help an inexperienced mapmaker

All about Maps, Mods & Creating them
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floven1
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Re: help an inexperienced mapmaker

Post by floven1 »

im making a new map, in one area it has a tank of water that i plan to have a few rooms going off of, how do i create a dynamic, interactive, liquid surface?
also in dmworld i noticed vman put light cycles parked, and i have seen tanks in several worlds, are these objects, prefabs, or constructed from primitives, and how can i do the same
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Re: help an inexperienced mapmaker

Post by TronFAQ »

I wrote a couple of tutorials a long time ago, on how to do energy pools and tanks. I'll have to see if I can find them again.

Yep, I found them. (Wow, has it really been 6 years?! LOL.) I wrote these, in part, to help remind myself how to do them in case I started to forget. Since figuring out how to do these was a painful trial-and-error process that took ages.
Tanks and Energy Pools - September 24, 2004 by TronFAQ

Tanks

Create a Prop object. For the Filename, enter "PROPS\MODELS\TANKBODY.LTB". For Skin, enter "PROPS\SKINS\TANK1.DTX;PROPS\SKINS\TANK2.DTX;PROPS\SKINS\TANK3.DTX;PROPS\SKINS\TANK4.DTX". There are four separate textures for the tank, that all need to be applied to it.

That's it for the body. Now comes the more complicated part, the Turret.

Add a TronTurret object. Place it just above the Prop object. PropType is "Turret". Target is "Player" if you want the tank to shoot at the players. ViewFOV and FireFOV affect the field of view angle in which the turret can "see" the players. TurnRate is how fast the turret can turn. RateOfFire is how often the turret shoots per second. Alignment is "TronTurret". SpotRange is how far away the turret can see the player. IgnoreDist is so the tank won't keep trying to shoot the players when they stand right next to it, you can probably leave that value alone.

Now the most important parts of all. Parent is the name you gave the tank prop object. ParentSocket is "TurretSocket". FireSocket is "FireSocket1". Sensing socket is "FireSocket1". ON is whether the turret will be immediately active or not. Weapon is "TankGun".


Energy Pools

Create a PolyGrid object. When you do that, for some stupid reason the dimensions of the object are zero.
So it's just a point. You have to go into the Properties and change the Dims to something like 32, 32, 32 so you can see the object. Now you can move it around and resize it. Make the object as big as the pool of water you want. Make sure it has ALL THREE DIMENSIONS. Something I got stuck on for quite a while. If you make a flat surface, you won't get any waves. The height of the object is basically how high your waves can go.

Change Color1 and Color2 so they're not both white. These colors add a tint to your water, from the lightest to the darkest color across the surface. The SpriteSurfaceName can be anything, as long as it's not blank. You can put any sprite file in there. The retail maps used "FX\SPR\BLINDING01.SPR", but it doesn't matter. For some reason, in Tron the sprite isn't even used. You put a sprite in there, and it doesn't show up on your water. But it MUST NOT BE BLANK. Because if you do that, your water will not work properly. I found all this stuff out the hard way.

EnvMapName is what gives your water a textured surface. Normally SpriteSurfaceName is supposed to be used for this, but like I said it doesn't work. This field is meant to put an environment map on your water, typically to give you the appearance of light reflection. But since this is the only field that works, it will have to do. You can put any texture in here that you want. Whatever looks good.

You can leave DampenImage blank. It's supposed to define where the wave action is the highest and lowest
in your pool. But it's not really worth the extra effort to make the texture necessary for this. TextureInfo you can leave as is, if you want. Alpha sets the transparency level of the water, of course. You will probably want to set Additive to True, Fresnel to True, RenderEarly to True, and BackFaceCull to True. BackFaceCull removes polies on the underside of the water, where you can't see them anyway. Unless you wanted palyers to go under the surface . . . then this would need to be set to False.

NumPoliesX and NumPoliesY are the number of polies you want across the pool in each direction. You will have
to play with the values in order to get the results you want. I suggest keeping them as low as possible. SurfaceType defines the type of wave action the water will have. After playing around with the values, I found 2 to give the most appealing results. You can ignore BaseReflection and VolumeIOR. I haven't quite figured out what they're supposed to do. But to be honest, I don't think they actually work. I tried changing the values in them, and it didn't seem to do anything.

PlasmaInfo you can also leave alone, since the SurfaceType is set to 2. This only needs to be looked at if it's set to 1. WavePropInfo affects the movement of the waves. In there, TimeScale is how fast the waves move up and down. You can leave DampenScale alone. SpringCoeff affects the "viscosity" of the water. If you want it to act like thick oil or sludge, set it higher. Low means normal fluid. ModelDisplace is how much the water is disturbed by the player's movements. It creates a sort of "sloshing" effect. I found that unless the player moves very quickly and is deep in the water, you barely notice the slosh. MinFrameRate you can leave as is. Setting this higher will only slow down the game.

Now you need to create a PolyGridModifier object. The same thing happens when you create it, with it having
zero dimensions. It doesn't matter what size you make it, but change it so you can see the object. For the
rest of the properties: AccelAmount, NumAccelPoints, StartEnabled set to True . . . you can leave these alone. They affect how many points on the surface move. Back in the PolyGrid object in WavePropInfo, you set Modifier1 to the name you gave the PolyGridModifier object.

There, that's it for the water itself. Don't forget to put a flat brush underneath the water, or else the player will fall through it. If you want to hear water-like sounds when you walk in the pool, bind this brush to a WorldModel and set the SurfaceOverride to Liquid.

But you wanted to have the player either get health/energy or be hurt by the water, right?

Create a brush that touches the bottom of the PolyGrid object, and is the same size as the pool in terms of
height, width, and depth. Maybe even a little taller than the pool. Apply the Invisible texture to it. Now create an EnergyZone or HealthZone object. It's listed under the VolumeBrush object category. Bind the brush to the object. Make sure Visible in the object properties is False. You can change Viscosity, Friction, and Current if you want, but there's no real need. You can leave LightAdd alone as long as the brush is low enough so the player can't crouch inside it. TintColor adds a tint to your view when inside the brush. Since it's so low, there's no need to change this. Set CanPlayMovementSounds to True. Leave FogStuff, SurfaceOverride, and RayHit alone. Set SoundFilter to UnFiltered unless you want things to sound different while in the pool.

Now comes the most important field. It's either EnergyDrain or Damage. A positive number takes away health or energy. Negative values add health or energy.
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floven1
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Re: help an inexperienced mapmaker

Post by floven1 »

wow, better get to work then
thanks tronfaq
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floven1
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Re: help an inexperienced mapmaker

Post by floven1 »

okay, just letting you know I'm back to being active

the following changes are being made to my lab_area map


a rotating 0G in the antigrav chamber (in-progress, won't spin)
transparent and nonsolid "walls" on the sniper area exits (not started)
othere entrances into the side chambers (not started)
less transparency in the green chamber (not started)
more chambers (not started)
transparent out-facing sphere on the prison ball (replacing prison ball)
transparent in-facing faces on prison ball (replacing prison ball)
improvement on the teleporters (not started)
improvement on the elevators (in progress)
expansion of the lower maze (not started, might not do)
improvement of lighting (all areas) (not started)
ADDITIONAL: remove the icp's (finished)
ADDITIONAL: replacement of prison ball (in progress)
ADDITIONAL: removal of the moving storage cubes (finished)
ADDITIONAL: fix texturing issues (this should not be an additional, not started)
EDIT: problem fixed, when i reformatted my computer a few weeks ago i forgot to set the project path again :roll: figures
Last edited by floven1 on Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:30 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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floven1
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Re: help an inexperienced mapmaker

Post by floven1 »

screenshots of the improved elevator and visual cue respectively
Untitled.jpg
visual cue.jpg
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Re: help an inexperienced mapmaker

Post by deeahchur »

Any further progress here floven? Also, if you have tips and tricks, we're compiling them. I have grabbed the ones from here, and if you don't mind, I have shared the links. Please let me know if they are still active.

Also sending you a PM.
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