VitalOverdose
History
Started a brief programming career 15yrs ago. worked with Kinetic Design who were contracted to codemasters who were contracted to EA.Unfortunately 6 months after i started the company had to relocate and i drifted into other work,and basically didn't touch a computer again in a gaming capacity for 10 yrs.
Published work
would be helping in converting the 'Downhill park' level in 'skate or die' on the atariST,amiga and nes.written in assembler on 6800 chip by Kinetic Designs. [Screenshot].After that i was budding artist for many years and while looking for some way to make some money from my art i found the net and started to learn web design. Got bored with that found unrealed and have been hooked ever since.
Ive got several maps out under a different name that were mostly written for ut2003 ive not put out many maps for 2004 yet but im in the process of putting some together to display my mods with.
In the past Ive written in Assembler , COBOL , ActionScript , DOS , BASIC , STOS , UNIX , XENIX , GUI4CLI. Uscript is my first encounter with writing with writing games using an evolved OOP.I'm probably better at GFX than coding coming from an arty background.
Mapping Tutorials/Methods.
* How To Make Elevators With Doors That Follow The Lift. * Moving Power Cores + nav points without breaking the bot support...AKA MoreMoverMagic. * [Flash Movie:GFX tecniques : Metalic Textures].
vProMappingTools.
All my scripts are designed to work well with each othwer so they can be saved to a single .u package which makes distributing a hell of a lot easyer for everyone. VPMT is the result of all my work here at wiki so far.
Or at my website
Installing the Mod
Work In Progress Maps, MODs , GFX , SFX and Music.
I have quite a few unreleased mods/methods which i hope to post somewhere on wiki in the near future. They include;-
(if anyone knows of any existing tutes that clash with any of these please let me know).
DM-Mashpit
* TXT PACK = TheMashPit_TechVec. ..2 need good sessions to finish * 85% Meshset SMESH PACK = TheMashPit_TechMesh...once a feqw monds are ready * 85% Textset TXT PACK = TheMashPit_Text. * 100% New game music Music OGG = TheMashPit_Music Will finish with this last. * 100 ambiant sound Fx Sound WAV = creatures of the night
DM-TheMagamaEnigmaII
* 85% New Skins the vecs TXT PACK = TheMagamaEnigmaII_TechVec. ..2 need good sessions to finish * 85% Meshset SMESH PACK = TheMagamaEnigmaII...once a feqw monds are ready * 85% Textset TXT PACK = TheMagamaEnigmaII_Text. * 100% New game music Music OGG = TheMagamaEnigmaII_Music Will finish with this last. * 100 ambiant sound Fx Sound WAV = Spent a while getting the sound right for this.
DM-SpaceRaidersII
* 85% New Skins the vecs TXT PACK = SpaceRaidersII_TechVec. ..2 need good sessions to finish * 85% Meshset SMESH PACK = SpaceRaidersII_TechMesh...once a feqw monds are ready * 85% Textset TXT PACK = SpaceRaidersII_Text. * 90% New game music Music OGG = SpaceRaidersII_Music Will finish with this last.
UltraMech VecPack
* 75% New Skins the vecs TXT PACK = UltraMech_TechVec. * 75% Meshset SMESH PACK = UltraMech_TechMesh. * 75% Textset TXT PACK = UltraMech_Text. * 90% New game music Music OGG = UltraMech_MusicWill finish with this last.
MultiMonsterMadness
* 80% MultiMonsterPack GAMETYPE = Monster spawning in groups can be tricky. * 60% Massive skinpack SKIN PACK = I have at least 30
Infection
this has been done im told GAMETYPE = Holding back on this one for a bit.</pre>
Ultracore
Fully moving powercores GAMETYPE = Holding back on this one for a bit.
UltraCore VecPack
* 60% Meshset SMESH PACK = UltraCore_TechMesh. * 50% Textset TXT PACK = UltraCore_Text.. * 90% New game music Music OGG = UltraCore_MusicWill finish with this last.
ONS-SpiderCore
* 50% Meshset SMESH PACK = ONS-SpiderCore_TechMesh. * 50% Textset TXT PACK = ONS-SpiderCore_Text.. *100% New game music Music OGG = ONS-SpiderCore_Music Done.
SpiderCore VecPack
* 50% Meshset SMESH PACK = UltraCore_TechMesh. * 50% Textset TXT PACK = UltraCore_Text.. * 90% New game music Music OGG = UltraCore_Music , Will finish with this last.
DM-DollsHouseEffect aka-impossible Worlds
* 80% Meshset SMESH PACK = DollsHouseEffect_TechMesh. * 80% Textset TXT PACK = DollsHouseEffect_Text. * 30% New game music Music OGG = DollsHouseEffect_MusicWill finish with this last.
DM-MoonMinesII
* 90% New Skins the vecs TXT PACK = MoonMinesII_TechVec. * 90% Meshset SMESH PACK = MoonMinesII_TechMesh. * 90% Textset TXT PACK = MoonMinesII_Text.. * 90% New game music Music OGG = MoonMinesII_MusicWill finish with this last.
CTF-LIft
* 90% New Skins the vecs TXT PACK = LIft_TechVec. * 90% Meshset SMESH PACK = LIft_TechMesh. * 90% Textset TXT PACK = LIft_Text.. * 100% New game music Music OGG = Done.
ONS-TorlanExtended
* 90% New Skins the vecs TXT PACK = TorlanExtended_TechVec. * 60% Meshset SMESH PACK = TorlanExtended_TechMesh. * 90% Textset TXT PACK = TorlanExtended_Text.. * 40% New game music Music OGG = TorlanExtended_MusicWill finish with this last.
DM-UltraHell
* 90% New Skins the vecs TXT PACK = UltraHell_TechVec. * 60% Meshset SMESH PACK = UltraHell_TechMesh. * 90% Textset TXT PACK = UltraHell_Text.. * 95% New game music Music OGG = UltraHell_Music i have 4 tracks dones for this.
Misc
* 50% ONS-StellarCruiser ?TOT CONV = Been working on this since 2003! * 90% RealVecMover SCRIPT = Will finish same time as the dropship) * 75% Dropship for vecs MOD = I Have a working drop ship & system(just not both at the same time). * 75% DestructableDeco SCRIPT - With self scaling FX. * 90% ONSturret SCRIPT - Small logic prob. * 90% Uberfactory MOD - Small replication problem. All map,all gametype vec factory + convert DM+ONS). * 50% TrailWiz. SCRIPT - This may not be possible to finish). * 50% PetVec. SCRIPT - Made by mistake..will finish one day. * 25% TronBikes................... - Have the trails made ok.
Still Thinking about
- Random timed mover - A version of the variable timed mover.
- Randomfx Generator - ill get round to it one day.
- Vec Factory's - With Random spawnpoints.
- Random player starts..........- This a nightmare.
- Real fire...spreadable........- Cant decide how the fire should spread.
- spiderminebomb................- Bit of a trig problem.
- SpiderCore..gametype..........- Practically finished this.
- StickyVec.....................- Localized gravity on vec.
Questions:
*Q : I'm sure there used to be a page where you could post test scripts..cant seem to find it now.
**A : The ScratchPad?
*Q : How do i display Tutes/Methods so that they wont be in the way of anyone else's work.
**A : try to mix them in with other people's work 
*Q : For linking to example maps can someone recommend somewhere to upload them to?
A : Beyond Unreal?
*Q : I haven't seen any flash at all on the site . Is it a general rule not to use it?
*Q : Is there any place for tutorials on things like - making realistic textures + general gfx stuff?
**A Sure!
I'm here to explore as much about uscript as possible and hopefully find work in the games industry. So far Ive practically just used the wiki to learn uscript + Atari forums.Thanks to the HelpDesk here at wiki for all the advice so far.
Discussion
Tarquin: could you format your script pages please?
Vitaloverdose: Are they ok now?
Tarquin: No, they are not. And your tutorials need cleaning up too.l See Moving Power Cores for example. Please use the correct level headings and bullet lists, link to Basic Procedures, and don't have paragraph breaks in the middle on sentences. Following comments about your scripts, I've moved them to be subpages of your personal wiki page. This will be a better indication to people that they are works in progress.
vitaloverdose That's fine .I must have asked 10x if i was displaying stuff in the right place and couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone. So i put the first one in 'custom category' and asked again several times if they were in the right place but no one said if they were or not. I only had them linked to my personal page at the time. I was then told to link them to the class tree by you i think .I knew there was bound to be replication errors in them as i hadn't learnt how replication worked at the time of writing them and it was only after weeks of being told to do it that i reluctantly linked them to the class tree. Now i have everyone complaining they are not fully tested. and Ive spent the last 2 month working out how replication works so i can get everything working correctly. The one of the main things that's been slowing me up learning how everything works is not being able to get basic answers to basic questions. Before i started posting stuff at wiki i was using the help desk here on a daily basis. Since then the help seemed to have dried up, maybe dude to the number of people visiting the site i don't know but I've had to go back trying to get a sensible answer from forums which is a total nightmare.
Also I'm finding that as the tutorials here covering some of the more complicated subjects like replication, controllers and AI seem to be aimed more at people who have been trying to work with this systems already and have been stuck rather than some one who is looking at them for the first time. I think this might have something to do with the fact that most of the people who are writing these tutorials were in that position themselves after spending a great deal of time working out every last detail on that subject themselves before doing so. So they seem to be written in more of a 'this is how it should be done' sort of way rather than a 'this is how to do it' sort of way .i can see a lot of people here have had experience of many of the unreal systems and watched them develop over time and a lot of the complex explanations seem to be aimed at people with the same sort of experience. Its not making them impossible to learn just very slow as I'm finding I'm having to hunt for reliable explanations to the methods begin described. But i don't think anyone appreciates being told this by someone new to the particular subject. Especially when no ones getting payed to put it there in the first place .Its only natural and i don't know what the solution is but I'm certainly getting the feeling that I'm not exactly making myself very popular trying to point this stuff out. The only other solution seems to be to write another explanation on the same subject which can come with its own set of difficulties especially if your new to it yourself.
Using things like SMS style abbreviations in an tutorial/explanation(IDK and nm), i changed one in something you were explaining the other day into the full words that it stood for only because i had no idea what they stood for, i didn't know if is was an abbreviation or some Variable or something else.A link to what it meant would have been ridiculous and a comment in discussion would just seem picky so i simply changed it to the full words so someone else wouldn't have to. I don't know if you took offense to that at all i hadn't thought to go back and check.
Im just glad of the free info.
You can see that right from the beginning i'm looking for a reliable way to test my scripts its the first question i asked here on my personal page and the second thing i asked was where to post my work.
I'm not even sure which scripts you have moved or if you have just moved all of them. Up until now i wasn't aware of any problems! I'll be goign through them and testing them one by one.
Sweavo: Just to chuck in my 2 cents... I think it's great that you're keen, VO but it is really important to make it clear the difference between fact and fantasy in programming land... maybe this is a slight cultural shift from arty land where the "general idea" is good enough to get started with. If you are posting scripts be sure that they work, unless they are clearly marked as not working. Try to distinguish in your own mind between what things are "meant to be" and what they "currently are". Stuff under personal pages is expected to be works in progress, but stuff on the wiki really ought to be "authoritative", either typed first hand by someone that knows, or the result of some reading, researching and checking of findings. A lot of it isn't, but folks like SuperApe , Xian, and myself too (though not so much, recently) are constantly putting in time to sift out what's fact from what's just rumour and fantasy. It's OK to make mistakes with the formatting and so on, but when there's massive volumes of stuff it's not nice to rely on others to correct it all!
vitaloverdose OK i realise now almost all of my scripts need to be altered to get them to work correctly online and i am making an effort to get that done right now. But i think your being slightly unfair to label them as 'fantasy' when on the most part its nothing more than a few variables and maybe functions that need to be made to run on a client machine as well as the server. I don't think I'm going to have to do any radical redesigning of the way things work here .There's nothing i have put up that i don't expect to be able to tweak for online play. Also i have never expected someone else to have to correct what i have put up. I cant understand where you would get such an idea. I've posted stuff and responded to anything that's written to me in discussion and implemented plenty of other peoples ideas into my own work from regulars at this site i really cant see why anyone hasn't pointed any problems with the scripts and online play before now. How can you say these have not been tested at all that's just ridiculous .I admit they haven't been tested thoroughly online but that is no reason to suggest it is careless work.
I'm not sure what these massive volumes of stuff are your talking about. If there's a problem with layout etc I'll gladly put them right. Ive never refused to change something so far as far as i know so exactly how i 'rely on others to correct it all!' is a total mystery to me. Simply saying sort your formatting out is not going to help If your not point out what i am doing wrong so i can correct it .As for you having to constantly go though everything and sift out what is fact and fiction why haven't you been mentioning it in the discussions so i can fix it? Ive been posting stuff for almost a year, its not like i chucked all this stuff up over night. If your such an expert in what i have been getting wrong why haven't you been offering me any help or even pointing out there is a problem in the first place?
SuperApe: I'm inclined to try and help by reminding you there's a Search function on the wiki to help with questions like "Testing Replication". So rather than asking "does this work online?" on every wiki page with custom code, you can test it yourself (or test your own code). See also [Debugging Techniques: Network Debugging] and Launch A Local Netgame.
Tarquin: Replication is a pain, and we do have a definite lack of tutorials or examples. If you can turn your scripts into either of those, that would be great.
Tarquin: Vital, before you add any more class pages, please learn to use standard formatting. That includes correct heading levels & bullets.
vitaloverdose
SuperApe - thanks. I wish id known about it earlyer. It dosent show up when i do a search on 'replication' thats probably why i didnt spot it. I dont know if theres any sort of priority settings for any of the pages but it would be really helpful if that page could be made to appear in the list somehow.
Tarquin - I would have a go at putting some replication tutorials but i dont know enough about it yet to talk about it confidently. Ive got some ideas of examples to use but there is still a few processes i dont know how to replicate myself. As soon as if got them worked out i'll give it ago.Ill try to include a section with each of my scripts on how i got the replication to work as soon as i know for sure myself. what as i doing wrong with the formatting of the pages? Ive seen instructions on wiki markup but nothing on any sort of formatting regulations for pages.
[quote]lease learn to use standard formatting. That includes correct heading levels & bullets.[quote]
Am i not using enough heading levels & bullets or are the ones ive used allready wrong in some way? ill fix it all as soon as i know what what got to be fixed and how.no problems
what happened to the UTPatcher page i had up ?.
Tarquin: vitaloverdose, all you need to do is LOOK at the way other pages are formatted.
Sweavo: hi Vital, I finally got round to setting up a network with two UT2004 machines and was going to test your dropship ... but the download link is now dead...? Be cool if you could send me the mod (I could paste and compile it myself but I don't have the meshes) my email is public at sweavo.34sp.com
Tarquin: Vital, you still haven't tidied up your pages, either the formatting or the scripts themselves. In addition to that, there are multiple versions of some of your classes on the wiki. It has been brought to my attention that most of your scripts are still works in progress, so I'd like you to give some indication of when you're going to finish them. You could make a start by cleaning up the duplicate pages. Then you could reformat Moving Power Cores correctly. If you're not going to do any more work on them, I'll ask other contributors to look at them, and if people don't find them useful, they will be deleted.
VItaloverdose: - The scripts are being tested now, its work in progress. Would you like to tell me whah pages are duplicated so i can sort em out then or have i got to guess at that to?
Tarquin: Speed Trap, VehicleTeleporter?, VecBooster, V2VecBooster, and maybe others.
Tarquin: Also, if you have this amount of material on this site, I would expect you to a) check Recent Changes now and then, where you would have SEEN my messages to you telling you which pages were involved, and b) log in, so people can see it's you making changes. And once again, I will say, please could you learn to correctly use the wiki formatting. If you can't order your headings properly or use a variable list to define variables, can you actually code in UnrealScript? You'll see what I mean on VitalOverdose/DestructibleMover. Fix it.
vitaloverdose can i code .? How about can you manage to give some advice without throwing insults at someone.have you any idea what 'Wiki' means? The destructable mover probably wont work they way i was doing it full stop...online. So ill do it someother way.
Tarquin: I asked you to format your script pages properly back when you first started creating them. I've asked you again many times. It would take you only a couple of minutes for each one. I don't expect you to do them all immediately, but by making a start you would be indicating that you're prepared to work cooperatively with the rest of the people on this wiki and that you pay attention to detail. I've also asked you to log in, for the same two reasons.
Tarquin: Also note that removing links to pages does not delete them. You'll need to tag them for that.
