Scripts, changing Garrett model (3rd person), etc

[ascottk]

Instead of lurking all the time, I decided to register . . .

Anyway, I have a few questions regarding sliding doors, opening doors after dialog, and changing the Garrett model in third person mode. I'm using the first part of the training mission from TDP that [NAUC]Chief converted.

First question: do sliding doors actually work? I don't remember if there were those types of doors in TDS. If so how can I open them after a character's dialog? (which leads to question #2). Most of the doors in the training mission automatically open after dialog.

Third question: There's a few FMs who don't use Garrett as the central character and I assume T3 FMs will follow that route. Is there a way to change the model in third person mode? It would be great if I could substitute a younger Garrett for the TDS Garrett for the training mission.

Thanks.

[Krypt]

First question: do sliding doors actually work? I don't remember if there were those types of doors in TDS. If so how can I open them after a character's dialog? (which leads to question #2). Most of the doors in the training mission automatically open after dialog.

Yes, sliding doors work, but weren't ever really used in the T-DS maps. You have to make them manually. First, add a door from some other category if there was one in Hinged that you want to change to sliding. Open its actor links and delete the HingedAttachment link. Now add a new link of type SlidingAttachment, and copy the actor name down at the bottom to the TO: field, which links the object to itself. Now your door should slide instead of rotate. You'll probably want to change the sounds on it though since hinged door sounds don't really fit sliding doors. To do that, go to the scripts on the door and set bEnableScriptInherit to false and delete all the scripts with names like Wood1DoorClosing or Wood1DoorOpening. Then add WoodSlidingDoorMoving and WoodSlidingDoorStopping instead. You can find these in the Triggerscript browser under GameObjects>ObjectSounds.

To open the door at the end of a conversation, you need to create some new scripts. First of all you'll probably want to turn off frobbing on the door so the player can't go open it before you want him to. Set Frob>FrobBias and Highlight>HighlightDist both to 0 on the door to disallow frobbing. At the end of your conversation you'll want to set a flag like ConversationWithGuyDone=true. Then create a new script with condition "When ConversationWithGuyDone is set to true" and action "Open any doors on linked object(s) MYSELF". Put that script on the door and you should be good to go.

Third question: There's a few FMs who don't use Garrett as the central character and I assume T3 FMs will follow that route. Is there a way to change the model in third person mode? It would be great if I could substitute a younger Garrett for the TDS Garrett for the training mission.

I have no idea how you would change the player model, unfortunately. It might be hardcoded, but it also might be in gamesys somewhere, so I'd look around in there and see if you can find anything. Chances are you'd run into some problems replacing the Garrett model because the other ones don't have all the animations and such.

[ascottk]

The only thing I can think of replacing the Garrett player model (or textures) is going outside of the editor by using an installer similar to John P.'s hi-res texture installers. I haven't installed them since I installed the editor so I don't know if that'll work. I wonder if FM authors could use a similar installer (good grief . . . how many times am I going to use the word "installer"?) to use their maps in the game AND temporarily apply a new texture of the Garrett model?

[Harwin]

In one of the few settings that's NOT in the gamesys, the choice of archetype for the player is elsewhere. It might be possible to set it in the ini file (look around for an archetype name there of the form D_### or P_### (or whatever our other prefix was for hidden archetype names)), but it might be imbedded in the code.

[ascottk]

Well, I've been looking around in the actor class browser and the Default ini and I've managed to create a new archetype inherited from Garrett in the PlayerPawn. Under [DefaultPlayer] I changed Class=T3Gamesys.D_584 to Class=T3Gamesys.P_3 (my new archetype) and it worked like a charm. So now I can add or remove links with this new player archetype (such as replacing his mechanical eye, removing his puches and quiver, etc.) and it'll show up in the editor. I wonder if default.ini could be modified in the middle of gameplay? There's also Skin=T3Player.TestTex1 and Face=T3Player.TestTex2 and I have no idea what those are referring to.

[Rosd]

You know, it occurs to me that if someone were to edit the Garret animations that came with the game to not have the head move (or move smoother), then the first person mode might not be so jerky. Maybe it's just something a little tweaking could fix.

[ascottk]

If you add the Garrett_mesh from the static mesh browser (not from the actor class browser) into a map then you could see that Garrett loses his head when you change to first person. Then it reattaches when you go back to third person. In the skeleton browser you'll find that gar_e3 has no head. Garrett_08 does have his head. When you look at Garrett_mesh in the static mesh browser you'll see that his face is nearly featureless. So I'm assuming that the head is actually used as the first person camera. Hmmm . . I don't know where to go with that . . .

[ascottk]

There's two skins for Garrett. The regular skin and stitch-mode you can select under the PlayerGarrett archetype. I guess you need to edit Garrett's skeleton mesh in order to reskin it.

[ascottk]

I've been experimenting with Milkshape (according to Shockeye the software doesn't support bone weights) but once a workable skeletal mesh is imported into T3Ed then here's some ideas:

All you need is a *psk in the SkeletalMeshes folder. In order to use a skeletal mesh for the player you need the the same number of bones as Garrett_08 (125 bones) & have those bones in the same position as Garrett_08. I imported Garrett_08 into mikshape with t3import by Shockeye. I left the bones unaltered & changed the surrounding mesh. There's a lot of distortion with Milkshape but I was able to control the new Garrett even though he looked funky.

Once there all you need to do is copy a *.ski file & alter the information with notepad to fit your new mesh. For example (If your new mesh is Garrett_NEW) Garrett_NEW.ski:

v5
Garrett_NEW
0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
1.000000 1.000000 1.000000
1  0 10 0
10 1.000000 0.300000 0.000000 0.000000
MeshFlags=N
1
0.000000
7
garrett_08
Flags=
garrett_08_2nd
Flags=
garrett_08_3rd_jump
Flags=
garrett_08_3rd
Flags=
garrett_08_3rd_nav
Flags=
0

This only to tell T3Ed that the Garrett_NEW.psk is to use the animations used by Garrett_08. T3Ed will automatically generate the *.pro files. If you need to alter the offset of the mesh you can do it within T3Ed's skeleton browser.

Then you can create an archetype under PlayerGarrett & have the SkeletalTag property (under Render) = Garrett_NEW & change the skin with the MaterialSkin property.

Then you change the user.ini to (unverified):

[DefaultPlayer]
Class=T3Gamesys.p_4

Class is the new archetype shown on the title bar of your Actor Class window. The default class is T3Gamesys.D_584

You could also make a fake Garrett by importing bones from a NPC & copy the surrounding mesh of Garrett_08 to the NPC bones. Then assigning the *.ski to use animations used by the NPC.