[AK-73]

QUOTE (Ben @ Jan 3 2007, 00:22)

Lol, no worries, Ben.

QUOTE

From reading your post in the direct3d topic, that was the impression I got.  I'm not sure I could've been more wrong . Anyways, not to worry.  At least now I understand a lot more about the VC-weather functions .  I might hassle you for some more in-depth info at a later stage (for my guide), but for now, that will suffice . Regarding the issue of traffic - my only requests are to deal with the traffic problems we have in LC (as long as they correspond with your mod) please.  I think they're all in the checklist - off the top of my head, there's issues with the traffic at the SSV lift bridge (AFAIK, the traffic behaviour for that is coded into the SCM - the cars inside a cube near the lifting part of the bridge just disappear when the bridge starts to rise - perhaps you can make them just stop instead of disappearing entirely (as per GTA3)?); and also with the driver behaviour - not all drivers go crazy when their vehicle gets shot or hit (with a weapon).

VC:Traffic is supposed to eventually enable customization of driver reaction according to user-specified probabilities, wether be it just continuing to drive as if nothing was happening, go into drive-through mode or drive-past mode (that is the classic GTA3 reaction), or to stop and get out.

QUOTE

And one other question - do you have any plans to do any other VC-*** modules?  Something with the PEDs/animations would be really good (MM was starting to look into it before he got snowed under with uni work I think).  Even if you didn't, any research into the differences in the engines (I'm talking specific technicalities here, not just basics) of GTA3 and VC would be invaluable for my guide.  Let me know what you're plans are and I'll see what I want then . Cheers . EDIT - Not sure what will happen, but it'd be nice if you could take a look into the way the wanted level system is conducted through the EXE (or just in general).  There's a pretty major difference between LC and GTA3 - the VC engine spawns WAY more cops, and for different things when compared to III. Might be worth a look if you're interested .

I fear I've got much other stuff to do in the foreseeable future, Ben. Sorry, but best to not wait for me to have the time to do that.

Alex

PS I have just uploaded VC:Weather to gtagarage. GTA:LC might decide on their own whether they want to include it in their distribution or whether to possibly make use of parts of the source code or not. The source code is undocumented though and to make sense of it, just track what it does in a debugger.

[Ben]

QUOTE (AK-73 @ Jan 5 2007, 04:19)

QUOTE And one other question - do you have any plans to do any other VC-*** modules?  Something with the PEDs/animations would be really good (MM was starting to look into it before he got snowed under with uni work I think).  Even if you didn't, any research into the differences in the engines (I'm talking specific technicalities here, not just basics) of GTA3 and VC would be invaluable for my guide.  Let me know what you're plans are and I'll see what I want then . Cheers . EDIT - Not sure what will happen, but it'd be nice if you could take a look into the way the wanted level system is conducted through the EXE (or just in general).  There's a pretty major difference between LC and GTA3 - the VC engine spawns WAY more cops, and for different things when compared to III. Might be worth a look if you're interested . I fear I've got much other stuff to do in the foreseeable future, Ben. Sorry, but best to not wait for me to have the time to do that.

No worries mate. Just thought I'd ask anyway .

QUOTE (AK-73 @ Jan 5 2007, 04:19)

PS I have just uploaded VC:Weather to gtagarage. GTA:LC might decide on their own whether they want to include it in their distribution or whether to possibly make use of parts of the source code or not. The source code is undocumented though and to make sense of it, just track what it does in a debugger.

I'll leave that to MM to decide I think, but at this stage, I don't see any problem with just including it straight into the package. I've just downloaded it, and I notice that there are several differences in CFG file (I'm not talking about newer supported features - I mean that a few values have changed from the one you originally sent me, and some of the lines are no longer commented (#) out).

So my only other request is if you'd be able to set the CFG file up for LC when you're done with it (I noticed it's still listed as a WIP). Or at least explain some of the changes to me (that might be easier via email/PM) please .

Thanks again Alex.

[AK-73]

QUOTE

QUOTE (AK-73 @ Jan 5 2007, 04:19) PS I have just uploaded VC:Weather to gtagarage. GTA:LC might decide on their own whether they want to include it in their distribution or whether to possibly make use of parts of the source code or not. The source code is undocumented though and to make sense of it, just track what it does in a debugger. I'll leave that to MM to decide I think, but at this stage, I don't see any problem with just including it straight into the package.

I would advise against it - I told you that it is at present VC 1.0 US only. I believe the readme says so too. :-)

QUOTE

I've just downloaded it, and I notice that there are several differences in CFG file (I'm not talking about newer supported features - I mean that a few values have changed from the one you originally sent me, and some of the lines are no longer commented (#) out). So my only other request is if you'd be able to set the CFG file up for LC when you're done with it (I noticed it's still listed as a WIP).  Or at least explain some of the changes to me (that might be easier via email/PM) please . Thanks again Alex.

Oh well, just when I thought the explanations in .cfg itself were good enough. Anyway I suppose you don't want the true random weather functionality VC:Weather offers but rather use the original weather table from GTA3. I also assume that you want to use the tint in LC and that you want to make the default weather state at start-up (before main.scm evaluation) to be 0. In that case use as values for the globals: 0 1 1 0.
Do also comment out the entire weather table2 and uncomment the reference value from GTA3 below that. Keep the misc weather data as it is because the default values there are also Vice's default values. The random weather data should not conern you then and should remain untouched as should the tint value themselves for they already have the GTA3 values.

Alex

[Ben]

Thanks mate. I'll fix it up at some stage and let you know how it goes .

EDIT - Scratch that, I'll sort it when you've got it to a final stage.

By the way, did you get my email?

This post has been edited by Ben on Wednesday, Jan 10 2007, 23:36

[AK-73]

QUOTE (Ben @ Jan 10 2007, 21:57)

Thanks mate.  I'll fix it up at some stage and let you know how it goes . EDIT - Scratch that, I'll sort it when you've got it to a final stage. By the way, did you get my email?

Yes, I have seen your email - I won't make incorporate anyone else's work though unless I have their explicit agreement to do so. But given the source code I would have no problem to rewrite the code for myself.

As to regards VC:Weather - there's no point in waiting for a *final* version as that will probably never declare any mod of mine to be final. I would suggest that if you want to make use of the mod in LC, you'll start packaging it with the LC files as soon as the versioning problem is fixed. For the purpose of LC I am not so sure newer and better versions of VC:Weather are even needed. If there should ever turn out to be such a need, it wouldn't be a problem to
include a more recent version of VC:Weather then either.

Alex

[Ben]

Rightio.

Craig could probably shed some more certainty on this, but as far as I was aware, Hammer has no problem with any of his stuff being used for LC-related things. So you should be right to use the versioning module.

About VC:Weather being final - there's still a few things I've gotta organise before I can start thinking about putting a new major release package together anyway. But I noticed in the CFG file you'd left some notes about certain features still being unsupported, so I was going to wait until you'd finalised those. I guess that'll probably happen at a similar time to the versioning being implemented though, so it's no biggie .

[SteaVor]

QUOTE (Ben @ Jan 13 2007, 03:04)

Craig could probably shed some more certainty on this, but as far as I was aware, Hammer has no problem with any of his stuff being used for LC-related things. So you should be right to use the versioning module.

That's the whole point of the dll. Hammer wouldn't have realised it as an external file if he didn't want it being used by other people. Why should every programmer have to find out the offsets of all these exe's for himself? It's free to use for everyone, as it makes mods compatible to every known version of Vice City.

(At least that's how I interpreted Hammer's intentions.)

[Ben]

Ok, I just spoke to Craig about this over ICQ.

QUOTE

[04:29:28 PM] Ben: Oh yeah - I'll ask you while I think of it.  Do you think Hammer would have any problem with AK using his VC versioning module for his weather ASI? I wouldn't think he'd mind considering it's for LC, but I don't even think he'd mind for it being used outside of LC either.  What do you think? [04:29:52 PM] Craig: Not at all. Artem always lets other people use his stuff [04:31:44 PM] Ben: Good-o.  I'll let AK know

So, um, yeah, everything's good to go. Feel free to implement the VC versioning module into your weather and traffic modules, Alex .

[adomacro]

I was wondering if anyone can tell me why 'gta_lc.exe' doesn't work with 3d Analyse. If anyone can tell me why it doesn't work or how i can get it to work that would be great.

Approved and merged.

This post has been edited by Ben on Monday, Feb 12 2007, 04:31

[Ben]

I'm taking a bit of a stab in the dark here, but I think you'll find it's because gta-lc.exe doesn't take the place of gta-vc.exe - rather, it uses gta-vc.exe to load LC with certain custom features enabled. If you have some programming knowledge, you can check out the source code for the launcher files here .

[Craig Kostelecky]

3d Analyze worked fine for me (that was the first time I even loaded up LC in months). There was a 3D hook error, but after I removed the error dialog box I was able to play the mod in windowed mode. Not sure why it doesn't work for you.

[Ben]

AK and I have been talking about the problem with the cars at the SSV lift bridge. As it currently stands, they disappear if they are within a certain zone when the bridge goes up - this is controlled through the SCM.

However, AK suggested that perhaps an invisible (and collisionless) traffic light model might be the way to go - you know, right next to the lifting section of the bridge, so the cars would stop.

The only problem I could see with this is in relation to the signals and controlling them - AFAIK, that's hardcoded. Which means that there's a function somewhere in the EXE that controls the traffic lights - I figure if that function can be isolated, it can be manipulated. So, even if we can't apply it to a particular area (as in, the lift bridge), we should be able to control it for a traffic light model (which would work for AK's original suggestion). That is, unless I'm mistaken and this can be controlled through the SCM somehow?

Anyways, assuming I'm right, I figured this would be a nice inclusion to AK's traffic module, although he admits that he doesn't have the time to check it out at this stage. So, I'm wondering what everyone else thinks about it? Does it sound like a good idea? Do you think it's viable? If you have the knowledge, would you be willing to help out? etc. etc.

[ModelingMan]

OK so Hammer isn't really active anymore (well not here at least), and since I can program in Pascal/Delphi I'm offering to do any needed modifications to the launcher. If anyone is in contact with Hammer I'd appreciate it if you were to ask his permission to modify the launcher...

Reason I ask this is because I'd like for the launcher to inject IIItoVC into LC at runtime. There are some things I must change which cannot be modified after the ASIs are loaded, therefore IIItoVC must be initialised at runtime.

[Craig Kostelecky]

QUOTE (ModelingMan @ Jun 2 2007, 12:23)

OK so Hammer isn't really active anymore (well not here at least), and since I can program in Pascal/Delphi I'm offering to do any needed modifications to the launcher. If anyone is in contact with Hammer I'd appreciate it if you were to ask his permission to modify the launcher... Reason I ask this is because I'd like for the launcher to inject IIItoVC into LC at runtime. There are some things I must change which cannot be modified after the ASIs are loaded, therefore IIItoVC must be initialised at runtime.

He gave explicit permission long ago to modify or use his work in any way. He's cool about that.

[ModelingMan]

This is a test version of a plugin loader I'm coding for VC (extract it to LC root folder). It includes only one plugin thus far and that's a III HUD plugin. Since it is only a test version this means it isn't complete; the wanted level stars do not highlight when you have a wanted level above 0. This is just to show the progress of IIItoVC. (IIItoVC is going to be obsolete since I'll be making multiple plugins, e.g. III_Pickups, III_Pager, etc.)

I'd like to re-create the launcher in a way it's not actually a launcher, only a program which modifies LC's settings. If this plugin loader system progresses on to load plugins at runtime then there would be no need to run LC through gta-lc.exe.

This post has been edited by ModelingMan on Thursday, Jun 21 2007, 22:03

[Ben]

That'd be really neat . Although it sounds like a lot of work - certainly not for the faint-hearted (which you continue to prove you're not ). Perhaps "recoding" the entire launcher (well, doing it through plugins) might help solve some bugs (I'm thinking specifically of the replay function not working)?

I look forward to seeing what you come up with anyway .