help an inexperienced mapmaker

[floven1]

i am having the following problems

EDIT: i cannot seem to get my map to spawn players with y amp or disc primitive, any pointers?

new edit: i cant seem to get more than 1 ladder object in a level, if i put a second in, all attached primitives dissapear
please help

yet another EDIT: I need to know how to create a teleporter

this was already posted on tronsector

[TronFAQ]

Hey floven1, welcome to the LDSO site. I'll see if I can answer your questions here.

i cannot seem to get my map to spawn players with y amp or disc primitive, any pointers?

When you extracted all the game files in preparation for using DEdit, there were some text files named DM-xxINFO.TXT that came along with the Derez maps. They should be located in the GAME\WORLDS\RETAILMULTIPLAYER\DEATHMATCH folder in the Tron 2.0 directory on your hard drive. Which is probably C:\Program Files\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0, unless you installed the game to another location. It could also be "Porgram Files (x86)" if you're running 64-bit Vista or Windows 7.

You need to copy one of those text files to where your map is located. Which is probably in GAME\WORLDS. Then you rename it to match the name of your map. So it would go from DM-xxINFO.TXT to MYMAPNAMEINFO.TXT and it's important that there's no space or any other character between the name of your map and the INFO part.

i cant seem to get more than 1 ladder object in a level, if i put a second in, all attached primitives dissapear
please help

Well, that shouldn't be a problem really. Not sure why that's happening. But we just had someone with a similar experience of objects disappearing, and it was because he used characters in the names of his objects that DEdit didn't allow.

Don't use spaces or any other non-letter or non-number characters when you name your objects. Only letters, numbers, and underscores (the _ character) are allowed.

Also, make sure that every object has a different name. If two objects have exactly the same name, that will cause problems too. And check that your objects aren't hidden or frozen in the DEdit Nodes pane. (The little check boxes are greyed out beside your object names, or you see any blue checkmarks.)

I need to know how to create a teleporter

Xistence already wrote up an excellent explanation of how to do teleporting, so I'll just direct you to his message post.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=786&start=45#p7415

[floven1]

thank you so much tronfaq

you have been a tremendous help

EDIT
just a thought but can you set a teleporter to randomly send people to different endpoints

a thought forms as i write this, but application would be difficult, or at least time consuming
it involves stacking teleport triggers, and offsetting active times. not truly random but...

[TronFAQ]

Actually, sending a player to random teleport points isn't too difficult.

You need to use the Rand command in your trigger. It would probably look something like this.

Code: Select all

Rand3 (msg activeplayer (teleport teleportpoint01)) (msg activeplayer (teleport teleportpoint02)) (msg activeplayer (teleport teleportpoint03))

The 3 behind the Rand command tells the game that you have 3 commands you want an equal chance of being chosen and executed. If you had two commands, it would be Rand2. Four commands, Rand4.

So however many teleport points you create, is what number you use with the Rand command. Then you just make sure you have teleport points with different names, and have each teleport command refer to each different point.

[floven1]

oh

thats cool, and usefull, I must use this

thanks tronfaq

EDIT: every time i try to save a prefab dedit glitches and closes,
any help?

[TronFAQ]

EDIT: every time i try to save a prefab dedit glitches and closes,
any help?

Hmm, not sure what might be causing that. I haven't used the prefab exporting function enough. Maybe one of the other LDSO team members has had personal experience with that issue, and can shed some light on it.

BTW, thanks for sending your in progress map so I could take a peek at it. It looks like you're still experimenting with things and it's not finished yet. But so far, it's pretty impressive for a first map. You've figured out a lot of things already, without even asking.

[tronman63304]

every time i try to save a prefab dedit glitches and closes,
any help?

i dont think that works on dedit i have tryed many times with different objects

[TronFAQ]

I've used the prefab exporting option in the past (Selection > Save as Prefab), and it worked for me. But I saved very simple and small geometry. It's possible that if you try to save a large selection, it might be too complex and DEdit crashes. Also, any errors in the geometry could cause that.

You could use World > Special > Cleanup Geometry in the DEdit menu and then try saving the prefab again to see if it makes any difference. That feature corrects any errors in the geometry that have crept in. But this feature is potentially dangerous to your map so do not save your map again until you're sure the geometry cleanup didn't bork anything horribly. If your map becomes messed up, close it and do not save the changes. This is why I always keep multiple backups of the maps that I work on, creating various older versions with different names as backups in cause something goes wrong while I'm editing the most recent version of the map.

[xistence]

Watch that you use the right file-extension when saving the prefab (.LTA or .LTC), i would recommen .LTA if your prefab doesn't contain too many polys. Add this extension manually when entering the filename in the Save-Dialog (so somthing like 'myBlehPrefab01.lta'). Might be that this was confusing your work, 'cuz sometimes Dedit crashes about using .LTC.
Prefabs are mighty andpowerful, i use tons of them and can just recommen using them.

[floven1]

thanks xistence

EDIT: two things, one, im on a tight budget, where can I upload files for free
and two, can anyone provide a list of commands or point me towards one?
EDIT:

EDIT: every time i try to save a prefab dedit glitches and closes,
any help?

something i have noticed since writing this is that almost all prefabs are comprised of triangles, and only triangles
at least all odd shapes do this, this leads me to assume that i need to split all faces on prefab materials into triangles. must try this

[floven1]

i have uploaded a redesigned version of lab_area
here is the download
http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/ea47737ebf_0.12MB
this is intended to replace the original lab_area map for those of you who have it
it is a standard zip and i will update this map as I add things to it
EDIT: can i use a command to regenerate a destroyed object?

[floven1]

i have uploaded a redesigned version of lab_area
here is the download
http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/ea47737ebf_0.12MB
this is intended to replace the original lab_area map for those of you who have it
it is a standard zip and i will update this map as I add things to it
EDIT: can i use a command to regenerate a destroyed object?

could it be something to do with spawner objects? if it is, how do i create spawner objects

[xistence]

Spawner-objects are used to generate new instances of objects, so for example for AIs (but can be used for other types of objects as well). To use them you have to do the following:
- Set up an CAIHuman (as example), configured to your needs, but set in its properties to be a 'Template'. That way you won't see -that- object in your map anymore, but it will be used to generate objects that are of this type and using this configuration.
- Set up a Spawner, this must point to your CAIHuman-object, working as Template, or any kind of object that was set to be a 'Template' (look in its properties if it has such a property). You can do some more configuration in this Spawner, but this can be very much, so i recommen trial and error or specific requests in here.
- Set up an object triggering the Spawner to make a spawn. This can be anything that is able to fire a message to the spawner, depends on the 'effect' or 'mechanism' you want to achieve in your map-construct about generating objects.

A word of warning: Spawning objects can result in bad lags, because not in all cases objects will be removed if they are not used anymore, so this is a task that must be done by yourself. And you have to verify you won't do some kinds of 'infinite' spawnings because of errors in using MSGs (loops, etc.).
Lets say you spawned an AI and you killed it, it is not visible in the game anymore, but the 'data-structure' is still present in the engine, so the engine will work with it (and AI-calculation costs a lot of performance compared to other object types), and the more unused AI-instances you have, the greater the lag will be. Especially AIs are critical, but we have talents in here who might help you with tips and tricks about that (not me tho).

[TronFAQ]

Rather than using a spawner, it might be easier and better to just create the illusion of destroying something by hiding it. You can have an object that hides itself when "destroyed", and after a certain length of time has passed it unhides itself.

But it depends on exactly what you're trying to do. With AI characters you definitely want to use spawners. But for anything else, probably not. (Though as Xistence said, you have to be careful and not go crazy with too many AI. Use as few as possible.)

P.S. If you edit your posts, we may not always notice the edits and then won't answer your new questions. It might be better to always make a new post when you have something to add.

[floven1]

thank you xistence and tronfaq
here is a download link, i only have my screenshots up as of yet, and even these are out of date, but i will be updating soon and may or may not post again when i do
http://www.filefront.com/user/floven1