READ THIS BEFORE POSTING - CONTAINS VERY USEFUL INFO ABOUT ENTITIES!!!

[Iirion Claus]

Earthling says:
I have now merged the threads, some of the replies might be in a bit funny order. On with the post.

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I'm going to start writing a series of articles about each of the entities in Serious Sam for the next Item-by-Item. Since Michael Harris is a bit stresses with real life at the moment, I'll put each one on the forums. This will serve two purposes: one, people will be able to read it before the final release; two, people will be able to bash it, review it and donate helpful ideas and corrections.





Moving Brushes in Serious Engine (dtelad11@hotmail.com)

A Moving Brush entity is used to have scriped moving objects in a map. While its original purpose is to have moving brushes (polygons/primitives), it can be easily be adapted to moving every other entity by using the parenting mechanism. Another common use is as a simpler replacement of the DestroyableArchitecture entity.

Properties Rundown
Misc
~ Autostart. Automatically starts moving when map starts.
~ Wait Time. Waits this period of time every marker.

Display
~ Dynamic Shadows. Normally the brush's shadows won't move with the brush; check this off to enable moving shadows.
~ Mirror 0-4. Specifies the brush's mirror markers.
~ Sound Start/Follow/Stop Entity. Sounds are called in the following order: Start (when starting to move), Follow (after start, before moving), Follow (after moving), Stop (when reaching marker).
~ Switch. A switch entity to be used with this brush. Player can trigger the switch using the use button; this will not move the brush automatically, though, and the mapper should take care of it as part of the switch's action.
~ Very Big Brush. Tells the engine not to check for collision with models when the brush moves; especially useful with large brushes that the player will never get near to, as it greatly reduces the number of calculations needed and increases gameplay.

Movement
~ Banking Rotation Speed. Rotate around the banking axis according to this value. Zero means no rotation.
~ Block action. Defines entity's behavior when blocked by model. None means continue moving; bounce means move on opposite direction for two game ticks, then continue on original course; Skip marker means start moving to the next marker.
~ Block damage. Deal damage to entity that blocks this brush.
~ Speed. How long does the movement to the brush's target marker takes; higher values actually mean slower brush. Setting it to zero will net you an almost teleporting brush.
~ Target. Marker to move to. This is *not* a triggering target; setting this to anything other than a marker or none will cause a warning on game startup.

Touch
~ Move on Touch. Start moving when touched.
~ Players Only. Only react to players, not to enemies or other entities.
~ Send Touch Event on Damage. When does the brush send the event.
~ Touch Damage. Damage dealt to entities touching the brush.
~ Touch Event (Target/Type). Event sent when brush is touched.

Damage and Destruction
~ Blowup by Bull, Blowup by Damager. Must be checked off if you want the brush do be destroyed by these other entities.
~ Blowup Event (Target/Type). Will be sent if brush is destroyed.
~ Color of Debris. The color of the debris spawned when brush is destroyed.
~ Cube Factor. Multiplier for the brush's size calculation on destruction; affects size of debris.
~ Debris Blow Power. How far will debris fly when brush is destroyed.
~ Debris Count. How many debris will be spawned when brush is destroyed.
~ Health. Amount of damage the brush can take before it's destroyed.
~ Move on Damage. Start moving when damaged.
~ Send Touch Event on Damage. When does the brush send the event.

Notes
~ When using this entity with brushes, notice that markers dropped from the brush will drop where the original entity (globe model) have been placed; this is not neccassirily where you added primitives to it. Make sure the original entity is dropped somewhere near the future brush.

~ No collision checks are done when parenting moving brushes to other moving brushes. This feature might be implemented on Second Encounter.

~ Regarding movement sounds- Croteam's in-game implementation usually involves a single file played as Start, that covers start, follow and stop (file's length set according to movement time).

[HighMaintenance]

Hey, I needed that a month ago!

Very detailed.

[Kinslayer]

Very very nice. Thank you. I really like how you go through each option and explain what it does. Most other tutorials / documentation only mentions a few of the options, and while some of them are (almost) self-explanatory, a detailed description like this might save me some time in playing around with stuff.

Thanks again; please, write more!!! :)

-- ltt

[Rodzilla]

Nice...I'm sure this will be a big help to people...someone else thought that too...its stuck :)

[Iirion Claus]

Waiting for Michael Harris to transfer me a list of what other entities are required. Some were covered by David Henski previously.

[Bwian]

Yep, this is a great piece of info. ::licks his sticky fingers:: ;)

[Michael Harris]

The list is in the mail. Looks like we're going to have some interesting reading to look forward to. Big thanks for undertaking this.

[GaryP]

If you need help, I'd be glad to assist.

I'm into this editor. I offered to Michael, and at the time he did not need help, but I'm offering my assistance again.

I can compile Windows help files ;)

[Iirion Claus]

I'm going to start writing a series of articles about each of the entities in Serious Sam for the next Item-by-Item. Since Michael Harris is a bit stresses with real life at the moment, I'll put each one on the forums. This will serve two purposes: one, people will be able to read it before the final release; two, people will be able to bash it, review it and donate helpful ideas and corrections.



DoorControllers in Serious Engine (dtelad11@hotmail.com)

DoorControllers are a way to have the player interact with the environment and the game. Basically, once a player enters the DoorController, up to two other entities will be triggered. As its name implies, a DoorController has a special array of properties aimed to ease the use of doors and keys in Serious Sam

Properties Rundown
Misc
~ Height. The door controller's height.
~ Players Only. DoorController will only be triggered by a player entering it, not by other entities.
~ Target1/Target2. Trigger event is sent to those once the DoorController is activated according to its type.
~ Trigger on Anything. Obsolute.
~ Type. How can the DoorController be unlocked:
Auto- The door controller will be triggered as soon as something passes through.
Locked- Will only be triggered by a player that has the required key.
Triggered- Will only be triggered by an event; once an event is received, Target1/2 will be sent an event. If something passes when still "locked", a message can be displayed and an event can be sent.
TriggeredAuto- Will only be triggered by an event; once an event is received, moves to Auto mode (activates when something passes through). Once again there is an option to send an event or a message if not triggered and player passes.

~ Width. The door controller's width.

Locked Doors- with Key
~ Key. The key required in order to trigger the controller.

Locked Doors- with Trigger
~ Locked Message. Message displayed when a player passes through and the DoorController is still locked; only if Triggered or TriggeredAuto is enabled.
~ Locked Target. Trigger event sent to this target if player passes through and the DoorController is still locked; only if Triggered or TriggeredAuto is enabled.

Notes
~ When something passes through DoorController, it is triggered many times, so it's recommended not to set up something as the direct target of an Auto or TriggeredAuto controller, but rather target a Trigger entity with a short Wait counter with it, and have the trigger target the final sequence.

~ While TouchField gives more flexibility in shape, DoorController is more suitable for doors because of the many locking options. They can be mimiced using Activate events, but it'll be an unneccessary complication in the map.



MessageHolders in Serious Engine (dtelad11@hotmail.com)

MessageHolders are used to store NETRICSA messages for later activation. The standard format for a NETRICSA message is:

SUBJECT
[this text will be displayed in topics list and on title]
IMAGE
[either none, model, picture or statistics]
[none: nothing here.
model: the internal name of the model. Additional identifiers can only be added in the code of the game, under CompModels.
texture: location of folder to display
statistics: nothing here. Will be appended in the game's code.]
TEXT
[text to be written by NETRICSA]

Notice putting spaces before TEXT will yield an error message and prevent the message from displaying properly. Additionally, the location of the message's file affects where the message will be displayed in NETRICSA-
folder name location in netricsa
background strategical information
information tactical information
enemies enemies
weapons weapons
statistics statistics
others tactical information; will display an error, but message will still work

Properties Rundown
Misc
~ Distance. Absolute.
~ Message. Location of message; should be a simple text file, formatted as explained above.
~ Next. Absolute.

Notes
~ This can't be found in the default virtual tree; you must add it manually by dragging the file MessageHolder.ecl from the \Classes\ folder in Serious Sam to your editor virtual tree.



Touchfields in Serious Engine (dtelad11@hotmail.com)

Touchfields are brushes set up by the mapper in order to trigger events by another entity that passes through its space. This is the simplest form of interaction with the player- move to a certain location in order to trigger a certain sequence. Set up the field by dragging the touchfield entity and then adding primitives till you have the wanted size and shape (you can also add spheres and other primitives, not just conuses).

Properties Rundown
Misc
~ Block non-Players. Causes the touchfield to act as a barrier, stopping non-player entities from entering (like a normal WorldBase brush).
~ Players only. Touchfield will only be triggered by a player entering it, not by other entities.

Triggering
~ Enter Event (Event/Target). Event sent when Touchfield is entered by another entity. Notice this is triggered multiple times, because the engine runs through many collision checks every second.
~ Exit Check Time. Values greater than zero will cause the Touchfield to run through a loop, and check whether it was left every amount of seconds. For example, setting this to 0.1 will cause the Touchfield to check whether the entering entity left ten times a second, and once it does, to send the exit event.
~ Exit Event (Event/Target). Event sent when entity leaves the Touchfield.

Notes
~ Touchfields only work when stationary; if the field moves into an entity, then it won't be triggered. A partial solution is using a PlayerWatcher, though as its name implies it only works for players.

~ As mentioned previously, enter events are triggered many times, so it's recommended not to set up something as the direct target of the Touchfield, but rather target a Trigger entity with a short Wait counter with it, and have the trigger target the final sequence. Otherwise you might end up with weird cases like an EnemySpawner triggered multiple times rather than once.

[Michael Harris]

GaryP,

I've got something in mind, relative to Windows help, that I can use your help on. I'll mail you with the specifics (may not be until next week).


To anyone else interested in this,

I'll see if I can figure out other things to delegate/share the work on, for anyone else interested.......but bear with me please.....I'm tied up in personal stuff this week (and possibly next).......and will have to give some thought to what else, if anything, can be parceled out and how. And to be honest, I'm not very good at teamwork.......so don't take offense if you offer and I don't take you up on it, no reflection on those offering. There will be future revisions and other future projects.....and I'll try to get better on each one, with regard to including other folks.

There are always plenty of standalone tutorials that need to be written.......topics for tutorials have barely been scratched. Many basics still have not been covered. No permission or coordination needed, just jump in and do it. Find a topic that you had trouble with or that folks report trouble with in the forums......or check out the Serious feature list on www.croteam.com.......bite off a manageable chunk of topic/feature or sub-topic/sub-feature or procedure or........... and work through it, master it, write it up, publish it.

[Iirion Claus]

I'm going to start writing a series of articles about each of the entities in Serious Sam for the next Item-by-Item. Since Michael Harris is a bit stresses with real life at the moment, I'll put each one on the forums. This will serve two purposes: one, people will be able to read it before the final release; two, people will be able to bash it, review it and donate helpful ideas and corrections.

Thanks to Earthling I can now attach .rtf files to the forums... That will make my life much easier :)

[Iirion Claus]

[nt]

[Iirion Claus]

[nt]

[Iirion Claus]

[nt]

[Earthling]

/me glares at IIC

DAVOR HUNSKI, not David Henski. :hat:

[HighMaintenance]

This needs to be bound together in a notebook
and stuck in the SDK or the tutorials section.

You are saving lots of people lots of searching.

[Iirion Claus]

Shame, shame... Apologies to Mr Hunski.

[Iirion Claus]

...for the next Item-by-Item...

:D

[toastar]

What i would like to know is how to make it go in either Tactical Data or Strategic Data. It always goes in one for me. :confused:

[Iirion Claus]

As mentioned, it depends on the subfolder where the message is. Put it in Data/Messages/Background/ for strategic data, and Data/Messages/Information for tactical.

[Rodzilla]

Originally posted by Iirion Claus
Thanks to Earthling I can now attach .rtf files to the forums... That will make my life much easier :)
YUO = M0TARD!
M3 = TEH 1337 ADMIN WHO ENABLE RTF


;):updown:

[Iirion Claus]

Originally posted by DarkReaper

YUO = M0TARD!
M3 = TEH 1337 ADMIN WHO ENABLE RTF

o_O
What's m0tard??!

[Earthling]

Dunno.

Hey DR, stop stealing my fame!

[Rodzilla]

Your fame? I'm the one that enabled RTFs, fool :P

[Iirion Claus]

Originally posted by DarkReaper
Your fame? I'm the one that enabled RTFs, fool :P
I'm the one who asked for them in the first place :D

[Iirion Claus]

I'm going to start writing a series of articles about each of the entities in Serious Sam for the next Item-by-Item. Since Michael Harris is a bit stresses with real life at the moment, I'll put each one on the forums. This will serve two purposes: one, people will be able to read it before the final release; two, people will be able to bash it, review it and donate helpful ideas and corrections.

[Iirion Claus]

[nt]

[Jedi Outcast]

Iirion, thank you very much for these. I greatly appreciate it. :)

[Nifran Tay]

I'm going to start writing a series of articles about each of the entities in Serious Sam for the next Item-by-Item. Since Michael Harris is a bit stresses with real life at the moment, I'll put each one on the forums. This will serve two purposes: one, people will be able to read it before the final release; two, people will be able to bash it, review it and donate helpful ideas and corrections.

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These are just great no other word for it. I'm sure you've saved a lot of people from hair loss with these little gems.

I know because I've certainly got more than I should at this very moment.

Good work IC:) :) :)

[GaryP]

Great!

[GaryP]

I liked it

[Iirion Claus]

I'm going to start writing a series of articles about each of the entities in Serious Sam for the next Item-by-Item, and will put each one on the forums. This will serve two purposes: one, people will be able to read it before the final release; two, people will be able to bash it, review it and donate helpful ideas and corrections.

http://forums.seriouscommunity.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=97920

[Earthling]

IIC, from now on, you should just post the new info as replies... unless you have something else in mind?

[Iirion Claus]

I post it as replies, and additionally as a new forum thread. Don't stick it though, it's there so people will see there's a new file (I doubt people check this thread on a weekly basis :))

[-=(OUTLAWS)=- SIFI]

I dont know if i skiped it but do you have a breakdown of how to use a world link if not can, you tell me were to get one?

[Iirion Claus]

Originally posted by Sifi Sam
I dont know if i skiped it but do you have a breakdown of how to use a world link if not can, you tell me were to get one?
Try the item-by-item, downloadable from Seriously!'s misc download section.