfull, sometimes.'
15 IF (TRUE) GOTO 30
20 PRINT 'if you didn't know that'
25 GOTO 10
30 END

[HangmanEXE]

Ok, NEW Dedit Q

I am "trying" to alter an existing sky prefab - the M01 sky prefab- so that I can learn how to make custom sky portals.

-basically, what I am trying to do is do greyscale/ black&white recolors of the existing sky-prefabs textures to start with-

The problem that I am having is that every time I disconnect the sky-prefabs, it immediately an from that point forward "seems" to no longer work.

Please help.

[xistence]

The basic concept of the skybox is:
There are SkyPointer-Objects, those take care about the 'render-order' of the objects that should show the sky. Each skypointer has an index, which represent the render order (so which object is rendered first, which one afterwards, and so on), and points to a worldmodel (or object, not a single brush!) which will be rendered as part of the sky.

Your problem might be related to a nameing issue, maybe a pointer looks for an object(name) which it can't found. So you might want to check the used names at the skypointers and correct it. Lightning could also be an issue, as lightning can be set explicitely in skybox for skybox objects. Also take care a used worldmodel (as 'sky object', containing brush stuff), is not set to non-visible or hidden or similar. Or that the alpha mask of your used texture is not completely transparent (maybe try using a diff texture).
Otherwise this issue needs to be analyzed a bit more specific.

[HangmanEXE]

AH! Ok, that never occured to me. I just assumed that disconnecting the prefab wouldnt cause that. I will check it out X, Thanks again bud! As always X I REALLY app all your help my friend! I hope I can repay all your help someday.

[HangmanEXE]

I just wanted to pop back in an thank you again X, that was it.

Here is a pic of my new Monochrome custom skyportal.

MonochromeSky.jpg

[deeahchur]

ooh! I need that for YCP! Pass it my way, bud! Or you can drop it in on the maps I share with you. Don't worry about the old maps. We'll start with fresh ones.

[HangmanEXE]

already in my dropbox folder bud, HangmanEXEmaSignature file. In maps folder in my section. But for sake of time an others interested in looking, here is a direct link.

[fore warned this is a non cleaned up version - the sky prefab was a floating pile of crap... nothin but ALOT of points off grid...

...oh we can hide that, as it wil be repacked as a prefab, no one will ever know...[rolls eyes].

...here is an early version that you can rip the skyout of. I plan to clean there sloppy sky making work up for my shared public upload an then re-post this.]

[V1.5 ]- http://www.filefactory.com/file/ce4f98e ... nature_rar

[HangmanEXE]

I got a new question to pick your brains with guys.

What is the correct way to name and save this custom edited sky to turn it back into a prefab so that it still "continues" to function and its tree isnt altered in anyway as to affect it continuing to work porperly?

This is in regards to my custom sky shown above. I have managed to convert it froma prefab correctly an correct it to make it work again. But now when I try to repack it as a prefab it stops working. Whats the deal? lol

I have tried naming the prefab item after the subfolder and its default name each individually, all with no luck. Please help someone.

Here is a small map I am messing with that has the sky in the version I am using atm. [still in folder/tree format].

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ce515ec ... EARENA_rar

Any and all help regarding how to do this would be REALLY appreciated as I have 3 others to do this way.


P.S. Does anyone else have any custom skys they could share with me that I could be allowed to alter the colors on to make more monochrome skys for use in ppls future map ideas?

[xistence]

The naimng of the prfab file itself doesn't care. One important thing to know about prefab is this:
Objects in a prefab needs to use a special naimng 'way' when used there. Imagine that you maybe created several instances of the same prefab, in that case you can't just name a wolrdmodel 'WM_01' in this prefab, which should be triggered individually by a triggger, becuasse all 'WM_01' of all prefabs will be triggered. And if you have, by accident, a 'WM_01' in your map too, this one as well.
Object names in prefabs, used in commands always need a '#.' in front of their name in the command. This is a placeholder, replaced later with the name of the prefab instances, to extend the object name and preventing name clashes. So if you want to have a prefab, which contains a trigger and a worldmodel, handled by this trigger, it could be something like this:

-PREFAB START-
WorldModel = WM_01
Trigger = TR_01
Trigger command used (normally, but false for prefabs) = msg WM_01 (hidden 1)
Trigger command used (in the right way for prefabs) = Msg #.WM_01 (hidden 1)
-PREFAB END-

When a prefabs is disconnected, all '#.' will be replaced by the current name of the prefab instances. To properrly learn from prefabs, go to the prefab-tab, select one, right mouse click on it and 'open', otherwise you get a false impression how prefabs are constructed.
One downside, when working with commands in prefabs, especially using the placeholder: dedit seems not to be able to check for command errors in that case, means: you won't get the window popping up, telling you how to use a command in a right way, so if you won't work correctly you might not just realize it, after you test the map. In some 'tough' cases a map might crash, based on the error of the command, and if you don't do 'baby steps' in your work, it'll be hard to tell what was the initiating element for the map crash. Try to work as clearly as possible, and test in more small steps during working on prefabs, until you have a good konwledge about them.

[deeahchur]

That is extremely helpful, X! Once again, you are AWESOME!