JP: Dark Secrets - Old Thread (updates Dec. 04 - March 07)

Post by **Second Illiteration** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:13 pm

Well I'm done with college now for a while too, so any texturing help you need, I am here. Also any sound work or image gathering I'm here for that too. Had a really cool idea after watching Pirates of The Carribean 2 the other night...

And since no one saw this in the other thread:

http://rapidshare.com/files/16799840/Sk ... _.rar.html

Post by **Draconisaurus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:45 pm

Actually I saw it, SI. Just hadn't had time to reply to it. That is quite a lot of skins there and some of them are extremely awesome. When I have a moment I'll PM you with a list of the skins I'd like...

Post by **Slash_Master** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 7:29 am

[quote="Draconisaurus"]Actually I saw it, SI. Just hadn't had time to reply to it. [quote]

me too .,.U

those skins are aweosme SI

Post by **Second Illiteration** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:52 pm

Slash_Master wrote: me too .,.U

those skins are awesome SI

Thanks...now maybe I can see some of yours

Post by **Draconisaurus** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:03 pm

Alrighty everyone, say hello to the new JPDS website - http://dracoastreus.co.uk/jpds/

And while you're at it, take a peek at our latest update

http://dracoastreus.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8

machf · Post by **machf** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:29 pm

Wel, well, well, let's see... (though I'm about to go out,so any comments will have to wait)

Post by **Draconisaurus** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:09 pm

Just for everyone who missed the news post.... the JPDS Forums are officially down for the count. Mickey's server host informed him that they would not allow phpbb forums to be hosted on their servers.. so he was ordered to take it down, or they would cancel his account. We don't really know why but we suspect they have some sort of contract with a differet forum company. Anyway... we have a totally new plan for the forums of JPDS so stay tuned.

machf · Post by **machf** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:18 pm

Ugh.

Or maybe they think it's a security risk... I think they're easier to hack than some other forums.

Have they provided any alternatives?

Otherwise, you can always start a new forum at InvisionFree...

Post by **Draconisaurus** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:42 am

Actually, we gave up on that stupid web host.

Of course the site is still there but we're not going to equip it with a forum anymore.. too much hastle for the ends we mean to achieve. Instead, we now have our own JPDS forums here at TresCom.

http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... php?t=5282

Post by **Draconisaurus** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:41 am

GAAAAAHHHHH!!! BOT!!!!!! I think it may have gotten through because this is a new forum and it wasn't set up to not allow guest posts? Wait I've seen Rebel post as a guest before.. I'm stumped X_X Anyways.. yeah we should require log-in to post in any forum, IMO.

Post by **Rebel** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:48 pm

Wait I've seen Rebel post as a guest before..

that's true, but I wasn't trying to sell you plane tickets.

*I updated the permissions for you -

machf · Post by **machf** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:52 pm

Any more leaks?

T.rexrules · Post by **T.rexrules** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 7:56 pm

Draconisaurus wrote:OK well it's been a while since the last public JPDS update, so I figure it's time for another one. The fact is, hardly any modelling has been done on JPDS since the initial failure of Dimetrodon, with the exception of Mike's concept models for the "Hillside Research Station", though they may not even make it to the final version of the game as we rethink things (sound like anything you know? ). Originally I was planning for level 1 of JPDS to be a mod of the IJ level, and cleared it out of ingame objects (a couple times...) but it proved too problematic, plus Mike convinced me of the benefits of using a fresh level (TC_River). Back when I was modding IJ to use as JPDS1, I began editing the terrain for the first level (or as we like to call it, "terraforming") at 1/3rd scale, so more of the terrain could be seen at one time. This was in a way a good idea because I was quite right in thinking that only a small portion of the final sized JPDS map would be visible at one time in terrain edit mode; however I quite underestimated the amount of detail which is lost between exporting and importing of the grayscale map. I was rather proud of the terraforming I had done in 1/3rd scale, here's some of my work:

Hope I didn't spoil too much there . So after a little more terraforming of the hills around the EA (well over 36 hours spent total in less than 4 days I think) I decided it was time to port everything over to the final level that would be made out of TC_River. After some amazingly accurate calculations on scaling it up x3, I had the terrain in the new level, JPDS1.scn (I should note at this point that I discovered some sort of existance boundry at least in TresEd; beyond a certain point, it wouldn't render ANYTHING of the terrain, even though it would show up in terrain-edit mode; this was easily fixed by setting a very low most negative corner value (-2000 or something) for that dimension, but I thought I should mension it). So this is when I discovered the large loss of detail on the map... this will be fixed eventually but I am a little disappointed. I got to work on importing some basic models into the level and messed around with them... got that Alberta to work . One thing though... terrain seems to be an unending source of complications. It seems as though, in cerain circumstances, certain areas of the terrain are rendered higher than their actual physical hight. It was bad enough that the terrain would be a different height ingame than in terrain edit mode, but I just really hate this....

It seems as though I can fix this problem just by editing the terrain in the given area (doesn't matter how), of course this doesn't mean the same problem won't be back later, and it happens all over the map (also it seems that the terrain objects render at a lower resolution above these heightened terrain areas, less and less quality for how much heigher it is, which at least is a way to identify ingame where they are...). Hopefully I'll be able to work around this quirk in all the areas where it matters.
Here are some more pics of testing from then:

(terrain resolution problem)

(shoreside cliff - no ocean yet)

Now after experimenting with a few objects in the level, I started making the basement for JPDS by importing all the models from Trespasser that I thought I wanted in level one, including all the guns, barrels, jeeps, construction vehicles, all the variations on crates (found in IJ), and some other things. Then when I tried to import the green jeep from JR.... geomadd informed me that the textures were full for the level.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeeeaahh.... I wasn't too happy about that. There weren't even any trees or new terrain objects yet. So yeah we've had to rethink a few things... including the very unfortunate reality of seperating the EA into its own level after level 1. Now after reimporting the objects into the level, skipping a vast amout of unnecessary crates, a few guns, and some other objects not as likely to be used, I thought we might be back in business and proceeded to import trees from JR and from TC_Isle (very nice trees BTW). Then I imported some rocks, and some ferns... and the textures became full again. So yeah I am totally rethinking this stuff now... I'm going to use TC_Isle trees, which use exceedingly few textures, and make MY OWN TREES, using the textures from the TC_Trees aswell as select textures from Tres trees. Also I have a plan to retexture the Tres trees using these allotted textures. Here's my first tree!!

(in TresEd)

(with subobjects)

Now there was a problem with this tree... (isn't there always?) I wrote a notepad file called "DS_TreeA00.values" which looked like this:
Code: Select all
group $DS_TreeA_01 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_02 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_03 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_04 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_05 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_06 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_07 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_08 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_09 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_10 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_11 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group $DS_TreeA_12 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string SoundMaterial = "Log 1"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Class = "CInstance"
}

group DS_TreeA00 = {
    int ext_GeometryType = 2
    string Class = "CInstance"
    bool Tangible = true
    string Type = "Compound"
    string Model11 = "$DS_TreeA_12"
    string Model10 = "$DS_TreeA_11"
    string Model09 = "$DS_TreeA_10"
    string Model08 = "$DS_TreeA_09"
    string Model07 = "$DS_TreeA_08"
    string Model06 = "$DS_TreeA_07"
    string Model05 = "$DS_TreeA_06"
    string Model04 = "$DS_TreeA_05"
    string Model03 = "$DS_TreeA_04"
    string Model02 = "$DS_TreeA_03"
    string Model01 = "$DS_TreeA_02"
    string Model00 = "$DS_TreeA_01"
}
When I imported the 3DS file, obviously the model came like it should have (aswell as the subobjects) but none of these objects had any script, other than the import scale or w/e. Why didn't it go with the import like it does with everything else????? Gahh.... Anyway I was able to update the values manually in TresEd, but I'd still like to know how to do it with the .values document.
>>Update on that, I just put the tree in the basement, copied it a few times, and loaded the level... which had a Fatal Error. Any ideas, from the script I have above? I got the above sets of values from that of "WiseOldTree" in TC_Isle, which was the simplest tree script I could find, so I'm guessing I must be missing some value that wasn't necessary for WiseOldTree but is for this one... any help there would be nice, I may try some guessing and checking later.

Hmmmm well.... I guess there's one more thing I can update on. It actually hasn't been worked on in a while but I don't think I've posted images of it so here's what we have on the EA (Embryonics Administration):

(this version used temporary textures already present in IJ which would give it a real feel in the level until the real textures can be made, anyway this model is only a rough outline of the place)

(temp EA on old version of terrain)

OK well that's it folks!! Hope you've enjoyed this update, and I hope we can get some answers to some of our dilemas here.

Are there going to be Velociraptors hiding in there.

Post by **Rebel** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:16 pm

Drac, you have too many $models attached to your ds_tree. If
memory serves, only 9 can be assigned. The wise old tree has
sub-objects at its base btw, not $models.

*You should probably avoid labeling your $objects sequentially
too, since the engine may consider those instances of treea-00
(which probably doesn't even exist, does it?).

Try something like;

$MainTrunk-00, $BranchA-00, $BranchB-00, and so on...

Technically, we broke rules we weren't aware of back then as
well. All Models require the '-00' appendage. We got a-
way with it, but there's no reason not to follow the rules now
that we're aware of them.

Shadow Wolf · Post by **Shadow Wolf** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:34 pm

woah thanks for reviving this thread T.rexrules I didn't know it existed till you did, hmmmmm pretty cool, if this is public makes you wonder what they're working on in private... (radiating anticipation)