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FPSC Classic Product Chat / FPSC-Entities.exe

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Omikron
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Posted: 13th Feb 2005 21:30
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Installed the marvellously funky FPSCreator yesterday afternoon after trailing around the coffee bars of Newport in South Wales whilst it was downloading. Was up until 3am last night messing about with this marvellous little program using the default entitybanks for some quick game creation.

This morning I woke up and thought, wouldn't it be marvellous to have a pizza box in this game. Thus 30 seconds of fiddling in Cartography Shop and the Pizza Box was born



However, i've hit a block! Aghast!

I followed the manual up to section 11.4.11 and (read on)

11.4 Making New Entities
You can create your own entities for use within your games. You will need to
have your media ready in X file format for meshes and TGA file format for the
textures. Perform the following steps to create a new entity.
1. Navigate to FPS Creator\Files\entitybank\
2. Create a new folder called MyEntities\
3. Copy your own X file and TGA file into this folder
4. Now navigate to one of the existing entitybank folders and choose an
entity which most closely resembles the entity type you are about to
create. For example if you are importing your own character, choose a
character FPE file. If you are importing some of your own furniture,
choose a table or shelf. You are looking to copy the file which ends with
.FPE as this is the actual entity file we are going to create.
5. When you have found a close matching entity, copy the entity FPE file into
your own folder and rename it accordingly (i.e. mynewchair.fpe)
6. Open this file in Notepad simply by double clicking and selecting Notepad
when asked to associate the file type FPE with a tool.
7. The FPE is a simple text file formatted into fields and data.
8. To customise this FPE file, locate the MODEL field and change the path so
it points to your X file
9. Locate the TEXTURED field and change it so that it points to your TGA file.
The paths always start from the Files folder onwards, this is very
important.
10.Ignore the other fields for now, and save the FPE file and leave Notepad.
11.Run the FPSC-Entities.exe tool

I have run a search on C:\Program Files\The Game Creators\FPS Creator\ for this program and to my dismay the Search returned no matches.

So, am I missing something pretty obvious here? Kick me if this is the case!

http://www.zahrielomega.net
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Cloud of Crows Studios
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Posted: 13th Feb 2005 22:27
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FPSC-Entities (& the segement one) were intentionally left out because they are apparently user-unfriendly (let me be the judge of that Lee! )

You can still manually create stuff and put it in. To do this follow the steps you listed above. You should have something along these lines:

FPS Creator\Files\entitybank\MyEntities\pizzabox.x
FPS Creator\Files\entitybank\MyEntities\pizzabox.tga
FPS Creator\Files\entitybank\MyEntities\pizzabox.fps

In the .fps file (open with notepad) be sure to carefully change the paths for the model and the texture to point to right ones.

You can also create yourself a small 64x64 .bmp and name it like the .fps file. For example:
FPS Creator\Files\entitybank\MyEntities\pizzabox.bmp
This will then show up in the editor when your browsing for your custom entity (if not the editor will use a default icon: brain-in-a-jar )

A couple of notes regarding Cartography Shop:

1) I like using it a lot! I hope Josh doesn't change the basic way the interface works for v5 because drag and click rocks for modelling n00bs like me! ahem

2) Be very careful about sizes. It's VERY easy to create an object way too huge to be seen in FPSC. Make your grid the very smallest you can and zoom in to the center of the grid and experiment. Objects that are about 8 tiny squares x 8 tiny squares are rather large cubes in FPSC so for mr. pizza box you might try something like 2 x 2 x 1 tall... not really sure, you'll have to play with this. Use the surface texturing tools to scale the textures to fit.

3) In my FPSC map editor items made with Cartography Shop show up really dark, but they display fine in the game (I'm having issues with lighting and my video card so this may be specifric to me)

Good luck with and please post your results here (along with maybe a screenie or two? ) I'm interested to see how it works for you
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Omikron
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Posted: 13th Feb 2005 22:28 Edited at: 13th Feb 2005 22:29
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Okay, I got bored.

Tried bodging it by creating my own thumbnail bitmap to acompany the model and it is listed in. The entity browser.

Although I now have a pizza box that is the size of a few small bungalows!!

I realise the scale number in the FPE file that accompanies this must be a contributing factor (by default it's set to '1')

Is it a consideration for the final build of FPSC to allow entity resizing within the map editor?

(Edit: Ooo I just noticed someone's posted! ~reads~)

http://www.zahrielomega.net
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Omikron
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Posted: 13th Feb 2005 22:35
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Quote: "FPSC-Entities (& the segement one) were intentionally left out because they are apparently user-unfriendly"


Bah!

Quote: "if not the editor will use a default icon: brain-in-a-jar"


I'm sure I saw a movie about that once.

Quote: "Be very careful about sizes. It's VERY easy to create an object way too huge to be seen in FPSC."


Oh-ho! Yes I discovered that a few moments ago. It was like attack of the 100ft Pizza!

Quote: "Good luck with and please post your results here along with maybe a screenie or two?"


Thankyou and I certainly will if I achieve anything notably cool.

http://www.zahrielomega.net
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Cloud of Crows Studios
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Posted: 13th Feb 2005 22:50
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Quote: "Is it a consideration for the final build of FPSC to allow entity resizing within the map editor?"


Gosh how I wish!!! Considering the very easy to use keys for move objects around it sure would be nice to have keys to enlarge and reduce items (of course I don't know how practical this is, but it just *seems* like it would work )
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uman
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 01:49
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What is of course really needed is for us to have FPSC - Entities.exe back. If its not in a user friendly condition - then it should be made so for V1. Same applies to FPSC - Segment.exe

In the mean time it would be useful if TGC could supply a default model scale sample in say either 3ds or .x file or both formats so that one can import in to a model editor as a scaling guide for objects.

As the .exe tools had been dropped out then one would have thought such a simple offering in its place which would make users life much easier would have been included.
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Omikron
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 02:30 Edited at: 14th Feb 2005 02:31
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Okay, so in the FPE file I have the following:



;header
desc = dominos pizza

;ai
aiinit = appear1.fpi
aimain = pickup1.fpi
aidestroy = disappear1.fpi

;aiused
usekey =
ifused =
ifusednear =

;spawn
spawnmax = 0
spawndelay = 0
spawnqty = 0

;orientation
model = dominos_pizza.x
offy = 0
scale = 10
fixnewy = 0

;visualinfo
texturepath = entitybankscifiitems
textured = dominos_pizza.tga

Notice I changed the Scale from 100 to just 10. This seemed to fix the sizing problem.

However I'm now facing the dilemma of a multiple delivery on a Sunday night from a company who doesn't have logos on their boxes (the cheapskates!).

So yes, the texture isn't being loaded. It's a 32bit TGA without any compression fandangery. Any ideas?



http://www.zahrielomega.net
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Cloud of Crows Studios
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 02:49
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Quote: "So yes, the texture isn't being loaded. It's a 32bit TGA without any compression fandangery. Any ideas?"


Hmmm well 2 possible thoeries:

1) entitybankscifiitems - this is actuall something like entitybank\scifi\items correct? That is to say be sure you are using backslashes in the path. It goes without saying also be sure that's where the texture ends up!?!

or

2) Scaling may not effect textures and so you are seeing white from the top right corner of your dominos_pizza.tga
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Omikron
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 02:53 Edited at: 14th Feb 2005 02:55
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Quote: "1) entitybankscifiitems - this is actuall something like entitybankscifiitems correct? That is to say be sure you are using backslashes in the path. It goes without saying also be sure that's where the texture ends up!?!"


Yeah, forum took the slashes out. ~kicks forum~

Quote: "2) Scaling may not effect textures and so you are seeing white from the top right corner of your dominos_pizza.tga"


Tried re-colouring the TGA to a plain red thing and saving over the original file, still white as a ghost. Oooo ghost pizza!

You input is very much appreciated, i'll keep trying different things until I find out a solution. If you have any more ideas in the meantime I'd welcome all.

http://www.zahrielomega.net
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Cloud of Crows Studios
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 02:57
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Hmmm... I just realized I have been saving all of my TGA's as 24bit (default for my graphics program). Try saving it at 24 instead of 32 and see if that does the trick
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Omikron
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 03:25
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Tried it. No luck. :/

I will make this work if it kills me.

http://www.zahrielomega.net
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Leuko
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 04:06
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This process works for entities but how does one get new segments to show up? I don't see an FPE file for segments and. Do I have to wait for the tool or is their a text file somewhere that I can hack to get things working. I'm cool with working with text files until a toll comes down intot he pipeline.

Allen T.
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Cloud of Crows Studios
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 04:28
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Quote: "Tried it. No luck. :/ "


Sheesh you're exhausting my solutions

If you want you can send me the .x file and the .tga (or post them here) and I'll give it a whirl for you.
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Omikron
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 04:39
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Cracked it.

Edited the .x file in notepad to find it was referencing some crazy jpg!

I've now amended this and (attached screenshot)

http://www.zahrielomega.net

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Cloud of Crows Studios
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 04:42
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Good job!

Now of course begs the question - do zombies eat pizza?
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Omikron
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 06:40 Edited at: 14th Feb 2005 06:44
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Thankyou for all your help.

Although i've just tried to make an open-box version of it with 2 different TGA files which looks fine in Cartshop (see attached).

But when plugging this into FPSC for some irritating reason it seems to want to replace the actual pizza texture with the box logo - as if it's only bothering to read the first texture.

Ach, i'm going to leave this for today.

The only way around this that I can think of would be to combine the two textures into one image and do a bit of meticulous UV mapping to only map the box art to the box and the pizza section to the pizza - which is a little on the long winded side.

http://www.zahrielomega.net

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Cloud of Crows Studios
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 06:50
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Looks yummy. Time for dinner

Quote: "The only way around this that I can think of would be to combine the two textures into one image and do a bit of meticulous UV mapping to only map the box art to the box and the pizza section to the pizza - which is a little on the long winded side."


Yeah I noticed this too. All the entities in FPSC have a single texture map. They are all essentially "skinned" models.

I'm really partial to the easy method Cshop has of texturing... maybe an export from Cshop and then import into Lithunwrap and then back out again for a final? I would have to experiment with this. More work I care for as well.
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Mr Flowerkohl
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 15:24
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im gettin hungry

yeah...thats the ticket !
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Josh1121
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Posted: 14th Feb 2005 17:07
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Hey good work dude! I no this may be a long shot but do you think you could try to get a old tree with like no leaves on it just branches competiable cause i wanna use on in my game?

Bite me!
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Omikron
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 07:23 Edited at: 15th Feb 2005 07:24
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Trees will be on the agenda eventually - although don't wait around. Weekdays i'm knackered after work and i usually only have time to code on Sundays

I know the FAQ advises against it (limitations, darn limitations) but I have backburner plans to bend this program to it's limits and try to create small outdoor environments to see how they work.

I understand the limitations presented by a small-tile based level system, even if it presents the easiest solution to designers, but if there was some sort of level-type divide where there was an option to code levels using a terrain based system (which the FAQ makes clear this is not what it's supposed to be used for, but can't stop me wanting more!!) this would truly be an unbeatable product.

However, I appreciate all the work that has gone into this program and I play with much amusement with the marvel that it is. It does what it does very well. Full credit to the devs, this is what we've always wanted and I really do appreciate these offerings to the bedroom game development world.

Sorry, i'm rambling.

http://www.zahrielomega.net
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uman
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Posted: 15th Feb 2005 08:11
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Omikron,

Well said
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