q3a mod: slugs and rockets

[Takkie]

There's no need... it's both easier and more efficient on memory to just use bright skins which can share the same shaders but can have any color applied to them. I should probably do team-colored grenades too.

Is that what they did to the CPMA player skins?

Well, you'll have to modify the base skins to add an alpha challel that will "stencil" out the coloured parts In the original quake 3 (I don't know about team Arena) each team skin is a separate TGA (this allows to add more that colour difference between characters, changing some details for example).

This could be cool, still a lot of work if you want it done properly.
And photoshop isn't keen on alpha channels, so hve to install GIMP

An other solution would be a FX-shader on the player (something like a regeneration-fx for red team, quad-fx for blue and make some other shaders for other teams).
No skinning involved, just a bit of coding and a few shaders...

Hi, I like your work, it's nice.

Though I have two suggestions:

1. If you plan to start from scratch, I highly recommend to use 'Spearmint' engine. It is an enhanced ioquake3 engine.
'Spearmint' already has widscreen support, even HUD is always aspect correct (16:9, 16:10. 4:3, etc.)
Don't get me wrong, I like ioquake3 as well but 'Spearmint' has tons of enhancements (e.g.: 4 player splitscreen) and it is GPLv3.
'Spearmint' also merged cgame and ui module, which makes coding a lot easier.
https://github.com/zturtleman/spearmint/wiki

2. There is no need to remove the code you do not need for 'SlugRock'. If you don't need bots to camp for example, than create a gametype and
exclude your mod from using a function. This way you don't destroy existing gametypes.

Only to make it clear, I don't say something is wrong. Your work is really cool! Just a few thoughts...

Thanks for the heads-up, i'm not familiar with spearmint. It sounds cool.
I will check it out.
Thanks for the kind words and the support!

[themuffinman]

Well, you'll have to modify the base skins to add an alpha challel that will "stencil" out the coloured parts In the original quake 3 (I don't know about team Arena) each team skin is a separate TGA (this allows to add more that colour difference between characters, changing some details for example).

I've had bright skins in my own mod for ages, so it's just a case of adapting the code and converting the png textures to tga. The essence of it is a greyscale shader stage that uses 'rgbGen entity', then just forcing the skins and applying the colors to the head, torso and legs refentities in CG_Player() with shaderRGBA.

Spearmint

The problem arises with the fact that the vms aren't compatible with standard Q3, unlike in ioq3. I doubt needing a custom client/server binary is really worthwhile for a mod with such a narrow scope. Besides, I tried using Spearmint a while back and it irritated the hell out of me with that splitscreen code that makes any changes involving playerstates etc. just so much more complicated to achieve.

[themuffinman]

Is that what they did to the CPMA player skins?

Yes exactly like that but obviously forced to actual team colors.

[Takkie]

I created a GitHub for SlugRock.
I added the source-code of ioq3.
So we got the scratch and can start from there.

Check it here SlugRock on GitHub

Next thing is to learn to compile it..

I should probably do team-colored grenades too.

Yes, i have been thinking about your idea/suggestion to add weapons.
I agree, this will enhance gameplay and will fix the gameplay 'gap'.
Still i like the 'Slugs and Rockets only' version.
Perhaps we can add a cvar like: g_additionalWeapons or g_pureSlugRock
So you can choose for each gametype if you want the additional weapons or not...
I think it is also good idea to have the additional weapons also available in FFA and CTF.

Especially because he is using code from Jürgen Hoffman (JUHOX).
JUHOX mod(s) inspired many people to make awesome mods, mods that became bigger and bigger... after some time switching to a GPLv3 engine should be considered.

Yes, i did beta-testing for him with the Railor and the Hunt mod.
His map generator was one of the many wonderfull things he created.

[UglyFoot]

I've been these days reading and getting used to git. I think this is a good place to get started:
https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorial

In addition, is useful to know how to ignore some files like the project or bat files. In this page it's well explained:
https://help.github.com/articles/ignoring-files

The exclude file is very useful because it allows you to ignore locally and don't force the others to do the same. I've used it to ignore all files that aren't code. If you want to do the same, add these lines:

Code: Select all

*
!*/
!*.c
!*.cpp
!*.h

However, the files that are already tracked won't be ignored. There are at least two ways to ignore those files, one way is using --assume-unchanged and another is untracking them, like in this case:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1139 ... t-ignoring

The first is useful for files you want to keep in the rep like project files, the second for files you want to keep in the rep but you don't want to share because there's no need, like bat files.

Edit: Using --assume-unchanged is not a good idea, take a look here.

Also I did part of the list (not much):

For the UI:
Done - Change the main menu
Done - Change map selection menu
Done - Disable obsolete weapon keys
- Change Playermodel machinegun in RL or RG
- Perhaps add a SlugRock-settings page (in wich you set the cvar's)

For the in-game graphics:
Done - Change HUD, disable ammo and armor counter etc.
Done - Smaller ''You fragged ... for ... place" signal.
- Railcolor tag correction / misslehitwall

For the bot-code:
- Make the bots work without items in the map
- Bot aggression depending on HealthRegen
- Better bots (?)

For the gameplay code:
Done - Only RL and/or RG
Done - healthRegen
- Killable Rockets

and I added some changes:
- Added g_allowGauntlet (default 0)
- Changed g_forceSlugs/Rockets into cg_forceWeapon with "RL", "RG" or "" (default) (it isn't case sensitive)
- Added cg_ffaWeaponMode with "random" or "alternate" (default)

As I did this in q3a code it will take some time to move the changes to ioq3. When I'll had moved them I'll push to your rep, my nick in github is flesk88, add me as a collaborator whenever you can.

[Takkie]

A quick reply
@UglyFoot i added you as a collaborator.
@themuffinman what's your nick on github? I'd like to add you as a collaborator also.

[UglyFoot]

I'm not sure but I think the way you did the rep won't let us to pull from ioq3 rep in the future, I think it's better to fork it:
https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3

[Takkie]

Ok, I've set up a fork of ioq3 and renamed it SlugRock.
(So i deleted the previous repo of SlugRock)

I've been these days reading and getting used to git. I think this is a good place to get started:
https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorial

In addition, is useful to know how to ignore some files like the project or bat files. In this page it's well explained:
https://help.github.com/articles/ignoring-files

The exclude file is very useful because it allows you to ignore locally and don't force the others to do the same. I've used it to ignore all files that aren't code. If you want to do the same, add these lines:
Code:
*
!*/
!*.c
!*.cpp
!*.h

However, the files that are already tracked won't be ignored. There are at least two ways to ignore those files, one way is using --assume-unchanged and another is untracking them, like in this case:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1139 ... t-ignoring

The first is useful for files you want to keep in the rep like project files, the second for files you want to keep in the rep but you don't want to share because there's no need, like bat files.

Thanks for the links, I'll sure have to do the reading too.
(Squeeze it into my real-life somewhere )

Also I did part of the list (not much):
Quote:
For the UI:
Done - Change the main menu
Done - Change map selection menu
Done - Disable obsolete weapon keys
- Change Playermodel machinegun in RL or RG
- Perhaps add a SlugRock-settings page (in wich you set the cvar's)

For the in-game graphics:
Done - Change HUD, disable ammo and armor counter etc.
Done - Smaller ''You fragged ... for ... place" signal.
- Railcolor tag correction / misslehitwall

For the bot-code:
- Make the bots work without items in the map
- Bot aggression depending on HealthRegen
- Better bots (?)

For the gameplay code:
Done - Only RL and/or RG
Done - healthRegen
- Killable Rockets

and I added some changes:
- Added g_allowGauntlet (default 0)
- Changed g_forceSlugs/Rockets into cg_forceWeapon with "RL", "RG" or "" (default) (it isn't case sensitive)
- Added cg_ffaWeaponMode with "random" or "alternate" (default)

As I did this in q3a code it will take some time to move the changes to ioq3.

Well that's a great start.
I haven't had the time to look at the ioq3-code, i'm curious about how much changes/bugfixes there are in the code we will use for SlugRock.
The changes you added are great, making the mod more flexible.

[themuffinman]

Done a bunch of coding towards multi-teams. I must be about halfway through the server-side changes. I haven't touched the bot code yet... it promises to be a nice big bag of lols getting bots to work properly in 3+ team CTF.

@themuffinman what's your nick on github?

themuffinator

[Takkie]

@themuffinman I'll add you as a collaoborator.
I noticed you forked the SlugRock repo.
I deleted that repo! And i replaced with a fork from ioq3 and named that SlugRock.
I think if you we want to pull your code into our 'master' it may be a problem because the 'master' of the fork you have is deleted.
I suggest you create a new fork and copy your code into that.
I may be wrong, but better to be save now than to be sorry later.
I'm sorry for the inconvience and causing extra work.

Btw. 3+team ctf sound really great, we have to discuss how this affects the gameplay and the shortage of flags...

[UglyFoot]

Well, finally I pushed the changes I did. Most of the commits are very specific, I'll try to group the future commits to keep the log easier to read.

This is the list of the to do changes:

Code: Select all

For the UI:
Done - Change the main menu 
Done - Change map selection menu
Done - Disable obsolete weapon keys
- Change Playermodel machinegun in RL or RG
- Perhaps add a SlugRock-settings page (in wich you set the cvar's)

For the in-game graphics:
Done - Change HUD, disable ammo and armor counter etc.
- Smaller ''You fragged ... for ... place" signal.
Done - Railcolor tag correction / misslehitwall

For the bot-code:
Done - Make the bots work without items in the map
- Bot aggression depending on HealthRegen
- Better bots (?)

For the gameplay code:
Done - Only RL and/or RG 
Done - healthRegen
- Killable Rockets

and this is the things I added:

Code: Select all

- Make you can select a weapon when choosing a team 
- Add g_forceWeapon with "rl", "rg" or ""
- Add cg_ffaWeaponMode with "alternate", "random", "rl" or "rg"
- Add bot_ffaWeaponMode

I uploaded the mod so you could try it without compiling it. Can you compile it?

The link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ci4793q6717sc ... t-1.zip?m=

By the way, don't listen to what I said about ignoring files. There are better ways to do that but I still need to figure them.

[Takkie]

Great stuff!
It runs way better from the ioq3 source.

Here are a few things i ran into so far..

I uploaded the mod so you could try it without compiling it. Can you compile it?

Well my environment is set and it was a steep learning curve to get it working.
So when i try to compile the code from github to build the .dll and .qvm
i get these errors:

g_active.c
In function 'ClientTimerActions':
448:3: warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value [-Wparentheses]
else if ( g_healthRegen.integer = 1 ) {


g_client.c
In function 'ClientSpawn':
1213:2: warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value [-Wparentheses]
if ( g_gametype.integer = GT_FFA )


ui_main.c
<command-line>:0:4: error expected identifier or '(' before numeric constant
code/q3_ui/../qcommon/q_shared.h:190:15: note in expansion of macro 'ui'
unsigned int ui:

In file included from code/q3_ui/ui_local.h:26:0,
from code/q3_ui/ui_main.c:32:
code/q3_ui/../qcommon/q_shared.h:191:1: warning: no semicolon at end of struct or union
[enabled by default]
} floatint_t;


then the compiling ends, leaving me only wth a cgamex86.dll and a qagamex86.dll

I'll adress to the in-game stuff later.

Cheers -

[UglyFoot]

The first two warnings are my fault, I'll correct them.

You can ignore warnings, the important thing are the errors. I have no idea about why it outputs that error, could you compile ui before pulling githubs code?

[Takkie]

the ioq3 source gave the same error for me building the .dll's.
So i skipped the .dll build and the .qvm build for ioq3 went fine.
Then i did a .qvm build for SlugRock source and at the end this came up:


UI_Q3LCC code/q3_ui/ui_team.c
UI_Q3LCC code/q3_ui/ui_teamorders.c
UI_Q3LCC code/q3_ui/ui_video.c
Q3ASM build/release-ming32-x86/baseq3/vm/ui.qvm
build/release-ming32-x86/baseq3/ui/ui_team.asm:18 error: symbol sprintf undefined
make[2]: *** [build/release-ming32-x86/baseq3/vm/ui.qvm] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/SlugRock-master'
make[1]: *** [targets] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/SlugRock-master'
make: *** [release] Error 2


It build the cgame.qvm and the qagame.qvm but not the ui.qvm
Any ideas?

[UglyFoot]

Probably my fault too, I used sprintf there. I've replaced it with Com_sprintf and pushed the changes, you should be able to compile q3_ui now.

[Takkie]

Yes, it compiled now!
More feedback soon

[Takkie]

Allright, i played the test version a couple of times.
I like the menu and the game runs smooth.
Here are a few things i noticed...
The weapon warning needs to be looked after and the powerups still spawn later in the game.
I think these can be easily fixed, hope to do that myself soon.
(A chance for me to learn more about pushing code into github...)

As far as i noticed, with cg_ffaWeaponMode set to 'alternate' it doesn't alternate the weapons for me (the player) but it does for the bots. The setting 'random' does seem to work correctly.

Is it perhaps a good idea to add the option 'both' to let the players spawn with both weapons.
(In ffa and team modes)

I was suprised with the weapon selection option in team games.
I think it is a very nice solution to add it to the team selection menu.

Sup!

[UglyFoot]

Allright, i played the test version a couple of times.
I like the menu and the game runs smooth.
Here are a few things i noticed...
The weapon warning needs to be looked after and the powerups still spawn later in the game.
I think these can be easily fixed, hope to do that myself soon.
(A chance for me to learn more about pushing code into github...)

As far as i noticed, with cg_ffaWeaponMode set to 'alternate' it doesn't alternate the weapons for me (the player) but it does for the bots. The setting 'random' does seem to work correctly.

Yes, there are some bugs. I didn't notice the ffa weapon mode wasn't working, I'll try to fix it. I'll give you the rest although I think the weapon warning isn't easy to fix, you'll tell me.

About Git, remember the first link I put here, it's the best I read to get started. Also a gui helps a lot, I've used GitExtensions, it has a plugin for VS but you can use it without VS too.
Another link I recommend it's:
http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-a ... sages.html

Is it perhaps a good idea to add the option 'both' to let the players spawn with both weapons.
(In ffa and team modes)

For now I'll add it for ffa, I'll wait until muffin pushes his changes to add a cvar for tdm.

I was suprised with the weapon selection option in team games.
I think it is a very nice solution to add it to the team selection menu.

Sup!

I've thought that when muffin will push his work this menu could be like "add bots" menu, using the list for the teams.

By the way muffin, if you're there, how it's going? if you got stuck or just don't have time you could push what you've done and I could help and send you a pull request.

[Takkie]

I think the weapon warning isn't easy to fix, you'll tell me.

I ran into that error when i build the first version of SlugRock.
And after a long search i found this:
Steven Conway's tutorial on Serveronly Instagib

This is the code change from Steven:
in the ai_dmq3.c

/* newweaponnum = trap_BotChooseBestFightWeapon(bs->ws, bs->inventory); */
newweaponnum = WP_RAILGUN; //SCO We only have one weapon so let's choose it

For SlugRock i changed it to this

/* newweaponnum = trap_BotChooseBestFightWeapon(bs->ws, bs->inventory); */
newweaponnum = WP_RAILGUN; //SlugRock We only have one weapon so let's choose it
if (newweaponnum != WP_RAILGUN); //SlugRock SCO if weapon isn't the rg it is the rl
newweaponnum = WP_ROCKET_LAUNCHER;

That made the error go away for me, so that made me happy.
If we add more weapons to the mod, this code needs to change with it.

I also disabled the code that allowed powerups to spawn in later in the game.
Both changes i've pushed to GitHub.

Another link I recommend it's:
http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-a ... sages.html

Thanks!

[UglyFoot]

Good work I'm currently re-installing the environment, I'll fix the ffa weapon mode in the next days, also I could remake the "killable" rockets if you aren't doing it.

[themuffinman]

Nice progress there.

Still working on multi-team, it is a big modification. It's mostly bot behaviour, team ranking and HUD changes that are left to do... then testing.

[Takkie]

Still working on multi-team, it is a big modification. It's mostly bot behaviour, team ranking and HUD changes that are left to do... then testing.

I'm looking forward to your work and to be part of the testing.
How are you going to solve the multi-team in a two flag ctf?
I was just wondering about it and came up with something like this:
Both flags are at there bases without colour.
When one player/team picks up a flag the other flag 'freezes' at its base and cannot be picked up.
The player/team that has the flag has the task to bring that flag to the 'frozen' flag to score.
The other teams need to prevent this.
When the carried flag is dropped a team-member has the chance to pick it up but when an other team picks it up the flag will be returned to its original base.
After a score both flags return to their base and after a 5 sec.time-out they can be picked up again.....
During the time-out players can still frag each other.
I'm curious about your solution...

I'll fix the ffa weapon mode in the next days, also I could remake the "killable" rockets if you aren't doing it.

Looking forward to that also
If you want to do remake the "killable" rockets code be my guest.

I have a few changes coming up.
- make tourney and team maps show up in the ffa menu
- random rail colours for bot
- change the mg model in menu's to rg
and i'm testing some stuff to improve the bots aiming...

[UglyFoot]

Greetings,

How are you going to solve the multi-team in a two flag ctf?
I was just wondering about it and came up with something like this:
Both flags are at there bases without colour.
When one player/team picks up a flag the other flag 'freezes' at its base and cannot be picked up.
The player/team that has the flag has the task to bring that flag to the 'frozen' flag to score.
The other teams need to prevent this.
When the carried flag is dropped a team-member has the chance to pick it up but when an other team picks it up the flag will be returned to its original base.
After a score both flags return to their base and after a 5 sec.time-out they can be picked up again.....
During the time-out players can still frag each other.
I'm curious about your solution...

that reminds me of 1 flag ctf. Using normal ctf maps for multiteam ctf seems to me difficult because there are just two bases. I think a good combination could be 1f-ctf plus random spawn points (or depending on where your team mates are). I would create a new mode for this. For multiteam ctf I think the better option is creating new maps, they could be made like if you were making a part of a cutted cake and then copy and rotate it around the center of the map.

By the way, always do a merge whenever you want to pull ioq3 commits since the log will be more readable. Merging is useful for long-life branches because it acts like a summary (if it's a 3-way merge). I did the same mistake at first and it's annoying to see all ioq3 commits when you're looking just for your/others work. I would do it just if it's necessary, to avoid to fill the log with ioq3 merges. And if you can, rename "upstream" to "ioq3", I think your client has "upstream" name for ioq3 repo, you should be able to change it in remote repos.

I pushed a few changes, not much. The next thing I think I'll do is the menu for configuring cvars and something more.

[Takkie]

By the way, always do a merge whenever you want to pull ioq3 commits since the log will be more readable. Merging is useful for long-life branches because it acts like a summary (if it's a 3-way merge). I did the same mistake at first and it's annoying to see all ioq3 commits when you're looking just for your/others work. I would do it just if it's necessary, to avoid to fill the log with ioq3 merges. And if you can, rename "upstream" to "ioq3", I think your client has "upstream" name for ioq3 repo, you should be able to change it in remote repos.

I understand and i will look into this, i'll see if i can change the upstream name into 'ioq3'.
The first time i did merge it (the right way). The second time i used gitHub (-frontend) to sync and it made all changes commit(s).
It really takes time to get used to this. Every time i work with GitBash, GitHub, minGW32, Msys it feels like 'the first time'. I try to work as clean as possible. I'm glad i'm on old man and still remember how to do some stuff in dos and i'm not scared by a black box with a blinking underline.
I'll get hang the hang of it and hope not to make (m)any 'mistakes' anymore.

I pushed a few changes, not much. The next thing I think I'll do is the menu for configuring cvars and something more.

I checked new version out and it works smoothly, nice work!
The ffaWeaponMode is great!

I'll change the "You fragged [playername] for [position nr.] place" message into a smaller (less 'annoying') one.

I was wondering:
With these cvar's you can set all cg_ffaweaponModes for yourself and for the bots seperatly.
Is it still possible for a server (in multiplayer online/LAN) to set the cg_ffaWeaponMode so everybody uses the same mode?
Can the cvar g_forceWeapon used for that? Change it into g_forceWeaponMode ("alternate", "random", "both", "rl", "rg")?

I noticed in FFA if you press ESC you'll get the popup-menu and in there you have the option railgun/rocketlauncher
, just as in team-matches.
Can this be removed for FFA (and Tourney)? Because it is not working and obsolete because of the cvar cg_ffaWeaponMode.

that reminds me of 1 flag ctf. Using normal ctf maps for multiteam ctf seems to me difficult because there are just two bases. I think a good combination could be 1f-ctf plus random spawn points (or depending on where your team mates are). I would create a new mode for this. For multiteam ctf I think the better option is creating new maps, they could be made like if you were making a part of a cutted cake and then copy and rotate it around the center of the map.

multi-team on a 2-flag ctf map like idescribed it is indeed a lot like 1-flag ctf or some kind of assault.
And yes i agree that it would be a new gametype. (i'm curious how muffinman will implement this).
Using normal ctf maps seems to me the way to go because of the amount that are available.
Creating new maps is possible but will be a lot of work (i can build some).
But you'll have 3-team, 4-team, 5-team and 6-team versions of each map.

[themuffinman]

No it will definitely need specialised maps for CTF with 3-6 teams, similar to the 3-team CTF mod for Q2. New gametypes definitely would be the way to go for drastic changes to the gameplay, but the game dynamics are bound to be very different and somewhat broken with more than 2 teams. The main issue I can see is where each team just goes for the adjacent team's flag for the sake of being closer. The idea I have to solve that was introducing the concept of 'stealing' points where a capture gives your team a point as usual but subtracts the other team's score by 1 to a minimum of 0. Doing this would give a big incentive to gang up on which ever team is leading as to prevent the leading team from hitting the capturelimit, then the other teams would fight over who gets the flag.

I've been slowly fixing up Dueling Keeps II (mpq3ctf1 from Team Arena) with texture realignments, recaulked, proper use of detail brushes etc. which will be used to make a 4 team version. If anyone else wants to have a go at it instead then be my guest! I'll also need announcer voices for the other 4 teams (green, gold, cyan, pink)... it might be possible to blend a bunch of existing sound samples together to make up the team names.