The Options Dialog

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Phobos
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The Options Dialog

Post by Phobos » 2007-01-21, 21:33

Hi, I use Linux Ubuntu 6.10. Is there a way to setup Options (runmode, player name...) at the Linux SDK. Change Level via console works fine, but how can I test multiplayer if I can't start pure clients. Using Wine I get the following message: "Could not fill List with game names". Are there more Console Commands than documentated in the "list"? Is there a list of the game variables (level, player name, weapons, ammo...) I can change via console (or maybe a selfmade ingame panel)?
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Carsten
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Post by Carsten » 2007-01-22, 15:51

Hi Phobos,
welcome to the Ca3DE forums! :welcome:
Change Level via console works fine, but how can I test multiplayer if I can't start pure clients.
Please try to start the Ca3DE executable with the -help option, it will print a list of command-line switches that allow you to set everything that is normally set in the dialog under Windows.
Using Wine I get the following message: "Could not fill List with game names".
Well, I'd recommend to run the Linux-native ELF executable rather than the Windows PE executables under Wine, but both under Linux and under Windows the working directory from which the Ca3DE executable is run must be the one that contains the executable, i.e. you'd run the engine as ./Ca3DE from the command-line.
Under Windows, the message that you mention is a typical result of the working directory being different from the one the Ca3DE.exe file is in.
Are there more Console Commands than documentated in the "list"? Is there a list of the game variables (level, player name, weapons, ammo...) I can change via console (or maybe a selfmade ingame panel)?
Well... good questions, but I'd like to answer them indirectly:

For the first week of February I've planned to release a completely new Ca3DE Demo package, plus a related SDK soon thereafter.
  • With regards to the "Options" dialog under Windows, and the equivalent command-line switches for Linux (they also work under Windows btw.), things will remain as-is, but for future releases the plan is to replace the "Options" dialog entirely with an in-game GUI in combination with the new Lua-based Console System (see below). The new system would work equally under Windows and Linux, but will not make it into the February 2007 release.
  • The Console System already has undergone significant changes: With the upcoming February release, the console will actually be a real Lua interpreter, allowing you to write entire Lua scripts at the console if desired. See the website of the Lua programming language for details about Lua.
    The new Console System also makes adding new ConVars and ConFuncs to Ca3DE much easier, and in fact the February release will come with more ConVars+ConFuncs than any older Ca3DE release, but adding more such vars and funcs is an ongoing progress, so that you'll find some of the vars you asked for only in releases that follow the next one.
    The new console command cf.list(); will list all available convars and confuncs, use cf.help(); for help message.
Okay, hope that answers (some of) your questions, just continue to ask otherwise. ;)
Best regards,
Carsten
Phobos
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Joined:2007-01-21, 21:13

Post by Phobos » 2007-01-23, 14:10

OK, thanks for the fast answer. "./Ca3DE" works fine. "Ca3DE" dont work (all Files are inside there standard folders). I used the ./ before with the configure Command in many installations. I dont understand what ./ exactly do (Google ignore the ./). I use Linux for only 3 Month, so there are some basics missing.

The new features in february sounds great. I will try to use Ca3DE to build some kind of chat community and want put some NPC into the world. Hit a special key near the NPC should start a simple dialog (for example an help menue). Another thing I´m interressted in, is to create moving objekts (doors,...) and a dialog to change levels. I coded things like that in 3DGS using a C-Script language - hope it will be possible with Ca3DE and LUA too.

In the DeathMatch files I found some German comments. Do you speak german? May I can ask some things (more difficult) in german PM´s.
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Carsten
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Post by Carsten » 2007-01-23, 21:16

Phobos wrote:OK, thanks for the fast answer. "./Ca3DE" works fine. "Ca3DE" dont work (all Files are inside there standard folders). I used the ./ before with the configure Command in many installations. I dont understand what ./ exactly do (Google ignore the ./). I use Linux for only 3 Month, so there are some basics missing.
The ./Ca3DE is right. See for example http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/faq/p ... on-13.html for information about this.
The new features in february sounds great. I will try to use Ca3DE to build some kind of chat community and want put some NPC into the world. Hit a special key near the NPC should start a simple dialog (for example an help menue). Another thing I´m interressted in, is to create moving objekts (doors,...) and a dialog to change levels. I coded things like that in 3DGS using a C-Script language - hope it will be possible with Ca3DE and LUA too.
Yes, most of the things that you describe should be possible to implement with Ca3DE as-is (that is, with the C++ game code of the upcoming release), the rest will certainly be possible with the release after that, when I've added the Lua scripting support.
In the DeathMatch files I found some German comments. Do you speak german? May I can ask some things (more difficult) in german PM´s.
Yes, I speak German, even natively. ;)
However, I'd prefer to answer questions in the forums (not via PM) and in English, because only then the question and the answer is available to the majority of the Ca3DE community. Leo at http://dict.leo.org/ is a really great help if you have trouble with english vocabulary, btw.
Of course, if nothing else helps and in rare exceptions, please feel free to post in German (also in the public forums). I or someone else will then summarize the issue in English. :cheesy:
Best regards,
Carsten
Phobos
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Post by Phobos » 2007-01-24, 00:14

I already guess, that this is the funktioen of ./ - now I know it for sure :)

http://dict.leo.org/ is already my favorite dictionary :wink:

I was impressed by the TechDemo using terrain - I found a standard ubuntu package called terraform and created some greyscale high-maps (same size as the Demo map [the png, not the ter file]). When I put these maps into CaWE they are always flat. I tryed many different file formats (described at the wiki) but the compiler always writes:

FATAL ERROR: Could not read heightmap at "...

A very simple high-map, painted with Gimp, brings the same result - whats wrong (I thought high maps are very simple - in 3DGS maps created with MS Paint worked fine [ok, these maps were very ugly]).

Which criteria I have to meet to get working high-maps?

Please consider that most tools are Windows only (and I dont want to hear "use Windows").
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Carsten
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Post by Carsten » 2007-01-24, 12:18

Phobos wrote:FATAL ERROR: Could not read heightmap at "...
Is that the exact error message? :?:

In any case, it clearly says that there is a problem loading the heightmap, which means that either the heightmap file itself was not found, or that it was found but doesn't meet the requirements mentioned at http://www.ca3d-engine.de/wiki/mapping: ... heightmaps
Best regards,
Carsten
Phobos
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Joined:2007-01-21, 21:13

Post by Phobos » 2007-01-24, 17:20

I configured terraform to save maps with 257x257, but the files were saved with 256x256. I fixed that with Gimp and it works. I didn´t get the texture over my maps - I´ll try again today, because it was late yesterday and I´m not sure if I did something stupid :?
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Carsten
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Post by Carsten » 2007-01-25, 11:44

Phobos wrote:I didn´t get the texture over my maps
You'll have to create a material definition in a new or one of the existing cmat files. For example, you may look up the definition of the Terrains/TechDemo/Island material in the Games/DeathMatch/Materials/Terrains.cmat file, which you may copy as a template for your own material definition.

The code below shows the example material mentioned above. I've removed most of the comments though, and highlighted the lines that are worthwhile to be modified instead. You should not (have to) modify the other lines.

Code: Select all

Terrains/TechDemo/Island    // Put your own material name here!
{
    AmbientShader A_Terrain
    LightShader   none1234
 // noDynLight

    diffusemap Terrains/TechDemo/Island-BaseTex.jpg, wrapS clampToEdge, wrapT clampToEdge       // Put your own base texture here.
    lightmap   $lightmap
    lumamap    Textures/Terrains/CommonDetail1.png      // "A_Terrain" takes the Luma-map as Detail-map (optional).

    shaderParamExpr fParam4
    shaderParamExpr fParam5
    shaderParamExpr fParam6
    shaderParamExpr fParam7
    shaderParamExpr fParam8
    shaderParamExpr fParam9
    shaderParamExpr fParam10
    shaderParamExpr fParam11
    shaderParamExpr 300                 // Scale / Repetitions of the Detail-map.

    twoSided
}
Best regards,
Carsten
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