Issues With Models (2017-09-05)

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Issues With Models (2017-09-05)

Post by Rex Claussen »

In this post Ed said:
Ed the Bat wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2017 1:41Please reports bugs, as usual, but maybe forgive if I take some time to sleep before addressing them...
I'm starting this thread to list the issues:

1. Otis (the well-fed security guard): Helmet is missing (i.e., no back of head), and no arms or hands. When shot and killed, the hands appear but the arms don't
2. Some of the human grunts don't have heads (Map 11, after you enter the building where the tramway starts)
3. If you blast the Vortigaunt with a grenade, it (presumably the corpse) appears as a standing Vortigaunt (Map 11, after the stairs at the end of the tramway)
4. Otis' name appears to have changed. I can no longer summon him with his original name - "Otis01"
5. I can't be sure, but the Beretta seems awfully high-powered. I was able to gib a Vortigaunt with a few shots
6. If you warp to a map, the player starts with a crowbar instead of without a weapon
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Re: Issues With Models (2017-09-05)

Post by Ed the Bat »

I'll look into these when I can, but for right now:

4. I saw no reason to keep a name that defied convention of so many other actors. The actor name is now "HLOtis"
5. I have not adjusted the power of the 9mm pistol from the original value of 5. The Vortigaunt, with 175 HP, takes a minimum of 12 shots and a maximum of 35 to kill with just the pistol.
6. I felt starting the player entirely defenseless (or unable to open the starting grate, in MAP03's case) was outright mean. I honestly felt he should also start with a pistol, a la Doom, but felt the crowbar was powerful enough to 'make do' as a starting weapon.
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Re: Issues With Models (2017-09-05)

Post by Rex Claussen »

Ed the Bat wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:534. I saw no reason to keep a name that defied convention of so many other actors. The actor name is now "HLOtis"
It's not a big deal. As a point of note, the "HL" prefix was used by DBT for the designation of the enemies, NPC, and weapons. All "static" models were named by me, and didn't use the "HL" prefix convention. As, presumably, you've given Otis animations (thereby making him non-static), the "HL" prefix would appear to be consistent with the other nomenclature convention.
5. I have not adjusted the power of the 9mm pistol from the original value of 5. The Vortigaunt, with 175 HP, takes a minimum of 12 shots and a maximum of 35 to kill with just the pistol.
As I said, I can't be sure about the 9mm being over-powered. I was testing the game with the new models somewhat late last night, and I wanted to wrap things up and get to bed. Therefore, I didn't re-test.
6. I felt starting the player entirely defenseless (or unable to open the starting grate, in MAP03's case) was outright mean. I honestly felt he should also start with a pistol, a la Doom, but felt the crowbar was powerful enough to 'make do' as a starting weapon.
Warping to a map would be considered cheating, in which case the player can summon or get a weapon. But I understand your logic.
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Re: Issues With Models (2017-09-05)

Post by Enjay »

If some models have bits missing then it could just be a conversion error (Noesis again?). However, there does seem to be a more strictly enforced vertex limit in MD3 and MD2 and I have sometimes saved models with too many vertexes for MD3 and then loaded p the model to find bits missing.

The solution is to break the model into bits and load them concurrently (GZDoom allows the loading of up to 4 models on one actor at any one time). I don't know how easy it would be (or even if it would be possible) to break the model up when converting with Noesis though.
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Re: Issues With Models (2017-09-05)

Post by Ed the Bat »

This indeed seems to be the case with one or two models. I can break models apart with the Half-Life tools if they happen to be made of multiple submodels, the way I did with the scientists and HECU marines, for instance. In fact, the error with the headless HECU was simply due to a copy-paste error on my part.

EDIT: Done with this round of fixes. Some models were simply making the engine unhappy, likely due to what Enjay mentioned above. Breaking them into smaller models seems to have fixed the issue. This was applied to Otis (as Rex reported above in Item 1), the MTM 8 Loader vehicle, the Military Police, and the Hornet Grunt. The HECU Marines missing body parts (Item 2 from Rex's report) was due to a missing line; error on my part. This has been fixed. Erroneous MODELDEF frames entries have been fixed for actors that required it: Vortigaunt (as per Item 3), Gonarch, Bullsquid, and 9mm pistol arms for Otis and Bellmer (without HEV suit).

In addition to Rex's report, I found and fixed some other issues:
Nihilanth was crushed in at the bottom (due to out-of-bounds vertices in the MD3 conversion -- fixed by scaling him down first
Medkit and HEV suit had their SurfaceSkins rearranged incorrectly -- fixed by manually rearranging them
Hornets were being eclipsed by their 'chrome' texture -- fixed by simply removing said texture

Probably some other things I forgot to mention, but this covers the big issues. If any new issues become apparent, don't hesitate to tell me so I can fix my mistakes. Goodness knows there's plenty of those.
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