zunnie

In this tutorial we are gonna create a custom strings_map.tdb for inclusion with your map. This file will hold the translation for custom presets that you make on your map such as Tiberium Silo (view tutorial) or Repair Pad (view tutorial) so that when you 'aim' for the building the translation text under it says "Tiberium Silo". First we goto our Renegade folder (which has TT4.0 applied) and run the program "tdbedit.exe" You are presented with the following screen: We goto File->Open and browse for our LevelEdit\MODDIR\ALWAYS\TranslationDB\ and select and open the file strings.tdb In my example the file is located at E:\NewMapsEditor\UltraAOW\ALWAYS\TranslationDB\strings.tdb We are presented with the following in the program: We goto Edit->Add Category and name it MyMap (name it the actual mapname there) and hit OK. A new category is added to the strings.tdb Goto File->Save and click it so the new file is saved and then EXIT the program again. Next we open our Editor and goto Strings->Edit Table, once there, click on (1)the arrow at the right to goto your MyMap category, select it(2). Then (3)double leftclick on the empty line as on the image below: On the next screen we see the defaults: CodeID MUST be 100% unique so always prefix it properly like "IDS_MyMap_TiberiumSilo" for example. You cannot use spaces or special characters in the CodeID box. For String we choose the object that needs a translation like in our example "Tiberium Silo". The String box CAN contain special characters and spaces. Now press OK. And the string is inside the file Press OK again to confirm it. Now goto your (1)Tiberium Silo in the preset-tree and choose (2)"Mod" while having it selected. On the Settings tab click on the letter button(1), a new window opens, click on the (2)arrow and scroll to the right until you see your map category(3) and click on it. There you see the ID for your custom translation (4)"IDS_MyMap_Tiberium_Silo" then click (5) OK. Now the preset has the translation applied, simply press OK again to make it effective. See (1) what it should look like: Now save your map. Goto your ALWAYS\TranslationDB\ folder and COPY the strings.tdb file and PASTE it into your Levels\MyMap\ Once there, you RENAME it to exactly: strings_map.tdb Then you include that file into your mix as well by using XCC mixer. Now when you play your map the Tiberium Silo will actually say it is a Tiberium Silo and not a Gun emplacement anymore Have fun.

You can find a bunch of nice old CNC tracks on my website at zunnie.multiplayerforums.com When you decide to use one of these on your map you must keep the filename exactly like it is there. Why?: Some other maps already use this MP3. To keep a long story short: If you rename them then there may arise conflicts with other maps. So nonono.mp3 to renaming them. Just use them on your map as they are. Edit: In 4.1 and on renaming them won't matter. Still i'd leave them as they are Let's get started: (1)expand Sound, then (2)select Music and then (3)click the Temp button: Give it a name, for this example it is Frank_Klepacki_Act_On_Instinct: On the Settings tab now we configure the following options: Filename - Browse for the MP3 file inside your Level Mapname folder Drop-off Radius - 7000.000 Max-Vol Radius - 6000.000 m_Volume - 1.000 m_Priority - 1.000 All other settings are correct already and need no attention. Now OK it all. Then (1)select the preset in your list and (2)click the "MAKE" button, a sound icon appears on your map. It is best if you place this music icon in the center of your map. If you have a large map you may need to adjust the Drop-off Radius and Max-Vol Radius to a higher number. Have fun

The files you need for this tutorial: CapturableRepairPads.rar The map this tutorial is based on is from the Capturable Tiberium Silo's tutorial over here. However you do not need this map to complete this tutorial. It is just so you know why on earth there is a Tiberium Silo present on the map and preset list. Just focus on the stuff i tell about the Repair Pads I'm gonna skip adding the terrain to your presets this time and go straight to the Vehicle preset. So, open your Editor and (1)expand Object, then (2)expand Vehicle and then (3)expand Mounted and finally (4)select the preset "GDI_Guard_Tower" and (5)press the "TEMP" button. In the next popped up window when we pressed Temp we enter the name for it so "GDI_Repair_Facility" We goto the Physical Model tab and for Physics Type we leave it on DecorationPhys, look below and at ModelName we (1)click the folder button and browse for our "grepf.W3D" which is the GDI Repair Pad. On the Settings tab now, scroll down to PlayerType and make sure it is on GDI (or Nod if this is for the Nod Repair Pad) Scroll down to WeaponDefID and (1)click on the colored button, a new window pops up with Weapons, there in the list (2)select "None" and OK it. The WeaponDefID afterwards is completely empty. Goto the Scripts tab and (1)click on "Add" then on the dropdown (2)goto "z_Capturable_Repairpad" and (3)set Owner to 1 for GDI (or 0 for Nod). There is another parameter called "RepairZoneID" we (4)leave that on 0 for now. We end up with something like this. Then just OK it so that the new temped preset is added to the preset-tree: Now select the preset you just made (the GDI_Repair_Facility) and click "MAKE", it should now appear on your map like so: Next we need a Script_Zone_All on top of the repairpad which will repair friendly vehicles when they drive on the repairpad. First (1)expand Object, then (2)expand Script Zone and then (3)select Script_Zone_All Now "Make" it on top of the repairpad like this: You see the black boxes at the corners? Left click on them to make the zone larger and make it cover a large area of the repairpad. If you hold your SHIFT key while moving the black boxes it will extend the zone up and down, make it look like this: Now double click on the Script_Zone_All on your map (while in Object manipulation mode, press F6 or click the Teapot), a window will pop up where you can find the ID of the zone. Write it down: We use that ID for the script under the Scripts tab like on the image below: What it should look like: Now double click on the Repair Pad on your map and note its ID: Next double click on the Script_Zone_All you placed on top of the Repair Pad again and goto its Scripts tab and put the script "z_Capturable_Repairzone" on it and set the RepairPadID option to the ID of the RepairPad on your map. Now we are finished! Now save your map, make a mix file, host your map and then you can repair GDI vehicles on the Pad. When it is destroyed you can simply repair it again and it will continue to repair friendly vehicles. Good luck!

The files you need for this tutorial: Capturable_Silo.zip In this tutorial we will make the Capturable Tiberium Silo's as seen on some of my maps like Mediterranean, Blaat and Air, and some others. The Tiberium Silo when destroyed can be repaired back to full health and will give the team credits that captured(repaired) it. A GDI player can capture(repair) a Nod Tiberium Silo and vice versa. First we need our map of course, you must export it form RenX or 3DSMax as a W3D and place it in your Editor\Levels\Mapname\filename.W3D I am assuming you did that already. In this example i named the folder inside my Levels "CaptureTut" and inside that folder i have my map "captuto.W3D" which i exported from 3DSMax8 (file is included in the zip). Ok so let's open our Editor now, and take note of the following screenshot and follow the text below. First thing we do is Expand (1)"Terrain", and click the button (2)"Temp" at the bottom right of your Editor. A window pops up referred to as First Screen on the General Tab there (3)enter a mapname, not that the mapname must be 100% unique in the entire preset-tree so name it wisely or it won't work properly. Then (4 & 5)click on Settings tab, now we goto the Second Screen with the Settings Tab and we (6)click the Folder button and browse for our Levels\MapName\filename.W3D(your map's W3D export), and finally we (7)OK it. The preset should appear in the list now at the top right under the Terrain. Like on the following screenshot: Ok, next, the Tiberium Silo's and Repair Pads are not "REAL" buildings, they are setup as "VEHICLES" and they do not count toward the buildings at all, in other words: It is not required to destroy them to win the game. I remember endlessly long battles between silo's and pads its not even funny anymore This will eliminate that. So, now we goto (1)expand Object then (2)expand Vehicle then (3)expand Mounted and finally we (4)select the GDI_Guard_Tower and then (5)press the "TEMP" button again at the bottom right. Now we (1)enter the name of our preset and call it "GDI_Tiberium_Silo", then (2)click on the Physical Model tab. We leave the setting DecorationPhys in place this is correct already. All we do is (1)click the folder button and browse for our Levels\Mapname\gtsilo.W3D and select it. Next we goto the Settings tab, make sure you put PlayerType to GDI (or Nod if this is for the Nod Silo) Then scroll down a little further until you see the WeaponDefID option. We have to set this to "None". (1)Click on the colorful button, then a new window pops up with Weapon names, goto the top and (2)select None, then (3)press OK. So it looks like this, with the WeaponDefID EMPTY completely: Next we goto the Scripts tab. (1)Click on the "Add" button and then on the dropdown goto the script and select it (2)z_Capturable_TibSilo and for the parameter name "Owner" we (3)enter 1 for GDI (0 is for Nod). Now OK everything and you should end up with the GDI_Tiberium_Silo added under the GDI_Guard_Tower like the following: Now just click the (1)"MAKE" button to have the Silo appear on your map like so: Repeat the above to create the Nod_Tiberium_Silo but then set the Team to Nod and the Physical Model to the W3D for the nod tibsilo. I will write the tutorial for the Repair Pads tomorrow and also how to properly translate it ingame so it shows the name "Tiberium Silo" on it, it's getting late here

Original Authors: Bumpaneer, StoneRook and Andre First step, I’d like to give big thanks for Bumpaneer on allowing me to write this tutorial on realistic water making for Renegade. Well, let’s get started. Load your Ren-X and make a plane 10x10 or bigger. Remember this is only to get you started, once you learn this tutorial, you will be able to make the water any size you wish. Press the M key on your keyboard, which should open the Renegade Material Editor. Click on the blue box icon (Make New Renegade Material) to avoid conflicts between a material already used in other object. Then, change the Pass Count to 2 and select the Surface Type (Naturally Water) as show in the picture below: Usually, when you start by the Pass 1 tab, Ren-X crashes, so let’s move on to Pass 2 tab, then we come back to set up the #1.Click on Vertex Material tab on Pass 2. Make sure Ambient, Diffuse, Specular and Emissive colors are black. Under the "Stage 0 Mapping" (bottom Left of screen). Select the drop down box to the right of Type and select "BumpEnv". And fill the box Args below with: BumpScale=0.2 BumpRotation=0.3 VPerSec=-0.01 And don’t forget to change the Stage 1 Mapping Type to Environment (Basically to make it reflective) as shown in the picture below: Now let’s move to the Shader tab (Still inside Pass 2 Tab). Select the Blend Mode to Add. On the Advanced (Still on Shader Tab, but on bottom), select the Pri Gradient as Bump-Environment and the Detail Color as Add. Watch picture below: Now let’s move to the Textures tab to set up the textures and the details of the water and it’s movement. Check the Stage 0 Texture and click on the None button to select the proper texture. Use the texture called bump_water.tga here. Now check the Stage 1 Texture (Detail Texture) and click again on None button and select the texture named water_reflect.tgaOn next page you are going to see how your Textures tab should be after setting up all these changes. Once you are done with setting up Vertex Material, Shader and Texture tabs on Pass 2, click on the button shown on the picture (Assign Material to Selection) to apply the changes to rhe object. Now let’s move back to Pass 1. On Vertex Material Tab, change the Stage 0 Mapping Type to Linear Offset and add VPerSec=-0.01 to the Args box, as shown in the picture on next page.Important Note: The Ambient, Diffuse, Specular and Emissive are already set up properly, you don’t need to change them. There is nothing to change or set up on Shader Tab, so let’s move directly to the Textures Tab on Pass 1. Check the Stage 0 Texturing and select the remaining texture included in the pack:water_texture.tga – Once you select the texture, check the Display button and then, to finish, click once again on Assign Material to Selection button, wich will Finished Product: Tutorial Written by André. Realistic Water technique developed and improved by Bumpaneer and StoneRook. If you wish to know how to make more realistic effects for Renegade, start using WDump provided with the Renegade Mod Tools, there you can view all W3D’s Textures settings, making you be able to duplicate any effect Westwood added to their maps with textures. == Enjoy Your New Realistic Water ==