Getting Started

[Juryiel]

Ok I tried to read as much as I could for the past 3 hours, found a whole bunch of tutorials, even the step by step class lectures, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get started. I used to think I'm computer literate but it seems RF has stumped me.

Ok so I get the main idea, we edit or replace the existing files (and add new ones as necessary) to create a game. But I can't find where I can control the game itself. Let's say I make a bunch of levels.. what determines which of them I start on? Let's say I want to change the default movement system and code my own variation, where exactly do I go to find the code that controls movement so that I can change it? I'm confused

Also, another question, I like the tool FreeWorld3D and I was wondering if I can use it well with RF. It does export (absurdly large, which I have to polygon-reduce) OBJ files, which seem supported, but the textures are done by some sort of alpha maps and I was wondering if I can load them up correctly with RF. I know Freeworld allows to collapse the textures but the loss in quality is not good. Another workaround is to use 3dsmax and set up a complicated chain of blend materials based on a reccursive combination of each alpha map, but I have yet to be able to export that material correclty into any format (e.g. .3ds, .obj, etc). If you have any experience with this please let me know

[vrageprogrammer]

Welcome to the forums Juryiel..
Ok, if you make a bunch o' levels, and want to specify a start level, do this:
go to your tools folder, then select Inieditor, a program used to edit the RF ini.
There, change the sart level to whatever you want(Must be a compiled bsp file)
And what do you mean by making your own movement system?Do you mean animations?Or just the buttons than control movement?
I've never used freeworlds3d, but if it can export to .obj, then your in luck...
Download milkshape3d, which exports to .act formats.

Also, read he DOCS located in the docs folder.
Read Dan Valeo's book.

And good luck, hope you understood.

[Spyrewolf]

Hi Juryiel,

Welcome aboard,
...From reading your post i think your approaching RF from a wrong direction, RF basically pulls everything together and runs it,
-if you have modded HL or quake you'll be write at home.

-the materials we use are Squared Bmp's,(i.e 512x 512 or 128x 128 for example) resolutions RF can support alpha map's in bmp (with greyscale) and TGA. (with convertor)

as vrageprogrammer has pointed out, you can begin to load your 1st level with the ini editor program that comes with RF.
in you (map) rf uses BSP's (same as quake and HL) make sure you add the entities also to the map you insert them directly into the editor itself.

RF does take a little bit of time to come to grips with as it not without it's quirks, (you'll learn what works and what doesn't with time)
if you still have questions on the board feel free to ask no-one bites here.

[Juryiel]

By movement system I mean I would like to replace/change how movement is handled. I would like to add double jumps, levitation abilities, maybe some running momentum (e.g. if you're running one way and you change direction it takes some time and isn't instant) among other things that I have not yet fully fleshed out. One of the most important parts of a game is how it handles so I would like to have a decent amount of control over this.

Ok so now I get what I need to get started in respect to levels and such, thanks guys One mor equestion though, I would like to keep the demo intact to use as an example, and make a new directory to start a gaime. I read about the 'minimum needed files' or whatever it was called, but no mention of what I need to copy over specifically. Can someone please shed some light on this?

I did read a lot of the docs already, and I have that book, but it seemed to focus too much on game design as opposed to an actual step-by-step tutorial to start a new game from scratch, which is what I was looking for. I'll keep reading these things, so if one of my questions is in the manuals or tutorials already just poing me to it

Thanks again!

[Juryiel]

Yay, I just found the RPG tutorial, which seems to show how you can change things related to movement and controls! Going to go study it!

[Juryiel]

Hmm still confused about levels. I checked the INI and the starting level is basic.bsp, but when I run the game I can choose from 3 different characters and none start at that level. Hmm.

[Juryiel]

Ok I finally figured this part out. Apparently there is also a character.ini that has a start level for each character. Useful feature if you want to make different subgames for each character, but it leaves me to question, what's the point of the startLevel thing in the main ini? Just to confuse noobs like me? Took me like 5 hours of looking around before I thought to search inside files for the level name that kept loading instead of the level I specified in the main .ini file