Build Questions

[Ninjakitty]

Could I make an explosion that damages props but not the player? Is there anything that only affects the sprite and not the sector?

[Robman]

Nope

If the actor is close enough... kaboom.

Unless you creatively make it a source/swap sector effect.

[Ninjakitty]

Are there any tutorials on using tracks for actors? I have tried every actor and none of them will even try to follow the tracks. I Have thoroughly read SPRITAGS.TXT but a lot of the stuff in there is open to interpretation. Do I use a 1 track sprite and then continue counting up in order or is every sprite for the track supposed to be the same number?

My map is still coming along really well.

[Robman]

Good

And... I've never used actors with a track. You're on uncharted ground here.

[Ninjakitty]

I was also able to get around the problem with having the two RORs. I used warp planes and made fake entrances to the other room for visuals. One more area of my map that is not physically possible. I'm thinking with portals. 

[Robman]

hehe yep, warp planes are handy for faking different levels on top of each other.
Doesn't let you see in and out though.

[Ninjakitty]

Do mirrors need the last wall to be a white wall? Trying to make mirror cameras to help make the fake entrances.

[Robman]

Mirror cameras DO need to have a white wall behind it.. I'm fairly certain, that's how I've always built them anyway and probably for that reason.

[Ninjakitty]

I am making a bridge out of sprites but there seems to be a lot of gaps in its hitbox. I've looked on other maps but I still don't know how they fixed it.

*Edit:

The other maps seem to use only one sprite to stretch the length of the bridge, leaving no hitbox gaps. But I can't make my bridge that way because it's too long.  Could I use only one sprite but make the texture repeat the same way it does on walls?

[Robman]

with sprites, you're pretty much stuck with however you've stretched them.

[Ninjakitty]

In Amtrak.map there is a bridge by the train made of sprites with no gaps in the hitbox. It even has larger spaces in between the sprites than the spaces in my map. I still can't figure out how it was made.

[Ninjakitty]

How can I make a double-sided sprite?

[Robman]

press 1 on it. Remember, some textures are different sizes than one another .. 64x64 .. 128x128 etc..

[Ninjakitty]

Double-siding all the bridge sprites mostly fixed the problem.

[Ninjakitty]

But now my map is laggy because of all the sprites...   Lag is Lo Wang's worst enemy. Not even Zilla is worse than lag. There better be a way around this.

[Robman]

Have all the bridge sprites be one sided

[Ninjakitty]

I made them all single sided and I made them longer so I don't have to use as many. Lag went away.

[Ninjakitty]

Blue ram keys always show up sort of red-ish. Is there any way to fix it?

[Robman]

does it work properly when u test the map?

[Ninjakitty]

The only time the key card doesn't show up right is in testing.

[Ninjakitty]

This is what I have so far . Nowhere near being finished.
WHAT74.map (31.19 KB)
Keep in mind that this level currently has no level selection so it is stuck on the hardest difficulty.
Known bugs:
*Sometimes when falling through the vent, the player doesn't pick up the key (very rare)
*Sometimes after the explosion caused by walking across the bridge to get the key, the key disappears (very rare)
*Sometimes, leaving the room under the table doesn't trigger the explosion that destroys the training dummy(semi-common)

Are there any theme changes I should make before continuing the map?

[Robman]

You're off to a good start, remember to take a good amount of time on your map, good maps aren't made in a hurry

The explosion knocked me off the bridge and the key did disappear hehe.

It's nice to see you diving into the effect making side of things so early.

Where you crawl out of the vent into the large room with the bridge, press "o" on the wall above the vent to align it.(may need to press ">" afterward.

[Ninjakitty]

Thanks! I think there may be inconsistencies in the map between different versions of Shadow Warrior. Which version are you using? The explosion used to knock you off the bridge but I took that part out because you wouldn't see where the key went and you wouldn't land in the right place. The explosion isn't supposed to knock you off the bridge any more. What is supposed to happen is while you are approaching the key, an explosion spawns next to it (and not close enough to the player to affect the player) and the key gets flung over and past the wall of wooden crates as result of the explosion (the player can only see this happen when they don't get knocked off the bridge). The "o" key helped align that particular wall, but there are some that just won't align for some reason.
Also, the gray ninjas are stepping on and are surrounded by quickjump sprites. Either they don't like vators or the vators are too small of a platform to jump on.


Also, don't worry about me not taking enough time. I have a LOT of time and I'm not afraid to use it.    

[Ninjakitty]

"Hitag 29: SECT_LOCK_DOOR
TAG2 = type
1 = RED KEYCARD
2 = BLUE KEYCARD
3 = GREEN KEYCARD
4 = YELLOW KEYCARD
5 = GOLD MASTER KEY
6 = SILVER MASTER KEY
7 = BRONZE MASTER KEY
8 = RED MASTER KEY

Lock the door. Must have the correct key to open it. Works for
rotating, sliding, and all vator uses including switches. Place it in
the same sector with a SECT_VATOR (hitag 92), SECT_ROTATOR
(hitag 143), or SECT_SLIDOR (hitag 145).
EXAMPLES: EB in EXAMPLE.MAP"
There's no option for ram cards!(I'm using ram cards because they look cool) How can I make a door unlockable with a ram card?

[Robman]

tag it like a keycard if I remember correctly.

Keys And Keyholes:

3.4.1 Keys (picnums 1765-1779)

These are the keys used to unlock doors (ignore the little dog
sprites.) You can mix and match key types in a level, but be
aware that some keys will overwrite the others in the status bar
when the player picks it up. A gold master key will overwrite
a red keycard, a silver master key will overwrite a blue keycard,
a bronze master key will overwrite a green keycard, and a red
master key will overwrite a yellow keycard.

3.4.2 Keyholes (picnums 1846, 1850, and 1852)

These are the sprites the player operates to unlock a door with
a key. Always set the lotag to 29. Set the hitag equal to the lotag
of the SECT_LOCK_DOOR (hitag 29) ST1. The BUILD editor will
automatically set the palette of the keyhole when you re-enter 3D
mode from 2D mode. Use the correct style of keyhole to match the
desired key.

[Ninjakitty]

I just found out about a few minutes ago that the lock wasn't the problem, the st1 sprite for the door was facing the wrong direction. *FACEPALM

[Ninjakitty]

Is there a way to silence the drip generator?

[Ninjakitty]

SWP build keeps on crashing. This is all I've found in the log file
"Initialising timer
initcache(): Initialised with 1048576 bytes
Setting video mode 1024x768 (8-bit windowed)
SwpBuild by ProAsm - Version 1.2 - Revision 331

Fatal Signal caught: SIGSEGV. Bailing out.
Uninitialising DirectDraw...
- Releasing DirectDraw object
- Unloading DDRAW.DLL
Uninitialising DirectInput...
- Releasing keyboard device
- Releasing mouse device
- Releasing DirectInput object
- Unloading DINPUT.DLL"
It only happens in 3d build mode and it only seems to happen on my map at completely random places and times.
Is there any way to fix this?

*Edit:
It hasn't crashed for a few hours now so I think my computer messed up. My computer does weird things if you don't give it about ten to 20 minutes after startup before doing anything.

[Ninjakitty]

How do you build a mirror? I followed the tutorial but it still won't work.

Nevermind, I got it to work.

[Robman]

I'm not sure about the crash you're having, try to figure out which walls or effect is causing it.

There's no way to turn the sound off for the drip generator (which sucks)