TUT: Creating Rain + Snow + Fog in DarkPlaces

[talisa]

How about some fog too!

you mean like this?

add the fog is just a minute work since it only needs one line instead of having to put together tons of blocks for it like with rain


again, tell me what you think. you think the fog is good like that? or maybe more dense, or less, or should the fog start at a higher level?

[gdiddy62]

Looking good!

[Seven]

Hello splitterface,

Thank you to start working on weather .ent files for mission pack 1.
First of all, please get in contact (PM) with Roy Batty and see if he already made them, because he said he wanted to.
It would be a pity to make the same thing twice.
Maybe he made mp1 and you could do mp2 ?


Regarding your described issue:
Please read this post carefully. I explained it in there.

Try to lower the upper z-coordinate in that critical area.
That helped me sometimes to get pass this issue.


And again, nobody every said, that creating weather .ent files would be hard.
The opposite is the case.
It is in many cases the lack of willingness to do something productive and contribute to the community that keeps people from trying/doing things.
I am very happy that there are some really active people here in this forum who think different.
Of course it takes time to do something, but it can be really fun.
And most important: You LEARN things.
Things that can help you in the future.

That is why I want to say: Thank you to all the nice people here.

Best wishes,
Seven

[Seven]

Sorry for double post.

Here are my remarks for mp1 start map:
1.) Most important thing is: Keep an eye on the fps reduction.
It is always balancing between nice rain and good fps.
At the moment, the balance is too much on the low fps side.
Things that can help to get it back to the other side:
Try to keep the cubes in outside areas (especially outside windows), where the player can never walk to as small as possible.
These cubes shall only give the feeling that it rains outside, but the player will never be able to be there.
That keeps the fps drop low.

2.) I saw more places with rain in lower levels (coming through ceiling).
Some can be corrected by adjusting the cube x+y coordinates.
Because it only rains through a small area.
You can surely find a compromise to make the cube smaller than the main roof cutout, so that the player will barely see the difference, but it will help to get rid of the leaking rain in below floors.
For example: The one that you mentioned. Walk towards the slime pool (there is another leak), then onwards to the corner (there is a bigger leak).
I think both last mentioned leakages can be avoided with this method.
Of course try the reduction of upper z-coordinate method, that I explained in above post.

3.) Outside area at "normal" slipgate
There is an area without rain (when you look outside the window in the corner).
On the left side there is no rain. This issue is because the outside are is not parallel to the world coordinate system.
You will encounter areas like these in other maps too. These areas are the most difficult ones.
You have to cut this are into small cubes to be able to cover it all. Pay attention that you cannot go beneath "1" for rain intesity in super small cubes.
These areas will be a little tricky...

4.) Intensity of the rain.
In my personal opinion, the rain is too strong.
But that is of course just a personal note.

A really good beginning splitterface.

My hint at the end:
It is better to cut of (avoid) some cubes that will lead to obvious leakages through ceilings.
I had to do it several times in episode 1+2.
But you can always manage to do it somehow without making it too obvious to the player, that a pieceof a cube is missing.
Use more smaller ones instead and leave the disturbing one out.
See E1M5 for example (try to find the missing cube )
And keep an eye on the fps.

Best wishes,
Seven

[talisa]

ive contacted roy about if and for which maps he already made .ent files. so ill wait for his reply before making any more so we dont end up making ones for the same maps.

yeah the rain is quite heavy but thats cuz there are some quite small blocks and rain intensity cant be set below 1

hmm area without rain? there shouldnt be, i made sure to use several rainblocks there to not get that
ah i just checked.... you're right! damnit, something mustve gone wrong, cuz i had that fixed, ill look through the code, maybe a typo accidentially snuck in while adding the other blocks which disables one of the blocks in that corner.

tried setting the Z coordinate lower for the places where the rain leaked through the ceiling, but sadly that didnt help at all , it changed nothing to the leaking problem

[Roy Batty]

Seven: Thank you for your kind words =]

Splitterface:

I haven't had time to make .ent files for either of the mission packs or the multiplayer quake maps. I have been really busy IRL with other stuff, I planned to get to them eventually. If you want to make them feel free to do so.

As the for the clipping problems, they do not bother me as this is more of an engine bug and will probably be fixed at some point.

[gdiddy62]

Seven,
Often it is not a lack of willingness as it is simple lack of knowledge. Just because someone writes instructions does not make it easy. If someone, like myself, has never done anything like this ever, then all of the instructions in the world will not assist until experience happens. I've experimented with rain ent files to gain that experience, but don't even know the right questions to ask to get assistance when I don't know what I'm doing. I think sometimes there are many on this forum who assume all who are members are modders like them. I'm learning, but am often embarrassed by how little I know as I've never done any thing of this sort ever.

That is why I's like to se vid tutorials here as well as inside3d.

Just my two pennies about some of the comments.

[talisa]

@roy batty
ok thanx for your quick reply roy. in that case i will continue and start on the
maps for MP1 SoA soon

ill start a new thread for them as soon as i made at least one more, and will post the link to the thread here. in the new thread i'll post any progress i made on rain and/or fog for any maps

@gdiddy62
actually... making rain/fog is extremely easy. when i started i had no clue what i was doing either. but its actually nothing more then copy and paste the some lines of text again into the .ent file. which actually is nothing more then a text file. try opening it with word or with notepad and see for yourself

maybe when ive done a bunch more ill try making a more detailed tut of how to do it, cuz when you get what you have to do its actually extremely simple


nvm lol i already saw what i did wrong in the corner where there was no rain, i made the lowest corner of the box be in the wrong corner of the outside area near the slipgate which made the rainbox be at the same location as the other one instead of being in the area where there was no rain. how could i have not seen that all this time while i was trying to fix it a hundred times?

[talisa]

ive revised the rain for the start-map of SoA. after some tinker finally saw what i did wrong why there was no rain in part of the outside area near the medium slipgate, and ive made it rain less overly heavy after seven said he thought it rained to overly heavy to his liking

sadly couldnt make it rain less heavy at the second pair of three windows in the easy hallway due to not being able to set rain count lower then 1 though
but hopefully its not to noticable, is it?

might revise it again later but for now its the sort-a final version of them
included is both rain and rain&fog. again, to use, put either file in hipnotic/maps, and make sure to rename it to start.ent

[gdiddy62]

Hey splitterface,
Fog I've got down and actually have keys bound for various levels in each episode. Rain and snow still are a bit challenging and I constantly have too many leaks. I try to take ent files with rain already implemented and study them to see what I'm doing wrong when I try to repeat it. I'm getting there, but I still am a visual learner more than anything. I wish I could look over shoulders sometimes

[talisa]

ah yes, that is always a good way to learn of course, examine the work of others
just keep trying and im sure you'll eventually get better and some time you will see what you did wrong to get those leaks and slap yourself in the forehead cuz the solution was actually so simple

btw, right now at this moment i am putting the last hand on the first map of episode 1 of SoA. all there is left to do is the big outdoor area with the grass and then im done

ill post a zip with the .ent file for that map as soon as im done so you can try it in-game

[Seven]

Hello splitterface,

I took your V1.1 and ironed out these water leakes for you:
- in "easy" passage (before the 3 splitted windows) on right side
- all around slime pool
- at the end of slime pool passage (to almost zero)

Root cause for the the first 2 leaks was the nightmare roof-cutout.
Root cause for the last leak was entrance to "hard" passage.


Then I found mistakes (i guess copy/paste related) in:
- "2/3" and "3/3" of windows left of easy hall
- "huge ceiling-window nightmare skill" was kinda screwed

The last leakage beneath "3 windows left of easy hall" is not avoidable.

Please use a "comparing program" to see the differences.


@ gdiddy62

please look into your inbox.


All the Best,
Seven

PS: I am glad that you reduced the rain intensity. That gave some important extra fps
.

[talisa]

ah yes, now i look at them i do indeed see what was wrong. thanx for the fixes seven.

just finished hip1m1, created a new thread in which i will be posting any rain/fog i finish for the other maps: HERE


so anyone, please post comments, criticism or questions regarding the rain/fog files for SoA there instead of here

[gdiddy62]

@splitterface,
Good to have you in this community!

@Seven,
No worries, and thank you as always!

[kreaper]

cant get it to go.. followed readme instructions and what was posted in the first two posts.. get the following

PRVM_ED_PARSEPAIR: CANT FIND FUNCTION RAIN_THINK IN SERVER
HOST_ERROR: PRVM_ED_PARSEEDICT: PARSE ERROR

dont know what im doing wrong. pics look awesome tho so great work even if i cant get it going