Duck and Cover

I doubt that they would make billboards ethereal in the original game. It wouldn't make much sense and would be immediately apparent as unrealistic if your character could walk through it. I thought you were planning on using it as a entrance to the secret bat-garage. Then it might make sense. Unless you were going for that effect I would definitely not make it ethereal.

Ethereal tiles are used for "decal" tiles. So things like posters, graffiti, etc. are ethereal because they are intended to be placed on walls. Ground decals like grass tufts etc are the same. intended to add some detail, but not interfere with the flat ground plane.

So the rule of thumb - If it's intended to add visual effect to existing tiles, make it ethereal. If it's a "standalone" tile, leave it solid.

Section8 wrote:Ethereal tiles are used for "decal" tiles. So things like posters, graffiti, etc. are ethereal because they are intended to be placed on walls. Ground decals like grass tufts etc are the same. intended to add some detail, but not interfere with the flat ground plane.

I think I know what Stevie D's problem is: he hasn't hit "Update Tiles" yet, so the flags aren't showing up. There should be no need to manually flag the posters, etc. Ruined City Type 5 windows are another matter, though...

OTB

OnTheBounce wrote:

Section8 wrote:Ethereal tiles are used for "decal" tiles. So things like posters, graffiti, etc. are ethereal because they are intended to be placed on walls. Ground decals like grass tufts etc are the same. intended to add some detail, but not interfere with the flat ground plane.

I think I know what Stevie D's problem is: he hasn't hit "Update Tiles" yet, so the flags aren't showing up. There should be no need to manually flag the posters, etc. Ruined City Type 5 windows are another matter, though...

OTB

Ahh, yet again I display my unfamiliarity with the Readme... :oops: Thanks, OTB

I've been regularly running the new occlusion data function, for the record, but have forgotten the importance of Updating Tiles.

BTW, Max-V, I'm hoping to have the sign fixed directly onto a wall so that it's used like posters and graffiti. That 'bat-cave' suggestion is interesting, though

Steve

Stevie D wrote:I've been regularly running the new occlusion data function, for the record, but have forgotten the importance of Updating Tiles.

Don't waste your time w/New Occlusion Data. Once your map starts to get large the "Warning This Is Really Slow!" will become painfully real. For instance, I have one map that it literally takes a tad over 20 minutes to generate new occlusion data for.

If you need to see into your building, but displaying only the tiles on the current level is unwieldy - it's very hard to place things on top of tables, for instance, like this - right click on the level indicator and you will notice that whatever level you were pointing at disappears. If you want the editor to hide multiple levels, right click and hold on the lowest level, then release at the highest level you want to hide and viola! you're in business. (That wasn't listed in the ReadMe originally, Red found that out for us.)

Cheers,

OTB

Yeah, don't bother with occlusion until you do a final build.

Hey Section8, any progress on that MaleReaverHuge sprite problem/solution yet? I PM'd you a while ago, jus' wonderin' wassup and this seems like a good thread to ask

OnTheBounce wrote:[...] If you want the editor to hide multiple levels, right click and hold on the lowest level, then release at the highest level you want to hide and viola! you're in business. (That wasn't listed in the ReadMe originally, Red found that out for us.)

Cheers,

OTB

Wow! That's possibly one of the best tile-juggling tips I've read to date! I'd never have thought that at the age of 26 that I could get excited by such things, but that's pretty much revolutionised my multi-storey building philosophy. Beauty!

BTW, despite having spent weeks on it already, my map is still pretty small. Also, my recently overhauled computer has some pretty heavy-duty hardware, which means sorting the occlusion takes roughly just over a minute, at the moment.

Steve

Stevie D wrote:Wow! That's possibly one of the best tile-juggling tips I've read to date! I'd never have thought that at the age of 26 that I could get excited by such things, but that's pretty much revolutionised my multi-storey building philosophy. Beauty!

*hehe* I've got 5 years on you and I still drool like a baby over some of this stuff.

Stevie D wrote:Also, my recently overhauled computer has some pretty heavy-duty hardware, which means sorting the occlusion takes roughly just over a minute, at the moment.

*ahem* Here's a present for you:

My 'puter is a 633 Mhz Celeron w/160 megs of Ram and a "pip-squeak" 10.2 gig HD...

OTB

Hehe, mine will be(by friday) 1.2Ghz Celeron with 196 megs of ram and 60 Gbts of HD :twisted: Bah, still sort in memory.

OnTheBounce wrote:My 'puter is a 633 Mhz Celeron w/160 megs of Ram and a "pip-squeak" 10.2 gig HD...

Ouch! I hope yer not using WinME...

Since we seem to be sharing our computer specs, I'll join in:

1.3 GHz P4, 256 MB RDRAM, 40 GB hard drive. Bad part: GeForce2 MX.

Max-Violence wrote:Ouch! I hope yer not using WinME...

Your hopes are in vain, MV.

Max-Violence wrote:Bad part: GeForce2 MX.

Gots me one, too. A 32 Mb card. Since I have an eMachine - hey, it wasn't bought to game with...it just sort of happened... - and therefore an onboard 4 Mb AGP card I was very limited in what I could get since I was limited to a PCI model...

OTB

OnTheBounce wrote:Your hopes are in vain, MV.

AAAAAAHHHH HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA!!! Sucks to be you!

*remembers he's on WinME too*

Aw, crap!

MWAHAHAHAHA 1.7 ghz!! with....uh.... 128 ram and.... uh... like 20 or 30 gigs on 2 hard drives partitioned into 3 sections. Running 98... with a TnT vid card 16 meg... However, occlusion data is almost instant. Fortunately I'm slowly setting money aside to get 128 more megs, and a new vid card. bahhhh... works in progress suck when they're still in progress

p2-450, 512MB ram, geforce2mx, 40GB+6.5GB HD running on WinXP.

Slow, but the high memory avoids any sawping of memory, so it's actually pretty fast...

Reaver Prob: I keep meaning to look at it at home with my release version of FOT, but I keep forgetting. Just keep bugging me if I don't get back to you shortly.

Whelp, it's been "shortly," any news?

Is it possible to force display a loading screen of your choise before loading the map you're playing?(meaning prearranged sequence)?

Flamescreen wrote:Is it possible to force display a loading screen of your choise before loading the map you're playing?(meaning prearranged sequence)?

I don't think so, Flamescreen. You can replace the "Wait Screens" of the core campaign in a mirrored folder in your mod, but if you want a specific one the only thing I could see doing would be to put a differently titled copy of the JPG into that folder. One for each Wait Screen (I think there are 7) in the core campaign.

OTB

Firstly, sorry for posting here. I was so used to the questions folder being on top, that I didn't see it untill today.

What exactly do you mean with the different named versions of the .JPG's?
And which folder to put them to? The mirrored one or the original? I don't think it would have any difference but you can never tell. Ideally I would like to replace all. Two already made(planning to use one on my site, when it will be up).

Do you think it would be possible to place more than seven in the folder so that the game would not repeat every time you have to load? By the way, I think when I was playing the core campaign, the Wait screens with the robotic themes didn't appear before the 5th mission. Could be a coinscidence though.