Jump to content

joltan

Member
  • Content Count

    1450
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Medals

Everything posted by joltan

  1. joltan

    Life after video games

    I think it's just that with computer gaming being the big market it is today (and with the high investment nescessary to develop a good game) you get a situation like with the movie industry: a lot of similar mainstream stuff that may not be revolutionary but means (mostly) guaranteed revenues from the mass market, and only a few great exceptions - games that actually try something new and succeed at it. Nothing bad about it. There will still be many good and 'revolutionary' games in the future (just like OFP when it came out).
  2. joltan

    The Iraq thread 3

    BTW: Now that the US is granting Pakistan the same status as Israel (weapon deals, financial support, etc.), how long do you think it will take until they have to start a war against it? Iran, Iraq, now Pakistan? What about India? I can understand that they support Musharraf, but they do so only in a military way - how about supporting the democratization and pouring money into educating the iliterate masses (and thus helping to reduce the influence of religious scholars)?
  3. joltan

    Ofp combat photography 2. no pics over 100kb

    Umm can i ask who exactly are you asking this specific qestion? Just something in general - I see that most pictures in this thread are 'enhanced' in several ways - not just sharpened. Do you modify the colouring, if so why and in which way, etc. What about special filters? Any recommendations (like 'for night shots I prefer to use...', etc.) are welcome - if they are more general (i.e. also applicable for non-Photoshop users) that's just fine. Just some hint's for us uninitiated! I use The Gimp for image editing, and I've used sharpening together with slightly modified colors for great effects, but in comparison to what i see here that seems pale. Edit: a kind of effects collection would be great - a list of possible effects and how to achieve them in general terms. Or just links to good sites/tutorials about that topic.
  4. joltan

    Damned ctd's!

    Well, I also didn't have any problems with other programs (I guess none used the machine as intensely as OFP), and my ram is 100% fine, too - it was just a simple bios setting. I really recommend looking into this - especially since you now have a new cpu (probably with a different FSB). It's possible that a bios update changed some settings that are now causing your ctds... Anyways, there are also other reasons for ctds, but i had error messages similar to yours, and in most other cases I know it was either defective ram, or wrong ram speed or timings.
  5. Once OFPEC (http://www.ofpec.com) is back up, check their script section - there should be some scripts (no addons needed) for burning vehicles and fire effects.
  6. joltan

    Damned ctd's!

    I have found the most probable reason for most ctds is the ram. You use pc2100 ddr. Are you sure it's 100% ok? Try playing with the timings, also check if the memory clock is equal or less than your cpu's max. fsb speed. I've had my motherboard clock my ram (even on safe settings) faster than the max fsb of my cpu (200MHz vs 166MHz), and the result were regular ctds in OFP. Since I lowered it to match the 166MHz fsb (=333MHz ddr) it works flawless and I haven't had a ctd in weeks. The ram itself worked fine when tested at 200MHz in another machine at the shop, so it must be the clock difference that was causing the problems. So even if it's the ram it doesn't nescessarily have to be replaced.
  7. joltan

    Ofp combat photography 2. no pics over 100kb

    How about some hints for starters? What tricks do you use to improve the looks of your screenshots? I know that sharpening the images adds a more crisper look, but what else do you use? What tools/filters?
  8. joltan

    How old r u?

    Ah, actually that's only 20.167 years... (see, now I start, too)
  9. joltan

    The Iraq thread 3

    Does this also count for children with no brothers and/or sisters? If it is like in most countries that have a draft being the only child is no protection. However being the 3rd or 4th (depending on the country) may keep them from drafting you - if your elder brothers served already.
  10. joltan

    How old r u?

    @The-Architect: Don't ya worry - there's people who insist that you can answer a question like 'right or wrong?' only with 'true' (they are - semantically speaking - right, of course). They usually score 100% on the geek test and desperately need to get a life!
  11. joltan

    Incredibly humongous jam bug

    Yeah, it was the SMAW - but the JAM2 AT rarely hit either (or at least the BIS LAW soldier was still much more accurate than that). I think the old (non-JAM) BAS soldiers were more accurate, but I never did investigate it with those. BTW: if you want to try it yourself - here's the test mission. Just replace the at soldier with what unit you want to try out.
  12. joltan

    Incredibly humongous jam bug

    I tried this on Everon, and I have to admit there's some truth in this: I had a bmp drive at normal speed (safe, never fire) down the road towards St.Pierre while positioning a Delta AT/Marpat AT Marine/BIS LAW on the hill slope next to the road. All had full skill. The LAW always hit at least on the second shot, usually on the first. The BAS Delta usually hit only on the third shot - if at all. And the Marpat Marine never hit. I made a little cut scene to test this and only changed the unit (always firing from the exact same position). Each test was repeatet at least 5-6 times, always with the same results. Note that this was without any config mods - once I used FDF they all hit equally bad (with some luck 1 hit in three). It's probably the units config and not the weapon - I didn't try changing their weapons but just replaced the units with their counterpart from the other troops.
  13. joltan

    Incredibly humongous jam bug

    I tried this on Everon, and I have to admit there's some truth in this: I had a bmp drive at normal speed (safe, never fire) down the road towards St.Pierre while positioning a Delta AT/Marpat AT Marine/BIS LAW on the hill slope next to the road. All had full skill. The LAW always hit at least on the second shot, usually on the first. The BAS Delta usually hit only on the third shot - if at all. And the Marpat Marine never hit. I made a little cut scene to test this and only changed the unit (always firing from the exact same position). Each test was repeatet at least 5-6 times, always with the same results. Note that this was without any config mods - once I used FDF they all hit equally bad (with some luck 1 hit in three). It's probably the units config and not the weapon - I didn't try changing their weapons but just replaced the units with their counterpart from the other troops.
  14. joltan

    Savegames

    Ah, that's actually the strong point of OFP multiplayer. Real cooperative missions and not just a stupid head-on DM/CTF/whatever. You really should try that... but then you don't sound like you ever really played OFP anyways.
  15. joltan

    Sewers

    Sounds great - local resistance would use these connections until eventually 'smoked out' by the occupying forces. Great potential there! I don't think the sound stuff should be a big problem, they would 'just have to change a few parameters' in their sound physics once you enter such a subterranian location (hehe, probably a 'little bit' more complicated). Sewers/caves/bunkers and other underground facilities definitely would add a lot to OFP2. Even cellars for houses (some connected to neighbouring houses - you find that often in old town houses in european cities). Things like that give you the urban feeling that OFP with it's small villages is still missing!
  16. joltan

    Image problem

    Now we have to declare the pictures. We do this as Title Resources, so we can use them with the CutRsc or TitleRsc commands: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">class RscTitles { titles[] = {FTCTitle1, FTCTitle2}; class FTCTitle1 { idd=-1; // ID ... always -1 movingEnable = false; // always false duration=10; // max time the picture shows (in seconds) name = "FTCTitle1"; // name in editor // now we declare the picture controls[]= {Picture}; class Picture : RscPicture {x = 0.25; y = 0.33; w = 0.5; h = 0.33;text = "title1.paa";}; }; class FTCTitle2 { idd=-1; // ID ... always -1 movingEnable = false; // always false duration=10; // max time the picture shows (in seconds) name = "FTCTitle2"; // name in editor // now we declare the picture controls[]= {Picture}; class Picture : RscPicture {x = 0.25; y = 0.33; w = 0.5; h = 0.33;text = "title2.paa";}; }; }; The above looks complicated, but is actually very easy to understand. First the 'titles' line. The brackets just contain a list of the ingame names we are going to use for the pictures in our scripts. In the above example there are two images - 'FTCTitle1' and 'FTCTitle2'. Then we declare first 'FTCTitle1' and then (after several lines of code) 'FTCTitle2'. What is important for you are just four lines in this declaration: - the 'class FTCTitle1' tells the game that now the declaration of the first Resource named 'FTCTitle1' starts. Be carefull to use the same names as in the titles line above! - the 'duration' line tells OFP how long the Resource should shown (after this time it gets removed from the screen - but you can always remove it earlier in your scripts). Time is in seconds. - the 'name' line declares a name for the editor. When you have declared the resource and the mission is loaded in the editor you can choose the resource under the effects tab of triggers and waypoints to activate it. The best is to use again the same name as above (in this example 'FTCTitle1') - the most important part is this:<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> class Picture : RscPicture {x = 0.25; y = 0.33; w = 0.5; h = 0.33;text = "title2.paa";};in the brackets you declare the relative position and size of your image resource and you define the actual filename of your image. 'x' and 'y' are the relative position (measured from the upper left corner with values ranging from 0 to 1.0) - so 'x = 0.25; y = 0.33;' means that the image's upper left corner gets placed 25% of the screen size to the right and 33% down. This allows for correct positioning of your resource without regard for the actual screen resolution used by each player. 'w' and 'h' define width and height of our image - also relative to the screen síze. Note that to center an image the sum of twice the 'x' and once the 'w' has to be 1.0 (same goes for 'y' and 'h'). Remember that computer screens have a relation of width to height of 4:3 - independent of what resolution you use!!! For example the picture called title2.paa has a resolution of 512x256 - by using the above values it fits in the center of the screen without being distorted. Then the next image follows. You can add as many image resources as needed. Just remember to declare them all in the titles line and to stick with the names you declared there. The rest is mainly cosmetics. Also keep of the brackets and semicolons - they start/end any declaration, as can be easily seen in the above examle. Just keep care to conserve this structure when you cut&paste new image entries or remove old ones. Ok, so now we have finished the description ext. OFP knows where to look for the images and how to fit them on the screen. Now we only have to tell the game WHEN to show them. This is very easy. Either we can use a trigger effect, or we can call the resource from a script. If you use a script you have the commands 'cutRsc' and 'TitleRsc' - analogue to the 'cutText' and 'TitleText' commands. Example: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">TitleRsc ["FTCTitle2","Plain",1] You see the name of the resource as we declared it in the description.ext? Well, the next thing "plain" just tells it to place it to the center - as we defined the exact position already in the description. ext we ignore it and always use "plain". the numbe after this is the time (in seconds) the image takes to fade in (and out, after it's duration is over). To remove a resource from the screen even if its duration isn't over yet, just use the corresponding Rsc or Text call. Like if you have TitleRsc displayed, you either do a <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">TitleText [" ", "plain"]or a<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">TitleRsc ["default","plain"]That's it. from an old tutorial I made long time ago...
  17. joltan

    Microsoft must pay $610m fine to eu

    Over here in Germany computer dealers who sold computers with preinstalled OS/2 didn't get any OEM licenses from Microsoft (so they had to sell a much more expensive full prized copy of Windows if a customer didn't want OS/2, making the computer more expensive - and less competitive). Microsoft already had a near monopoly those days as far as personal computers were concerned - they used it whenever they could, and exactly because of that the company is watched that closely today. I had a bbs & fidonet hub those days and I loved OS/2's multitasking that actually allowed me to work on the computer while the bbs (two analog/ISDN lines on a 486) was running in the background - not possible with Windows those days.
  18. joltan

    How old r u?

    31 - at least I'm not the only 'old' one here...
  19. Great that you got it working! I just proposed manual placement as I usually prefer to keep it simple. As long as you only need 1-2 targets manually placing the targets is less hassle. If you need a lot more that's another thing, of course.
  20. joltan

    Ofp2 this april

    Just a short hint on stuff Amazon puts up for preorder... they had the last Harry Potter up there on their website two years(!) before it came out. Also BIS announced the release of their game for early 2005, not spring 2004. The summer 2004 release date was postphoned more than half a year ago.
  21. joltan

    Old enough to kill,

    Yeah, and 'smart' doesn't mean 'reasonable' (neither does 'educated').
  22. joltan

    Intros cutscenes

    Just start the cutscene script from your objective's trigger. As I'm too lazy now, here's a short cut 'n paste from a cutscene tutorial I wrote ages ago: I'll use the intro script ffrom one of my missions (Winter Night) as an example for a simple intro script: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">enableradio false showcinemaborder true _camera = "camera" camcreate [10483.03,10058.88,72.89] _camera cameraeffect ["internal","back"] ;=== 17:22:43 _camera camSetTarget [101380.20,-28120.18,16889.95] _camera camSetPos [10483.03,10058.88,72.89] _camera camSetFOV 0.355 _camera camCommit 0 @camCommitted _camera cutText [" ","Black in",1] playmusic "track14" TitleRsc ["MissionTitle","plain",1] ~1 ;=== 17:23:02 _camera camSetTarget [23636.47,104990.69,-28392.60] _camera camSetPos [10483.03,10058.88,72.89] _camera camSetFOV 0.655 _camera camCommit 7 @camCommitted _camera cutText [" ","Black out",0.5] ~0.5 ;=== 17:24:04 _camera camSetTarget [-82755.14,-24836.77,-8364.44] _camera camSetPos [10535.15,10169.02,1.15] _camera camSetFOV 0.578 _camera camCommit 0 @camCommitted _camera TitleRsc ["MissionTitle2","plain",1] cutText [" ","Black in",1] ~1 ;=== 17:24:20 _camera camSetTarget [-80024.23,52190.37,5830.19] _camera camSetPos [10536.78,10167.95,1.41] _camera camSetFOV 0.578 _camera camCommit 4 @camCommitted _camera ~2 cutText [" ","Black out",2] ~2 showcinemaborder false player cameraeffect ["terminate","back"]; camdestroy _camera cutText [" ","Black in",1] enableradio true exit Now let's do this step by step: first: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">enableradio false showcinemaborder true This turns off the radio messages, and adds the cinematic borders (the black stripes on the top and bottom of the screen) to make it look more movie-like. <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_camera = "camera" camcreate [10483.03,10058.88,72.89] _camera cameraeffect ["internal","back"] This creates the camera called '_camera' at position [10483.03,10058.88,72.89] and sets the viewpoint for the camera - ["internal","back"] is the standard and apart from some very special applications should be fine for all cutscenes. How I got the position's coordinates I'll explain later, but as we are just creating the camera and move it later to the desired position you could also enter something like [1,1,1] and it would be fine. I prefer to create the camera right on the spot where I will use it later, but that's more style than nescesity. <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_camera camSetTarget [101380.20,-28120.18,16889.95] _camera camSetPos [10483.03,10058.88,72.89] _camera camSetFOV 0.355 _camera camCommit 0 @camCommitted _camera Ok, now this is where it starts to get interesting! The above block is one camera move. First I define the target of the camera (an object or, as in this case, the direction the camera will be facing - don't worry if you dont get the numbers - I'll explain later how to easily set this), and set the target position of the camera (where to move it to). The I set the FOV (field of vision) for the camera. Then I define how long the camera will take to change to the new settings. '0' is instantly, '8' would be 8 seconds. That way camera movements can be realized (see below). Finally '@camCommited _camera' halts the script until the camera has finished. To make it more interesting we start with a black screen, fade in, start some music and show a picture (see the image tutorial), then the script waits for one second (the time we defined in the 'cutText [" ","Black in",1]' line as last parameter) until the 'black in' (=fade) is finished: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">cutText [" ","Black in",1] playmusic "track14" TitleRsc ["MissionTitle","plain",1] ~1 Now lets move the camera: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_camera camSetTarget [23636.47,104990.69,-28392.60] _camera camSetPos [10483.03,10058.88,72.89] _camera camSetFOV 0.655 _camera camCommit 7 @camCommitted _camera cutText [" ","Black out",0.5] ~0.5Again a camera block, this time with a new target and new coordinates (where to move and what to face at the end of the camera move). Also FOV changes during camera move - we'll get a wider field of vision. With the '_camera camCommit 7' line we define the camera to translate to the new position over the time of 7 seconds - all intermediary steps will then be calculated by OFP, and we do not have to worry about them. Finally we wait until the camera move has finished, then fade out over the time of 0.5 seconds (just to smooth the transition a bit) and wait until the fade out has finished. Next scene: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_camera camSetTarget [-82755.14,-24836.77,-8364.44] _camera camSetPos [10535.15,10169.02,1.15] _camera camSetFOV 0.578 _camera camCommit 0 @camCommitted _camera TitleRsc ["MissionTitle2","plain",1] cutText [" ","Black in",1] ~1 We set the camera to a new position (this time instantly - so no transition), then show a new title image and fade in over 1 second. <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_camera camSetTarget [-80024.23,52190.37,5830.19] _camera camSetPos [10536.78,10167.95,1.41] _camera camSetFOV 0.578 _camera camCommit 4 @camCommitted _camera ~2 cutText [" ","Black out",2] ~2 Ok, another camera move - this time only 4 seconds, but after we reached the target we wait 2 seconds, then fade out slowly. Having a short wait at the end makes it easier for people to watch it, as it seems less hectic. Hard breaks are good for action scenes (like the switching between the dead russians in my PatrolDuty mission), but at the end even in that kind o cutscenes a slow fade out will make the switch back to player control more comfortable. Ok, now the cut scene is finished, but we still have to 'tidy up': <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">player cameraeffect ["terminate","back"]; camdestroy _camera cutText [" ","Black in",1] showcinemaborder false enableradio true exitFirst we destroy the camera, causing the vision to switch back to the default camera - the player. Then I fade in - as I just did a 'black out' the screen is black, and without fading in again it would stay black. So don't forget to do this. At the end the cinematic border gets removed and the radio messages enabled again. Now how did I get all these coordinates and cameraviews without working myself to death? Easy - OFP offers a simple mechanism to facilitate the creation of camera scripts. When you are setting up a cutscene, first place all nescessary units, then insert in the init line of one unit the following command 'this exec "camera.sqs"'. When you start the mission you will have a camera that you can move around, zoom in/out and point wherever you want - and you can save the settings to a text file. How to use this? - "A", "W","E","S","D" move the camera around horizontally - "PageUp" and "PageDown" move it vertically - Arrow keys turn the camera and point it up/down - "+" and "-" zoom in/out - Space bar locks the camera to a target (not the position, but it will always point at the target) - Control saves the camera settings The settings are saved in a file called clipboard.txt in the main OFP directory. There you can copy the ready to use camera blocks out and paste them in your scripts! Additional hints: How to have a camera follow an object? Here's a part of the intro to 'Find The Chopper', where the camera follows the helicopter on it's flight to desaster: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_campos=[-10,-5,10] _camera camSetTarget introchopper _camera camSetRelPos _campos _camera camSetFOV 0.200 _camera camCommit 0 @camCommitted _camera cutText [" ","black in",2] ~2 cutText ["0330 Nogova - Russian occupied territory\nRecon flight Delta Blue returning back to base","plain down"] _n=0 #camloop _camera camSetTarget introchopper _camera camSetRelPos _campos _camera camSetFOV 0.200 _camera camCommit 2 @camCommitted _camera _n=_n+1 ;continue cam move? ?(_n<=10):goto "camloop" First I define the relative position and write that to a variable. It's in relative coordinates to the center and direction of the target object (distances in meters). Then I set the chopper as target and the position to my relative coordinates. After showing the cutText a loop starts that gets executed 10 times (=20 secoonds as the camera move inside always takes 2 seconds). Of course I also could loop until a trigger is toggled or any other condition is fulfilled. In the loop the camera gets always set to a new target position and starts to move there over the next two seconds. As the chopper is moving quite fast the camera will trail behind the chopper even if the coordinates aren't that far from the chopper. If I wanted to follow it more closely with sharper movements, I'd need to reduce the time for the camera moves - resulting in sharper and faster camera movements. cutText/titleText and cutRSC/titleRSC.: Both ...Text commands do exactly the same, as do the two RSC commands. By having two different commands some nice effects are possible - like showing text while the screen fades in/out or having two image resources on the screen (title over binocs view for example). cut Text terminates any previous cutText/cutRSC command immediately and vice versa - same as for the title... commands.
  23. why don't you just place it in the editor, then simply use setpos to place it in the enemy's sight when needed?
  24. joltan

    Old enough to kill,

    The thing is that at some point the soon-to-be adults have to learn to handle alcohol. They learn it by trying (and usually at least once drinking way too much). If they learn it with softer stuff like beer it's less dangerous than if they can try the hard stuff right away. Also one big difference with beer and hard alcohol is the time it takes to get all that alcohol into your body: you have to drink 9-10 beers to get the same amount of alcohol than you get in a similar glass of Schnapps/Vodka/whatever. That takes time. With hard stuff the full effect of the alcohol only hit's you when it's already too late. Edit: another example. What do you think is more appropriate to learn driving a car - a formula 1 race car or your dad's old Chrysler?
  25. joltan

    Old enough to kill,

    Not really - half a litre of beer (~4.5 - 5.5 %vol) won't do a 16 year old much harm - half a litre of 45%vol Schnapps may well land him in the hospital... it's really hard to get a alcohol intoxication on beer only. ;) Now what's dangerous are those 'alco-pops' - lemonades mixed with hard alcohol that have a comparable low alcohol content (that's why they may be sold to minors), but where the kids don't taste the alcohol and gulp it down like any other soft drink - with the expected results. These mix drinks have become very popular with teenagers in recent years and selling/buying them will probably become illegal for minors (or is it already? not sure).
×