DM-aPortal2 [completed]

Here's a specific forum for discussing potential maps, maps that need a vacation and optimizations and modifications for better playability.
datmos
Killer in Training
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 11:00 pm

i have a question, let me see if you can answer me.

I'm trying to put on the map, a mesh with an animation (Loop). This animation does not interact with the players, only to make nice.

Well, i export the mesh and animation with 3D Max using ActorX. Then i use UCC Make, to compile it, and all good.

The problem is that when I try to open the new file (.U) with the Actor Class Browser in unrealed, this one is not listed, but if i uncheck "Placeable classes Only?" then ill see my class my i can not integrate this class on my map. I tryied to put the code: "placeable;" on my script file (.UC) the UCC Maker give me an error and not compile it.

And the question is: How i can put an animation in the map without player interact needed ?
DW_WailofSuicide
DW Clan Member
Posts: 1634
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:00 am

datmos wrote:i have a question, let me see if you can answer me.

I'm trying to put on the map, a mesh with an animation (Loop). This animation does not interact with the players, only to make nice.

Well, i export the mesh and animation with 3D Max using ActorX. Then i use UCC Make, to compile it, and all good.

The problem is that when I try to open the new file (.U) with the Actor Class Browser in unrealed, this one is not listed, but if i uncheck "Placeable classes Only?" then ill see my class my i can not integrate this class on my map. I tryied to put the code: "placeable;" on my script file (.UC) the UCC Maker give me an error and not compile it.

And the question is: How i can put an animation in the map without player interact needed ?
I'm not 100% clear what you're trying to accomplish from your description. However if you post up your code here and I'll take a look at it, and that will probably give me a better idea of what you're doing.
DW_WailofSuicide
DW Clan Member
Posts: 1634
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:00 am

Okay, some thoughts on the latest version of this map:

1. I really like the new room that you created to replace the Planetarium area. This new room fits the Portal theme a lot better, and has some interesting elements to it like the graffiti, the unfinished walls and ceiling. Big improvement here.
The floor in this room is a little boring, and if you feel like it, you might want to spend some time to try and make it more interesting by adding some slight height variation, vegetation, broken tiles, rubble, etc.

2. The connection to the new room (henceforth "Graffiti Room") is interesting. I do like how it works when you go through the doorway, and there is the panels of that wall swung outward, allowing you to access some kind of service corridor. I like how that works out. Two notes though:
(A) The corridor feels a little fake because it abruptly ends at the elevator. If there were a door, or a fenced off area but you could see the corridor continuing (just not accessible) it would feel more natural.
(B) Other issue I had is when navigating from the Graffiti Room, you must jump down onto the lift. However the lift has no delay before activating, so you are instantly moved back up. I would add .25 or .5 second delay on the lift so it doesn't immediately lift players up into the room again when they are trying to leave it.

3. Elevator seems much more usable now with shortened delay. I still am not sure about it given it is very small, but it's a big improvement over how it was. Side note here: I notice that around the elevator you have a hollow BSP cylinder with all sides set to invisible. Why do you have this BSP around the elevator?
My guess is that you are using the BSP to present the illusion that the elevator shaft is actually blocking players (I notice you have the collision on the shaft static meshes turned off). But in general it's a good idea to avoid using complex BSP whenever possible. Any BSP that has vertices off the UnrealEd grid (as cylinder brushes always will) can cause BSP issues, which can be hard to solve if you find one when you are close to the end of development and are testing and iterating on your map.* Therefore I recommend you use a blocking volume around the elevator shaft instead. A cylinder brush with OuterRadius 61, InnerRadius 60, Sides 12, and Hollow property set to true will match closely with the BSP blocking you already have. Once your brush is set up in the right location, you can add the brush as a blocking volume by right clicking the "Volume" button.

*Note that even simple brushes like many of the rectangular brushes you use to indicate "wall panels" in this map can also be problematic when rotated. So just be cautious of using brushes like that. There are definitely static meshes you could use in place of BSP for that, but it is probably pointless to go back and adjust it at this point in the map.

4. Some of the original rooms that are connected to the Graffiti room (the one with the elevator in it, and the one that connects to the elevator room via the door) -- Seem a little small. In actual play these areas might warrant a little bit more expansion, but I will hold off on recommending that until we get some playtesting going.

5. I like that you added the faith plates to the connecting area. It's cool and adds another element of fidelity to Portal. I still have problems with these jump pads. With both of them, I hit the ceiling and then fall down again unless I approach them exactly correctly. This is really an easy problem to fix and all you really need to do is make sure the ceiling is high enough that players don't bonk their heads when they hit the jumps.

6. The room with the portal gun in it is feeling a bit unpolished compared to the graffiti room now (IMO). Might be worth spending a little bit more time on there to add some more visual interest.



Okay, so that's my feedback for this version of the map. I don't have time tonight, but I was planning on doing an edit on this version of the map with some of my suggestions as well as adding in the DW Portal gun and some other things. Is that alright with you, or did you want to tackle some of my feedback and then send it back to me so I can get the Portal gun in there?
datmos
Killer in Training
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 11:00 pm

as always thank you very much Wailof :)

Ok, make your changes, add the dw portal gun, etc. .. everything you want and can.

Then I finish fixing the graffiti room, the new jumpad, and i improve the "IMO" room. And another detail.
DW_WailofSuicide wrote:*Note that even simple brushes like many of the rectangular brushes you use to indicate "wall panels" in this map can also be problematic when rotated. So just be cautious of using brushes like that. There are definitely static meshes you could use in place of BSP for that, but it is probably pointless to go back and adjust it at this point in the map.


The problem is I started the map as a complete nob, now I've learned a lot and I assure you that many things (like the elevator blobking BSP) would not do as I have.
DW_WailofSuicide wrote:4. Some of the original rooms that are connected to the Graffiti room (the one with the elevator in it, and the one that connects to the elevator room via the door) -- Seem a little small. In actual play these areas might warrant a little bit more expansion, but I will hold off on recommending that until we get some playtesting going.
Yes, they are areas where the concentration of monsters will be much smaller than in larger rooms.
So people who have a low level will be able to kill monsters with less risk, but also can die from a stone, for example.

Although the room is not being used, they must go there if they want to get the Link Gun or the Mine Layer.
DW_WailofSuicide wrote:5. I like that you added the faith plates to the connecting area. It's cool and adds another element of fidelity to Portal. I still have problems with these jump pads. With both of them, I hit the ceiling and then fall down again unless I approach them exactly correctly. This is really an easy problem to fix and all you really need to do is make sure the ceiling is high enough that players don't bonk their heads when they hit the jumps.
This attempt to fix it when you make your changes.
DW_WailofSuicide wrote:Okay, so that's my feedback for this version of the map. I don't have time tonight, but I was planning on doing an edit on this version of the map with some of my suggestions as well as adding in the DW Portal gun and some other things. Is that alright with you, or did you want to tackle some of my feedback and then send it back to me so I can get the Portal gun in there?
I think that best realizes your improvements in the map and then you send me again and I end up with the details of texture, modeling, and these details we have discussed.

If this sounds good, before i do anything, I'll be waiting for your modifications.
DW_WailofSuicide wrote:
datmos wrote:i have a question, let me see if you can answer me.

I'm trying to put on the map, a mesh with an animation (Loop). This animation does not interact with the players, only to make nice.

Well, i export the mesh and animation with 3D Max using ActorX. Then i use UCC Make, to compile it, and all good.

The problem is that when I try to open the new file (.U) with the Actor Class Browser in unrealed, this one is not listed, but if i uncheck "Placeable classes Only?" then ill see my class my i can not integrate this class on my map. I tryied to put the code: "placeable;" on my script file (.UC) the UCC Maker give me an error and not compile it.

And the question is: How i can put an animation in the map without player interact needed ?
I'm not 100% clear what you're trying to accomplish from your description. However if you post up your code here and I'll take a look at it, and that will probably give me a better idea of what you're doing.
As I have enough trouble expressing myself, I'll give you an example.

On the map called: DW-Sub-merged .... there are sharks in the sky that are moving, is a loop. I guess these sharks have been encouraged by an external program and then imported into UnrealedED and then integrated into the map to move alone.

In my case, I do not know how to integrate them into the map.

My idea is to make "crazy" mechanized arms, I mean, they are giving themselves all the time strikes against a wall or something.
And other animation, for example, from a window you can see a room (inaccessible) with GLaDOS in (moving). Or something like that.



I know your priority is not to make maps, so thank you very much for your help.

Well as I said, I'll be waiting for your changes to I make mine.

Thank you!
datmos
Killer in Training
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 11:00 pm

I forgot, the code I'm trying to add to my actor class browser to put an animation on the map, is this:

Code: Select all

//===============================================================================
//  [CuboTestCaballo] 
//===============================================================================

class CuboTestCaballo extends Actor;
	
#exec MESH  MODELIMPORT MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh MODELFILE=models\cubetest.PSK LODSTYLE=10
#exec MESH  ORIGIN MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh X=0 Y=0 Z=0 YAW=0 PITCH=0 ROLL=0
#exec ANIM  IMPORT ANIM=CuboTestCaballoAnims ANIMFILE=models\cubetestanim.PSA COMPRESS=1 MAXKEYS=999999 IMPORTSEQS=1
#exec MESHMAP   SCALE MESHMAP=CuboTestCaballoMesh X=1.0 Y=1.0 Z=1.0
#exec MESH  DEFAULTANIM MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh ANIM=CuboTestCaballoAnims

// Digest and compress the animation data. Must come after the sequence declarations.
// 'VERBOSE' gives more debugging info in UCC.log 
#exec ANIM DIGEST ANIM=CuboTestCaballoAnims USERAWINFO VERBOSE

#EXEC TEXTURE IMPORT NAME=CuboTestCaballoTex0  FILE=TEXTURES\IMG_8736.tga  GROUP=Skins
#EXEC TEXTURE IMPORT NAME=CuboTestCaballoTex1  FILE=TEXTURES\IMG_8736.tga  GROUP=Skins
#EXEC TEXTURE IMPORT NAME=CuboTestCaballoTex2  FILE=TEXTURES\IMG_8736.tga  GROUP=Skins
#EXEC TEXTURE IMPORT NAME=CuboTestCaballoTex3  FILE=TEXTURES\IMG_8736.tga  GROUP=Skins
#EXEC TEXTURE IMPORT NAME=CuboTestCaballoTex4  FILE=TEXTURES\IMG_8736.tga  GROUP=Skins
#EXEC TEXTURE IMPORT NAME=CuboTestCaballoTex5  FILE=TEXTURES\IMG_8736.tga  GROUP=Skins

#EXEC MESHMAP SETTEXTURE MESHMAP=CuboTestCaballoMesh NUM=0 TEXTURE=CuboTestCaballoTex0
#EXEC MESHMAP SETTEXTURE MESHMAP=CuboTestCaballoMesh NUM=1 TEXTURE=CuboTestCaballoTex1
#EXEC MESHMAP SETTEXTURE MESHMAP=CuboTestCaballoMesh NUM=2 TEXTURE=CuboTestCaballoTex2
#EXEC MESHMAP SETTEXTURE MESHMAP=CuboTestCaballoMesh NUM=3 TEXTURE=CuboTestCaballoTex3
#EXEC MESHMAP SETTEXTURE MESHMAP=CuboTestCaballoMesh NUM=4 TEXTURE=CuboTestCaballoTex4
#EXEC MESHMAP SETTEXTURE MESHMAP=CuboTestCaballoMesh NUM=5 TEXTURE=CuboTestCaballoTex5

// Original material [0] is [08 - Default] SkinIndex: 0 Bitmap: IMG_8736.tga  Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\CuboTestCaballo\textures
// Original material [1] is [08 - Default] SkinIndex: 0 Bitmap: IMG_8736.tga  Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\CuboTestCaballo\textures 
// Original material [2] is [08 - Default] SkinIndex: 0 Bitmap: IMG_8736.tga  Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\CuboTestCaballo\textures 
// Original material [3] is [08 - Default] SkinIndex: 0 Bitmap: IMG_8736.tga  Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\CuboTestCaballo\textures 
// Original material [4] is [08 - Default] SkinIndex: 0 Bitmap: IMG_8736.tga  Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\CuboTestCaballo\textures 
// Original material [5] is [08 - Default] SkinIndex: 0 Bitmap: IMG_8736.tga  Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\CuboTestCaballo\textures 


defaultproperties
{
    Mesh=CuboTestCaballoMesh
    DrawType=DT_Mesh
    bStatic=False
}
I know that the image is tga, etc. .. but it is only a test.
DW_WailofSuicide
DW Clan Member
Posts: 1634
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:00 am

Here's the code for the Shark actor that you mentioned.

Code: Select all

class Shark extends Decoration;

#exec TEXTURE   IMPORT      NAME=SharkTex  FILE=textures\shark.tga LODSET=3 DXT=3 MIPS=1 ALPHA=1

#exec DECAANIM  IMPORT      ANIM=SharkAnims ANIMFILE=models\shark.PSA COMPRESS=1
#exec DECAANIM  DIGEST      ANIM=SharkAnims VERBOSE USERAWINFO

#exec DECAMESH  MODELIMPORT MESH=SharkMesh MODELFILE=models\shark.PSK
#exec DECAMESH  ORIGIN      MESH=SharkMesh X=0 Y=0 Z=0 YAW=0 PITCH=0 ROLL=0
#exec DECAMESH  SCALE       MESH=SharkMesh X=1.0 Y=1.0 Z=1.0
#exec DECAMESH  DEFAULTANIM MESH=SharkMesh ANIM=SharkAnims
#exec DECAMESH  SETTEXTURE  MESH=SharkMesh NUM=0 TEXTURE=SharkTex

simulated function PostBeginPlay()
{
    LoopAnim('path');
    Super.PostBeginPlay();
}

defaultproperties
{
     bStatic=False
     bNoDelete=True
     Mesh=SkeletalMesh'XEffects.SharkMesh'
     Skins(0)=FinalBlend'XEffects.Shark.SharkFB'
     bShouldBaseAtStartup=False
     CollisionRadius=0.000000
     CollisionHeight=0.000000
}
So it should be pretty simple to set up your animated mesh. You simply want to create a skeletal mesh with a certain animation, and then in PostBeginPlay you can set that animation to loop.
You could also do something where the animation was played every X seconds based on a timer, or other more complicated setups, but I'd start with the easiest one first.
datmos
Killer in Training
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 11:00 pm

Hey!

Thanks for the code.

Now i can see my file in the Actor Class Browser, adn i can add it to the map. The mesh and the texture appers correcly, but the animation no.

No anamiation is played.

There is the code im using:

Code: Select all

class CuboTestCaballo extends Decoration;

#exec TEXTURE   IMPORT      NAME=CuboTestCaballo  FILE=textures\IMG_8736.tga LODSET=3 DXT=3 MIPS=1 ALPHA=1

#exec DECAANIM  IMPORT      ANIM=CuboTestCaballoAnims ANIMFILE=models\cubetestanim.PSA COMPRESS=1
#exec DECAANIM  DIGEST      ANIM=CuboTestCaballoAnims VERBOSE USERAWINFO

#exec DECAMESH  MODELIMPORT MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh MODELFILE=models\cubetest.PSK
#exec DECAMESH  ORIGIN      MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh X=0 Y=0 Z=0 YAW=0 PITCH=0 ROLL=0
#exec DECAMESH  SCALE       MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh X=1.0 Y=1.0 Z=1.0
#exec DECAMESH  DEFAULTANIM MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh ANIM=CuboTestCaballoAnims
#exec DECAMESH  SETTEXTURE  MESH=CuboTestCaballoMesh NUM=0 TEXTURE=CuboTestCaballo

simulated function PostBeginPlay()
{
    LoopAnim('CuboTestCaballoAnims');
    Super.PostBeginPlay();
}

defaultproperties
{
     bStatic=False
     bNoDelete=True
     Mesh=SkeletalMesh'CuboTestCaballo.CuboTestCaballoMesh'
     Skins(0)=FinalBlend'CuboTestCaballo.Cubo.IMG_8736'

     bShouldBaseAtStartup=False
     CollisionRadius=0.000000
     CollisionHeight=0.000000
}
You are going to do your changes on the map soon ? or you prefer that i do my changes first ?
DW_WailofSuicide
DW Clan Member
Posts: 1634
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:00 am

datmos wrote: You are going to do your changes on the map soon ? or you prefer that i do my changes first ?
I am working on it currently.


As for the animation thing ... Does your mesh animate properly when you view it in the animation browser?
datmos
Killer in Training
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 11:00 pm

DW_WailofSuicide wrote:
datmos wrote: You are going to do your changes on the map soon ? or you prefer that i do my changes first ?
I am working on it currently.


As for the animation thing ... Does your mesh animate properly when you view it in the animation browser?
yes the animations goes perfect, its rare, maybe when u finish want to try it, I have not got many options to try, as my level of programming is minimal.

Thx
DW_WailofSuicide
DW Clan Member
Posts: 1634
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:00 am

Hey Datmos,

Did many changes to your map. Most of the things that I mentioned in my last post, plus some other things. Probably the biggest notable change is restructuring the walking/jumppad path to the top of the level. I did this to try and keep the level's theme more consistent with the way spaces are designed in Portal -- You can go back to how you had it if you like, I just wanted that section to fit in more with the architectural style.

Two things I know I didn't complete 100%:

-The jump pads: You can still hit your head on the ceiling from the first two, although the problem isn't as bad. The ceiling should be raised a little bit though so it doesn't happen. The last jump pad needs the JumpZ modifier increased.
-The posters on the walls: I replaced most of these with static mesh versions of the posters (Which is ideally how this sort of wall decoration ought to work), but I didn't do all of them.

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