Using a tmp.con File To Preserve Map Settings

[Rabbit]

This is a simple, basic tutorial over the tmp.con, a file that will help you with lines of code that you wish to load or lines that disappear any time you edit that section of the level, ie when you set

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terrainCuller.setUseStitchedLods 0

into your terrain.con and you edit the terrain, you need to place it back in the file.

Setting up the tmp

First copy your init.con in your level folder, it should copy as "Init - Copy"


Now rename it to "tmp" with out the "". You now have your tmp.con file.

Now this is how my tmp looks for Shikotan Island...

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terrainCuller.setUseStitchedLods 0

windmanager.globalWindSpeed 11
windmanager.globalWinddirection 0/0/1

First you can see I added

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terrainCuller.setUseStitchedLods 0

This usually goes in the terrain.con for a 4km level, the problem you can encounter, is if you place that code in your terrain.con, and you edit your level in the terrain editor, you lose this line. But by placing it in the tmp.con, it will never go away, and will always load.

A few other terrainCuller's that you can add that are not naturally in the terrain.con, thus will be removed anytime you make changes in the terrain editor are....

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terrainCuller.lodSwitchDistance 
terrainCuller.baseCellSize 
terrainCuller.detailCullMaxLevel 

Two of these can pretty much be set values, but others should be based on what your average VD is in the game.

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terrainCuller.lodSwitchDistance 0
terrainCuller.baseCellSize 128
terrainCuller.detailCullMaxLevel VD Based

If you have a level like fallujah, which is pretty much flat and urban, you can get away with lower numbers based around 100-250, if not, no ingame and see at what distance you see your "fog" begin to start to have an effect, and work off that value.

These are my values.

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terrainCuller.lodSwitchDistance 0
terrainCuller.baseCellSize 128
terrainCuller.detailCullMaxLevel 100

Before

After


Another line of code I like to add is

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windmanager.globalWindSpeed 11
windmanager.globalWinddirection 0/0/1

(NOTE) This does not effect projectiles. Now, what this does change is effects. What I did was bumped it up to speed 80 to show you. Here I threw a smoke grenade in the left along the hesco's and you can see the smoke trailing off to the right.


Here we have black smoke coming from the mid factory building, as you can see because wind is set to "80" in this picture, it's stretched out to the right. Generally settings from 1-11 are best. (1 calm, 11 storm rolling in)


Wind speed 0


Wind speed 6

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windmanager.globalWinddirection 0/0/1

1/0/0 East
-1/0/0 West
0/0/1 North
0/0/-1 South

This works the direction of the wind, play around with the numbers to find what best suits you and make sure water and clouds are going with it.

Along with direction you want to make sure cloud speed, water speed, and undergrowth speed fit with what you have.

That's it for the tmp.con Have fun and see you on the battlefield!

[Durkie]

Thanx for this tut I wish I had know this earlier

[Rhino]

Nice tut, didn't know the windmanager worked in BF2. I saw it in BFH when it was released and pretty sure I did try it in BF2 back then but it didn't work, they must have added it in BF2 v1.5 or something.

Its not a good idea to put the kit loading bit in the tmp.con however since as you said, it will load the ones out of the init.con before any other, personally I just make my init.con read only so the editor doesn't save over it.

[Mineral]

Question, are mappers allowed to use the Wind modifier? As I told gx it was not due to it influencing the gameplay element of smoke.just confirming if I told gx the right thing or not

[Rhino]

effects are very much a client side thing so they shouldn't be used in such a way that affects gameplay, as we had one map in PR ages ago that had a massive sand storm over the map, and while in your view, the area in front of you was totally blocked by sand, for another player standing right next to you, or looking back at you from the other ridge, there might be a gap in the sand storm for them that they can see perfectly well though. But having it just affect chimney smoke etc a little is fine

[rodrigoma]

but if it does affect smoke grenades as well ;/

[Mineral]

yeah, I meant smoke grenades.

[Rabbit]

[quote="[R-DEV]
Its not a good idea to put the kit loading bit in the tmp.con however since as you said, it will load the ones out of the init.con before any other, personally I just make my init.con read only so the editor doesn't save over it.[/quote]

You are correct, but even if your init. says

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gameLogic.setTeamName 1 "CHinsurgent"
gameLogic.setTeamName 2 "RU"

gameLogic.setTeamLanguage 1 "rebels"
gameLogic.setTeamLanguage 2 "RU"

gameLogic.setTeamFlag 0 "flag_neutral"
gameLogic.setTeamFlag 1 "flag_re"
gameLogic.setTeamFlag 2 "flag_ru"

gameLogic.setKit 1 0 "chinsurgent_officer" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier4"
gameLogic.setKit 2 0 "ru_officer" "pr_ru_soldier4"

gameLogic.setKit 1 1 "chinsurgent_officer_alt" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier5"
gameLogic.setKit 2 1 "ru_officer_alt" "pr_ru_soldier1"

gameLogic.setKit 1 2 "chinsurgent_rifleman" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier2"
gameLogic.setKit 2 2 "ru_rifleman" "pr_ru_soldier3"

gameLogic.setKit 1 3 "chinsurgent_rifleman_alt" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier3"
gameLogic.setKit 2 3 "ru_rifleman_alt" "pr_ru_soldier2"

gameLogic.setKit 1 4 "chinsurgent_specialist" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier1"
gameLogic.setKit 2 4 "ru_specialist" "pr_ru_soldier1"

gameLogic.setKit 1 5 "chinsurgent_medic" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier3"
gameLogic.setKit 2 5 "ru_medic" "pr_ru_soldier2"

gameLogic.setKit 1 6 "chinsurgent_support" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier6"
gameLogic.setKit 2 6 "ru_support" "pr_ru_soldier3"

But your tmp says.

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run ../../Factions/faction_init.con 1 "chinsurgent"
run ../../Factions/faction_init.con 2 "ru"

Everything will load correctly, and because I'm already putting in info to my tmp.con I just do it anyway.

rodrigoma"]but if it does affect smoke grenades as well ;/

It does, for example

Wind speed 0


Wind speed 6


It effects it, but from the testing I have done, it's still very much usable. It's also nice to see the dust from a grenade fired from a grenade launcher wash away in the wind, looks awesome.

[Mineral]

therefore my concern, although it indeed maybe look visually better, PR players are used to the way PR smoke grenades work and know exactly how much it covers up in terms of volume. With a wind modifier this changes. So each player needs to get used of their smoke grenades being different on multiple maps. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, just asking for confirmation from the DEV-team on this Therefore my question.

[Amok@ndy]

You are correct, but even if your init. says

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gameLogic.setTeamName 1 "CHinsurgent"
gameLogic.setTeamName 2 "RU"

gameLogic.setTeamLanguage 1 "rebels"
gameLogic.setTeamLanguage 2 "RU"

gameLogic.setTeamFlag 0 "flag_neutral"
gameLogic.setTeamFlag 1 "flag_re"
gameLogic.setTeamFlag 2 "flag_ru"

gameLogic.setKit 1 0 "chinsurgent_officer" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier4"
gameLogic.setKit 2 0 "ru_officer" "pr_ru_soldier4"

gameLogic.setKit 1 1 "chinsurgent_officer_alt" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier5"
gameLogic.setKit 2 1 "ru_officer_alt" "pr_ru_soldier1"

gameLogic.setKit 1 2 "chinsurgent_rifleman" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier2"
gameLogic.setKit 2 2 "ru_rifleman" "pr_ru_soldier3"

gameLogic.setKit 1 3 "chinsurgent_rifleman_alt" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier3"
gameLogic.setKit 2 3 "ru_rifleman_alt" "pr_ru_soldier2"

gameLogic.setKit 1 4 "chinsurgent_specialist" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier1"
gameLogic.setKit 2 4 "ru_specialist" "pr_ru_soldier1"

gameLogic.setKit 1 5 "chinsurgent_medic" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier3"
gameLogic.setKit 2 5 "ru_medic" "pr_ru_soldier2"

gameLogic.setKit 1 6 "chinsurgent_support" "pr_chinsurgent_soldier6"
gameLogic.setKit 2 6 "ru_support" "pr_ru_soldier3"

if your init.con is looking like that, you havent set your init.con to read-only,

only place the 4km Fix in the tmp.con nothin more

[Rabbit]

Added a bit more info.

[Mineral]

terrainCuller.lodSwitchDistance 725
terrainCuller.baseCellSize 128
terrainCuller.detailCullMaxLevel 700

pretty sure that messing around with those can cause some serious performance issues for certain players

[Rabbit]

[quote=""'[R-DEV"]Amok@ndy;1853836']if your init.con is looking like that, you havent set your init.con to read-only,

only place the 4km Fix in the tmp.con nothin more[/quote]

I don't know what happens to you, but If I make any files read-only and I go to save work later in the editor it makes me make it writable to save, then removing everything you but in.

[quote="GP_MineralWouter""]terrainCuller.lodSwitchDistance 725
terrainCuller.baseCellSize 128
terrainCuller.detailCullMaxLevel 700

pretty sure that messing around with those can cause some serious performance issues for certain players [/quote]
Try lower numbers for 425 and 400 then. That value was only posted to show what the picture was taken in.

[AFsoccer]

Personally I see no problem using the tmp.con to store your faction code lines while your map is WIP. However, the lines will need to removed and the init.con fixed prior to releasing a map.

There is a reason the file is called tmp.com (i.e. temporary).

[Rabbit]

AFsoccer;1853878']Personally I see no problem using the tmp.con to store your faction code lines while your map is WIP. However, the lines will need to removed and the init.con fixed prior to releasing a map.

There is a reason the file is called tmp.com (i.e. temporary).

Actually there is no problem with keeping it in, infact even the vBF2 levels have a tmp.con, running

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rem -- Make sure muzzle flashes are visible at least one frame.
rem renderer.presentAsync 0

Also later on if you feel like running custom command lines to load certain changes (like FH2's fewer grande count) instead of having to make a complete new faction with less grenades.

[AFsoccer]

The tmp file is fine but not for faction settings. This isn't a problem vBF2 had so they must have used them for wind and other settings. But for PR I'm telling you that the init.con needs to be correct once the map is finalized.

[Rabbit]

The tmp file is fine but not for faction settings. This isn't a problem vBF2 had so they must have used them for wind and other settings. But for PR I'm telling you that the init.con needs to be correct once the map is finalized.

Alright.

[Amok@ndy]

I don't know what happens to you, but If I make any files read-only and I go to save work later in the editor it makes me make it writable to save, then removing everything you but in.

then you should read more precise .....

if you have the init.con read-only and you save in the editor the editor asks you if you want to make it writeable, if you press YES here ofc it will change the init.con though this would be clear ...

[Rabbit]

then you should read more precise .....

if you have the init.con read-only and you save in the editor the editor asks you if you want to make it writeable, if you press YES here ofc it will change the init.con though this would be clear ...

Was my way of pointing out that making a file read-only why working on a level does nothing, as you will probablymakedo changes thus making what you put in prior void, putting it in your tmp saves you this hassle. Insert elitist condescending smilies

[Mineral]

Question, are mappers allowed to use the Wind modifier? As I told gx it was not due to it influencing the gameplay element of smoke.just confirming if I told gx the right thing or not. As it does influence smoke grenades?