Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Released! - Discuss progress and updates on the biggest Trespasser level endeavor ever, JPDS - a dark Tres mod by Draco and co.

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Draconisaurus
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Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Post by Draconisaurus »

'ello folks, how's TresCom been doing? i see there was some server issue excitement.. 'nyways, i have spent about 3 months in the Pacific Northwest here in the US, a very fine time indeed with many important experiences, but i've now returned to Iowa on my way to moving in with my steampunk cousin in Wisconsin, due to the extreme lack of employment opportunity in Oregon. i've also bought myself a small Acer laptop now (with Windows 7 Starter), since the NOOKcolor was just not cutting it without a physical keyboard. i may even be able to play Tres on here, we'll see. my cousin doesn't have 'net at his place, aside from his phone, but i will occasionally be having 'net access and i plan to pass by here once in a while. nostalgia keeps calling me here, and i still periodically have Jurassic Park dreams...

how have folks' JPDS adventures been? i'm anxious to hear people's experiences. it should be assumed that this thread will contain SPOILERS, feel free to speak about anything you've discovered in the levels in this thread.

addressing some of the issues i've noticed:
  • it appears that some people's machines don't like the renamed SCN files, with mixed up palettes. for example, the level files known as "JPDS~camp" use an SCN named "JPDS~Trails", for the sake of trying to have the original names i wanted to give them. "Camp" was originally a sublevel to be dumped into another level, and couldn't be renamed. if repeated restarts of the level - or loading a savegame you make right after loading - does not fix this issue, you could try manually renaming the SCN files to their original level names, but be warned this may mess up some level-load triggers.
    • JPDS~Trails was JPDS~camp
    • JPDS~HRS was the same
    • JPDS~Forest was JPDS~dam
  • the HSP - Hazardous Species Paddock - fence, being very high poly, can certainly threaten crashes. i had to reduce the rendering distance of them in JPDS~Trails, but i don't think i ever got around to this in JPDS~Plains. my best solution to offer is reducing all render settings to compensate if necessary, from Draw Distance to Render Quality to Resolution. there is no stability issue i know that sufficiently-low Render Quality cannot handle; it's a question of how much quality you must sacrifice for your hardware in that area. remember to change Quality without a level loaded to avoid CWaterEntity issues.
  • it seems there were some issues with level load/end triggers in JPDS~Forest. i honestly did not have time to check the one at the Embryonics Administration gate myself, i had Tatu do it as one of the very last things. it's intended to simply end the game, when you enter the area; it was going to play a credits SMK too but we couldn't make one in time. (might be good if someone checks to make sure it simply has AT 31.) if you cheat and enter the area without passing thru the trigger, there is a secret trigger which activates something special. otherwise, yes, the "secret" PV trigger, which was going to be harder to reach, requires you to put an SCN file called "PV.scn", preferrably linking to the actual Pine Valley, in the \data folder. ironically, this was put in JPDS years before we got the real level, and i'd intended to release a fan-reconstructed Pine Valley around the same time as JPDS.
now, let's gather 'round and tell of adventures in finding Tasha's brother...

~Draco
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Re: Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Post by Draconisaurus »

*dusts off cobwebs* Was searching through files and found this old concept map for the northwest corner of JPDS1. Kinda interesting the level of detail I went into for early design...
Click on Image
(Click on thumbnail for full size)
Image
Also, announcing! JPDS is going to be released in a Tres CE styled mod on the Trespasser 20th Anniv. Besides little modifications to suit it to the new engine, I'll be setting up the SCN files to actually load scene files in logical fashion, something the original mod missed out on sorely. 8)
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Re: Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Post by TheIdiot »

I'd argue that it's less detailed than later designs, really, other than the tedious labelling of animals and vehicles. I'm glad it didn't turn out this way as there would have been a serious lack of interesting locations to visit, and perhaps a somewhat unrealistic variety of dinosaurs.

Interesting that you'd intended to include mamenchisaurs around the point of the first crashed jeep. That's a dino I'd still like to see in Tres. Also "Styrakosaurs". :P
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Re: Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Post by TrespasserGuy »

Ooh, a CE version of JPDS? Looking forward to it 8) Are you also, by any chance, going to redo some of the more visual aspects of the mod, like a new menu design, or an updated version of the opening .smk?
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Re: Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Post by Draconisaurus »

TresGuy, no no those two are staying. ...Why the Hell would he turn the other ones off?
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Re: Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Post by spinaxoraptor »

Draconisaurus I got a question will you ever decide on doing new dinosaur mods from jurassic park that havent appears in trespasser?
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Re: Drac is Back + JPDS Tales

Post by Draconisaurus »

What are you thinking of?
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