What would happen if...

[Urre]

I'm pretty sure CSQC requires FTEQCC. But um, no I haven't heard of such a csqc base mod. That'd be neat though. Same goes for menuqc.

[frag.machine]

Guys, please don't get me wrong. I am NOT trying to spoil the fun, but I think that if the goal is to have a community mod here we should start small and simple. Yeah, I know, there are lots of cool ideas popping around, but we really should keep the thing simple - at least in the start.

Wazat idea of a rune-based mod inspired me and I am writing some QC aiming a "rune plugin" mod. Right now I have the thing working with one single regen rune that can be plugged/detached (via impulses) to the player body, weapon, armor and/or ammo pocket, but there are a couple annoying bugs to squish before I could release. Once I'm done I'll upload the code and a minimalist test map so you guys can decide if it's worth as a starting point for a community mod project or we should scrap it and go back to the planning stage.

EDIT: for spell check only

[Wazat]

Starting simple sounds good to me. I've been working on making the framework for dropping and picking up weapons in the various slots (idea discussed above), but I've hit a snag with arrays. I think I'll ask for help on it in a different thread.

[Wazat]

Progress Report:

I now have a mod that gives you 5 weapon slots. The first slot is always the axe, but you can fill the other 4 slots with any weapon you find. Just hold shift and press the weapon #. There are a few more bugs to work out, but the system works. Woo-hoo!

Once I've got the weapon system fully squared away, I'll move on to either runes or monsters.

When all 3 are in place, I'll write instructions for adding stuff and release the framework as a possible community mod and see who's interested in contributing.

It's starting! Awesome that this is what finally got me modding again, lol.

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edit:
Current bugs:

-Cannot drop a weapon unless you're picking up up one to replace it. Can't figure out why, but I will retry again tomorrow or so.

-Either weapons occasionally stop respawning on accident, or they're falling out of the level. I'll need to figure out which it is.

-Weapons you drop won't auto-refill a player's ammo as he passes by (normal weapon items do). It's probably a problem with the .touch being different or something...?

FTEQCC problems (which I need help with!):

-FTEQCC crashes if I don't turn off "fast arrays when possible"

-The game crashes if I don't turn off FTEQCC's overlaptemps option. Do I need to fix my code or something?

-FTEQCC does not appear to have a "save settings" option, and it doesn't produce a cfg file like FrikQCC. This means I have to set the options every time I open the compiler, or either the compiler or the game will crash violently.

-It might make a decent GUI for editing code if only CTRL+S actually saved the file. It drives me nuts to have to click on the file menu with my mouse. And closing files is sometimes challenging because when a file window is maximized, its X for closing it is grayed-out. Not a huge problem but... why?
I'm using WinXP, so maybe it's a platform thing.

--

I have to say, it does a really nice job with the arrays. That's saved me so much pain and suffering. If I can just fix some weirdisms with it I'll like it so much more.

[frag.machine]

Cool! If you want I can send to you my tests with the rune plugin mod.

[RenegadeC]

Now all you have to do Wazat is visit #qc and idle there forever

[Spike]

I'm pretty sure CSQC requires FTEQCC.

It does not.

FTEQCC does provide some nice features which makes things easier, however. So many mods require it. But the api does not.

Regarding your FTEQCC issues...

- I'm not aware of any current issues with fast arrays in fteqcc. See next issue. If it were DP refusing to load it, then update DP supposedly.

- if overlaptemps is causing a crash, its likly a nested function call being miscompiled somewhere. Update to the latest version (one of the 'daily' compiles should fix this, thanks to Black.. but its possible that you've found some other way).

- FTEQCC's gui doesn't save any settings. Settings can be provided to the gui version via the commandline. You can do that with the normal batch file (-Fno-fastarrays). The gui isn't really all that good, tbh, but it does provide a couple of nice features.

- Probably due to something weird in the windows API which I didn't manage to take into consideration (due to not having a clue how to use it properly). I don't remember this, but its been quite a while since I used fteqcc gui.

[Wazat]

I may just do the command line version with those options, and skip the gui entirely for now. Despite these problems, I'm very thankful I was able to use fteqcc. Without it I'd be doing things the hard way, like I did in Conquest.

BTW, fteqcc itself crashes (not DP) at the end of the compile with fast arrays enabled. overlaptemps crashes when I run DP.

I'm pondering over whether to tackle runes or monsters next. Monsters will need some work to be swarm worthy, and runes should be simple once the framework for them is in place (which should be relatively simple). However, monsters interest me most at the moment. I've been pondering over ways to make them prowl the level consistently and thoroughly, and handle multiple players in the area.

How's Rune Plugin going then? Is it fairly robust and clean, or is it clunky? My plan has been to roll my own framework so I can make it clean and simple and still very expandable, but if everything we need and more is provided already then I'd consider a plugin mod.

[leileilol]

fteqcc also doesn't work in windows 95

[frag.machine]

How's Rune Plugin going then? Is it fairly robust and clean, or is it clunky? My plan has been to roll my own framework so I can make it clean and simple and still very expandable, but if everything we need and more is provided already then I'd consider a plugin mod.

I tried to make it simple to expand and add more runes. Right now I got 2 working example runes (regen and quad) but I still have a random glitch to solve before I can call it "robust" (sometimes, when you don't have any rune and try to get one you automatically drop a "fake" rune). Just give me an e-mail address to send all the stuff (code , model and a test map) to you so you can decide if it fits your needs.

[venomus]

Question: does darkplaces let you break the various qc limits? Like number of precaches, size of progs etc. Because I'm just thinking a mod like this with tons of 'features' might run into the same kind of limits as Quoth.

It would be cool if the Invasion game mod had something like 100 unique monsters from everyone's various mods.

[Wazat]

Yes, Darkplaces is a god-send in terms of removing quake's old limits. There are still things you don't want to abuse because eventually they'll bite you (i.e. precaching all the models and sounds from 100 different monsters all at once, or having a bunch of dynamic lights, which don't play well on some systems), but for the most part DP is quite reliable and friendly to the ambitious coder.

Once I've got it stable, I'm going to try to get my stuff put up somewhere (preferably SVN) so we can start having multiple people contributing.

[Spike]

Question: does darkplaces let you break the various qc limits? Like number of precaches, size of progs etc.

yes.
not sure what the new limit on precaches is, but it is at least 512
progs can be 65k globals big (frikqcc/fteqcc can optimise loads anyway, so not really relevent).

[LordHavoc]

Question: does darkplaces let you break the various qc limits? Like number of precaches, size of progs etc.

yes.
not sure what the new limit on precaches is, but it is at least 512
progs can be 65k globals big (frikqcc/fteqcc can optimise loads anyway, so not really relevent).

4096 models, 65536 frames, 256 skins, significant q3 shader support, formats: mdl, md2, md3, psk, zym, dpm

4096 sounds, formats: wav, ogg

significant q3 shader support, no bsp limits, map formats: q1bsp (with 65530 leafs and other extreme limits for Arguirre compatibility), hlbsp, q3bsp

65k globals

32767 entities (counting player), no network limits (a player can see all entities at once).

serverside anti-wallhack option (sv_cullentities_trace)

unlimited tempstrings active at once (I.E. only need to strzone if you really want to store something for later).

256 FRIK_FILE files open at once

256 dlights, 255 lightstyles, 256 static entities, 256 effects (self-animating sprites), 256 beams, unlimited particles and decals.

8 bindmaps (you can switch binds between 8 sets, and have any two active at once, this is potentially useful to advanced mods)

there are a lot of other features I could mention but this is getting off-topic.

[Urre]

Never minding the offtopic, that's a lot of useful info. I still think DP lacks a proper info and resource portal, where things are properly categorized and easy to access