InsideQC Forums

If an engine added basic vanilla CSQC support: What would be an immediate gratification use for this?

I am considering adding CSQC to FitzQuake Mark V from Spike's CSQC "WinQuake". However, I would need an immediate interesting use of this for, say, a single player map/mod.

Can someone name a real-life idea or example that is good enough for a single player mapper to find interesting. Something achievable.

[Because I'm only interested in adding it in if it is doing to be used, if a quicky demo map/mod showcasing it can be made.]

hud and menus.

needs getstat* builtins, drawpic, drawfill, drawstring, various string manipulation builtins, some basic maths builtins (ie: floor), spawn+remove (for memory management rather than anything else, optional), and some entry points. job done.
draw the 3d view as normal first, stub out the 3d rendering builtins, and hope the csqc doesn't care. job done. skip any builtins that deal with any entity fields too. you're good to go.

any networking needed by a basic hud mod can be achieved through stats and stuffcmds alone.

even rmqe has more features than this with its csqc.

most csqc mods start out as a hud in some way.

I'd suggest adding/stubbing the functionality needed for my menusys stuff, if only because it uses enough engine features to be a reasonable test of everything, without going too deeply into 3d/networking stuff. I don't think it'll work in csqcwinquake straight off, you'll need to add a couple of stubs for mouse cursor modes iirc.
you can get some weird version of it from http://triptohell.info/moodles/junk/pourtall.pk3 (source inside), extract only the csprogs.dat (not the progs.dat) and it'll just give you a new menu+hud with no other visible changes (like portal guns). that's the theory, anyway.
you can probably find a more basic mod elsewhere - one that wasn't written by someone who knows the names of all the various obscure builtins, but I think its still useful, if only for the fact that its reasonably complete.

What spike said.

Who wouldn't want the ability to do a custom hud, menu and even ingame doom3-ish pda? Think of the possibilities!

I'm currently using CSQC for a hud with my HellSmash mod. (it also has some angle replacements for betterish punchangle stuff) The HUD also has (okay, is going to, very soon) have a Doom3 "Location" text thingie that gets set via map trigger.

It wouldn't take much to take it from HS and put it into a stock QuakeC though.

I haven't yet gotten the Doom3-ish PDA stuff working yet. It's still todo because Real-life is draining my devtime, and I'm currently making gamecode and making new models.

Anyway, current screenshot of the HS hud. Note that the "skill halls" is the "location" stub:
http://br0gspot.files.wordpress.com/201 ... wall01.jpg


Rest assured, this much CSQC functionality is almost guaranteed to be used and probably used heavily in the near future.

I'm unimaginative on this topic a bit due to tunnel vision ... so ...

What is an example single player mod that a HUD would show? Other than inventory?

And ... I expect to get murdered on this but ... if even sending .alpha is a protocol modification over standard NQ, I would probably have to implement a new protocol.

Right?

Even if it were something flexible like using Spike's protocol negotiation stuff. Right?

Unless I very creatively jammed some bits into existing fields in the QuakeC?

CSQC stuff that could be interesting for single player maps:

• Code lock on a door
  Display book pages graphically
  Player has to search database on a computer to find something
  Custom status effects, anything that uses icons
  Custom weapons and ammo with icons/GUI
  Post processing filters (drunk, gas mask, whatever)
  Custom interactive gameplay elements
  Vehicle cockpit
  Chat/talk/headset GUI/button
  Inventory, obviously
  Graphical objective/message display (instead of centerprint)
  Audio logs with play/mute buttons
  Doom 3 style in-world interactive GUIs
  Minigames
  Split srceen and other coop features
  Journal

Really, the possibilities are endless. You can probably do a lot of these things with some kind of hacked centerprint or other hacked SSQC stuff, it's just that CSQC lets you make it look a lot better - like it was meant to be in the game, instead of like a hack.

Mappers just have to get a little creative (I know, unlikely.)

yeah definitely a HUD. imagine all those new guns now getting their own icon on the hud instead of being hidden!

Baker wrote:I'm unimaginative on this topic a bit due to tunnel vision ... so ...
What is an example single player mod that a HUD would show? Other than inventory?

whelp, A csqc hud might have a minimap. It might Show your elemental resistances, your chosen special ability and its cooldown timer, your avatar, and your playername



You might even have a graphical menu for choosing your loadout



OR you might do like hellsmash, and show ammo types and weapon charging.

Visibility indicators like theif and in the shadows.

or a steam-like overlay.

Baker wrote:I'm unimaginative on this topic a bit due to tunnel vision ... so ...

What is an example single player mod that a HUD would show? Other than inventory?

You could also do a radar / motion tracker in addition to what everybody else has mentioned. Object Interactivity brackets (Unreal2, Star Trek: Elite Force / EF2, Doom3), Castlevania-ish Boss / Enemy health meters too. Funky alternate vision modes. (Night vision goggles, destroyable / secret wall scanners!)

In other words, you can do a lot of anti-Quake BS with it. <3

lol it doesnt have to be anti quake. like i said even something small like showing of custom weapon icons would be a use for it. there's a lot you can do with csqc.

This is what I got so far using CSQC: inventory, a simple compass (Oblivion/Skyrim style, lacks graphics ATM) and a quest console (not shown).

EDIT:Another screenshot, this time showing the quest log console:

Extensive player animation, eyetracking (also requires engine/renderer work for that), better 'modern' third-person camera, and full body awareness.

all of which I was able to do in id Tech 3

but yeah, 2d-only is nice and simple.
its a shame about the other stuff that isn't 2d-only really.
babysteps I suppose

Yeah, baby steps. Good player models are harder to make and animate than 2D stuff.

Although I guess a simple rigged Quakeguy wouldn't be that hard.