ZEQ2 Lite

Thursday, June 28, 2012

is there any way we can change the aura system

I mean can we edit the aura into better thing

if there is a way tell me it would be of great help

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Specify......savior A.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

maybe the size is in tier.cfg

Thursday, June 28, 2012

There are ways to edit the aura system, but for the most part they are all done on the back end with code changes, and would likely not be an easy task for someone new to coding.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Shenku wrote : There are ways to edit the aura system, but for the most part they are all done on the back end with code changes, and would likely not be an easy task for someone new to coding.

maybe but weather the task is hard or not we must try it first

before giveing up

so is there any guide are tutorial change this and do I need ( the source code itself ) etc

Friday, June 29, 2012

a little advice would be help full

Friday, June 29, 2012

I always thought that Dragon Ball Z aura was more closer to the charatcer, like when they charge up or something, the aura is closer

Friday, June 29, 2012

Get the source code from the SVN. You'll need to look in Source\Game\CGame\cg_auras.c to see all code relating to the aura. That particular file is rather messily written and the implementation was done years ago by another programmer so it might be pretty convoluted to understand the flow of.

If you'd like to make a flow or other chart outlining an overview, go for it.

Friday, June 29, 2012

got the source code

the proggram is a little difficult to understant but I will some how learn it

but needs sometime

Friday, June 29, 2012

a guide will be even more help full though

Friday, June 29, 2012

a guide will be even more help full though

A guide to what? C programming? You'd be better off finding an online guide, technical manual, or resource website of some sort on the subject.

Editing the aura file to do what you want? Explaining what to do step by step would be equivalent to making it. There is no single unified way to implement something in code. There are best practical situations (which you learn over time through experience), but there are literally hundreds of ways to implement these kinds of things. This is why programming is more of a creative process than a mechanical one that can be produced in steps.

Besides that, I have yet to even examine the flow of aura functions or their usages. This is the reason I was asking you to investigate and document these things first and foremost so that supplemental work could be done.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Zeth wrote :

a guide will be even more help full though

A guide to what? C programming? You'd be better off finding an online guide, technical manual, or resource website of some sort on the subject.

Editing the aura file to do what you want? Explaining what to do step by step would be equivalent to making it. There is no single unified way to implement something in code. There are best practical situations (which you learn over time through experience), but there are literally hundreds of ways to implement these kinds of things. This is why programming is more of a creative process than a mechanical one that can be produced in steps.

Besides that, I have yet to even examine the flow of aura functions or their usages. This is the reason I was asking you to investigate and document these things first and foremost so that supplemental work could be done.

not this Zeth I already know this

I was asking that about the another methord '

I mean I saw md3 files in aura folder and thought that by creating a diffent model in some way would make a change in the aura like in to neddel aura that's why I asked about the guied

Friday, June 29, 2012

First off, you need to have an image in your head that specifies what you want the aura to look like. As Brad explained, there are countless ways to achieve any one appearance. You could concentrate more heavily on the models and textures, and just make a few adjustments to the code to achieve the effect.

However, it is very time-consuming, especially if you are just guessing at new values.

A guide that specifies how to make a single effect is pointless. What you should be asking for is a list of functions and how they affect the model and texture.

Again, like Brad said, you are better off looking for an online guide that lists a lot of C programming functions, but be warned, it's going to be a lot of reading and searching if you don't know what you want exactly.

That's probably another reason why few, if any, people have tried to change the code, on top of the fact that the original creator of the aura function made a messy and unnecessarily large script (kind of fuzzy on the details; I just learned about this flaw today).

Friday, June 29, 2012

I mean I saw md3 files in aura folder and thought that by creating a diffent model in some way would make a change in the aura like in to neddel aura that's why I asked about the guied

You mean effects\aura\swirl? Those were files made specifically in a frame-by-frame manner to create the animated swirling burst of energy you see in the title sequence as well as when characters transform or start a powerup in general.

It has not yet been implemented. One method for doing so would require understanding of how Quake 3 loads and plays back animated md3 files alongside creating a supplimental animation.cfg and set of .skin files. An alternative method of implementation will likely still require a .skin file, but would be done by creating a specialized .effect file (as planned) to control exactly what model is used on which frame. The advantages of this approach over the first is that you'd be able to have a completely different mesh on each frame -- and thus more creative flexibility.

That's probably another reason why few, if any, people have tried to change the code, on top of the fact that the original creator of the aura function made a messy and unnecessarily large script (kind of fuzzy on the details; I just learned about this flaw today).

RiO, our first programmer, was extremely adept in terms of 3D mathematics and meticulous code sanity-checking to the level of most professors in the field might be. However, much of what he wrote (aura, phys/grfx, and psys particle systems) is EXTREMELY bloated and lacks cohesive organizational rules of design or flow. This makes it just as convoluted as Carmackian code and thus difficult to follow (at a glance). Many of these systems were intended to be rewritten from scratch, but most of the visiting programmers to ZEQ2-lite (SonGolias, ScifiSpirit, and myself) agreed that rewriting these systems from scratch in a limited environment would not yield as many fruits as writing them in a more capable one with less limitations and more foundation clarity -- thus the Unity adaptation concept.

The overall aura system (for the base) that will likely be used can be found here.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Brad, I'll take your word for knowing of RiO's extensive experience in this area.

However, I am not quite sure what you are trying to say (perhaps it was the unfamiliar vocabulary) regarding the current code. I think I would understand "BLOATED," but the addition of lacking "cohesive organizational rules of design or flow" and being "just as convoluted as Carmackian code" escapes my sphere of understanding.

I always imagined coding to have some sort of pattern that may or may not flow, but still has some sort of organized placement. I'll take a wild guess at "convoluted as Carmackian code" and assume that it means without pattern, or a very hard to detect pattern that makes it hard to find any certain line to make a change of code.

I suppose I could google it, but I don't trust random websites I find myself entering.

Anyway, I'll take a look at that link sooner or later.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

lacking "cohesive organizational rules of design or flow"

RiO's code features lots of bite-sized functions (often when not needed or reused), no clearly defined entry point function in a call chain (function calls sprinkled everywhere) and often abbreviated/terse variable/function names that are both ambiguous and similar to one another.

and being "just as convoluted as Carmackian code" escapes my sphere of understanding.

That's a reference to John Carmack, the lead programmer of ID software (creators of Quake, Doom, etc.) Rather than more simplified coding practices, he'd often uses complex and convoluted coding tricks to accomplish the same result. This was done usually to improve performance or combine a few lines into a single call, but left a lot of programmers muddled.