Messages

31

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 17, 2016, 03:21:34 AM »

I hear ya, hard to sleep when you get into something.

I'm super frustrated at this Custom Content thing now O.o it was one thing when I couldn't get it working back at the launch of the editor but to see its working for you is boggling my mind! I had talked to one of the devs back then who didn't have much luck getting it working either and seemed to just be the buggy editor.

Hell I'm using a different machine from back then so can't even narrow it to that!

Its awesome to see a Custom Mesh in there, first thing I tried after I got that error was admin privileges.

Going back through the Log file I noticed the following

[0013.36] Log: Missing cached shader map for material TALogo_Mat, quality 0, compiling.
[0033.42] Critical: appError called: ..\Win64\UE3ShaderCompileWorker.exe terminated unexpectedly! ThreadId=0
[0033.43] Critical: Windows GetLastError: The operation completed successfully. (0)
[0045.50] Critical: Error reentered: ..\Win64\UE3ShaderCompileWorker.exe terminated unexpectedly! ThreadId=2
[0045.50] Critical: Error reentered: ..\Win64\UE3ShaderCompileWorker.exe terminated unexpectedly! ThreadId=1
[0045.50] Log: === Critical error: ===
..\Win64\UE3ShaderCompileWorker.exe terminated unexpectedly! ThreadId=0

To me that looked like the game crashed due to trying to Cache the shader map using multiple cores so I headed to "Documents\My Games\UnrealEngine3\TakedownGame\Config" opened up the TakedownEngine.ini and changed "bAllowMultiThreadedShaderCompile=True" to False.

And...



Ok... I'm still some what amazed since it wasn't working at first O.o renamed the material and tried again and it did... huh... shall have to find a mesh...

32

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 17, 2016, 02:43:18 AM »

Couldn't resist testing now, same problem I had in the past.



Game crashes while loading the level with the above problem, for the life of me I don't see what I'm doing wrong if its working on your end.

33

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 17, 2016, 02:26:46 AM »

Lets get this Tango Hunt ball rolling...

1. Add a "TDTeamPlayerStart", Double Click Entity for its settings.
2. Under "Take Down" you will want Defender Spot Ticked, Spawn Group Tag = 1.
3. Under "UDKTeam Player Start" you will need Team Number = 1.
4. Finally under "Player Start" you will want Team Index = 1.


5. Now you will want at least 30 of these TDTeamPlayerStart's since that is the Max number of Tangos that will appear if playing High Density mode in Takedown, chances are you will want more then 30 so spawns are a bit more random.
6. Easiest way I've found is when you click on a TDTeamPlayerStart you can hold ALT and move with the gizmo in a direction, this will create a copy, saves re-doing settings each time.
7. Next up you want to add a "Pylon" entity, go into its settings and tick "Use Recast" this entity is the AIs NavMesh, you can hit "P" within the 3D Viewport to see what areas are covered, make sure to Build AI Paths to see if it doesn't cover enough of the map go back into the settings and change ramp up the Expansion Radius and Build Paths again.
8. The map would now work in Tango Hunt but it would limit the map to only Hunt due to the entities being used in other modes so now we need to take the "TDTeamPlayerStart" entities and put them in a separate .umap file that will only be loaded when Tango Hunt is the Game Mode.
9. Right Click on of the "TDTeamPlayerStart" entities and go Select -> Select All TDTeamPlayerStart Actors.
10. Go to View -> Browser Windows -> Levels.
11. Hit "Level" in the Top Left corner and hit "New Level from Selected Actors"
12. Save this as "MAPNAME_TangoHunt" to keep with the Takedown naming convention, don't have to so I'm going with "TA_Test_TangoHunt".
13. A prompt will come up asking to select a Streaming Method, we are going to go with Kismet.
14. You should now see Persistent Level and TangoHunt Level in the list, TangoHunt level won't kick in till we tell it to via Kismet, this is what lets us tell the game what entity map we want to use for what Game Mode.


15. Open up Kismet and add "Server Type" node, New Condition -> Server Type.
16. We should already have a Level Loaded node so from the "Loaded and Visible" we want to connect to the In on the Server Type.
17. Next up we need a "Gametype Switch" node, New Condition -> Takedown -> Gametype Switch.
18. In the properties of the Gametype Switch we want to add "TDTangoHuntGame"


19. From Server Type each connection other then Dedicated Server should go into the Gametype Switch.
20. Now we need to add a Stream Levels node so we can bring in the Tango spawns, New Action -> Level -> Stream Levels.
21. In the properties of Stream Levels you want to add your TangoHunt file, in my case "TA_Test_TangoHunt" you will need to manually type the file name in but the Stream Levels node will get a tick if its correct.


22. Connect the Gametype Switch to the Load on Stream Levels.
23. Finally connect Stream Levels up to a Start Match.


24. Now you will want to Build All/Save All Levels and cook the map plus the Hunt map so in this case I'll be cooking "TA_Test" and "TA_Test_TangoHunt" drag those both from "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Level Editor\TakedownGame\CookedPC\Maps" to "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Early Access\TakedownGame\CookedPC\Maps".
25. Now the map is all ready to go! but wait... a simple open console command won't do the trick this time so we are going to add it into the games menus.
26. Head to "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Early Access\TakedownGame\Config" and open up DefaultGame.ini
27. Find the line "+TangoHunt_MapNames=(MapDisplayName="Killhouse Breach",MapFile="TD05_Killhouse_AttDef",MapDescription="KillHouse_desc",MapImgID="killHouse")" should be around 265.
28. Now we want to add our map, under this line add something like "+TangoHunt_MapNames=(MapDisplayName="TA Test",MapFile="TA_Test",MapDescription="KillHouse_desc",MapImgID="killHouse")"
29. DisplayName is the what the game will use as the map name, MapFile points to the .umap.
30. The line can be added anywhere after [TakedownGame.TDPlayerController] but before [TakeDownGame.TDRoundBasedMPGame] is just like to keep it tidy.


31. Boot up the game and select Tango Hunt as the Game Mode and you should see your map!


I'll have to do a quick post about our Mission Manager at some point all the program really does is add the Map to the DefaultGame.ini so people didn't have to manually go edit but for the time being you will want your own map in there anyway

Nice write up on the Custom Textures, was sure I had done all that so will have to test again, maybe later though! just took me a fair amount of time testing/writing up this Tango Hunt walkthrough, hopefully its easy enough to follow

34

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 17, 2016, 01:00:57 AM »

Yeah, Minimizing the editor is killer,  I do it often when I try build since I'm use to not watching it but with the Takedown Editor that is a No No since it always crashes.

How'd you manage the custom textures? running within the Retail Build? also did you put the texture in its own package and cook that along with the map? I know I tried it in the past and looking at some old emails I had an error along the lines of "Missing cached shader map" and if I brought the following files

GlobalShaderCache-PC-D3D-SM3.bin
GlobalShaderCache-PC-D3D-SM5.bin
GlobalShaderCache-PC-OpenGL.bin

RefShaderCache-PC-D3D-SM3.upk
RefShaderCache-PC-D3D-SM5.upk
RefShaderCache-PC-OpenGL.upk

Over from the Editor to Retail it would load the textures within the Retail build but you can't exactly go overwriting Cache files for each Custom Map, people would want multiple maps installed and bound to cause some conflict with base maps.

Imagine if custom textures are working custom meshes should also since it was a matter of a problem with building a custom package.

Slowly working on getting Tango Hunt working again, I did it sort of a hacky way in the past which would ristrict the map to Hunt mode only so looking into doing it the way the game does it by streaming in the entities depending on the mode.

35

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 16, 2016, 09:40:05 PM »

Glad it all worked out I really should have documented this the first time round but with a buggy editor, devs being unable to work on the game due to Publisher giving up on it and just the general lack of interest people seemed to have it didn't really cross my mind, hell I feel like we were the only ones trying to get anything working when the Editor hit.

I'm not sure what more I can contribute at this point, I didn't do much more work then this, next step I can do is getting Tango Hunt working and that is really a matter of adding the right entity and loading the map in Tango Hunt mode.

I've no clue when it comes to something like doors, creating an actual mission with objectives (imagine that is Kismet so look at HQ maybe) or even setting up the Adversarial modes but I wouldn't worry too much about them right now since with all that we have done I don't think it works in Co-op/Multi due to some Download Error which shouldn't even be a problem if all players have the map.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with

36

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 16, 2016, 04:47:41 PM »

Took awhile but I believe I've worked out the cooking process again textures and meshes working.



1. Once you have built your Map/Saved make sure its in "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Level Editor\TakedownGame\Content\Maps"
2. Head to "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Level Editor\Engine\Config" and open up BaseEngine.ini
3. Search for "UseTextureFileCache" and change TRUE to FALSE so it will be "UseTextureFileCache=FALSE"
4. Head to "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Level Editor\Binaries" and run UnrealFrontend.exe
5. Once in UFE you want to hit the Config Profile button.


6. You want the following settings. TakedownGame, PC, Release_64, ReleaseScript, Release_64 and tick Cook DLC Profile.


7. Under Cooker Options add "-usermode -mapsonly"

8. Set a DLC Name (unsure where this is used) under "Maps to Cook" hit Add and Pick Map.
9. Click "Cook" along the top bar and hit Cook Pacakges.
10. One that is all done the Cooked version of the map should be found in "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Level Editor\TakedownGame\CookedPC\Maps"
11. Copy .umap file to "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Early Access\TakedownGame\CookedPC\Maps"
12. Bring up the console in Takedown and type "open mapname" so in my case "open TA_Test"
13. Should now be running around.

Once you have cooked once you shouldn't need to repeat many of these steps, just adding the map into UFE and cooking, profile settings will save as will the .ini file edit and such.

Unsure if the default UE3 Skybox works now, I ended up changing to the one from HQ since I thought that might have been causing a crash at one point, it wasn't.

Updated the TA_Test.umap from the previous post to what is seen in the above screenshot, can use it to test cooking if you have problems since it should be working.

Finally a link to a cooked version if just want to try running it in-game.

http://tacticalape.ninjasfate.com/downloads/takedown/maps/wip/TA_Test_Cooked.umap

37

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 16, 2016, 04:17:56 PM »

Editor Assets should also work once Cooking, still looking into it now, I was running into a problem with the game trying to load a texture cache that wasn't there.

Going through some old emails and some old topics on the Serellan forums I believe I found the fix that I used in the past

Cooking now but taking its time since it wants to cook every package the editor has.

38

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 16, 2016, 03:14:46 PM »

Sorry for some of the vague steps, I've not used the editor in awhile and was trying to get something up while I had time so just opened up a old map I had working to see what I had done.

Hell I copied the Kismet stuff from one map to other

I'm unsure about all the warnings, my test map only said something about not using production lighting but after opening up my old Tower Defense test one to check a texture problem it had similar warnings, I think it might just be some files missing from the editor but won't matter when run in the retail build.

Don't use Play in Editor myself, I thought it always crashed? I boot up the Retail game and use the console to open the map.

I think I know why textures didn't show, its due to not "Cooking" the map so its not a simple copy/paste of the editor .umap, trying to work out how to cook a map again...

39

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 15, 2016, 11:54:19 PM »

Ok... List of what I did to get a simple map going.

1. Opened up Takedown Editor and hit New Level and chose a template "Morning Lighting" in this case.
2. Deleted the Base Floor and Cube since they are a Static Mesh and and created a BSP one and threw a texture from Takedown on it.
3. Deleted Default PlayerStart and added TDPlayerStart opening up the properties of this (Double Click Entity) you will want to set Insertion Tag to "InsertionA" for Top Option in Game or "InsertionB"
4. In Kismet Add a "Level Loaded" and connect "Loaded and Visible" to a Start Match.

5. Build All.
6. Save Current Level.
7. Copy .umap file to "steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Early Access\TakedownGame\CookedPC\Maps"
8. Bring up the console in Takedown and type "open mapname" so in my case "open TA_Test"
9. Should now be running around.


Skybox will be missing since Takedown doesn't have the default UE3 ones it seems, unsure why my floor texture isn't working but thought I would try get this posted up for the time being since you can at least run around on BSPs.

http://tacticalape.ninjasfate.com/downloads/takedown/maps/wip/TA_Test.umap

Link to the map file, nothing special, either use it to quickly test running around within Takedown or open it up in the Editor, I believe the Kismet functions are the key to letting you run around in-game.

40

Takedown Red Sabre Modding / Mapping / Re: Walkthrough

« on: February 15, 2016, 10:24:41 PM »

Reinstalling the Editor now, hopefully let you know how to get a basic map running soon

41

Epsilon General Discussion / Re: Section Added To Tactical Ape

« on: October 01, 2015, 08:09:03 PM »

Game has hit Early Access, Missions and Loadouts section are now live.

42

Epsilon General Discussion / Section Added To Tactical Ape

« on: September 29, 2015, 08:44:29 PM »

We have added a section covering Epsilon on the main website and will start adding info on Missions/Loadouts when the game is out.

43

Takedown Red Sabre General Discussion / Re: Takedown still buggy?

« on: September 06, 2015, 10:51:36 PM »

I would say a majority of the bugs got fixed but the AI is still quite unfair, I know you can mess with a .ini file to tweak them but did not find out till recently and the same devs are working on Epsilon right now which seems more promising since they have gone indie and no pressure from a publisher to push it out.

Should be getting some Epsilon Gameplay footage any day now based on posts from the devs on the official forums.

44

General Discussion / Re: What Other Tactical Games Are You Interested In.

« on: November 13, 2014, 08:44:30 PM »

Found your site while looking up reference pictures of Swat 3 maps, remaking Hotel Ventura for this game:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/222880/

Insurgency, Tactical shooter with many great features and game-modes, will upload some pictures soon.

Look forward to it! We have not really looked into Insurgency we played a few games when it first came out still need to go back and check out the "Hunt" Mode.

I'm all for seeing SWAT 3 maps remade in other games, can't say I've really come across any so far, I thought Raven Shield might have got a few but seen none so far.

I myself have thought about messing with making a SWAT map for Insurgency or just in Hammer in general since it seems like you could port a map to any Source game but I'm so use to how Unreal Engine it would take awhile for me to get use to Hammer again and its such a pain to get Static Meshes into Source in comparison to Unreal.

Looking forward to seeing some images in the future

45

Takedown Red Sabre General Discussion / Re: Snow Globes Discovered

« on: February 23, 2014, 07:32:50 PM »

Found the Snow Globe hidden on Radar Base and the achievement has unlocked