[scandalousrucksack]

Hello everyone. I have a few questions regarding weapons in Duke Nukem 3D. I haven't been able to find these in the game's code, but I know they must be buried in there somewhere.

1.) How do I access factors like:
- Number of shots before the pistol reloads
- Number of projectiles fired
- Bullet Spread
- The speed of rockets, freezer blasts, etc
- The fading to black of the microwave expander as it pulsates and other non art-related effects
- Change the projectile that a weapon shoots. For instance, make the pistol shoot rockets or make the might foot a ranged attack?
- The physics of pipe bombs

2.) Is it possible to create new weapons for Duke Nukem 3D? For instance, could I make a clone of the pistol and go from there?

I hate to bother you with these questions, but I haven't been able to come up with much on my own. I figured I might as well ask some people who really know what they're doing. If this has already been covered, just send me the link and I'll check it out. Thanks in advance.

[Danukem]

This will not make much sense to you, but here: http://wiki.eduke32....efined_gamevars

Changing those variables will allow you to accomplish about half of the things on your list. The other half would require adding new code for certain game events, and for projectile definitions.

[scandalousrucksack]

Thanks. I'll see what I can understand from that.

[Danukem]

 scandalousrucksack, on 11 February 2012 - 09:58 PM, said:

Thanks. I'll see what I can understand from that.

I'll give you a few more hints, because you seem like you are serious. When you said you looked through the game's code, I'm assuming you mean the CON files (GAME.CON etc). You won't find any code pertaining to the player's weapons in there. That's because those old CON files from 1996 used the original scripting system, which did not allow direct manipulation of the weapons. It was possible to modify the behavior of certain weapons indirectly by adding code to certain actors (EXPLOSION2, for example) but it was not pretty.

Nowadays, the scripting system allows you to change just about anything in the game in a fairly straightforward way. For example, if you want to make the pistol shoot trooper lasers, then you could do it by adding this line of code in one of the CON files (at the end of USER.CON, perhaps):

gamevar WEAPON1_SHOOTS FIRELASER 1

[Micky C]

Does the weapons.con.sample have any relevance here?

[scandalousrucksack]

Thanks, DeeperThought. I got it working now.

Right now I'm looking at turning the freezer into a light machine gun or something like that.

[Danukem]

 Micky C, on 11 February 2012 - 10:21 PM, said:

Does the weapons.con.sample have any relevance here?

Do you mean the enhance.con.sample file that comes with EDuke32? Not really. If you change the name of it to weapons.con or something appropriate, then have it be included by GAME.CON, then it could be somewhat useful, but only because it re-declares all the weapon variables so you can easily see what they are. The declarations it contains are totally redundant and pointless. I would start by commenting out the entire file, then uncommenting only those declarations where I wanted to change the initial value.

[Jimmy]

 DeeperThought, on 11 February 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

I'll give you a few more hints, because you seem like you are serious. When you said you looked through the game's code, I'm assuming you mean the CON files (GAME.CON etc). You won't find any code pertaining to the player's weapons in there. That's because those old CON files from 1996 used the original scripting system, which did not allow direct manipulation of the weapons. It was possible to modify the behavior of certain weapons indirectly by adding code to certain actors (EXPLOSION2, for example) but it was not pretty.

I remember hacking the Freezer into a really ghetto chainsaw back in the day. So glad we don't have to fumble around in the dark anymore, hahaha.

[Micky C]

 DeeperThought, on 11 February 2012 - 10:30 PM, said:

Do you mean the enhance.con.sample file that comes with EDuke32?

No, there's a more recent file Hendricks had something to do with called weapons.con.sample that I think he said had something to do with changing some properties of some of the weapons but my memory's a bit hazy there.

[Danukem]

 Micky C, on 11 February 2012 - 11:10 PM, said:

No, there's a more recent file Hendricks had something to do with called weapons.con.sample that I think he said had something to do with changing some properties of some of the weapons but my memory's a bit hazy there.

What you are remembering is a script that replicates all of the hardcoded weapon characteristics in CON, not just the gamevars. That's very useful, because it means, for example, that you can easily manipulate the way that the weapon is displayed. That would indeed be a good base to start from.

[Hendricks266]

Weapons.con.sample contains all of the weapon HUD drawing code and only the weapon HUD drawing code.

[Danukem]

 Hendricks266, on 12 February 2012 - 03:20 AM, said:

Weapons.con.sample contains all of the weapon HUD drawing code and only the weapon HUD drawing code.

So where is it? It's not on your web site and I can't find a thread for it.

EDIT: nvm found it http://eduke32.svn.s...pons.con.sample

[Hendricks266]

It's in the samples directory included with every synthesis build. As a general rule files with .sample on the end are found there, if I ever make any more.

[scandalousrucksack]

Hello again. I'm having an issue but I don't think it is worth starting a new thread.

I redid the explosion as .pngs using eduke's texture capabilities. There is one problem, the cloud no longer rises up. All of the animations play out nicely, but as the explosion cloud gets smaller, it stays in the same place. The DEF Language article at EDukeWiki doesn't seem to clarify what to do in this instance.

Thanks.

[Hendricks266]

It's hard to say specifically what to do. In general, if you keep each texture an exact scalar multiple of its original dimensions of its 8-bit tile, and properly replicate the positioning of your artwork within that frame, it should work just fine.

It sounds like you just made some new explosions and added them to the game, with the result of course not being what is expected.

[scandalousrucksack]

Quote

It's hard to say specifically what to do. In general, if you keep each texture an exact scalar multiple of its original dimensions of its 8-bit tile, and properly replicate the positioning of your artwork within that frame, it should work just fine.

It sounds like you just made some new explosions and added them to the game, with the result of course not being what is expected.

They are all exact scalar multiples. What do you mean exactly by "positioning of your artwork within that frame"? All of the files are directly modified from the originals. I've noticed that in DukeRes (an art viewing utility) the y-offset and x-offset change repeatedly within the animation (as well the speed that the sprite goes by). I know that this is what I need to access in order to fix my problem.

I think I need to use the setuptile def language.

[scandalousrucksack]

The problem's been resolved. Sorry to waste your time.