Need a guide with Shellmap Options

[Casojin]

Hi guys, I'm trying to make a shellmap for Contra mod.
I've never made any shellmap before and I need some guidance.

Here are my questions...
- Is fog of war set to reveal all by default?
- Do I need a non-AI controlled player?
From what I've seen in current shellmap, there is no need for special script for camera control, just simply waypoint for it.
- Is this correct?
- Is there any guide for camera waypoint?

[Rade]

You should check the shell map for the ROTR because there you can find good examples for almost everything you'll need to make the shellmap.

About the first two questions you need to have one player thats not the AI because that player is used as the observer, also you need to use script to remove the fog of war for that player.

*** IF ***
True.
*** THEN ***
Shroud off the map edges is turned off.
The radar is now forced to be enabled.
The world is revealed permanently for Player 'PlyrHack'.
Set EVA to be enabled FALSE (False to disable.)
Set Draw-icon UI to be enabled FALSE (False to disable.)
Set Occlusion to be enabled FALSE (False to disable.)
Disables special power countdown display.
The current map is given a Rank Level Limit of 0 .
Set Particle Cap to be enabled FALSE (False to disable.)
Play 'Shell' using fadeout (FALSE) and fadein (FALSE).

Also when you edit the players list first add the skirmish players and then remove the factions that you're not going to use on the shellmap and just leave the civilian player, factions that are used on map and the observer (in this case PlyrHack).



In order to setup the camera properly you'll need a waypoint path along which the camera will move and also for each waypoint along that path you will need one additional waypoint in order to point the camera in right direction. In addition to this you will also need the scripts which control along which waypoint path is camera supposed to move, pitch and zoom, how long it will take for camera to move from one waypoint to another and to which waypoint the camera should look while its moving. All these camera scripts are controlled by one countdown timer and you have to use frames for it because if you use seconds countdown timer some things wont work properly.In zh 30 frames should be equal to 1 second but this is not always true especially on slower computers where 30 frames can last little bit longer and this can be a problem when setting up the music for the shellmap because music will always run at the same speed, while the speed at which the frames run and therefore the whole game will greatly depend on the speed of the computer used to run the shellmap. On the ROTR shellmap the camera needs 10 seconds to move between the two waypoints, for example if you have ten camera waypoints on the shellmap you'll need something like this:

*** IF ***
True.
*** THEN ***
Set timer 'Camera Timer' to expire in 3000 frames.

then you'll need this script to setup the camera starting position

*** IF ***
True.
*** THEN ***
Position camera at Waypoint 'Camera 00', zoom = 0.50(0.0 to 1.0), pitch = 1.00(1.0==default), looking towards Waypoint 'Look at 00'.
Enable Script 'Camera at 01'.

and this one to move it to the first waypoint

*** IF ***
Counter 'Camera Timer' IS Equal To 2999
*** THEN ***
Move camera to Waypoint 'Camera 01' in 10.00 seconds, camera shutter 0.00 seconds, ease-in 0.00 seconds, ease-out 0.00 seconds.
Look towardWaypoint 'Look at 01' during the camera movement.
Enable Script 'Camera at 02'.

then second waypoint

*** IF ***
Counter 'Camera Timer' IS Equal To 2700
*** THEN ***
Move camera to Waypoint 'Camera 02' in 10.00 seconds, camera shutter 0.00 seconds, ease-in 0.00 seconds, ease-out 0.00 seconds.
Enable Script 'Camera at 03'.

and so on until you reach the script for the last waypoint which should look like this

*** IF ***
Counter 'Camera Timer' IS Equal To 300
*** THEN ***
Move camera to Waypoint 'Camera 00' in 10.00 seconds, camera shutter 0.00 seconds, ease-in 0.00 seconds, ease-out 0.00 seconds.
Look towardWaypoint 'Look at 00' during the camera movement.
Enable Script 'Restart Camera'.
Enable Script 'Camera at 01'.

and then you should restart the camera timer it when it expires

*** IF ***
Timer 'Camera Timer' has expired.
*** THEN ***
Set timer 'Camera Timer' to expire in 3000 frames.

On the ROTR shellmap all these camera scripts are in the PlyrCivilian\Camera Movement\ folder if you want to have a better look as to how they are setup.



Also Camera Timer is very important because you will also use it to control most of the other scripts on the shellmap, like this one for example

*** IF ***
Counter 'Camera Timer' IS Equal To 2000
*** THEN ***
Spawn Unit 'Backfire 01' of type 'RussiaJetTU22BackFire' on team Team 'Backfire' at position ((2355.51,2306.53,150.00)), rotated -167.00 degrees .
Spawn Unit 'Backfire 02' of type 'RussiaJetTU22BackFire' on team Team 'Backfire' at position ((2384.28,2368.21,150.00)), rotated -167.00 degrees .
Have Team 'Backfire' follow Waypoint Path 'Backfire' , as a team is TRUE
Enable Script 'Remove BackFire'.

it spawns two Backfire bombers and then tells them to move to the specific location when the camera timer is equal to 2000.


And good luck with scripting the shell map, you're really gonna need it along with lots and lots of patience because you'll have to watch that map over and over again until you manage to get everything right.

[Casojin]

Thank for the guide. I'll check it out.

This post has been edited by Casojin: 10 Sep 2010, 21:20

[Casojin]

I have a problem. My shellmap keeps crashing during 80-90 seconds into the second loop. Each loop lasts about 120 seconds.

[Rade]

Without the scripts I can't be of much help but you should check the scripts, because its most likely that you have some script that tells some units to attack something and after the map loops those units don't have a valid target because it was destroyed during the first loop. Also you should focus on the scripts which are active around the time the game crashes, because thats most likely the place where you'll find the problem.

[Casojin]

I would like to ask something. I've checked all scripts and I think the problem might be something with recursive spawning of multiple teams.
I set every team to respawn when they die (in Team property > Behavior tab > On Destroyed 100%: (Respawn subroutine).

This post has been edited by Casojin: 19 Sep 2010, 14:13

[Rade]

You shouldn't do that because I think its not gonna work properly, instead you should use script with that camera timer I've suggested in the last post, you can use that to spawn either single units from the team or the whole team at the specific location. Also if the the team is not destroyed when the map loops the first time you should have a script that removes it before you try to spawn it again.

[Casojin]

Thank you very much, Rade. I've finally made my Contra shellmap functional. It's kinda fun. I wonder about one thing though.
When I tested my shellmap from skirmish menu, it works fine. However, there is a glitch with a creek when I run the map at ZH menu. Water waves appeared out of no where in the creek. I suspect that it's from WAK file of original Contra shellmap (which is based on vZH shellmap) because the position is similar to the old map (I still use the name ShellMapMD). Is my hypothesis above correct? And is there any suggestion?

[JJ]

If it's the wak file you're suspecting, try putting an empty wak file and it should be override.

[Casojin]

It works!!! Thank you very much, JJ.