Darkplaces bug?

[LordHavoc]

"-game spmod/something/something_again" can not

There's nothing to block multiple directories, give me an exact example.

[Dooomer]

....seems it turns out to be because of a silly mistake of mine....

I used only two "cd.." when I should have used three "cd.." for the one more layer of directory lower than before....

Sorry for the silly mistake!

However, now that my previously-supposed bug is proved to be nonexistent, I find myself love darkplaces engine even more! Thank you for your effort and time, LordHavoc!

And, when I experimented just now, I found that darkplaces.exe can support directory names with space, such as:
___________________________
cd..
cd..
cd..
start darkplaces.exe -game "spmod/1st Class Map/czg07" +gl_texturemode gl_nearest +map . +clear
___________________________

I think this is a very advanced feature. Though I need to enclose the string of directory name after -game with quotation marks. Makes me once again desire a more complete documentation of darkplaces engine.


By the way, LordHavoc, are you aware of the bug with DoE, where the summoned friendly monster attacks only the air, not following the player as it is supposed to do? I saw someone mentioned this in a forum (I don't know which forum at the moment, can't remember), and I have met this problem as well when I last time played DoE.

[LordHavoc]

I used only two "cd.." when I should have used three "cd.." for the one more layer of directory lower than before....

You can do cd ..\..\.. instead

start darkplaces.exe -game "spmod/1st Class Map/czg07" +gl_texturemode gl_nearest +map . +clear
___________________________

I think this is a very advanced feature. Though I need to enclose the string of directory name after -game with quotation marks. Makes me once again desire a more complete documentation of darkplaces engine.

On most operating systems quotation marks are supported by the shell (in this case the Command Prompt), which has nothing at all to do with DarkPlaces, although on Windows it is true that DarkPlaces has to implement its own commandline parser (because it is a windows graphical app, not a console one).

By the way, LordHavoc, are you aware of the bug with DoE, where the summoned friendly monster attacks only the air, not following the player as it is supposed to do? I saw someone mentioned this in a forum (I don't know which forum at the moment, can't remember), and I have met this problem as well when I last time played DoE.

DoE (Dissolution of Eternity, mission pack 2, rogue) has no summoned fiends that I can recall, I think you're referring to SoA (Scourge of Armagon, mission pack 1, hipnotic), which had such a bug until I added a hack to prevent the bug (as usual this is only activated by the -hipnotic option).

DoE has a bug with one of the bosses, which I also fixed in the -rogue option.

(-hipnotic and -rogue are the standard way of running these mission packs, regardless of which engine)

[Dooomer]

Wow, the trick of "cd ..\..\.. ", I really don't know until today! Thanks a lot!:d

So the bug with mission pack is also solved. Great news to hear.

Don't know if I am asking for too much , but, is there any chance the look of lightning in game be improved? Right now, the lightning, either from a shambler, or from a lightning gun, looks so much like a beam of laser instead of a thunder bolt. I know this is some thing very much of personal preference, and the lightning as it is now is great for multiplayer, but, imho, the current lightning is very ugly to look at in singleplayer .

And another personal thing: in some earlier versions of darkplaces, the spitting from a scrag is shining green, is there any chance that this effect make a return in the future releases?

[Dooomer]

OK, just tried with darkplaces20070707, and yes, the summoned monster is now working correctly (and yes, it is SoA). However, while playing Hip2m1 I noted a strange thing, please take a look at the attached image.

Please pay particular attention to the vore's leg. It seems the vore has sunk somewhat into the ground. Is this a bug? In the past I have noted some health pack floating still in the air in dpmod and some other user made map packs, don't know if that is related to this or not.

[LordHavoc]

I've seen several collision bugs, but I can never be sure if they're DP bugs or quake bugs and DP just behaves differently...

Regarding the scrag spit glowing, you can copy the effectinfo.txt from dpmod and modify it, in particular it is pretty easy to add a glow (look at the TR_ROCKET effect for how).

[Dooomer]

Wow, it's much fun editing the effect and looking at what it does to the game!

This is great!

How do I do this with lightning?

[LordHavoc]

Wow, it's much fun editing the effect and looking at what it does to the game!

This is great!

How do I do this with lightning?

You can replace TE_LIGHTNING1, TE_LIGHTNING2, TE_LIGHTNING3, they're not specified in dpmod because any override will lose the engine-side control of what they look like (the beam or series of models, traditional in quake).

They are trail type, so use the trailspacing setting like on the TR_ effects.

Note that the cl_particles_reloadeffects command is very handy.

[Dooomer]

You can replace TE_LIGHTNING1, TE_LIGHTNING2, TE_LIGHTNING3, they're not specified in dpmod because any override will lose the engine-side control of what they look like (the beam or series of models, traditional in quake).

Thanks. No wonder I cannot find anything lightning related in the effectinfo file.

OK then, I will see what result I can get with these 3 settings. Will report back after that.

[Dooomer]

OK, it's me again. I haven't been able to change the look of lightning by modifying the effectinfo.txt.

I added this to the file, but nothing happened
(please note that I know Lordhavoc didn't mention TR_Lightning thing, but as TE_lightning yielded not result, I just tried to add the TR_ thing just in case):
_________________
effect TE_LIGHTNING
count 30
color 0x372b17 0x73571f
alpha 51 256 512
originjitter 4 4 4
velocityjitter 16 16 16
lightradius 100
lighttime 0

effect TR_LIGHTNING
trailspacing 3
color 0x502030 0x502030
size 60 60
alpha 64 64 96
lightradius 200
lighttime 6
lightcolor 1.2 0.5 1.0

effect TE_LIGHTNING2
count 30
color 0x372b17 0x73571f
alpha 51 256 512
originjitter 4 4 4
velocityjitter 16 16 16
lightradius 100
lighttime 6

effect TR_LIGHTNING2
trailspacing 3
color 0x502030 0x502030
size 60 60
alpha 64 64 96
lightradius 200
lighttime 6
lightcolor 1.2 0.5 1.0

effect TE_LIGHTNING3
count 30
color 0x372b17 0x73571f
alpha 51 256 512
originjitter 4 4 4
velocityjitter 16 16 16
lightradius 100
lighttime 6

effect TR_LIGHTNING3
trailspacing 3
color 0x502030 0x502030
size 60 60
alpha 64 64 96
lightradius 200
lighttime 6
lightcolor 1.2 0.5 1.0
____________________


Could anyone familiar with modifying effectinfo.txt give me an example as to how the lightning should be modified?

Thank you in advance.

[Dooomer]

I noticed something that is not so desirable in darkplaces.

when I am running e.g. "darkplaces.exe -game spmod/czg07". In the load game menu, the save files existing in id1 folder is also listed, along with those in czg07 folder. Other engines seem to list only the save files existing in czg07 folder. I think this is a nuisance. It does not affect gameplay, but a nuisance nevertheless.

Another thing about loading game. I usually use a cmd file to launch mods. Yesterday I tried to make my cmd file detect if the mod has been previously run and had a saved file or not. So I write a cmd file like this (using czg07 as an example again):

_________________________________________________
if not exist spmod/czg07/*.sav start darkplaces.exe -game spmod/czg07 +map czg07
if exist spmod/czg07/*.sav start darkplaces.exe -game spmod/czg07 +menu_load
__________________________________________________ ____
Now it is the second line that gives me the trouble. Darkplaces alway run the startdemo, and the load menu is never displayed.

Any work around?
______________________________
Edit: OK, I have figured out what the problem is. It's not about darkplaces, it's about how I write the command line. Sorry for the false alarm.

[Dooomer]

Is there a command similar to gl_ztrick in darkplaces?

[LordHavoc]

OK, it's me again. I haven't been able to change the look of lightning by modifying the effectinfo.txt.

Unfortunately lightning does not currently go through the effect system, partly because of the special behavior of lightning beams (they can replace eachother).

[LordHavoc]

I noticed something that is not so desirable in darkplaces.

when I am running e.g. "darkplaces.exe -game spmod/czg07". In the load game menu, the save files existing in id1 folder is also listed, along with those in czg07 folder. Other engines seem to list only the save files existing in czg07 folder. I think this is a nuisance. It does not affect gameplay, but a nuisance nevertheless.

This doesn't affect other engines? Ahh, yes, now I understand why.

Interesting, not yet sure how I want to deal with that, but I'll put it on the todo, thanks for the report.

[LordHavoc]

Is there a command similar to gl_ztrick in darkplaces?

Nope, darkplaces is coded to always use gl_clear 1 rendering, gl_ztrick only helped old cards for the most part.