The Forge - News

July 11th, 1998

Sin Scripting [4:00pm PDT]
Hot damn! If you haven't checked out the Sin scripting demo...um...go to it!!

Watching the mpeg gave me that warm fuzzy feeling (hehe) as well as a few questions to wonder about. I dropped Charlie Weiderhold an email filled with praise, wonder, and a few questions. Here's the responses. :)

> // Bind all of Danny's parts together into one unit
> $danny_arm1 bind $danny_base
> $danny_arm2 bind $danny_arm1
> ...
>
> 1. does the above bind the parts so that, say, if $danny_arm2 moves up, it
> lifts $danny_arm1 (without the mapper needing to instruct _arm1 to do
> anything)?

Exactly. That's what is nice about binding. Thus, when I tell the main body parts of Danny to rotate up (just like they would in real life) they push up the head and even the box if it has it in it's arms. This way you can create pretty damn realistic machines, etc. It's also how we manage to make other things that you wouldn't suspect needed binding to work, like binding an object to several origins so that you can rotate all the origins in different ways and they all affect the object directly. This allows you to make things look like they have real physics, and all kinds of other wacky stuff.

[onethumb pointed out that this can be simply described as "hierarchal binding"]

> 2. is the scripting capable of modifying specific model properties?
> something like:
>
> renderfx(rendermode, rendervalue, modelname)

Not that I am aware of. You can move models around, etc but you can't really directly affect them. You can, however affect translucense, turbulence, translation, etc on surfaces of the world.

> 3. error checking was mentioned ... is this part of the game engine, or the
> editor? (or does that really matter?)

Ahh, when I mentioned error checking in the script I meant stuff like the robot knowing that a slot was full if you tried to put a box in that slot, input error checking (within valid ranges), etc. Sin does parse the script when you start a map and gives you line numbers along with the proper error message if there is something synactically wrong with the script. Very *very* handy.

> 4. how is the script called from within the map code / game, and how many
> scripts are possible per level?

You have one script that is the same name as your level and it will automatically use that script. You can have threads in other script files that you call from that script, so technically you can have as many scripts as you wish. This isn't something that has been used in Sin because we got it too late, but for mods where everyone wants the fans to act exactly the same, etc, they can write one script function (thread) that controls the fans and then everyone calls that thread from then on. Wish we had it sooner!!! :)

Cool Stuff of the week (or so)[4:00pm PDT]
Here's the things i've been digging lately.

the Sin scripting demo (see below)
Windows98 (yeah baby, yeah!)
quad grande mocha - starbucks is the shiznit mang...i was buzzing for hours
wearing a Starbucks shirt to a Starbucks store and getting a staff discount (w00p!)
barq's (the one with the !@$# bite baby, yeah!)
Austin Powers (watch it once a week, its good, and it fights cavities)

-autolycus

July 9th, 1998

shareware debate resolved [11:30am PDT]
Ok, that's alright, take a couple deep breaths and read the following (borrowed from worldcraft.com - thanks Brian!)

I have been hiding a big secret from you all for the while. There has been a version of Worldcraft 1.6a in development. In between working on Half Life, Valve has provided us with a Shareware version of Worldcraft 1.6a! This version is going to be an exclusive feature for PC Accelerator Magazine. It will be on a CD published with the September version of this magazine that will be on the streets mid-august I have been told. When I get a specific date I will update again :) I urge everyone out there to buy a copy of this magazine! Get one even if you have the full registered version. Show them just how much Worldcraft kicks ass! :)

Once PC Accelerator has released the file, it will then be distributed to the other magazines and then I will post it on the internet for everyone to download. This is for all of you who have been waiting and hoping for the 1.6a. I told you Valve loves us :)

Woohoo! I've been waiting for a while to make that news public! For those that have been waiting for a shareware version to try out, i'm sure you'll be happy with it. You can be sure that as soon as it is publicly available, it'll be here, and there, and everywhere, or something.

-autolycus

July 8th, 1998

Oh hey... [7:20pm PDT]
By the way, send any bug reports and feature requests for FGD++ to Cray. I'm sure he'll appreciate that. :)

FGD++ 1.0 beta [5:00pm PDT]
Chris "Cray" McArthur has created a development studio for designing FGDs (Worldcraft entity data files). This program allows quick and easy creation of FGDs and should be especially useful for mod and TC creators. Support for Quake II specific things is also included (color picker! woohoo!)

Current features include:
a normal full-featured text editing area
an entity creation "wizard" that automates the entity creation process
a variable creation "wizard" which makes adding entity variables (keys) extremely easy
an error checker

Future features:
syntax highlighting
undo

FGD++ 1.0 beta available at http://www.3dpalette.com/cray/

-autolycus

July 6th, 1998

Worldcraft 2.0 Suggestions [10:10am PDT]
Ok, I posted what may be the last (?) set of suggestions for Worldcraft 2.0. As it is, there's a just a Whole Lot(tm) of suggestions already. There's no way they'll all make it into 2.0. However, there's a bunch of really good things there, and i'm sure Valve will find it useful for gauging the community's wants.

MupMapMod FGD [9:20am PDT]
Keith Behrendt sent in an fgd for the MupMapMod. Please direct all questions about it to him. The FGD can be found in the Files section.

New Prefabs [9:10am PDT]
Two new prefabs are in the prefab section. Jeff Kieke sent in a set of Quake II hallway prefabs, and a small collection of Quake II rock formations.

Tetrisn't [9:00am PDT]
Wow, the responses I got about the level were from people who actually liked it. You wackos!! :) Ok, I'll pursue the idea, with a few new twists. Hopefully I should have a real version sometime soon.

Let's play catch-up [8:45am PDT]
Ok, here's a bunch of stuff I missed or was emailed to me while I was away.

Wally 1.10
There's a new version of Wally (duh, 1.10) out at the Wally homepage. You probably already know that this is the Quake II .wal editor that freshens your breath while it brightens your teeth.

The Western Quake 2 Western Quake 2 Pack Western Thingy
Phil Daniels sent me an interesting bit about the Western pack for Quake 2, called "Wanted! The Quake 2 Western Pack" (heh, well, what did you expect it to be called? :)

The soon to be released Western pack for Quake 2, called "Wanted! The Quake 2 Western Pack" has a competition for budding level designers. Not only do you get to win a free copy of the product upon its release but your level also features within Wanted and recieves International attention. A basic map file is supplied for entrants to complete together with textures and instructions...so head on over to http://www.albatross.co.uk/~maverick/ and getting busy.

etc....
Er, you all read Blue's News right? So there's probably no point in rehashing everything he's mentioned about editing in the last week? Ok, I thought so. :)

-autolycus

July 5th, 1998

I'm Baaaaa-aaaack [6:00pm PDT]
Ahhhhhhh...I can't say how nice it was to get away from work stuff for week. I had five minutes with a net connection over the last week, and I used that to check Blue's. Of course. :) Had a kickass time in Victoria and Vancouver.

I have a ton of email to sort through, most of which is for Worldcraft 2.0 suggestions. I'll have an update ready for tomorrow morning. It seems that nothing much new is being suggested, so I will probably soon stop posting updates to the suggestion page. The list is pretty big anyway, and should be helpful for showing Valve what people are looking for.

The FGD Wizard, you ask...? Should be something to show on wednesday. It is sounding very cool.

-autolycus

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