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Working, but invisible elevator (func_train)

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 6:30 pm UTC
by UnnomedPlayer

Hello all:

I just recently found Unvanquished and thought I'd try my hand at map making. I'd created a few maps for the original Half Life game years ago for use in some private LAN parties (to my knowledge they never were distributed publicly), so I'm not a complete noob, but I'm admittedly no expert by any stretch. I did read through the Unvanquished and Tremulous map making tutorials/instructions found in the wiki, but they didn't appear to cover any aspect of the issue I'm currently experiencing.

Anyway, I'm currently running into an issue in trying to incorporate an elevator (func_train) into my first Unvanquished map. I carefully tried to emulate how the elevators were created in the game supplied maps (Parpax and Spacetracks in particular) and managed to get something that is technically working (sans sounds), but at the top and bottom of it's path, when it's stopped it becomes completely invisible. Again, the elevator is functional in that the user is able to walk into the elevator where they see the shaft interior sans elevator and they can even trigger the elevator movement. When the elevator is stopped and invisible, the user appears to be floating within the shaft. Once the elevator starts moving it becomes visible again. Upon stopping at the destination it goes invisible again and the user appears to be floating once more.

The following is the URL for a download of the compiled test map (pk3 file includes source map file): https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7vncsx6hcduy ... junk_1.pk3 [dropbox]

Here are the details with regard to how it's being built:

Code: Select all

q3map2 -leaktest -samplesize 16 -meta junk.map
q3map2 -vis -saveprt -hint junk.map
q3map2 -light -faster -samples 2 -patchshadows -lightmapsize 1024 -deluxe junk.map

Tooling:
NetRadiant 1.5 on Windows 32-bit (couldn't get 64 bit to work on Windows and the Linux version didn't work well in a VM)
q3map2 (2.5.17n-git-a7e6001) on Linux 64 bit (same results with 32 bit on Windows as well as well)
Unvanquished 0.30.0 and 0.29.0 64-bit on Windows

Logs:
compile - https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv3fe9r5s2v722s/build.log
unvanquished - https://www.dropbox.com/s/5skymec4ed8s2uu/daemon.log

Note that there doesn't appear to be any issues with the behavior of elevators or any other elements found in any of the game supplied maps. I've yet to recompile any of them fully to test that it's not something with my setup, but I did attempt to copy the elevator from the Parpax map into my test map and the results were the same (with the exception of my test map then including a slightly better looking elevator).

Has anyone run into this issue before? I did search the forum and the Internet at large to no avail.

Please let me know if you need any additional information.

Thanks in advance!

  • Unnomed

Re: Working, but invisible elevator (func_train)

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 7:07 pm UTC
by UnnomedPlayer

FYI: I did manage to get a clean and playable compile of Parpax (after having to explode the contents of the tex-common_2.0.pk3 file in my pkg folder???) and found no issues with the appearance of the elevator in that map, which seems to point to an issue with my map/elevator definition rather than an issue with my setup.

Also, it's important to note that there is a trigger inside my test elevator on the forward part of the left wall (facing inwards towards the back of the elevator). There is an issue where triggering the elevator from within will sometimes cause the player to get caught and crushed. I'm not sure why as the trigger and button closely match the size and location of their equivalents in Parpax. However, this isn't something you need to concern yourself with at this time. This is just to give you a heads-up that if you trigger the elevator from within it may crush you. For this reason you may want to stick with triggering it from the outside.

Thanks again,

  • UnnomedPlayer

Re: Working, but invisible elevator (func_train)

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 9:40 pm UTC
by kharnov

I asked one of our mappers on IRC:

<Supertan1er> kharnov, there are 3+ path_corners at the top and bottom of each shaft. They look like they are overlapping but they are not.
<Supertan1er> The must be separated by at least 1 unit or so.
<Supertan1er> make sure the path_corners are separated.
<Supertan1er> And not all snapped to the same grid coordinate.
<Supertan1er> If you look closely at the elevators in spacetracks, you can see that it jerks slightly when the button is pressed.


Re: Working, but invisible elevator (func_train)

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:23 pm UTC
by Tom

Also, welcome! :smile:


Re: Working, but invisible elevator (func_train)

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:30 pm UTC
by UnnomedPlayer

Thank you, kharnov!. That was indeed the problem. After separating the three path points at each floor it works as expected. All is well except that I now feel a bit foolish for having overlooked that small detail! :shy:

To (hopefully) avoid future embarrassment, is there a good, on-line guide/reference for creating more advanced features, such as elevators? None of the on-line mapping tutorials that I was able to find had instructions for such things.

Thanks again!

  • UnnomedPlayer

EDIT:

Tom wrote:

Also, welcome! :smile:

Thanks!


Re: Working, but invisible elevator (func_train)

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 12:19 am UTC
by kharnov

Keep us updated on your progress, I like to look at what mappers get around to doing. I'm also glad you were able to figure out our file system!