Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Nadnerb » Mon May 05, 2008 9:39 pm

well, the system works really well, it just seems to fail in specific places, meaning the regions probably weren't set up right. The method with the gates that you mention would require exactly what we have now plus more scripting at each transition point. It's ugly, and it's got more opportunities to fail. I'd say Robert simply needs to put out a few more builds of this, and then we can search for broken transition points some more. ;)
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Robert The Rebuilder » Tue May 06, 2008 6:50 am

You're probably right, Nadnerb - it's either a misplaced region or a coding error (or both). Thanks for testing it out, guys, and for the specific error information. Next time I have a free moment (which will probably be next week), I'll debug these issues.

Once it's completely working, it should be quite easy to integrate into Ahra Pahts. All that has to change in the original city model (given that Aloys has already separated out the geometry into subdistricts) is to put colliders under each spawn point in page 0, then add the "hide: true" flag to every page except 0 and 10 (the "static" page that has the portal regions). I'll provide him the scripts, the Prin Pahts PRP and the static PRP, and we're set.

This prototype even takes care of handling two resolutions of the Hub. The simulated hi-res version is paged in when using the Prin linking books to either the lower or upper sections of the hub, and the low-res version is paged in everyplace else.

Note: When linking in to the upper hub, I've found that I can get away with only paging in shells for district 1; the other districts' shells are hidden by the district walls. So, we may be able to get away with not having LODs for each shell, but we'll see.
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Aloys » Tue May 06, 2008 7:28 am

Great work Robert! I haven't yet had time to check it out but I'm sure you did a great job as usual. Moreover if it's easy to integrate into my current scenes, it's a nice bonus. ;)
I'll have a deep look at it later this week because right now I'm busy with the light flares.. I'm converting all the light flares from alpha-based textures to additive mode-based textures.. Which will both look better and should give a slight boost in performance. (thanks Nadnerb for the blend modes tip. ;) )
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Robert The Rebuilder » Mon May 12, 2008 9:11 am

I found the issues that Nadnerb and Ehren discovered. One was a missing portal region; the other was a typo in the script. I did a complete walking tour of the city through the central subdistrict of each district and never noticed any missing geometry.

To try it yourself, first clear out all LinkTest01 files from your Uru install. [Easy way: right-click on Uru folder and choose Search..., then enter LinkTest01, then select all the files it found and hit the delete key.]

Then download the prototype:

LinkTest01_subdistrict3.zip (21.14 MB)

Aloys: when you're ready for integrating this, here's the initial steps to take:

0. Make a backup of your Ahra Pahts city file (the one containing the city link points).

1. Download this zipped Python file and unzip it into your blender/scripts directory:

pahts_wizards.zip
(5.1 KiB) Downloaded 288 times


[Yep - it is a newer version of the file I previously gave you, except it has a new wizard.]

2. Download this zipped Blender file and unzip it in the same directory as Ahra Pahts:

lpcCol.zip
(28.44 KiB) Downloaded 520 times


3. In your Ahra Pahts Blender file, change the page_num property of the city linking points to 0

4. Choose File->Append or Link, then open the lpcCol.blend file and select the only object inside: lpcCol. This will place the object in layer 12.

5. Make layer 12 visible and the layer containing the city linking points visible, then choose Scripts->Wizards->Pahts Wizards->Add collider under city link points. This will place a duplicate of the collider object 3 Blender units under each linking point.

6. Save your city file.

The next step would be for me to update my scripts to match all the page names in your Ahra Pahts file. Save your book text object to a file and email it to me; I'll then send you two PRP files (for Prin and static) and a new PAK file (containing the modified Pahts scripts). At that point, you can add the "hide: true" to all your pages and try out the paging mechanism.
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Ehren » Mon May 12, 2008 2:05 pm

Okay, just one more thing I wanted to point out.

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The red line shows a path that could be used to walk around where the portal region (with blue circle) is. In the LinkTest age, this area was blocked off, keeping it from being a problem, but if the "real" Ahra Pahts still has this path at it's link point, it will need a portal region too, I think.

Sorry if you already knew about this, but I wanted to point it out since this path is non-existant in the LinkTest age. I'm not sure if that is the only spot like that, but I guess it's most important since that's where you first link in to.
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Nadnerb » Mon May 12, 2008 2:37 pm

Hmmm, he's right. The test Pahts is slightly oversimplified. The blue district alley containing the link in point is apparently a special case and allows passage from both sides. The simplest (and probably best) solution would be to add an identical transition region between 431 and 428.
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Robert The Rebuilder » Mon May 12, 2008 6:07 pm

Good catch, Ehren! I had added that blockade during the creation of the prototype, but I forgot to inform Aloys about it.

Will inserting such a blockade be a problem, Aloys?
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Nadnerb » Mon May 12, 2008 6:41 pm

Is there a problem with having a transition region in that alley? Wouldn't you be able to just use an identical copy of the district one?
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Re: Subdistrict Paging For Ahra Pahts

Postby Robert The Rebuilder » Tue May 13, 2008 4:43 am

Currently the script is structured around the assumption that there's only one entrance between subdistricts.

One thing I could do is to stretch out the regions so that they extend to the other passageway. They would pass through the adjacent walls of shells 429 and 430, but that shouldn't be a problem.
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