Beta3 update info
 

Hi Guys (and girls)

Sorry for the delays, but I wanted to spend the extra time
getting various parts of the mod polished up properly.



OK, well heres a quick rundown of bug-fixes and changes that will be included
in 1.5beta3:

Weapon selection bug fix, the game now remembers which weapon you had selected from
map to map, it also remembers from class to class.

I've rewritten some of the warm-up code, so we can now play DeathMatch during warmup.
No points are given for kills and TK's are not registered either..
Its now a proper warm-up, rather than standing around waiting :)

Due to feedback (and obsivations by myself) I've adjusted the accuracy of the
Duel colt & Gatling gun.. base accuracy is the same, but they don't get so wildly
inaccuract when moving or in rapid fire.

I've created a new menu screen for brighness adjustment to aid players in getting
their optimal screen brightness & gamma.

I've fixed a lot of texture and shader problems in all maps (most of which players
won't notice, but were needed to cure some underlying problems)

Created overview movies for BC, Pedros & Canyon.

Trigger hurts (like the snakes in battle creek now cause a "pain" sound)

All reported Hacienda bugs are fixed, ie the unclipped gate, being able to TNT
the govner through wall & Molotov damage through windows... Windows now have
reduced health (like in town & BC), so 1 shot will break them & bombs will pass
stright through.
I've spend a LOT of time on Hacienda, due to issues I was having with the lighting,
and other technical issues with the actual compile of the map.

Drop weapon bug, when out of ammo (now searches for weapons with no ammo when you
press drop ) This is beacuse when a weapon is out of ammo, you cannot select it,
and thus you couldn't drop it :/

Fixed some spawn flag issues, like the flag raised noise when flag had already been
taken, and the wrong model being used in CP mode.

And I've started doing the text translations for our French, German, Italian &
spanish players :) I've still got a LOT more to-do in the translations, but I
will continue with these while we test Beta3.

Lots of other minor tweeks and adjustments, that I can't remember ATM lol.

Hopefully beta3 will be stable, and thus the final version for public release :D :D
Time to get the pimping train running me thinks.

ETA for beta3 to testers.. hopefully with 48hours, I'm giving myself a deadline of this
weekend, ideally this Wednesday, as I'm away over next weekend, and I would like to
test beta3 with you guys before I go.

If anyone can think of any other bugs that need fixing, please post.

Hewster

Re: Beta3 update info
 

SWEEEET!

Sometime, Hewster, can you give us lessons about what you've done with the "lot of texture and shader problems in all maps"?Then we don't create more of the same problems... And maybe examples of some of the lighting issues in Hacienda? Since we know the olde versions of these maps so well, it will help us recognize similarities in our own maps...

Thanks for all the work!

Re: Beta3 update info
 

Well the main issues were textures not in powers of 2...
all textures used should be the power of 2 (2x2, 4x4, 8x8, 16x16,
32x32,64x64,128x128,256x256, 512x512) and indeed to ensure
compatibility with older cards the max size should be 512x512.

I found many textures breaking these rules, even some of
BoltyBoys original ones, so I'm not blaming anyone :)

Other problems were model shaders (like the bucket in the
stable in the Town map) where if the shader does not have
a "cull none" in the header, the engine will only show
the texture on one face of the model, and so models which
rely on both sides of the mesh to be drawn in game must
have this instruction in its shader.

This is a problem when trying to get maps to look good in
vertex lit mode, since (because of an engine bug) all
lightmapped shaders will look full bright in vertex mode,
unless you create the shader "properly" and then don't
distribute it with the actual map... ok your confused lol....

Shaders can be created with a path name different to that of
the actual texture used, and the engine can cope, however
if you create your shaders with the same path name as the
texture used, and your shader uses "normal" blends, you
can remove the shader after compile, and the .bsp still
retains any surfaceparam info (like woodsteps ect) and since
the path name of the shader is the same as the actual texture,
it finds the texture, and it knows there is a lightmap for it too.
On top of that, it will be correctly vertex lit when in vertex mode.

This is something I discovered and shared with other members of
the wolf mapping community some months ago :)

There are cases where you must include your shader with
you map however, these cases being:
using alpha channel transparent shaders
scrolling / animated shaders
shaders that require "cull none"
shaders that require anything other than "blendFunc filter"
shaders that require anything other than "rgbGen identity"
oh and most annoyingly all metashaders (Terrain) :(

Here is a simple shader that could be removed after compile,
it would look correct in lightmapped mode and vertex light mode:
and here is an example of an alpha_channel shader (partial transparency)
that would need to be included with the map:
BTW, I had to use PHP tags, cos the CODE tags don't shoe cartridge returns,
and quotes look like normal text !! :/

I believe this is why they removed vertex mode from ET,
something I could enforce in WW, although to-do it
properly I would need to change the wolfmp.exe, which I can't :(



BACK to Beta3.. lol
I have now finished my other tweaks, which are:
Soldiers now have a health & speed advantage over all
other classes.. not a big advantage, but it may be enough
to encourage more players to play as soldier, as I believe
that currently there is not enough incentive to play as soldier,
but with the changes in accuracy for both the duel colts, and the
gat, along with these speed & health advantages I think I might play
soldier a bit more often :) hehe
BTW, rather than increase speed of the soldier I have reduced all others.

Ok, I've also fixed the pickup delay bug, where doctors could not
pickup anything for 5 secs after picking up health..(I've introduced some
nice code to make sure there are no exploits here ;) ) So the penalty
carries over, even if they pickup ammo straight after health.
Also, all classes pickup delay is not active when picking up treasure
(ie the bible in BC & the swag in Town).
I wanted to have a visual indication of the pickup penalty, but since I
made all these time penalties server side, it was more work than I imagined,
and so this feature will have to wait :(
I've also corrected some prediction problems I was having with these
pickup delays :)

Man I wish I could just code and do 3D modelling all the time.. I love it :D
I find mapping a bit of a PITA TBH, although that's probably because I
want to be doing the coding lol... ie if I didn't have to code I'd enjoy the mapping
more swings and roundabouts I guess :)

Now where was I.. mmm I sure there was something else... errrrrr.. ummmmm..lol
can't remember lol.. so thats it for now..

Hewster

Re: Beta3 update info
 

GOOD info Hewster...unfortunately the shader I use the most and the one I like the best (as well as some others) are actually 768x512... It sounds like that could be a problem....Should I make it square and reduce the size?

Hmmm, given the size of current maps, isn't this gonna make the startup process really long in maps like canyon and Hacienda (end game)?

I caught myself smiling when I read this... This programming sound like fun to me too...

Re: Beta3 update info
 

That took a couple reads but I've got it now...;r don't like it but I got it...

Is it safe to say you should always delete your shaders except for these cases:
the shader and texture have a different name
it is an alpha channel transparent shaders
it is a scrolling / animated shader
it requires "cull none" so that it paints on both sides of a surface (example models with visible inside surfaces and bezeirs)
shaders that require anything other than "blendFunc filter"
shaders that require anything other than "rgbGen identity"
It is a Terrain shader...

True?


Should these always be removed?

Re: Beta3 update info
 

I have to vote with Queeg on the player speed issue. You have to run for an eternity in order to get to a place where you can attack the canyon flag (or blow the grate in Hacienda). If you opt to run down the left side, it takes even longer.

I am a big proponent of the slower speeds of WW compare to RTCW, but I would not wish to have my players run any slower than they already do.

Ignacio

Re: Beta3 update info
 

I'd have to agree with Ignacio, if the WW characters get any slower, it would take forever to get to the action on some maps. I say don't change the speed.


Just my 2 cents.:)

Re: Beta3 update info
 

I do like the soldiers becoming faster than the rest. That makes sense. And I think it would give the RtCW people one character that feels closer to what they are used to even though it still would be slower than RtCW.

If you think about it, the big asset of soldiers is that they are trained to MOVE! in this sort of situation. They are stronger than and faster than a country doctor or even a sherrif. (Maybe that means they heal faster but start with less health than doctors? dunno Healing is probably a system wide setting anyway) Yes, I do like the idea that soldiers can go further, faster but I like the current speed of all the others. I would not slow it down...

The main reason it took me 19:53 to beat Hacko into submission ;) is that it takes forever to get to that first flag in the Canyon map....

Re: Beta3 update info
 

The main reason it took me 19:53 to beat Hacko into submission ;)


As the Cowboys would say:

ERRRRR,,,,NO!!!
These Varmits are a bunch of panzies!!
:D

Re: Beta3 update info
 

As the Very New guy I figured I'd put in my $0.02 as well.
Of course, not wanting to be
Cow Dung
doesn't have anything to do with it. :nodding:

I really like this idea of making the classes physically different as well as functionally. Why not have the soldier a little faster - and maybe be able to jump that extra height when not perfectly healthy - like maybe from 90 to 100% instead of just 100? Or am I stepping into more global settings again?

BTW, does Hewster ever write short posts? ;)

Is a panzie a female panzer? Wouldn't that be in RtCW instead of WW? :D