Q: How can I create a vertical door that opens when the player approaches it and closes by itself when the player moves away from it?
A: Here's a fully working example.
SOUND* doorsound_wav = "doorsound.wav";
action players_code() // attach this action to your player model
{
var movement_speed = 20;
VECTOR temp;
set (my, INVISIBLE);
player = my;
while (1)
{
my.pan -= 7 * mouse_force.x * time_step;
vec_set (temp.x, my.x);
temp.z -= 10000;
temp.z = 0;
temp.z = -c_trace (my.x, temp.x, IGNORE_ME | IGNORE_PASSABLE | USE_BOX) - 2;
temp.x = movement_speed * (key_w - key_s) * time_step;
temp.y = movement_speed * (key_a - key_d) * 0.6 * time_step;
c_move (my, temp.x, nullvector, IGNORE_PASSABLE | GLIDE);
camera.x = my.x;
camera.y = my.y;
camera.z = my.z + 50;
camera.pan = my.pan;
camera.tilt += 5 * mouse_force.y * time_step;
wait (1);
}
}
action my_door()
{
var init_z;
init_z = my.z;
while (!player) {wait (1);} // make sure to add the "player = my;" line of code to your player action
while (1)
{
while (vec_dist (player.x, my.x) > 200) {wait (1);} // play with 200
snd_play (doorsound_wav, 100, 0);
// this loop opens the door
while (my.z < init_z + 100) // the door will move upwards 100 quants
{
my.z += 15 * time_step; // 15 = door upwards movement speed
wait (1);
}
// this section closes the door
while (vec_dist (player.x, my.x) < 300) {wait (1);} // wait until the player moves away, use a bigger value here
snd_play (doorsound_wav, 100, 0);
while (my.z > init_z) // the door will move downwards now
{
my.z -= 10 * time_step; // 10 = door downwards movement speed
wait (1);
}
my.z = init_z; // set the door z coordinate at the exact, initial height value
}
}
Q: How do I create timed doors that open when the player approaches them and close after a few seconds, no matter if the player is near them or far away?
A: Use this snippet as a base for your code.
SOUND* doorsound_wav = "doorsound.wav";
action timed_door()
{
var init_z;
var waiting_time = 5;
init_z = my.z;
while (!player) {wait (1);} // make sure to add the "player = my;" line of code to your player action
while (1)
{
while (vec_dist (player.x, my.x) > 200) {wait (1);} // play with 200
snd_play (doorsound_wav, 100, 0);
while (my.z < init_z + 100) // the door will move upwards 100 quants
{
my.z += 15 * time_step; // 15 = door upwards movement speed
wait (1);
}
// this section closes the door after 5 seconds, play with waiting_time to edit it
my.skill62 = 0;
while (my.skill62 < waiting_time)
{
my.skill62 += time_step / 16;
wait (1);
}
snd_play (doorsound_wav, 100, 0);
while (my.z > init_z) // the door will move downwards now
{
my.z -= 10 * time_step; // 10 = door downwards movement speed
wait (1);
}
my.z = init_z; // set the door z coordinate at the exact, initial height value
// now wait until the player has moved away from the door before allowing it to open the door once again
while (vec_dist (player.x, my.x) < 250) {wait (1);} // play with 250, make it bigger than 200
}
}
Q: How do you create a door that locks the player in a room until it defeats an enemy?
A: Take a look at the snippet below.
var enemy_health = 100;
SOUND* doorsound_wav = "doorsound.wav";
SOUND* hit_wav = "hit.wav";
BMAP* pointer_tga = "pointer.tga";
function mouse_startup()
{
mouse_mode = 2;
mouse_map = pointer_tga;
while (1)
{
vec_set(mouse_pos, mouse_cursor);
wait(1);
}
}
function got_clicked()
{
if (event_type == EVENT_CLICK)
{
enemy_health -= 50; // click the enemy twice to kill it
snd_play (hit_wav, 100, 0);
}
}
action my_enemy()
{
var idle_percentage = 0;
var death_percentage = 0;
my.emask |= ENABLE_CLICK; // the enemy is sensitive to mouse clicks
my.event = got_clicked; // and runs this function when it is clicked using the left mouse button
while (enemy_health > 0)
{
ent_animate(my, "stand", idle_percentage, ANM_CYCLE); // play the "stand" animation
idle_percentage += 3 * time_step; // "3" controls the "stand" animation speed
wait (1);
}
// the enemy is dead here
my.event = NULL; // so let's set its event to NULL
while (death_percentage < 100) // the loop runs until the "death" animation percentage reaches 100%
{
ent_animate(my, "death", death_percentage, NULL); // play the "die" animation only once
death_percentage += 3 * time_step; // "3" controls the "death" animation speed
wait (1);
}
set (my, PASSABLE); // allow the player to pass through the corpse now
}
action wicked_door()
{
var init_z;
init_z = my.z;
while (!player) {wait (1);} // make sure to add the "player = my;" line of code to your player action
while (1)
{
while (vec_dist (player.x, my.x) > 200) {wait (1);} // play with 200
snd_play (doorsound_wav, 100, 0);
// this loop opens the door
while (my.z < init_z + 100) // the door will move upwards 100 quants
{
my.z += 15 * time_step; // 15 = door upwards movement speed
wait (1);
}
// this section closes the door
while (vec_dist (player.x, my.x) < 300) {wait (1);} // wait until the player moves away, use a bigger value here
snd_play (doorsound_wav, 100, 0);
while (my.z > init_z) // the door will move downwards now
{
my.z -= 10 * time_step; // 10 = door downwards movement speed
wait (1);
}
my.z = init_z; // set the door z coordinate at the exact, initial height value
while (enemy_health > 0) {wait (1);} // don't allow the door to open until the enemy is defeated
}
}
Q: How do you create a door trigger? A piece of geometry is placed in the level, made invisible, and given a trigger behavior. Then a door skill is set to match. When the player approaches the trigger, the door opens and stays open.
A: There you go.
SOUND* doorsound_wav = "doorsound.wav";
// set skill1 to the desired value using Wed
action triggered_door()
{
var door_closed = 1;
// wait until the player model is loaded, add "player = my;" to your player action
while (!player) {wait (1);}
if (my.skill1 == 0) // if the player forgets to set skill1 for the door in Wed
my.skill1 = 2; // give it a default value of 2
while (door_closed == 1)
{
// scan around, trying to detect triggers
c_scan(my.x, my.pan, vector(360, 180, 1000), IGNORE_ME | SCAN_ENTS | SCAN_FLAG2); // play with 1000
// the trigger will be detected if it is closer than 1,000 quants to the trigger entity
if (you) // an entity was detected?
{
if (you.skill1 == my.skill1) // detected the proper trigger?
{
if (vec_dist(player.x, you.x) < 100) // and the player is close to the trigger?
{
snd_play (doorsound_wav, 100, 0);
my.skill44 = my.z;
while (my.z < my.skill44 + 100) // the door will move upwards 100 quants
{
my.z += 15 * time_step; // 15 = door upwards movement speed
wait (1);
}
return; // get out of this function - the door is open now
}
}
}
wait (3); // no need to use precious cpu resources with this action
}
}
// set skill1 to the desired value using Wed
action door_trigger()
{
set (my, INVISIBLE | PASSABLE);
set (my, FLAG2); // set flag2 for all the triggers
if (my.skill1 == 0) // if the player forgets to set skill1 for the trigger in Wed
my.skill1 = 2; // give it a default value of 2
while (1)
{
if (vec_dist(player.x, my.x) < 100)
{
// the player has come close to the door, so the door should open!
my.skill99 = 1;
}
wait (1);
}
}
Q: What is an easy way of counting how many entities of a certain type (for example guard.mdl) are present in a level?
A: Here's an easy method.
var counter = 0;
STRING* temp_str = " ";
function entities_startup()
{
you = ent_next(NULL); // retrieve the first entity
while (you)
{
str_for_entfile(temp_str, you);
if (str_cmpi(temp_str, "guard.mdl")) // use the name of the desired entity here
counter += 1;
you = ent_next(you); // move on to the next entity
}
}
PANEL* counter_pan =
{
layer = 15;
digits(10, 10, "Number of entities: %.f", *, 1, counter);
flags = SHOW;
}
Q: My friend is trying to play my game on his laptop and because the resolution needs to be smaller than 1024x768 it automatically switches to 800x600. How do I stop it from doing that?
A: Modify your game, making it detect the native screen resolution of the laptop - here's how:
STRING* yourlevel_wmb = "yourlevel.wmb";
function main()
{
video_set(sys_metrics(0), sys_metrics(1), 32, 1); // detect and use the best screen resolution
level_load (yourlevel_wmb);
// put the rest of your main function code here
}
Q: Would it slow down my game to run several c_scan instructions at once? Say like 25 enemies and the player.
A: I ran some tests on an older computer (Core 2 Duo CPU @2.66GHz, 3GB of Ram, Ati Radeon 5770) using the function below, which runs a s_scan instruction each frame.
action c_scan_test()
{
while (1)
{
c_scan(my.x, my.pan, vector(360, 180, 1000), IGNORE_ME | SCAN_ENTS | SCAN_FLAG2); // play with 1000
wait (1); // no need to use precious cpu resources with this action
}
}
The test models have 786 vertices each, and all of them were visible at the same time. Here are the results:
- 1 model -> fps = 512
- 10 models -> fps = 512
- 25 models -> fps = 512
- 100 models -> fps = 512
- 300 models -> fps = 340
I realize that the code for your 25 enemies will include more than a c_scan instruction, of course, but the results of this test show clearly that your 25 enemies won't slow down the engine at all. Oh, and here's a shot with those 300 soldiers.
Q: I have a 2048 * 2048 pixels texture. Is it better to scale it down to 0.250 of its original size (512 * 512 pixels) in WED, or to simply scale down the original texture in my image editor?
A: Always set the proper texture size in your image editor; this way, your texture will use less video memory. Not only that, but the quality of the resized image should be better if you use a high quality image editor like Adobe Photoshop, etc.
Q: How do you restart a project? In other words, how to you execute the main script again, in order to retry a mission if the player has lost its life?
A: Here's a fully functional example with a player that can lose its life. When this happens, you can restart the level.
var players_health = 100;
function kill_player()
{
if (event_type == EVENT_IMPACT || event_type == EVENT_ENTITY) // the player has collided with an entity?
{
if (you.skill20 == 1234) // and that entity was the actual enemy?
players_health = 0; // then kill the player!
}
}
action my_player() // attach this action to your player model
{
var movement_speed = 20;
VECTOR temp;
set (my, INVISIBLE);
player = my;
my.emask |= (ENABLE_IMPACT | ENABLE_ENTITY);
my.event = kill_player;
while (players_health > 0)
{
my.pan -= 7 * mouse_force.x * time_step;
vec_set (temp.x, my.x);
temp.z -= 10000;
temp.z = 0;
temp.z = -c_trace (my.x, temp.x, IGNORE_ME | IGNORE_PASSABLE | USE_BOX) - 2;
temp.x = movement_speed * (key_w - key_s) * time_step;
temp.y = movement_speed * (key_a - key_d) * 0.6 * time_step;
c_move (my, temp.x, nullvector, IGNORE_PASSABLE | GLIDE);
camera.x = my.x;
camera.y = my.y;
camera.z = my.z + 50;
camera.pan = my.pan;
camera.tilt += 5 * mouse_force.y * time_step;
wait (1);
}
camera.ambient = -100; // time to darken the screen
// the player is dead here - press the "R" key to restart the level
while (!key_r) {wait (1);} // wait until the player presses the "R" key
while (key_r) {wait (1);} // wait until the player releases the "R" key
// we need to restore player's health value before starting the level again
// the variable values aren't loaded after a level_load instruction - that's why we have to set them manually
players_health = 100;
camera.ambient = 0; // let's get rid of the screen darkness
// now we can run function main, so that the level is loaded again
main(); // run function main again
}
action my_enemy() // simply run into the enemy to kill the player
{
my.skill20 = 1234; // uniquely identify this enemy
}
Q: How can you check if a specific game save file exists before loading?
A: Here's a simplified function taken from the RPG template.
function load_game() // trying to load the rpg1.sav file here
{
if (game_load("rpg", 1) <= 0) // couldn't load the game?
{
error("Game Loading Error!"); // then let's display an error message!
}
else // the game was loaded successfully here
{
clear_panels(); // the game was loaded, so create a function that hides the load menu panels
}
}