Cloning Facility

[Draconisaurus]

That looks and sounds great. I appreciate the ambience being evoked, such as a single crate sitting alone amidst beach debris.. And, it's good to hear that you are applying your old Tres skills to this new, personally-created setting.

[TheIdiot]

(Click on thumbnail for full size)

Haven't worked much on this for a while now, but I did manage to crank out a fair bit of work the other day and figured I may as well show another obscure, oblique angle of the island in order to hide the unfinished areas.
I also created a few new TPA files labelled "TIStream" and so on that I'd like to use as a sort of universal sound bank for any work I do in the future. Re-using the same TPAs would reduce the download size for my levels as well as speed up the TPA editing process - for instance, if I want movie-esque dino sounds for a specific level, all of a dinosaur's sounds will already be in the TPA ready to go. The only issue I see with this is having a lot of duplicate files in different folders, though I suppose we already have that with the TexHW folder so as long as you have some hard drive space, I hope it should be okay.

[Draconisaurus]

That is looking quite nice. I enjoy the new sort of sky overhead. Partly reminds me to the haze of the West coast heh, of course the foliage is all wrong for that. I am also reminded of the unfinished cliff-climb level you released. I can't recall what was after the cliff climbing segment...

TPA consolidation, interesting. It reminds me of my tentative project to put collect all Mayan mods of mine into a single CE mod folder for ongoing releases. Sounds fine to me.

[tatu]

Looking great!

The only issue I see with this is having a lot of duplicate files in different folders

Unless... you always use a folder named something like "TIMods" or something that comes with all your mods, so they all work from the same folder?

[Draconisaurus]

Hmm. Does CE support multiple TPAs of the same type to be attached to a specific level?

[tatu]

Hmm. Does CE support multiple TPAs of the same type to be attached to a specific level?

I don't think so. It is similar to ATX, it reads from the TPA's in the data folder but can use an additional TPA. It might be possible, but I haven't checked or tried.

[machf]

IIRC, CE will look in several folders/files until it finds a matching name for a given audio...

[TheIdiot]

Unless... you always use a folder named something like "TIMods" or something that comes with all your mods, so they all work from the same folder?

Good idea! Will definitely do that. I currently have all of my WIP stuff in a "test" mod folder anyway. The only potential problem is FM.ini conflicts but I believe it could be worked around.

Hmm. Does CE support multiple TPAs of the same type to be attached to a specific level?

Haven't tried it yet, but I seem to remember seeing something in the CE documentation about this...using a "TPA+" and "TPA++" strings or something like that.

[Draconisaurus]

Hmmmm. Alright, for fm.ini:

In [General], there are 2 sections for specifying custom TPA files. The first appears to set TPA files which are to be used -instead of- the main CE data folder's TPA files. The second appears to set TPA files which are to be looked at as optionally -replacing- sound entries found in the main TPA files, of the same name.

Code: Select all

; Custom audio files for the FM (used unless any level explicitly overrides a setting in the level specific
; level specific settings, see below)
;EffectsTPA=Effects.tpa
;StreamTPA=Stream.tpa
;AmbientTPA=Ambient.tpa
;MenuTPA=Menu.tpa
; Additive custom audio files can be specified instead (or in addition to), these loaded on top of the regular
; sound files
;EffectsTPA+=Effects.tpa
;StreamTPA+=Stream.tpa
;AmbientTPA+=Ambient.tpa

Later on, the individual [levelname.scn] entries repeat the above optioning, but targeted at the specific SCN in question within this mod folder's own data folder.

Code: Select all

; Custom audio file overrides for the level
;EffectsTPA=Effects.tpa
;StreamTPA=Stream.tpa
;AmbientTPA=Ambient.tpa
;MenuTPA=Menu.tpa
; Additive custom audio files can be specified instead (or in addition to), these loaded on top of the regular
; sound files
;EffectsTPA+=Effects.tpa
;StreamTPA+=Stream.tpa
;AmbientTPA+=Ambient.tpa

So, let me see... It is possible to have "___TPA+" for the whole mod folder, then separate "___TPA+" for each separate level inside it. That sounds like it has some options.

[TheIdiot]

Found some more time to work on this. I've moved around the island and created a couple of new areas, but they're so isolated it's hard to get a screenshot of them without exposing the ugly unfinished parts. So here's a nice scenic view of an area that's finished!

(Click on thumbnail for full size)

Turns out the 3D grass does indeed work without crashing so long as you are very careful to avoid too much clipping. It can be a bit tedious to place, but the look is worth it.

[TrespasserGuy]

Holy crap TI, the level is looking as good as ever It looks like TC~Isle on steroids

[Draconisaurus]

I am enjoying the fresh sky with a difficult-to-pin-down color.

[TheIdiot]

It looks like TC~Isle on steroids

The level is unintentionally turning into that sort of thing. A lot of similar ideas are popping up in my head, though overall I hope to create a different experience with the way the level plays out. Still have no direct idea of what I want to create which definitely helps a LOT when designing new areas. RTJP could be really restrictive sometimes.

[Draconisaurus]

Heyy I like the signature banner. Hmmm... 10 - 15 years ago, all signature image bars were called banners. Is that still a thing?

[TheIdiot]

Small update on the level: I managed to find some time to make a quick new model for the level. Very simple stuff, but I've had it planned for a while and the lack of said model has been clogging up development of a specific area. I might have to make a few more small ones for this level along with a couple of big ones, but I'm maintaining my concept of attempting to avoid creating a ton of new assets in order to avoid the scope getting out of hand.

Heyy I like the signature banner

Thanks! It was a tossup between that and a recreation of one of the t-shirts from the Visitor Centre Gift Shop.

Hmmm... 10 - 15 years ago, all signature image bars were called banners. Is that still a thing?

I believe so, though these days most people just put general images in their signatures rather than use actual purpose-made banners.