The Worm

I'm back! To cut a short story long... 5. What do you feel is the ave. age of the current modders? Beats me. I'm 42. I started at Igor when the Game came out. 6. How does the amount of time you spend modding compare to the amount of time you game? I spent almost all my aming time modding and testing. Sad to say, modding ruined the SP game for me. I used to play thinking like a soldier: tactics, flanking, ambushes etc. but now I can't help but thnk in terms of scripting, triggers, responses, path points etc. and the enemy becomes so predictable. The Map is a paper-thin construct with textures, Map Rooms and transistion points. 7. If you were to start over learning to mod (without previous experience) - How would you approach it and what mistakes would you avoid. One big mistake was spending months trying to learn Igor by trial and error without refering to the old RS hands who "hit the ground running" and could have helped me greatly. But at that time, I didn't know such a modding community even existed. However, with Map making, I think I had the right approach and I would do it the same all over again. I used to teach High School kids, so I designed a formal lesson plan for myself. I gathered every Dev documentation, tutorial and interesting forum post and bound them together into my own "textbook" of GR Map modding. I raided the local library for 3DS Max books. Then I went to work. I actually had a checklist of Map items to practice on and check off one by one. I made dozens of Maps. Some maps had nothing but rocks and boulders of all kinds (geosphere, extruded splines, etc). Some maps had nothing but trees and grass. Another had lots of doors everywhere. One map had a ridiculously large number of portals. Another was full of rivers and waterfalls. Another Map had a dozen twisting rooms to try out & practice the Lighting Tool. I spent a lot of time on lighting. A very important step was becoming a member of the GR.Net forums and becoming a regular contributor. I think this approach worked well. My very first public release Map mod of any game won a GR.Net Award (with Mission by Jay316)

The first shooter I bought was SOF for $5. I played half the first level, got stuck, and assumed that was the end of the game and there was nothing else. That's how much of a N00b I was with regards to your tech/programing question. I didn't know there was such a thing as modding until after I got GR in 2000. I finished the SP Campaign and still didn't know about modding. The game was on a CD, and CD data cannot be changed, right? I did not check with the online community because I didn't know there was such a thing as a online forum for games. I didn't know there was such a thing as an online forum for anything. I discovered IGOR by accident and after spending several sessions tinkering at random, I opened up the Caves mission. More days tinkering I found I could add tanks and many enemy to the Caves mission. Of course they either slaughtered each other or wandered off somewhere because I wasn't aware of scripting issues. It was all trial and error. I learned Igor by trial and error and studying the stock missions. With no guidance or tutorials, it took a looooong time. But I got quite good at it. Finally it dawned on me that these new mission files are actually on my HD, and playing your own missions was like throwing yourself a surprise birthday party and expect to be surprised. therefore there must be some online geek squad e-mailing Missions to each other... Which led me to this site... It was through this forum (and the "other one") that I finaly took off. The guidance and help of the Community was invaluable. I tried Weapons and didn't enjoy that. I only made an 105mm calibre artillery piece as a side-arm (it went KA-BOOM & fired stock tank shells) and a Stargate staff weapon that shot a laser beam projectile. I tried Skinning and stuck my face on Scott Ibrahim but didn't like it. I tried Characters and even exported a few chickens but it was too much precision modelling for my meager skills I made a Map which was a flat brick rectangle to stand on. I later added a crate and it exported nicely. I added a few dozen crates and I had a map to play on! I was hooked. A Character or a Gun was modded until you finish, but a Map... it's never finished, you can add and add stuff as you like. Also, a weapon or skin mod is a faithful reproduction of a real item, but a Map is limited tou your imagination. (to be contd.... got to go home from work)

A scenecenter is a small cube about 0.1M across. Make one and place it at the dead-centre of the map-to-be in MAX i.e. at x=0, y=0 and z=0. Name it "scenecenter' (without quotes). And you're done. The documentation says you can make it of any size and place it anywhere, but if you do it exactly as above, you'll save yourself problems later. You can later place the Command Map "Offset" co-ordinates at (-200,-200) and the map zero-point will centre itself in the middle of the Command Map.

A Map is fixed. You cannot move anything. But you canmake a new map and place the cars and trees anywhere. The trucks and tanks etc on a Mission-Map can be moved using IGOR.

Uhhh... what do you mean? You cannot "modifier" a Map. You must make a Map from scratch using 3D Studio Max version 5 or v4 or v3 only. Then you can make mountains and the earth and create internal rooms.

One way to get around this permissions problem is to make 100% all-new models yourself.... start a new Mod project. But I'm not sure if the 3 people on the planet still playing GR are Stargate fans...

Let's see now... x02 nos. ring washers : $998,798 x01 nos. split washer : $293,451 Total : $1,292,249 Woo-hoo I'm rich ! All I need now is an envelope and some postage stamps. Don't think it's possible? Check it out HERE.

One of the files you need to install is called Ikesurfaces.TXT. Did you set the path to this file (Mike Tutorial Part 1)? Go to Map Editor. Press the General Tab. Press the Options button Then in the pop-up window, you'll find the "Sound file" path, "Debris file" path etc. Set the "Surfaces" tab to where you put the Ikesurfaces.TXT file. Hit OK. Should work now. If not, restart Max Oh BTW the Ikesurfaces.TXT is not in the MapEditorLists folder (in the Max4x_Levelexporter.zip) but the RSBEditor.ZIP.

I just read that some high school kid was arrested by the cops for making a Map Mod of his high-school. Sheesh *slaps forehead* what is the world coming to?! Link01 Link02

Have you tired using a scrolling texture instead? Don't know if the textures will scroll in a skybox... If it does, there's no reason a skybox must be a box. You can make a low poly half-sphere with a single texture, and have the texture scroll slowly.

Well, the unique name must really be unique for all windows, so u get 1_<n><glass>window01... to 1_<n><glass>window05 for example. Then there's the model name. In the Map Editor > General tab > LOD1 Model Name, put a unique name. If you have 5 identical windows all facing the same direction, they can have the same model name, but in your case, give each one a unique name. it might work.

Me, Myself and I (40)

You said it. The more I play the demo Coop mission,the more stuff I discover. I can steal RPGs from dead tangoes and load them up into my Humvee LOL. Run out of fuel? No Prob, plenty of gas stations around haha

Ya Stuff like this you can query in the Mission modding section. Map Modding is the making on the ground you walk on. To answer your Q, go to the GhostRecon folder and use IGOR mission editor. Just click on a NPC or OpFor Actor and change his kit from the menu on the Actor's properties.

You keep looking up at the sky like that, the vultures will have YOU for lunch But seriously, I took a photo of some vulture and made a dynamic map object built into the Map. If there are any birdwatchers out there you can take a pair of binos and tell me what's the species, because I can't remember myself

Is there a Modscont.txt file in there? Sponds like you've misplaced it maybe.

GRAW? Oh no no There's a campaign alright, except for these 3 differnces: Big Difference: The Campaign is set in Afghanistan and Iraq Bigger Difference: It involves real-life weapons, equipment, uniforms, vehicles etc, not the Science Fiction ones you see in GRAW Biggest Difference: This is the original, one-and-only Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. Reinstall GR, dl the Mod, and start shooting!

Congrats to the Centcom Mod team on seeing this Mod to completion ! Keep the sand out of your mouse wheels, keep those actions clear, and I'll see you on the game servers!

The first thing that comes to mind is that you forgot to delete the old .SHT file before loading up the new map with trees. That could be it...

Hi Worm, Could you make a map this size on just 1 level, but make 4 sections diffrent levels for the command map to function. Tinker Mmm, I don't think that's possible, unless the map consists of 4 pices stacked up vertically one ontop of the other, like a huge building... Well the Command Map is hard-coded to represent an area of 400m by 400m only. A Command Map that covers a linear distance more or less than 400m will not line up. no matter what. What you can do is crop an area of the Command Map that represents exactly 400m by 400m, resized the cropped image to 512 by 512 pixels, it'll work. But only for the selected 400m of ground it represents.

If you have the Max file for the Map it's possible to select a 400m x 400m portion of the map and make your own Command Map. Without the Max file, it's not so easy... can be done, though. Just a thought... if the Command Map doesn't line up in GR, it may not line up in IGOR. Do the "blue lines" in IGOR match the lines in the Command Map? (Valley Map... Thanks, that one turned out nicely. Centcom... coming to a DL near you.)

Cold War Crisis Map? Do you mean Cuban Missile Crisis Map? If I recall corectly, that map was so big, most of it won't turn up in the Command Map. Maybe you and the waypoints are just outside the command map.

Ahh those LODs can be tricky... Let's say for example you want to make a coconut tree. I would advise you to name everything as coconut so you won't get confused. 1) Make a high-poly coconut tree geometry and group with a O helper point. Just in case, you can name the O helper point as "O coconut". Name this group 1_<lodn><tree>coconut. 2) Make a low-poly coconut tree geometry, group with another O helper, and name ++1_coconut. If you want no geometry at all, I think you just group a O helper with nothing else and name as ++1_coconut. Should work... 3) Tagging the high-poly tree: In the Map Editor, fill in these values: a) LOD1: coconut b) LOD1 switch distace: put a value in centimeters, not meters. So to switch at 60 meters, type in the value of 6000 (because 1 meter = 100 centimeters). c) LOD2: ++1_coconut d) LOD2 switch distace: leave this blank 4) Tagging the low-poly tree: In the Map Editor, fill in these values: a) LOD1: ++1_coconut b) LOD1 switch: blank c) LOD2 and LOD2-switch: blank 5) Placing on the map: a) Use the Scatter tool (use RSE's Scatter plugin found in the IT disc) to Scatter your high-poly coconut trees all over the map. You'll tear your hair out learning to use the Scatter Tool, but it's worth it! Do not Group with any Room. b) Place your low-poly ++1_coconut somewhere on the map where players cannot see it e.g. behind a cliff. One copy is enough. Do not Group with any Room. 6) ExportFirst model: If you plant 300 trees on your map, then in-game you discover a serious bug (eg No collision), you may need to replace every tree or edit them one by one. To make life easier, we make an ExportFirst model. a) Select one high-poly tree and rename it <exportfirst>coconut. Make sure it is an exact copy of the other high-poly trees, including tagging. b) Place it on the map where players cannot see it. Do not Group with any Room. c) Now, if in-game you find some bug in your trees, go back to Max and edit only the ExportFirst model. When exported, every coconut tree on the Map will inherit these changes. 7) Testing: a) LOD: Just walk backwards and see if the switch takes place. b) Bad Tree: In-game, if trees are too close together, the AI will try and run between them and get stuck. They won't know how to un-stuck themselves. To test, enable the cheat console and type in badtree. These problem trees will catch fire! In this case, the tree is too near a cliff, so the AI's can get jammed in there. It so happens I have an example... Grab it here. (Oh the textures don't match but the tagging is OK). Hope this helps.

Here's a German gun used on the Eastern Front someone should make. Not many Mods with this gun... Click Here.

Ya pple have been talking about this for the longest time. My idea I'm exploring now is we get rid of the Command Map function altogether, and in it's place we put a "refrence" map that covers the entire playable area. Example: 1) Make a Map, say 2000 m across. The maps has to have some very "obvious" land-marks like roads, river, bridges, hills etc. 2) Make a "Paper map" RSB drawing of the entire 2000 m Map, complete with details of the obvious land-marks. The roads, villages etc will be labelled with names that correspond to sign-boards on the physical Map. 3) Now, scale the your paper map RSB to fit into the Command Map panel witout cropping: The entire 2000 m of playable Map is now shown in the Command panel. 4) Now it gets tricky: the Command Map is Totally off-scale, so my idea was:- a) Alpha-channel away all the usual Command Map icons like Team A, B, C, the Red/Green diamonds, vehicles etc. b) "offset" the Command Map so far away from the real Map that the setting-waypoints function won't work. c) Objectives? Draw them directly onto the Command Map RSB as if some intel weenie scrawled on your map with a red marker-pen. So a "virgin" Command Map must be on file, and every mission might have a altered Command Map with fresh directions scrawled in. d) Finding your way around? Map & compass time, the old fashioned way. Binos come with distance measurements, right? The Command Map comes with a Scale and grids. Work it out. e) Performance? I've made 2000 m test-maps before and filled it with rocks: works fine... as long as you pull every trick in the book to keep performance up e.g. no big forests, LOD's, forget glass windows etc Inother words, theCommand Map, which nowshows the entire playable area, is For Reference Only, like OFP iirc. Problems: 1) Moving around: In co-op, there'sno problem. Might need team-speak to stay co-ordinated. In SP, you'll have to walk the Teams individually. I guess a lot of ppl won't like that. 2) Scripting: The scriptor will have to turn-off the command map and script by "blue-lines" alone, like RS or OFP guys used to do. Not easy, but do-able. All you need is some guys to get together and try the whole thing out.