Glowing crystal shard?

[675112fd8aba6miracle.flame]

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The description of the shard says that it's pretty much just silica glass but with some trace elements used as dopants and has a resonant freq. that's in tune with psionic emenations.  Elsewhere it is implied that the shard is almost alive, giving off a soft glow.  I can't do anything about the glow obviously but the random, scrambled color scheme and the self illumination was meant to give the shard a bit of character so it looked remotely special and not like a piece of broken window pane.
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I've searched trought the string files and couldn't find "glow" in the entire game..strange. Yet RocketMan implied that crystal shard is supposed to give off a soft glow according to something. Could you give a clue what's that something?

Apart from that I've experimented to give such a glow to shard in game. Picture below. Do you think it's a good idea and should be implemented in ADaoB?

Image: http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3695/04062008195318av8.th.jpg

[675112fd8af35RocketMan]

I apologize, I can't remember where I got the glow thing from.  I swear I heard it somewhere, perhaps in the audio but I thought it was written in the logs/research too.  Maybe not.  Anyway for compatibility reasons I had given up on glow but if everyone is cool with it being a part of ADAOB, then I'd say hell yes put it in

[675112fd8b0ecKolya]

Looks cool to me. I say let's go with it.

Here's something else: Wood mentioned that the shard sings to him. Of course at that point he's stark mad.
But I think it would be great if the shard could give off some sort of "singing" when you strike it, like air going through a vent, with a faint vibrato of glass.

I tried to produce such a sound, attached.

[675112fd8b2d2miracle.flame]

I like the idea but I can't do it. Shard swing uses the same wav files as Wrench so it cannot be simply replaced. And I don't know how the schemas work. The weapon has its schema tag but I don't know where's this tagged info about which file to play and when.

I've tried to look in ShokEd's Schema\Original\MiscSfx.sch and rewrite Crystal Shard's props to this:

Code: [Select]

//CRYSTAL SHARD
schema swing_shard1
archetype WEAPON_MELEE
volume -500
delay 400
swingcs1
env_tag (Event Motion) (WeaponType CrystalShard) (PlyrMelee 2 2) (PlyrMeleeSwing 1 1)

schema swing_shard2
archetype WEAPON_MELEE
volume -200
delay 300
swingcs2
env_tag (Event Motion) (WeaponType CrystalShard) (PlyrMelee 2 2) (PlyrMeleeSwing 2 2)
I hoped to get it work at least in ShockEd but no avail. When I clicked Reload Schemas in the menu, I've lost most sounds.
Someone more experienced could know how to do this.

Here are the two wavs that could be fitting... one for normal swing, the other for overhead.

[675112fd8b3ffRocketMan]

I like both sounds.  Very cool.  Are they the same duration as the wrench sound though because they seem to be a bit long to me, as though you'd still hear the sound after it had impacted, which is a bit odd.

[675112fd8b4e6Kolya]

As soon as someone figures out how to implement this I'll make fitting sounds. It was just a proposal I made with a glass of wine.

[675112fd8b5d1Not You]

Glowing, shiny, weapons of death.  Nice.  The only better thing I can think of right now is if you made it look like a sword.

[675112fd8b70bmiracle.flame]

Psi Sword is sword.. this is crystal shard 

[675112fd8b7eeNot You]

True, but my perception of "cool" is slightly altered, seeing as I've played too much Zelda.

[675112fd8bbc9Zygo]

II hoped to get it work at least in ShockEd but no avail. When I clicked Reload Schemas in the menu, I've lost most sounds.
Someone more experienced could know how to do this.

I don't know if the schema will actually work (maybe not, I suspect you may need to put both sound pointers onto the same line, ie have 'swingcs1 swingcs2' rather than two separate schema) but I can tell you why you lost sounds. Don't use the reload schemas command unless you have all the reconstituted SS2 schema present in the proper place. If you just want a few schema added try typing zgg [tab] [schema filename] into shocked's command window (should be zggtvrk_reload_schema not schemas. It ought to add the new schema without deleting the old ones.

[675112fd8be47miracle.flame]

Hi Zygo.
I was trying to do something with the Crystal Shard schema but no avail.
I'm quite a beginner, revisiting level selector was my first ever experience with ShockEd so no wonder.
You seem to know what you're talking about so would you be so kind and spare some minutes and help me out here, please?

Here's what I've been doing:
ShockEd has \schemas\original\*.* schema settings so I presume all schema reloading commands are seeking in this path, right?
Crystal Shard's schemas are set in file MiscSfx.sch and it looks like this

Code: [Select]

//CRYSTAL SHARD
schema swing_shard1
archetype WEAPON_MELEE
volume -500
delay 400
swingwr1
env_tag (Event Motion) (WeaponType CrystalShard) (PlyrMelee 2 2) (PlyrMeleeSwing 1 1)

schema swing_shard2
archetype WEAPON_MELEE
volume -200
delay 300
swingwr2
env_tag (Event Motion) (WeaponType CrystalShard) (PlyrMelee 2 2) (PlyrMeleeSwing 2 2)swingwr1 is the name of wav file found under \snd\weapons that is played on regular wrench swing or shard swing and swingwr2 is played on overhead swing. Wrench's schema is reffering to the same wav apparently.
I've tried to rewrite swingwr1 & swingwr2 to swingcs1 & swingcs2 in this schema file and I've put swingcs1.wav & swingcs2.wav in snd\weapons\ path.
Then I've tried those commands one by one:
reload_schemas
zggtvrk_load_schema swing_shard1
zggtvrk_load_schema WeaponType CrystalShard swing_shard1

I've played schema swing_shard1 after each command but still just the wrench wav was heard. I must be missing something essential. I'm not even sure if I'm on the right track. Could you tell me please? I've sent you a copy of this as PM in a case you won't watch this anymore so sorry for the bother.

[675112fd8bf89Zygo]

It's probable that it's just that you have the schema in the wrong place. Put all the schema files (.arc .sch .env) files into a folder called 'schema' in your root ss2 directory and try again. If you have all the schema present then using reload schemas ought to be fine. If you still find that you are losing sounds then try the zgg* solution.

Hopefully it's as simple as that.

[675112fd8c106miracle.flame]

wheeee 
it works! shard singing and wrench wrenching.
Thanks for assistance. So that additional \original\ branch was the culprit. 


Update:
Glowing and singing shard for testing purposes.. for now it doesn't work for shrads that are already on any map. You'll have to "summon_obj crystal shard" to actaully see the glow..
I've tweaked the sounds so they don't overlap anim and the regular left-to-right swing is now followed by left-to-right sound. It's just beta..may be absolutely different in final. Be sure to test overhead swing as well.

[675112fd8c259RocketMan]

I like the sound....very appropriate.  Glow is good too.  Is it supposed to look localized in the center like that?  I guess the light source is just a point object?

[675112fd8c351miracle.flame]

Yes, just colour and amount is set.

[675112fd8c48bKolya]

While the normal attack sound is cool the overhead sound was too highpitched and lacked stereo quality. Here's a replacement.

[675112fd8c5a9miracle.flame]

okay I'd say it's made for ADaoB, nice

[675112fd8c79dKolya]

Since it's quite a few changes by now I think it would be best if we include the gamsys change in ADaoB but leave the shard as a separate mod.

[675112fd8c8eemiracle.flame]

What do you mean? Both glow and sing are set in gamesys. Sound setting for crystal shard separated from wrench's that is.
If you want to have sing for shard as separate mod that would require this gamesys to work...and..this gamesys now requires some swingcs1.wav and swingcs2.wav for shard to make any sound.

[675112fd8c9dfKolya]

That's easy. Include the standard attack sound renamed to "swingcs1.wav" and "swingcs2.wav" with ADaoB.

[675112fd8cb44Awesome Man]

You should totally make the shard glow. Like, as bright as possible. Like, you open a door, and get blinded for five seconds because the crystal shard is at the other end of the room. Like, so bright when you weild it you can't see anything except the shard. It would be so bright, you'd be walking around, and see a stream of light coming from under a door, and you'd think "Man, why the hell did they make that shard so bright"

So bright that it hurts enemies and player characters alike just by being there. It should be radioactive too.

No, but seriously, it looks fine like that. Probably any brighter and it would be hell to use in combat.