EntityPlus - A single player Q3 mod

[deqer]

What are your thoughts on the idea of an EP map forcing a "com_hunkmegs" setting? It would be a target_script that sets the com_hunkmegs and reloads the map upon start. Anyways, should I do that or should I still maintain the default of 56 and therefore optimize my map instead.

[dghost77]

I have been following this thread for a while and I am really impress by all the new features (the new entities) this mod can add to the Quake 3 engine. Really great work Eraser, I can't believe how you seems to make all this easy. The true sign of a good programmer.

On to my personnel question :

I always dreamed of having the possibility of making a Quake 3 map with a kind of tool like a volumetric brush that is invisible in-game but where you can apply different gravity value. So when the player enter the brush while playing, inside this brush the gravity would be different compare to outside of that brush. You would have still a default gravity value for the map as it his with the vanilla q3 engine. Would that be possible or is it limited to some programming/engine limits that can't be done with this old game? I only got basic programming skills and I worked as a sysadmin for 2 different video game studio so I do understand a lot for game programming, but I am no expert in it whatsoever, I mostly looked after the servers... :P

[InsaneKid]

ye, different gravity-devices would be great!

[themuffinman]

Just a new content flag would do the job. Just like water is a content flag which alters your physics while you're in it, you could do a similar thing for gravity.

[Eraser]

Do we have night vision goggles? Would be interesting to use them to see triggerable lasers for some stealthy missions.

lol no there's not but who knows, it could be done.

What are your thoughts on the idea of an EP map forcing a "com_hunkmegs" setting? It would be a target_script that sets the com_hunkmegs and reloads the map upon start. Anyways, should I do that or should I still maintain the default of 56 and therefore optimize my map instead.

No one's stopping you from doing anything, but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of the whole target_script entity because it can be used to silently modify client settings. I think it's up to the user to make sure com_hunkmegs is set to a decent value but if you really need to do it, it's possible so yea, you can.

I always dreamed of having the possibility of making a Quake 3 map with a kind of tool like a volumetric brush that is invisible in-game but where you can apply different gravity value.

Well, that's what we have target_gravity for. While it works slightly different than how you describe, you can set up your triggers to activate target_gravity so that one area of a map has a higher/lower gravity than another area of your map.

It is unfortunately not possible to change the gravity direction. So walking on walls or the ceiling is just not possible.

[GtkRadiant]

I always dreamed of having the possibility of making a Quake 3 map with a kind of tool like a volumetric brush that is invisible in-game but where you can apply different gravity value.

Well, that's what we have target_gravity for. While it works slightly different than how you describe, you can set up your triggers to activate target_gravity so that one area of a map has a higher/lower gravity than another area of your map.

It is unfortunately not possible to change the gravity direction. So walking on walls or the ceiling is just not possible.

dghost77, does the player teleport into the place that you want them to walk on walls? if so, put a big box of caulk around the room and turn the room into a rotating door. set up a trigger for the room. compile. count the seconds it takes for the wall to become the floor. exit the game. make it so when the trigger that targets the room is triggered, a target_delay is also triggered. set its wait value to the number that you counted and make the target_delay target the room. the outcome of all that: the room rotates onto its side, then stops.

set up another trigger that works the same way, but in reverse...

in this manner, you will be able to walk on the wall...but this theory of mine might not work, I've never tested it... ANYWAY, that might work for whatever you're trying to do. ...unless your map is one big room.

[Eraser]

lol, awkward.
The func_door_rotating entity will help (or was it func_rotating_door? I always forget) because you can specify a number of radial degrees it should turn. No need to do time based calculations then.

[CZghost]

Have you .ent file of entities for the mod? I'm using GTK Radiant 1.5 ;-)
I can make .ent file from the .def file, but I must copy the XML tags from existing .ent file from baseq3.

So there are three options.

• Use Radiant 1.4
• Download ENT file
• Make ENT file for QER1.5

[Eraser]

Can you send me a .ent file for GtkRadiant 1.5
You can mail it to my @gmail.com mail address which is "eraesr". Or upload it somewhere so I can get it.

I'll see if I can write some program (if there isn't already one) that converts the GtkRadiant 1.4 entities.def file to a GtkRadiant 1.5 .ent file.

[CZghost]

Eraser:
Hmm, no converter from def to ent file is anywhere.
So I must send .ent file to eraesr *_atSign_* gmail.com for converting to E+ entity definition file for qer15...

Anyway, your mod is very good. I've done the map and already found the one secret...

[obsidian]

A Q3Map2 updated entities.ent file is included with Quake3Extras. Has the added benefits of all the latest Q3Map2 supporting shizzle that isn't installed by default:

http://radiant.robotrenegade.com/downlo ... as_0.2.zip

[CZghost]

A Q3Map2 updated entities.ent file is included with Quake3Extras. Has the added benefits of all the latest Q3Map2 supporting shizzle that isn't installed by default:

http://radiant.robotrenegade.com/downlo ... as_0.2.zip

But I need ENT file for EntityPlus mod by Eraser.
I'm suggested to work in screen of GTK Radiant 1.5, so entities.ent for e+ is required in this way for me.

[obsidian]

I'm talking to Eraser, not you.

There is currently no entities.ent for Entity+. You'll have to wait for someone to make/convert one for GtkRadiant 1.5, which is what we are discussing.

[CZghost]

Sorry, obsidian.
I've already sent the entities definition to eraser for convert it to Radiant 1.5 compatibile.

[dghost77]

@ GtkRadiant : Yeah I see what you mean, your example is a good idea to reproduce the effect of gravity with direction, "a la Mario Galaxy". I thought about it at first, because well, you can imagine all the cool possibilities (we could do real M.C. Escher like map), but no, I know that it couldn't be done (compared to Mario Galaxy) with the current engine of Q3A.

My example was much easier, I don't want teleport to a room with a different gravity, I want to walk right into it. If I use back my brush example, put a brush of certain height with the default value for g_gravity in the map, then on top of that brush, another one with a lighter gravity value, and then on top of that one a third brush with again a lighter value compared to the second one. So if you jump and get to the second brush the gravity will be at this brush level and if you can get higher you can even get to a different gravity. It's kind of reproducing the moon gravity, the higher you get the lighter you'll be.

Of course, you could do the exact opposite of my example, the higher you get, the heavier you will fall.

[Eraser]

Where does GtkRadiant 1.5 store the entities.ent file? In the scripts folder as well?

[GtkRadiant]

lol, awkward.
The func_door_rotating entity will help (or was it func_rotating_door? I always forget) because you can specify a number of radial degrees it should turn. No need to do time based calculations then.

lol, I didn't know that was possible!


@dghost77

you can use some target_multiples and some target_gravitys to do that. target_gravitys can modify gravity for a certain area.

[CZghost]

Eraser:
entities.ent files are in D:\Program Files\GTK Radiant 1.5.0\q3.game\modfolder\

Also there is file default_shaderlist.txt defining default usage of shader files.
modfolder is mod's folder name, such as EntityPlus.

[Eraser]

Ok, I wrote a simple application that can translate a GtkRadiant 1.4 entities.def file to a GtkRadiant 1.5 entities.ent file.
I did a test run on the EntityPlus definitions file and uploaded the resulting file to my Dropbox:
*edit: nevermind, the file is broken. I'm going to try and fix the conversion tool*
Can someone test it for me with GtkRadiant 1.5?

[obsidian]

Can I get a copy of the application? I've been updating some of the SDK files for GtkRadiant and this will save me some time.

[Eraser]

It's a command line tool:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18687963/Entity ... verter.zip

Note that I haven't actually been able to test the resulting entities.ent file yet, so it might generate broken files right now.

One thing to note is that GtkRadiant 1.5 .ent files specify the data type for each key. Because GtkRadiant 1.4 files are blissfully unaware of this, I had to somehow tell the tool what the data types are. This is where the xml files in the KeyTypes folder come in. They contain all of the keys and their respective data types.

If you're going to convert files for mods then you might want to add your own xml file to that to specify data types for custom key names. The tool will report any unknown keys.

You're also going to lose all comments that are present in the entities.def file. Since these comments aren't actually visible in GtkRadiant I don't think it's that much of a problem. You could always manually add them in after running the tool.

[Eraser]

Oh I just went ahead and installed gtkradiant 1.5
Looks like the conversion tool still has some error somewhere. I didn't get all the entities in Radiant. I'll have a look at this.

[deqer]

god damnit. im spending a bunch of time reworking the logic of my combat rooms so that it handles "retry" when player dies.

I can say though that the nodrop texture/brush is working great. I've setup several and their associated backpack entities now.

[deqer]

feature request: Delete a bot.

While a bot is alive and walking around, I want to be able to remove it from the game. Also know that when removing it, it should NOT trigger the deathspawn or any other surrounding logic. no Score adjustment. it should just be removed, or REVERTED.

When the player dies, I need a way to reset a room.

Currently I'm only able to have the player re-enter the room and he "finishes" damaging the Boss. But, I would prefer that the battle would RESTART with full health again to the bot. I need to delete bot, so that I may trigger/spawn it again.

If there a programmed bot index, then I would prefer it to be a REVERT rather a DELETE. so that no "count" or counters or logic are adjusted. It would be bot #1 again, not bot instance #2 -- I'm not even sure if that matters or if that affects me and my target/targetname logic -- perhaps it will work as normal/usual regardless of the instance # of the bot.

Thanks,

Edit:
I'm ABLE to live without this, but I would be sad -- anyways, at least I mentioned it and ask for it.

[Eraser]

Ok I fixed the conversion tool. It should generate a correct 1.5 file now. Do note that the 1.0 entities.def file won't convert correctly due to an error in the entities.def file that needs to be fixed before it can be converted.

I've also uploaded a converted entities.def file for GtkRadiant 1.5 which can be downloaded here