[Video Tutorial] Mission Director Basics

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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Argonaught.
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Post by Argonaught. » Thu, 24. May 12, 21:03

The actors and conversations while combining the use of apricotslice's suggestions would be cool indeed.

Slightly off topic
On a resolution note, How do you guys deal with object sizes like font's and icons? I can't go above 1366x768 as the fonts get way too small and the text is almost non readable.....my screen can go up to 1920x1080 and I'd like to use it but it kills my eyes even after I try fiddle with text display etc.

On topic
I usually pop out the youtube vid and expand it to screen size and I can read the stuff no problems....any small vid size i can't read it.

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Thu, 24. May 12, 21:11

Argonaught. wrote:How do you guys deal with object sizes like font's and icons?
Best solution = Larger monitor

Hi resolution on a small monitor can be difficult. In an editor, increase the font size. For Windows in general, use one of the larger font sizes (or larger DPI setting) in the Display Control Panel.

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Post by Argonaught. » Thu, 24. May 12, 21:16

DrBullwinkle wrote:
Argonaught. wrote:How do you guys deal with object sizes like font's and icons?
Best solution = Larger monitor

Hi resolution on a small monitor can be difficult. In an editor, increase the font size. For Windows in general, use one of the larger font sizes (or larger DPI setting) in the Display Control Panel.
Mines a 32" lcd so i think it should be big enough :D

So there's no real trick then, it's just a case of fiddling with display setting/font sizes in win7 till it look right.

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Thu, 24. May 12, 21:25

Argonaught. wrote:Mines a 32" lcd
Is that like an Apple monster-size professional-quality display? Or like a TV doing double-duty as a monitor? TV's are often lower quality than real monitors.

How far away is the monitor (from your eyes)?

No, there is no trick. I have a 22" Viewsonic that is just about perfect for readability at 1920x1080. It is about arm's length away from me.

The Display Control Panel can fix most resolution-related issues.

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Post by Argonaught. » Thu, 24. May 12, 21:33

DrBullwinkle wrote:
Argonaught. wrote:Mines a 32" lcd
Is that like an Apple monster-size professional-quality display? Or like a TV doing double-duty as a monitor? TV's are often lower quality than real monitors.

How far away is the monitor (from your eyes)?

No, there is no trick. I have a 22" Viewsonic that is just about perfect for readability at 1920x1080. It is about arm's length away from me.

The Display Control Panel can fix most resolution-related issues.
TV with DVI to HDMI connection, sitting about 4.5 feet from screen. I would have it closer but the desk I have, which is overflowing with stuff, was too small for the stand so it's sitting on a handmade pedestal behind my desk.

I'll fiddle with the display and see if i can get it right for higher res.

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Post by apricotslice » Fri, 25. May 12, 02:57

Comment that comes to mind.....

Do the originals at whatever gives the best resolution, regardless of the fact that 2gb is too big.

Convert way down for Utube use.

At some point, another lesser scale down will get done for a downloadable version.

I have the space and the site bandwidth for hosting these (Probably not 2gb files, but something smaller than the originals, but bigger than you can upload to utube), I just have to solve how to get them on the site without using my own access bandwidth. (Should be easy, just have to figure out how - I presume I set up a local ftp of some sort). So down the track when we have finished product, we can worry about hosting it.

In the meantime, I suggest making high quality masters, and low quality utubes, then we worry about where the medium point is later on.

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Post by Vayde » Fri, 25. May 12, 10:01

I'm really enjoying the series so far and have, like the rest, learned a great deal.

Like Dr B, I think your presentation style is pitched perfectly for beginner and advanced user alike. You cover each topic with clarity and go into some excellent detail when you feel it's required.

As with all programming techniques KISS is the way to go. Please don't get sucked into writing missions for people who can't or wont figure things out for themselves.

Thank you for teaching me to fish rather than feeding me one :)
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Post by Ketraar » Fri, 25. May 12, 12:10

Regarding quality, I had a closer look at options yesterday and I can record in 1280x720 without changing screen resolution. Seams I cant do 1080 :-(
Also tweaked the puplishing options to max quality, but still will need to compress, I think I found a good balance now. Next video should benefit from it. Should be able to do it today. :-)
Vayde wrote:Thank you for teaching me to fish rather than feeding me one :)
I'm glad you see it that way, its so much better to understand why things are the way they are and not just repeat steps. This is quite important for MD Coding due to the rather vast possibilities and various ways to do the same thing. I'm sure once someone understands the way the MD ticks new ways to do things will be discovered, or different/better ways to achieve the same thing.

So yes I'll try to focus on explaining how the MD ticks rather than just making code examples. Might not always be possible, there are some things I don't know, or lack in-depth knowledge to explain it.

MFG

Ketraar
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Post by apricotslice » Fri, 25. May 12, 12:36

if something comes up and you dont actually know, I'd rather you said that and left it open for a future video or left it as an unknown. That way everyone is aware there is a hole in the knowledge base, rather than you trying to pretend its not there (not suggesting anything). Besides, if you say you dont know, someone watching it later may tell you and then you can do another video to fill the hole.

I guess thats a good last video. Outlying what you dont know, in the hope that someone watching may well know.

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Post by Argonaught. » Sat, 26. May 12, 04:31

apricotslice wrote:if something comes up and you dont actually know, I'd rather you said that and left it open for a future video or left it as an unknown. That way everyone is aware there is a hole in the knowledge base, rather than you trying to pretend its not there (not suggesting anything). Besides, if you say you dont know, someone watching it later may tell you and then you can do another video to fill the hole.

I guess thats a good last video. Outlying what you dont know, in the hope that someone watching may well know.
I agree there also, you never know, maybe one of us that are watching and learning from the videos will discover what an unknown command does by accident or by messing with it alot :D

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Post by Ketraar » Sat, 26. May 12, 19:39

OK next video is done and is publishing as I type. It got rather big (58min :o )
So it'll take a while to publish then have to chop it into 15 min parts and upload them all, so it may still take a while untill its up, but thought I'd pop in here to say its underway.

It has actors, offers (not briefing and guidance, that's for later) and the occasional explaining of triggers and stuff one should know.

MFG

Ketraar

PS.: no clue what the hell I talked all about to make it that big though :?
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Post by DrBullwinkle » Sat, 26. May 12, 19:42

Ketraar wrote:OK next video is done and is publishing as I type. It got rather big (58min :o )
Excellent.

You can apply to YouTube to allow your account to upload longer videos.

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Post by Argonaught. » Sat, 26. May 12, 19:48

Excellent :)

I'll give feedback when it's available to view and after I've watched it.

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Post by Argonaught. » Sat, 26. May 12, 21:19

Your on the front page news http://www.egosoft.com/community/news_en.php

Congrats :)

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Post by Ketraar » Sat, 26. May 12, 23:08

Ok video is up [MDTutorial] Actors and Conversations

Mind its still "in process" and no clue how long that will take. The other ones were quite fast to process but they were smaller in size and length. Given this one is ~400ish MB it may take a min or two, and seams everyone else is uploading stuff to Youtube as well. :roll:


MFG

Ketraar

EDIT: As I typed this seams it was done and is now available for watching. Please let me know if quality is OK now and as usual general feedback is highly appreciated.

@DrBullwinkle
Thanks for the hint, much easier now to upload stuff without having to go over the whole cut stage. :-)
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Post by Argonaught. » Sun, 27. May 12, 02:39

Actors & Conversations video was very well explained, I'll still need to refer to it from time to time as my memory isn't what it used to be.

You laid out nicely too, good work.

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Post by apricotslice » Tue, 29. May 12, 06:49

New suggestion, from a current page 1 thread.

MD - SE interfacing.

The recommended way of getting a MD to trigger from a script is to create a ship somewhere totally isolated, with a certain number of ecells on board.

The MD checks for the existence of the ship, and depending on the number of ecells will trigger different parts of the MD.

So the MD runs on startup, the ship gets created by a script as a major trigger set as a condition in the MD, and the number of ecells then is the way the script controls when to trigger parts of the MD.

It would be nice to have this done as a video tutorial showing both sides, both the MD and the scripting, with references that show the bit of the script that references the bit of the MD and back again.

Obviously it works both ways too. An MD can create a ship which a script is looping to look for. Obvious pitfalls and traps for newbie scripters in doing that, but its worth describing imo.

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Post by Ketraar » Tue, 29. May 12, 11:13

Well all I can explain about that is the basic logic on how it should work and the MD side of it, since I dont touch the SE with a big stick. Seriously, I have no clue about SE beyond the basic logic on what it does and represents.

Also would like to point out that there not many real situations where this is really useful, given most stuff that can be done via MSCI are available in MD too. The only thing I always thought was missing from MD, was the ability to use menu and retrieve player input from it, that's for me personally the only reason to use MSCI.

Mind you can call/start script from MD directly and even "give" it some arguments but that's MD to SE only not the other way around.

Here would be good to have someone with enough knowledge about both sides of the Force (dillpickle? Scrat_GER? other I cant remember?) rather than me getting stuck explaining the SE bit.

MFG

Ketraar
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Post by Juggernaut93 » Tue, 29. May 12, 13:43

Ketraar wrote:Mind you can call/start script from MD directly and even "give" it some arguments but that's MD to SE only not the other way around.
That would be very interesting imo. I didn't know it could be done. :)

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Post by dillpickle » Tue, 29. May 12, 21:46

Ketraar wrote:Here would be good to have someone with enough knowledge about both sides of the Force (dillpickle? Scrat_GER? other I cant remember?) rather than me getting stuck explaining the SE bit.
Won't be me - unless you want to know how to open the script editor... That's about the extent of my knowledge of it. :P - though I did actually manage to change a '2' to a '3' with it the other day (still being tested to make sure I didn't break the game...)
Juggernaut93 wrote:
Ketraar wrote:Mind you can call/start script from MD directly and even "give" it some arguments but that's MD to SE only not the other way around.
That would be very interesting imo. I didn't know it could be done. :)


We use them quite a bit in XTC - all MD created ships are equipped via script, more options than the standard minimum, default and maximum, and more control as to what gets equipped.

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