Dedit, Map Making Q's

[TronFAQ]

Ah, crap. I was wrong to suggest DVD Shrink. Mea cupla. It's been so long since I last used it. I should have tried it myself before saying anything. You can't leave out the video portion when ripping. Which means the files won't load into Audacity or any other audio editor. At least, not without extra work and hassle.

Follow deeahchur's advice and use SmartRipper instead. It allows you to rip just the audio.

DVD Shrink would have been nice because it's really easy to use and it lets you pick and choose what parts of the DVD you want to rip. But since you can't just rip the audio, forget it.


As for putting music in the game, doing it through the WorldProperties object is somewhat difficult. It's an interactive form of music that requires a special tool to create (DirectMusic Producer), where you break up the track into pieces.

It's far easier just to create a .WAV and have it play in a SoundFX object at the center of the map, with a radius big enough for the blue circle to surround the entire map, and set Ambient to True.

[deeahchur]

Yeah. Figured that would be the case with the worldproperties. That was going to be my default method.

Currently, however, trying to select ANY music or sound file, I receive an error with trying to select it in the world.

I thought it might be the way the .wav was created, so I tried to select one of the default sound files, but I receive the same error when browsing to the file.

EDIT:

Code: Select all

Error: The file that you picked is not in the resource path for this project.

[TronFAQ]

I tried various things, but was unable to reproduce that error unless I tried to open a sound file that was not copied into the Game folder first. I was always able to open a default extracted game file.

Perhaps you made a backup of your existing Game folder and are opening a copy of a default sound file, rather than an original? And forgot to browse back to the original folder?

Other than that, the only thing I can suggest is: with DEdit not running, delete your TRON.DEP and TRON.LYT files in the Game folder. Create a blank text file and rename it to TRON.DEP. Then start up DEdit, open a project, and browse to the new TRON.DEP you created. You will have to reload your map again.

Maybe that will help?

[HangmanEXE]

Got a good Q for ya this time.

How would you you go about altering a Sky prefab... say MO1's-SKY01C00 prefab so that it DOSE NOT show the sky on the bottom as well as top? ....or at the very least alter the bottom half to be a single solid color instead?

Is this even possible?

[xistence]

As it is prefab: sure you can alter it. The more intresting question is, how to work with skypointers, in case you need to change more then just a simple texture. For the rest, you just need to disconnect the prefab, modify it, then select that stuff, and save as new prefab (or in case you want to change the origin one, just open the prefab as world, modify it, save it)

[deeahchur]

Perhaps you made a backup of your existing Game folder and are opening a copy of a default sound file, rather than an original? And forgot to browse back to the original folder?

You would be correct in half of this. Way back I made a backup of the extracted files, to save time with loading onto a new machine. All the files are otherwise in the same directories and location, just on a different computer.

Other than that, the only thing I can suggest is: with DEdit not running, delete your TRON.DEP and TRON.LYT files in the Game folder. Create a blank text file and rename it to TRON.DEP. Then start up DEdit, open a project, and browse to the new TRON.DEP you created. You will have to reload your map again.

Maybe that will help?

I will try this method. That should force a new folder inside musicto be recognized, yes?

If it doesn't work, there's no harm in a reinstallation. Might be a good idea, anyway.

On a side note, I was able to make a copy on an external drive to make more or less portable. I can still open DEdit, but due to this issue, obviously I can not complete certain tasks, and unless the game itself is installed on the system the external is connected to, I can not run a world to test it. No biggie, just an inconvenience.

[HangmanEXE]

As it is prefab: sure you can alter it. The more intresting question is, how to work with skypointers, in case you need to change more then just a simple texture. For the rest, you just need to disconnect the prefab, modify it, then select that stuff, and save as new prefab (or in case you want to change the origin one, just open the prefab as world, modify it, save it)

Skypointers? [scratches head]... uh, thats complety new to me, I dont even think that I can recall seeing anything anywhere about those on the documentations I have... well the ones I have gotten thru completely so far anyway.

Any chance that you could help me out there with what they are an some info on them, X?

[xistence]

A skybox is rendered in a special way, as all sky elements needs to be rendered in a different order (so that they appear behind default map geometry, etc.). SkyPointers are a special sort of objects, which contain information about which object should be treatened as 'sky object', and how.
First important fact: skypointer can only point to other objects, never brushes.
Second fact: if there are many skypointers, you need to define an 'order', done by setting an 'index', which is a property of the SkyPointer-object. These order is needed to define the render order of these objects (which is drawn first, which afterwards, and so on).
Third fact: lightning can be tricky there as the light object should be part of the same object, where a skypointer is pointing at.

As example:
You would set up a worldmodel, as it is an object. Under it you can put some brushes and, as example, a light-object.
Then place a skypointer, and tell it to use the worldmodel as sky object via the porperty 'SkyObjectName', then define an index. After that you can define more of these models/objects with a corresponding skypointer each.

Skys can be tricky, so try to disconnect a prefab, play around with its objects and the settings of the skypointers, to get an imagination how they work, this short overview might be a bit 'massive'.

[TronFAQ]

@deeahchur: If you're having the problem on the portable version of the tools that you created, then the trouble you're experiencing is understandable. DEdit needs access to the registry, to store the project directory. If your sysadmin at work is blocking write privileges to the registry, you'll continually have problems like this. Though, again, perhaps deleting those files I mentioned may help.

If you're having this trouble at home on your originally installed tools, then I'm a bit at a loss as to what caused it. Though the same file deletion suggestion may cure it.


@Hangman: The SKY05C prefab is probably not a good candidate for what you're after, so I'd suggest modifying SKY01C instead. Same as before: after loading the prefab, right-click it in the Nodes pane and select Disconnect Prefab to break it down.

Now, here's the catch. The author of this sky prefab chose to make parts of it hidden. (Hidden in DEdit itself, as opposed to hidden when you play the map). After breaking it down, right click SKY01C again and choose Unhide All Nodes. Now you will be able to see and modify all the parts of it.

Then, it could just be as simple as retexturing the bottom cloud layer and floor/ground.

But, you might need to mess with the lighting. Or SkyPointers, which X explained already.

[deeahchur]

@deeahchur: If you're having the problem on the portable version of the tools that you created, then the trouble you're experiencing is understandable. DEdit needs access to the registry, to store the project directory. If your sysadmin at work is blocking write privileges to the registry, you'll continually have problems like this. Though, again, perhaps deleting those files I mentioned may help.

If you're having this trouble at home on your originally installed tools, then I'm a bit at a loss as to what caused it. Though the same file deletion suggestion may cure it.

FAQ, I receive this error on my home computer, but I did copy and paste the tools into the directory instead of extracting through normal channels. I'll still see what happens when I delete the indicated files. We'll see what happens. I expect to have to reinstall the tools properly. No worries, just an inconvenience.

Now, here's the catch. The author of this sky prefab chose to make parts of it hidden. (Hidden in DEdit itself, as opposed to hidden when you play the map). After breaking it down, right click SKY01C again and choose Unhide All Nodes. Now you will be able to see and modify all the parts of it.

Related to this, I figured out why the sky wasn't loading that one night. I still had checksboxes filled to not process hidden geometry and objects. I normally had those checked for testing purposes for my other maps, which had no skyboxes and just architecture I was working with. That issue has since been corrected, and I now keep a skybox and process only maps without my hidden objects.

[deeahchur]

with DEdit not running, delete your TRON.DEP and TRON.LYT files in the Game folder. Create a blank text file and rename it to TRON.DEP. Then start up DEdit, open a project, and browse to the new TRON.DEP you created. You will have to reload your map again.

Maybe that will help?

Doing this I was at least able to nav and select the music files I wanted.

Still can't get them to play, tho.

May have to fiddle with it a little more.

Still . . . progress is progress!

[TronFAQ]

Are you saying you can't listen to a preview of the files in DEdit? Or you don't hear anything when you play the map?

Playing the map: as long as it's a default sound file in the SoundFX object, StartOn is True, the Inner and Outer Radius are both the same (and big enough to surround the map), Ambient is True, and Loop is True, it should be working.

[deeahchur]

Are you saying you can't listen to a preview of the files in DEdit? Or you don't hear anything when you play the map?

Playing the map: as long as it's a default sound file in the SoundFX object, StartOn is True, the Inner and Outer Radius are both the same (and big enough to surround the map), Ambient is True, and Loop is True, it should be working.

I removed the original music cue txt link in Worldproperties, added SoundFX and navigated to Game/MUSIC/EVOLUTION/ and selected a .wav music file. Set Inner and Outer radius to encompass the geometry upon which a player can navigate. processed the world and made a copy of the directory to Custom/MUSIC/EVOLUTON. See image below for configurations.

http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/yy17 ... laying.png

I hear basic sound effects, such as "Game Begin!", running on surfaces sounds and voices from AI, just no BG music anymore and nothing from the newly selected track. Does the .wav have to be processed or imported a certain way?

[TronFAQ]

I hear basic sound effects, such as "Game Begin!", running on surfaces sounds and voices from AI, just no BG music anymore and nothing from the newly selected track. Does the .wav have to be processed or imported a certain way?

Yes, I think it's because of the exact format the sound has been encoded in. The sound/music from Evolution is encoded at 48 KHz and I don't think Tron 2.0 likes that. You'll probably need to reduce the .WAV to at least 44 KHz.

Unforunately, Tron 2.0 is very picky/flaky when it comes to sound files. If they're not encoded exactly right, you won't hear them even if everything else has been done correctly.

[deeahchur]

I hear basic sound effects, such as "Game Begin!", running on surfaces sounds and voices from AI, just no BG music anymore and nothing from the newly selected track. Does the .wav have to be processed or imported a certain way?

Yes, I think it's because of the exact format the sound has been encoded in. The sound/music from Evolution is encoded at 48 KHz and I don't think Tron 2.0 likes that. You'll probably need to reduce the .WAV to at least 44 KHz.

Unforunately, Tron 2.0 is very picky/flaky when it comes to sound files. If they're not encoded exactly right, you won't hear them even if everything else has been done correctly.

Had a feeling that might be the case. I'll deal with that later, then, unless someone decides to convert the music in the meantime.