How do I .....? The Thread for all questions more than general.

[SchutzeSepp]

MY EPILEPTIC DOG just jumped on my table in a panic attack and ran on my keyboard while i was mapping and completely messed up the screen, i could fix most of the things but somehow he pressed a combi that makes bsp's disappear in the 3d window.
cant fix it, tried all the otions in the 3d window menu and none help!
gonna kick his epileptic ***

 

[Xendance]

Press Q.

 

[SchutzeSepp]

thank u, reconfiguring the viewports did the trick also!

 

[Lt_Kettch]

Ok, I have stacked a few questions

To many questions and too few tutorials probably I could figure most of them myself but I am impatient ...

How exactly do satchel objectives work? I make my destroyable mesh and place a satchel objective actor and simply combine them through tags?
I want to make two different satchel objectives which have each three destroyable meshes both of them are active at the same time.
After the meshes are destroyed I want to activate a capzone.
I didn't find the SDK manual too helpful and there are basically no other tutorials specfic to RO.
Is it possible to activate a mover after a objective is completed? (--> door opens after satchel objectives are blown up). I mean it is possible, but with out writing new code?


And also how do I make breaking glass sound like breaking glass? I got the glass breaking when I fire at it and the correct emitter is showing but I don't see where I tell the actor to play the sound if it breaks.

Next question Movers and sound: I sucessfully created a mover (aka a door) but the mover sounds I set play always, constantly. They play if I open the door but they even play when I am a mile away. Where did I miss to set my cross?

Another problem I have is my preview screenshot in the mapselection is not shown. I didn't make it a material or screenshot seqeunce just a simple screenshot. I sucessfully imported it into myLevel, compressed it and told it to appear in Level Summary in the Level Properties. I had less problems with importing my overhead screeenshot ...

That should be all ... for now

 

[Divinehammer]

@Kettch
for the broken glass look at the breaking glass in Krasnyi in the garage I think an even plays the tag of the sound so you get the break sound.

 

[[TW]DrGuppy]

Ok, I have stacked a few questions

To many questions and too few tutorials probably I could figure most of them myself but I am impatient ...

How exactly do satchel objectives work? I make my destroyable mesh and place a satchel objective actor and simply combine them through tags?
I want to make two different satchel objectives which have each three destroyable meshes both of them are active at the same time.
After the meshes are destroyed I want to activate a capzone.
I didn't find the SDK manual too helpful and there are basically no other tutorials specfic to RO.

To do this you just need a ROObjSatchel actor instead of a regular ROObjective actor. You will also need a RODemolitionVolume (check the doors on StalingradKessel) to give a location for satchels to detonate within and trigger the objective.

For the 'two satchel objectives with three destroyable meshes each' problem you may have to dive into an AIScript that waits for each mesh to call an event upon destruction before triggering the objective itself. I'd have to set this up myself (might be able to tomorrow if you're around and I have time) because I can't really picture how everything will work right now without actually experimenting a bit.

Is it possible to activate a mover after a objective is completed? (--> door opens after satchel objectives are blown up). I mean it is possible, but with out writing new code?

Yes, you can do this without new code. ROObjTerritory Properties > ROObjective > AlliesEvent/AxisEvent. Put an event in here and it will get called when the objective is captured.

And also how do I make breaking glass sound like breaking glass? I got the glass breaking when I fire at it and the correct emitter is showing but I don't see where I tell the actor to play the sound if it breaks.

As DH mentioned, take a look at Krasnyi and locate the ScriptedTrigger that is nearby. Check out the ScriptedTrigger Properties > AIScript and you should see WaitForEvent/PlaySound/GoToAction.

Next question Movers and sound: I sucessfully created a mover (aka a door) but the mover sounds I set play always, constantly. They play if I open the door but they even play when I am a mile away. Where did I miss to set my cross?

Have a look for a door in Odessa or Krasnyi to see how they work. Select a door, hit F4 (to get into the properties) then go to Mover Sounds > OpeningSound/ClosingSound.

Another problem I have is my preview screenshot in the mapselection is not shown. I didn't make it a material or screenshot seqeunce just a simple screenshot. I sucessfully imported it into myLevel, compressed it and told it to appear in Level Summary in the Level Properties. I had less problems with importing my overhead screeenshot ...

Can't think of a reason for it not working at the moment... I can Kettch you on IRC tomorrow.

Btw, did you see what I did there? I has clevers.

That should be all ... for now

Another useful tip that will probably help you and a few others is the often neglected SearchForActors button (top left) and the ability to enter in Events and Tags. This can be very helpful in figuring out what a trigger or mover does or how it works. You simply type in the Event/Tag in question and it will throw up a list of all actors that have the same Event/Tag.

 

[Lt_Kettch]

Bah,
I think I set my goals too high

After looking at Rakowice I understood how to make a Satchel Objective but that is the only sucess I had

The mover stuff didn't work but maybe I oversaw something there.

And I looked at the Scripted Trigger form Krasnyi I saw that this actor waits for the event when the glass is broken. I did the lazy way and copied it into my mission (because I don't understand where I get the AI script classes) but of course it didn't work. How do I connect my Trigger with my Destroyable Mesh?
Stupid tutorials on the net are all for UT2k4 and destroying glass works with movers over there (Thanks I didn't want to know).

The doors grr ... I think I had everything exactly like in the stock maps but still I hear the sound over and over again.
Of course I can copy and paste from other maps but that does more harm than good in my opinion.

And the Preview seems to be bugged my screenshot works (did a test with an other map). What could I have done wrong? But maybe it is better if noone will know that I made that piece of sh*t

And even more new questions ...

Is it possible to export meshes from myLevel packages? Of course it is but how do I do that.

Or as an alternative how to uncompress *.uz2 files when ucc decompress won't work and that sh*tty tool UT2004mi fails too :/

What do I do whith a fog ring? In genreal a small crash course in setting the lighting up would be nice. In my map the light is totally screwed. You get snow blind from the sky, the terrain has weird shadows and meshes start to flicker and of course some parts are just pictch black and others bright (really bright). Creating a believable summer like mood would be nice.

Enlighten me (Guppy )

Maybe I should make simple boxes for a year or two and then start the real deal ...

 

[Divinehammer]

@kettch
Look at the Events section of the destro meshes and the scripted trigger "wait for event" section or there may be call event down in the destros special section cant remember something should match the wait for event. The scripted triggers are found in the actor tree.
select your item in the mylevel static view and try File>Export
Fog rings are used in the skybox as far as I know.
For your lighting I think that you should try putting like three sunlight actors in your skybox in a triangular pattern then make one strong and two just slightly lit the strong will determine where the sun is in your map. this is just one way to light the map though.
Just look at others maps especially custom maps they tend to be easier to understand and find the items you seek.

 

[smokeythebear]

If your just starting out copy paste elements from official maps to see how everything works. It's not a bad thing to do because trying to learn everything at once can be frustrating plus your going to end up destroying all your free time! Focus on how your map looks and plays rather then all the technical stuff. The only thing you may have to actually get into if your just starting out is optimization since it can really break a map.

Trust me on this, start out simple so you can learn from your early maps and then in the future you can make more ambitious projects. You shouldn't be messing around with exporting meshes if you do not have the skybox figured out yet!

*edit*

Damn how do you export meshes in mylevel!? I thought I was being clever by making placeholder meshes (so they would have the right dimensions and whatnot) but now I'm stuck. There is no file>export option like you get for textures.

 

[ExoCet-NAW]

Not sure what you mean By export Meshes from your myLevel package.

I am presuming you want to export them to edit in a 3d app outside the sdk?.
if this is right then do this:

open map with the static in the myLevel package select it, then make a new map, just a small sub cube big enough to get your mesh inside.

right click and add your mesh there, then goto File/export and save as a .obj
In 3ds max or maya import mesh (change filetype to look for .obj).

Edit way and then goto file export and save as .ase, import back into your mylevel package and place in map. Remember though exporting and importing knocks off any collision on that mesh, so either add a collision model inside 3d app (best) or do some other collision on it.

Also it may re import with only one material slot instead of how many there were before, so you may have to unwrap the mesh in 3d app and re paint new texture for it.

thats just a very brief idea of how to do it, check guppy's tut on how it's done properly.

 

[Divinehammer]

Having an issue with a blocking volume I set it in place and told it to block classes set the classes to Armor and Vehicle because I want it to stop a STUG3B so far it is not working any Idea what I missed.
Thanks.

with a little search I think I answered my own question. I think I just need to select ROvehicle for my class.

 

[dogbadger]

slightly silly question that hopefully can get a quick answer-
Terrain layers- am i correct in assuming that the amount and intensity of layers hidden under your top layer have no bearing on performance?
For example- your map will be mostly grass but will have patches where earth is reveiled beneath.
Does it make any difference to performance whether you-
1) completedly cover terrain with earth texture, then cover most of it with grass?
2) completely cover terrain with grass and just add patches of earth where you want it?

I imagine it makes no difference, meaning if a terrain layer is present in the map the engine works just as hard if a terrain block has none, some or 100% saturation- but am i correct in this assumption?

 

[Divinehammer]

slightly silly question that hopefully can get a quick answer-
Terrain layers- am i correct in assuming that the amount and intensity of layers hidden under your top layer have no bearing on performance?
For example- your map will be mostly grass but will have patches where earth is reveiled beneath.
Does it make any difference to performance whether you-
1) completedly cover terrain with earth texture, then cover most of it with grass?
2) completely cover terrain with grass and just add patches of earth where you want it?

I imagine it makes no difference, meaning if a terrain layer is present in the map the engine works just as hard if a terrain block has none, some or 100% saturation- but am i correct in this assumption?

I dont think that it matters the only thing that matters to performance is how many layers you have in your lap I think 5 or less is considered okay but I dont think that the saturation level matters.

 

[Divinehammer]

I have a spawn that will be in three seperate areas. I think I can use 3 volumes with the same tags to protect each one. I need tankers to spawn in only one of the locations how do you set things to make this happen so the tankers always spawn next to the tank?

 

[EvilHobo]

For setting up split volumes to act as a single volume in the mind of the game, create a few addition brushes (as many as you need for your multivolume, and with enough sides for the volume you want to have -- two to three cubes should work though) then make your builder brush such that it encloses the brushes you have and then do a brush Intersect. You should now have one builder brush that is conformed to the shape of your intersected brushes, and you can make a volume with this and vertex edit it as you see fit.

 

[Psycho_Sam]

I have a spawn that will be in three seperate areas. I think I can use 3 volumes with the same tags to protect each one. I need tankers to spawn in only one of the locations how do you set things to make this happen so the tankers always spawn next to the tank?

You would need to use 2 spawn area actors for that. Set up your infantry spawn areas and then for your tanker spawn you will need different tags set it to bTankCrewSpawnArea=True.

 

[Divinehammer]

You would need to use 2 spawn area actors for that. Set up your infantry spawn areas and then for your tanker spawn you will need different tags set it to bTankCrewSpawnArea=True.

So when you do this it allows you to have two spawns active at the same time? My tank spawn will be the same every time but the infantry spawns will change locations. thus I will have two seperate infantry do I then also need to make two Armorspawns that are just in the same spot? thanks

 

[Lt_Kettch]

Is there a way to get the vehicles as static meshes?
Obviously they are not in the normal packages. I would like to make a destroyable mesh out of a T60 (or any other early war tank) it gets boring to blow up guns all the time.

I found a few things out about distance fog, getting meshes from custom packages into myLevel (just watch the right 3D Buzz VTM again ) and I even managed to unpack evil uz2 files.

But I have still no clue how to get my breaking windows to make noise or how that mover stuff should work ...

But anyway I could fix most of my mapping problems myself

 

[Divinehammer]

Is there a way to get the vehicles as static meshes?
Obviously they are not in the normal packages. I would like to make a destroyable mesh out of a T60 (or any other early war tank) it gets boring to blow up guns all the time.

I found a few things out about distance fog, getting meshes from custom packages into myLevel (just watch the right 3D Buzz VTM again ) and I even managed to unpack evil uz2 files.

But I have still no clue how to get my breaking windows to make noise or how that mover stuff should work ...

But anyway I could fix most of my mapping problems myself

Just copy the breaking winodows basically the glass just a destroyable mesh set to explode when you shoot it when it is shot it fires an event which matches the sound emitter that is waiting for that call so you will have an event like Window23 with a sound and matching tag of window23 whenever window23 is called the sound goes off. if you post screens of the props of the glass and the sound we can point out how it works. Or send me an email and I will try and explain it Gamburd has my email I think you are working with him.

 

[Divinehammer]

You would need to use 2 spawn area actors for that. Set up your infantry spawn areas and then for your tanker spawn you will need different tags set it to bTankCrewSpawnArea=True.

Nobody ever answered if this means that I need to have two spawnareactors with the same priority level? One for infantry and one for Tankers. I understand the tags, Also when I advance a new infantry spawn will be used but the tanks spawn area will stay the same. So since this has a higher priority will I need to make an additional TanksSpawnareaactor essentially on top of the original tank SAA just with a like wise matching priority and two playerstarts for tankers with a new set of tags? Going to put this in tonight if I can get it all lined out thanks.