A few questions (water & singleplayer menus)

[Botolf]

So ya, playing around with a single player map, and I have two questions as of right now.

1. I added a water plane, and the water along the edges appear, but a "fuzzy spot of nothing" is in the middle of the plane. What do I need to do to get mah waterz back?

2. The menu that appears when you press Escape, how does one get it to work on a custom SP mission? (At the moment, I have to Alt + F4 just to exit or end the mission :()

[Tweek]

1. you loaded the death island/silent cartographer water shader.
it's got an alphamap for opacity

2. it should work standard as far as i know.
maybe you fucked your globals

[Botolf]

EDIT: Figured out what needs changing on the water shader.

Wouldn't messing up my globals affect other maps as well? This is the first time this has occurred, Escape works fine on other custom maps. Do I need to have at least checkpoint set up or something? (Wildly guessing here :p)

[Roostervier]

Simply remove the opacity map or make one that is all white, for the water shader.

[Botolf]

Thanks for the advice, rooster :)

[Rob Oplawar]

Are you sure you don't have any cinematic options on? I don't think this specifically is your problem since you'd be able to see, but for example if you have a (cinematic_start) without a (cinematic_stop) you can't go into the menu. There are probably other scripts that are less obvious that do the same thing- check on that.

[Botolf]

I don't have any scripts running or anything, haven't yet gotten to them.

[p0lar_bear]

First, you are compiling the scnr as a solo type, right?

If you are, can you post the debug.txt entry from the last time you compiled your map?

[Botolf]

Yes indeedy.


12.11.07 17:37:29 tool pc 01.00.00.0609 ----------------------------------------------
12.11.07 17:37:29 reference function: _write_to_error_file
12.11.07 17:37:29 reference address: 42ca20
12.11.07 17:37:29 Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
12.11.07 17:37:29 file_open('tags\ui\ui_tags_loaded_solo_scenario_ty pe.tag_collection') error 0x00000002 'The system cannot find the file specified. '
12.11.07 17:37:29 couldn't open tag_collection tag 'ui_tags_loaded_solo_scenario_type.tag_collection' .
12.11.07 17:37:29 failed to load ui tags tied to solo scenarios
12.11.07 17:37:29 WARNING: 1 clusters in structure_bsp levels\m1\m1 have no background sound or sound environment.

[Timo]

By the look of it you don't have any of the single player UI widget tags. Extracting the UI folder from one of the halo PC single player maps should fix it.

[Botolf]

Ok, I shall do that, and report my success.

EDIT: Success! Thanks Timo :)

[Botolf]

Ok, I have another question, this time modeling related.

I have two tunnel segment pieces that I want to join, one is straight, while the other has been rotated at 45 degrees (in this shape, sort of _/).

How do I go about getting the corner edge of the rotated piece to line up with the edge of the straight piece perfectly (so as to to weld them together and fill in gaps without getting awful looking faces)? I'm not sure what tools or method would get me the outcome I'm looking for, and it truly irks me to "feel" for the result.

[Hickle Stine]

Direct answer to your question:
1. copy and paste vertice or edge locations so they are in the same play.
2. OR use 'target weld' (only in Edit Poly mode)

But i would suggest this:
Make sure there is a poly at the end of each of the tunnels...hard to explain. like a wall at the end of each of the tunnels, select it (on both of them) and hit the 'bridge' button. This button is only there if you are in Edit Poly mode however.

hope some of this helped...post a pic if you're still stumped as im not exactly sure what ur situation is

[Botolf]

For 1 or 2, that's what I could do, but to keep everything perfectly in the proper shape, I'd have to start moving edges or verts around, figuring out how much it moved along the axises when the edges intersected perfectly, then move everything else by the same amount. It's not technically difficult, but it's tedious :mad:


And for Bridge, wouldn't I still have to have the tunnels lined up in some way or another to avoid getting crappy-looking faces? (ie bends and twisting where there shouldn't be any)

Ok, here's what I'm looking to achieve, but I'm not content to eyeball it.
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/2189/tunnelsectionsvy3.jpg

[Rob Oplawar]

well, you could use the slice plane tool- select all the faces of the tunnel and click the slice plane button, then orient it to be at 22.5 degrees and position it where you want, click slice, and delete the wedge of tunnel you just chopped off. It would be easier to do if you made the two pieces of tunnel to be separate objects.

Or if you made the angled bit of the tunnel a separate object and then rotated it to that 45 degree position, you could move the vertices in its local coordinate system until they lined up with the other tunnel.

[Botolf]

well, you could use the slice plane tool- select all the faces of the tunnel and click the slice plane button, then orient it to be at 22.5 degrees and position it where you want, click slice, and delete the wedge of tunnel you just chopped off. It would be easier to do if you made the two pieces of tunnel to be separate objects.
Not sure I quite follow, but I'll try your second solution first, seems to be a bit more simple.


Or if you made the angled bit of the tunnel a separate object and then rotated it to that 45 degree position, you could move the vertices in its local coordinate system until they lined up with the other tunnel.
It's a separate element. I would move the verts locally by bringing up whatever that window is? (the one that comes up on a right click on the move tool)

[Botolf]

K, figured out what had to be done to line everything up perfectly (Kind of obvious, too :p).

Anyways, I have a few more questions that I might as well ask now while they're on my mind.

1. User Interface: How would I go about hiding many or all of the user interface elements during gameplay? (It's an idea I've been thinking over, it could potentially make everything more natural and less tethered to standard game conventions. )

2. User Interface & Player View: What kind of effects can be applied to the player's UI and vision in-game? (as examples: Blurriness at times, changes in colour, shaking, etc)

3. Chapter Names: How do I go about triggering chapter titles? (I'm guessing this is scripted in?)

4. Scripting: What are some really good and in-depth tutorials that go into the area of scripting? I'm leaning towards making some kind of single player level(s), so this would be very useful.

[Botolf]

Bump in the hopes somebody will see this and respond.

[Jay2645]

K, figured out what had to be done to line everything up perfectly (Kind of obvious, too :p).

Anyways, I have a few more questions that I might as well ask now while they're on my mind.

1. User Interface: How would I go about hiding many or all of the user interface elements during gameplay? (It's an idea I've been thinking over, it could potentially make everything more natural and less tethered to standard game conventions. ) Scripting commands, check the Scripting Bible.

2. User Interface & Player View: What kind of effects can be applied to the player's UI and vision in-game? (as examples: Blurriness at times, changes in colour, shaking, etc) Again, check the hs_doc.

3. Chapter Names: How do I go about triggering chapter titles? (I'm guessing this is scripted in?) Wait, do you even know HOW to script?

4. Scripting: What are some really good and in-depth tutorials that go into the area of scripting? I'm leaning towards making some kind of single player level(s), so this would be very useful. Oh. On Halomaps, Kirby made a scripting tutorial, the hs_doc is included and it covers basic scripting. You need to know how to make things happen in MP before you can tackle SP. I'll dig it up.
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=3&fid=2879

[Botolf]

I've been toying with mp maps for a while now, so I have the basics down. Thanks for the response, by the way :)

[Jay2645]

I've been toying with mp maps for a while now, so I have the basics down. Thanks for the response, by the way :)
No problem.
Also, look at the Bungie SP maps in Sapien, I'm assuming you saw them already. Use those as a base for Sapien work on your SP levels.

[Botolf]

No problem.
Also, look at the Bungie SP maps in Sapien, I'm assuming you saw them already. Use those as a base for Sapien work on your SP levels.
Ok, I'll keep that in mind :)

[Botolf]

Ok, people being pushy to get me off the PC, so no time atm to test out this script, but at least I can post it here for you guys to see if I screwed anything up.


(script startup noUI
(set m1_title "Smoke and Embers")
(cinematic_set_title_delayed m1_title 5.0)
(hud_show_health false)
(hud_show_shield false)
(hud_show_motion_sensor false)
)

Oh, and I can't get Kornman's Guerilla to open any tags, I just get an error message, any help with this would be appreciated also:

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4817/kornmanguerillaerrormesaw1.jpg

[CtrlAltDestroy]

1. Don't bother with Kornman v2 for non-widget editing purposes.
2. Cinematic titles are not strings.

[Timo]

Shaky screen is something along the lines of:


(script static void player_effect_impact
(player_effect_set_max_translation 5.0 5.0 7.5)
(player_effect_set_max_translation 0 0 0)
(player_effect_set_max_rumble 0.4 1)
(player_effect_start (real_random_range 0.69 .89) 0.1)
I'm not sure how it works.


Blurriness/Random cinematic crap:
Note that you'll need to start either of the following with: Cinematic_screen_effect_start 1
Cinematic_screen_effect_set_convultion <Intensity> <Type> <Starting level> <Ending Level> <Speed>
For Example:'cinematic_screen_effect_set_convultion 1 1 50 0 3'
will give you something like this initially:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode%20commands/devmode038.jpg
then fade out to normal. Other 'types': 2 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode%20commands/devmode039.jpg), 3 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode%20commands/devmode040.jpg)

The whole Jenkins is from 343 guilty spark video camera overlay (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode%20commands/devmode036.jpg) is: Cinematic_screen_effect_set_video 1 <#>, in the place of # can be 0 or 1, which turns noise on and off.

There are also a couple more cinematic commands (cinematic_screen_effect_set_filter and cinematic_screen_effect_set_filter_desaturation_ti nt) , but I can never get them to work. If you're really keen to get them going, they might be in some of the campaign scripts CtrlAltDestroy posted in the release section.

[Jay2645]

OK, say a building just blew up next to you. You recover, but you're dazed. Would this script be able to simulate that, by shaking the screen, making it go white for 2 seconds, then, your vision clears, everything's blurry, you blink a couple times slowly, and then your vision clears up again?

(script static "void" building_detonation
(show_hud false)
(player_enable_input false)
(player_effect_set_max_translation 5.0 5.0 7.5)
(player_effect_set_max_translation 0 0 0)
(player_effect_set_max_rumble 0.4 1)
(player_effect_start (real_random_range 0.69 .89) 0.1)
(fade_in 255 255 255 1)
(sleep 60)
(player_effect_stop 1)
(fade_in 255 255 255 0)
(Cinematic_screen_effect_start 1)
(cinematic_screen_effect_set_convultion 1 1 50 0 3)
(sleep 45)
(cinematic_screen_effect_stop)
(fade_in 0 0 0 1)
(sleep 30)
(fade_in 0 0 0 0)
(sleep 30)
(fade_in 0 0 0 1)
(sleep 30)
(fade_in 0 0 0 0)
(show_hud true)
(player_enable_input true)
)

[Botolf]

1. Don't bother with Kornman v2 for non-widget editing purposes.
2. Cinematic titles are not strings.
1. KK, I have alternate instructions for adding scripts, so that works.

2. EDIT: Ok, I found a section for cutscene titles in my scenario tag, but still don't know how to define the title that appears.


Shaky screen is something along the lines of:


(script static void player_effect_impact
(player_effect_set_max_translation 5.0 5.0 7.5)
(player_effect_set_max_translation 0 0 0)
(player_effect_set_max_rumble 0.4 1)
(player_effect_start (real_random_range 0.69 .89) 0.1)I'm not sure how it works.


Blurriness/Random cinematic crap:
Note that you'll need to start either of the following with: Cinematic_screen_effect_start 1
Cinematic_screen_effect_set_convultion <Intensity> <Type> <Starting level> <Ending Level> <Speed>
For Example:'cinematic_screen_effect_set_convultion 1 1 50 0 3'
will give you something like this initially:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode&#37;20commands/devmode038.jpg
then fade out to normal. Other 'types': 2 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode%20commands/devmode039.jpg), 3 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode%20commands/devmode040.jpg)

The whole Jenkins is from 343 guilty spark video camera overlay (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/Timo12/devmode%20commands/devmode036.jpg) is: Cinematic_screen_effect_set_video 1 <#>, in the place of # can be 0 or 1, which turns noise on and off.

There are also a couple more cinematic commands (cinematic_screen_effect_set_filter and cinematic_screen_effect_set_filter_desaturation_ti nt) , but I can never get them to work. If you're really keen to get them going, they might be in some of the campaign scripts CtrlAltDestroy posted in the release section.
Ah, thanks a lot Timo, this will be more than helpful :D

[Timo]

OK, say a building just blew up next to you. You recover, but you're dazed. Would this script be able to simulate that, by shaking the screen, making it go white for 2 seconds, then, your vision clears, everything's blurry, you blink a couple times slowly, and then your vision clears up again?

(script static "void" building_detonation
(show_hud false)
(player_enable_input false)
(player_effect_set_max_translation 5.0 5.0 7.5)
(player_effect_set_max_translation 0 0 0)
(player_effect_set_max_rumble 0.4 1)
(player_effect_start (real_random_range 0.69 .89) 0.1)
(fade_in 255 255 255 1)
(sleep 60)
(player_effect_stop 1)
(fade_in 255 255 255 0)
(Cinematic_screen_effect_start 1)
(cinematic_screen_effect_set_convultion 1 1 50 0 3)
(sleep 45)
(cinematic_screen_effect_stop)
(fade_in 0 0 0 1)
(sleep 30)
(fade_in 0 0 0 0)
(sleep 30)
(fade_in 0 0 0 1)
(sleep 30)
(fade_in 0 0 0 0)
(show_hud true)
(player_enable_input true)
)


In my opinion you'd be better off having that convulsion effect's type set to two so it's blurred, and have it slowly come out as the fade in/out command happen.

[Botolf]

Ugh, for the life of me I can't figure these titles out.


(script startup noUI
(hud_show_health false)
(hud_show_shield false)
(hud_show_motion_sensor false)
(hud_show_crosshair false)
(cinematic_set_title_delayed Smoke_and_Embers 5)
)

This throws up missing bracket and improper cinematic title warnings. Urgh, what am I doing wrong? What do I do to fix it?

[Timo]

Use show_hud 0 to get rid of everything, and try cinematic_set_title <string/name> for the title.

[Timo]

http://hce.halomaps.org/?pg=3&fid=1257 - Great tutorial for making cutscenes. Skip to ~4:00 for a basic script, and how to set up chapter titles.

[Botolf]

Thanks, Timo, the tut told me exactly what I needed to know :)

[Jay2645]

In my opinion you'd be better off having that convulsion effect's type set to two so it's blurred, and have it slowly come out as the fade in/out command happen.
Hmm... Good idea.

[Botolf]

So, I've been thinking of ways to completely hide the HUD for immersiveness, but without sabotaging gameplay. What I'm thinking of doing is a good compromise, UI elements only appear when they're actually needed, and disappear whenever they aren't. So:

Gun reticle: Appears when it moves over an enemy (I'm guessing there's some way to do this, reverse-engineering of the normalblue-enemyred property maybe?)

Ammo Counter: Appears when ammunition starts depleting or you pick up ammo, and disappears after a few seconds without action.

Grenade Counter: Appears when you switch grenade types, throw a grenade, or pick up grenades, and disappears after a few seconds without action.

Shield Bar: Appears when your shields deplete to half or so, and disappears after a few seconds or when the bar is fully charged.

Motion Tracker: N/A, plan on hiding this constantly

So, is all of this possible? If so, how exactly?

[Timo]

I'm sure you can there's a tag where you can change the colour of the reticle when it's not targeting an enemy - maybe you can set the alpha to 0? There's a command to get the motion tracker to go, i'm too sure that the rest will work.

[Botolf]

Thanks, I'll look into that :)

[Botolf]

Crosshair troubles.

Ok, I think I found the tag and parameters to change it, but none of my changes affected anything in-game (I took out the crosshair bitmap to make sure, and indeed, nothing changed afterward). So is there anything I have to compile or anything to make things change? (I copied several AR tags over and edited them)

[Botolf]

Bump for great justice and assistance.

[Botolf]

Hate to be bumping this again, but this thread is being buried under a mountain of others.

Assistance plox :saddowns:

[Sel]

Assistance plox :saddowns:

Assisted by bringing back to top :D

[Botolf]

Yey! Come on people, odds are poor I'll figure this out on my own :saddowns: