#hugo tardis stuff

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

half nacelle
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updated the faked transparent window to reflect phasing progress

main spire
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you should add some interpolation of it's position and angles when transitioning to and from the vortex

summer basalt
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I might imagine it's something to tricky considering his trickery, maybe a white flash would make the transition be a bit nicer

half nacelle
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what i really lack is a smooth way to apply render:resetmodellighting or whichever one was able to set manually defined lighting

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as it works now it's either on or off, but i cant lerp between map lighting and overridden lighting

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so i cant have it fade in to match the vortex

main spire
# main spire you should add some interpolation of it's position and angles when transitioning...

i dont know if you've seen this before but i've always liked how this looks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNEjx6XUbfQ

YouTube
John Smith
Dematerialisation - A Doctor Who VFX Shot

Since the TARDIS' dematerialisation effect has remained largely unchanged for the past fifty years, I thought it might be interesting to try out a new approach. So this is my attempt at capturing what travelling through time and space might look like from the point of view of the TARDIS - from take-off to landing, all in one shot.

You can like ...

▶ Play video
half nacelle
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i like that interpretation of "a demat from the tardis' perspective" instead of the usual outside perspective

half nacelle
summer basalt
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oooooh that's so cool pipi

main spire
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what i was imagining was the tardis slowly lifting off the ground into the spin in the vortex and then slowly landing as it materializes, rather than snapping

half nacelle
half nacelle
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finally figured out a way to get every light source in the interior to affect the viewmodel

image.png image.png image.png image.png
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now it doesnt look flat anymore and the viewmodel reflects the true interior lighting

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and as as a bonus of figuring this out i can now do the same for props, npcs, players, etc

image.png image.png image.png image.png
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the only unfixable issue preventing it from being a true self contained space is map soundscapes... stupid fucking shit cant be toggled on and off via lua so there is always going to be that annoying construct bird chirping inside

main spire
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that is really fantastic

main spire
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next you need to cast shadows from the lights heh

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in all seriousness though, it looks great right now, but if you could get shadows working it'd basically be perfect

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although im sure if you were to try that source would be a massive pain as always

half nacelle
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i found a way to get it to work just today

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however im not entirely happy with it and wouldnt choose this over the current implementation as it is

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the way models are project shadows here is very prone to freak out

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and it 'leaks' alot, you can see some of the light getting through solid faces

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like right here

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in some interiors the light is completely blocked by seeingly invisible faces and i cant figure out whats blocking the projected texture

main spire
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could it maybe be a wall right behind the door portal?

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idk how your doing all of this so maybe this isn't applicable

half nacelle
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ill load it up and post more pics in a sec

half nacelle
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ok so the offset was totally fucked so it 'works' now

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however at random angles some faces stop casting shadows which fucks everything up

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it is already making me pretty angry again so i should stop here

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OH YEAH and it just goes straight through the top of the wall and casts light to the ceiling where it shouldnt

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fucking piece of shit

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this isnt good enough to be a feature

main spire
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I think this is not that bad, it may have some problems but what it adds to the visuals is still so much more than whats missing

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it's probably better to just not think about it for a bit and come back to it later

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and perhaps the tardis interiors can be adapted to the lighting changes

half nacelle
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it will literally drive me to stabbing myself it is THAT infuriating

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there are so many fucking rendering issues that i cant find fixes for it drives me to psychosis

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ugh

main spire
half nacelle
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i dont think editing the models is on the table

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some of these extensions/addons are years old and not even supported by the creators anymore

main spire
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but that shouldn't be your problem

half nacelle
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so i think i have to work with them as they are

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also theres this cool funny random bug that makes the entire prop lighting system FUCKING USELESS

main spire
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what's the bug?

half nacelle
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SOME props will just choose to stop having ResetModelLighting() applied to them when they stop moving

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but only SOME props

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others work 100% of the time

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and SOME props also go back to having renderoverride working when the PLAYER moves around and some DONT

main spire
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maybe just constantly wake the physics of every prop in a tick hook while inside the tardis

half nacelle
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but every prop goes to sleep right??

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why do some never have this

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ill try it anyway but fuck if it doesnt work then i basically have to trash another feature that could have been great

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if there is one thing that's worse than something not functioning at all it's something that works INCONSISTENTLY

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maybe i am just extremely ocd brained but i cannot stand it in the slightest

main spire
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I feel like most people (and I mean like everyone) who will use the addon will not even care. We are our worst critics and we like to move the goalpost of what's perfect until you just reach a unsatisfying limit. The light flickering is understandably terrible, but other small issues like light leaks are not a big deal imo

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i also am very particular about details and things not being perfect. I feel like I can't just accept what I've already made, but your good enough is someone else's (most people, especially garry's mod users) perfection

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I've been working on an update for one of my addons on and off for over a year now because I have to keep adding things and perfecting what's there. I've stopped working on it all together now not knowing if I'll ever release it since I struggle to be satisfied with it.

half nacelle
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it is literally the entire point of the feature, not properly working

main spire
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right the light flickering is bad, yeah. It's just the other small issues I don't see a reason to stress over

half nacelle
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but then it means this wont work across the board with all variants so ill have to filter them etc

half nacelle
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thank you

main spire
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im glad it works, hopefully it'll be a little more smooth sailing from here

half nacelle
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ill keep trying i guess

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ive been on this project for about a year now so thats an indication that i either refuse to give up or am hopelessly addicted

main spire
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or you're very passionate and care about the things you make

half nacelle
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this is exactly why i cant just half bake it and leave in pop in or flickering

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because then you notice that it's wrong

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the effect dies

late palm
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Your commitment is incredible, I really hope you see this through, as it will probably be one of the best mods I have ever seen.

main spire
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just curious, are you able to get the bounds of the interior door portal?

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for instance, the top right corner and bottom left corner. Anything like that?

half nacelle
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it has width and height defined

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not sure about corners

main spire
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width and height may be good enough

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are you projecting a light from the outside of the interior some offset away from the door portal to achieve your lighting effect?

half nacelle
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yes

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wiki says orthogonal mode projected textures dont support shadows

main spire
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this is very jank... but do you think this could fix the light leakage?

image.png
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the light leaking onto the ceiling too

image.png
half nacelle
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oh hey i keep using the wrong word

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its orthographic

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i considered it before and then canned it because i saw this

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non static props would be all physics props and entities... aka everything i need shadows for

half nacelle
main spire
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it would be nice if orthographic mode worked since that's how sunlight behaves, but no

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it's much more jank. I'm positioning 4 of those plastic flat building props around where the door is. They have no collision with anything and im making them invisible by setting their materials to wireframe.
(I think this works because the wireframe material im using is not vertexlitgeneric so it just can't render it)

half nacelle
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now im more confused, what exactly are you actually doing?

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using an orthographic lamp to match the door's dimensions?

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and if so how do the shadows actually behave

main spire
# main spire

its not the lamp, look at the 4 colored props surrounding the door

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that's what's blocking the light

half nacelle
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oh so youre just using a regular lamp and using props to define the shape?

main spire
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yeah, and it can take any width and height positioned center of the door

half nacelle
half nacelle
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today on trying to achieve the most seamless transition from exterior to interior

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finally found a way to fix some of the nearly set in stone portal offsets

half nacelle
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this is about the edge of what i can do
any further than this and ill ultrakrill myself

half nacelle
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ok so when adding this obviously the question arose "wtf do when player just walk away??? ?"

half nacelle
half nacelle
summer basalt
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That's freaking crazy lmao

half nacelle
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holy shit this one simple trick made find a fix for potentially all the damn rendering issues of this addon

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compared with previously

image.png image.png
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i doubt this will be too interesting but i may aswell post my findings

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it fixed all sorts of interior rendering

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the physgun's beam rendering is especially noticeably more reliable

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fire encounters no more of this kinda stuff

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instead all kinds of particle effects work now

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main spire
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it's amazing how some of these huge issues can easily be fixed

half nacelle
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this was not an easy thing

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it took about a year of slowly learning my way through all of this

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and i still feel like i only solved it out of luck

main spire
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no I mean like the fix itself is simple enough

main spire
# half nacelle

I suppose maybe I just don't know what you mean by setting it to rendermode_transcolor

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for sure actually figuring out the fix is the hardest part

half nacelle
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but that change in rendermode is what made me go back through the other rendering stuff and look at it

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and then i swapped some render groups and modes and everything works much better now

summer basalt
# half nacelle

I really liked the later method as there's no backface overlapping, but if it fixes MANY issues regarding translucent rendering, it's worthy enough 👍

half nacelle
half nacelle
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you still have me confused on this

half nacelle
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i love small details

golden flare
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I dunno... shouldn't that wall of light be casting shadows of the doors on the outside of the Tardis?

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(I'm just popping in to make your life harder)

half nacelle
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what exactly do you mean

golden flare
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The partially open doors should have shadows because of the light inside of the tardis

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The inside lights should cast shadows outside

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This, but the doors

th.png
main spire
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I think this happens already? I feel like I can remember seeing the light coming out from the tardis years ago

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probably since before hugo started working on his stuff, although to be fair idk when that started exactly

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I remember thinking it was so cool

half nacelle
half nacelle
golden flare
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Damn

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There are only so many things I can nitpick about

half nacelle
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@golden flare hey do you have anything to notpick about this

proud gust
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looks like your fps drops massively when you exit the little pod

shame you're using construct with it's shitty cubemap/hdr, would look even better on a different map

half nacelle
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fps drops because im fast forwarding 10x to make the sequence faster
for the sake of the video

golden flare
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I'm not quite clear on if each interior has its own props or if the props are being migrated between the interiors

half nacelle
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each has its own

golden flare
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How is that handled?

half nacelle
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it writes a file unique to each interior's ID

golden flare
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A file? Sounds like the interior decoration is being saved between game launches then

half nacelle
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oh you bet

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thats like 70% of the whole point

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being able to decorate the place and not have it wiped once you despawn it

golden flare
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Suppose I weld something to the wall

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Does the weld constraint get saved?

half nacelle
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right now it just saves prop positions and freezes them on spawn

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ill have to look into the duplicator library for constraints

golden flare
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I would probably think about setting up a whitelist for what gets saved

half nacelle
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already have one

golden flare
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Great!

half nacelle
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i have a whole regular backup system and everything to prevent stuff being lost if the game crashes or similar

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i see people putting hours into personalizing interiors with props and that's knowing itll be deleted once they close the game

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imagine what theyd do when it actually saves

half nacelle
golden flare
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Ah, with inter-map travel it makes more sense to store to a file

half nacelle
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i also hooked it into the dramatic crash system to wreck it all

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really fun to see all the shit i put in falling apart

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also there is no consequence to crashing like this
the backup system is smart and doesn't save anything after a crash
so as soon as you repair and reload your vessel everything will be shiny clean again

golden flare
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You know, honestly, the thing that I think is currently holding this Tardis back is that key swep

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At least its viewmodel and "animations"

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They look far, far more amateurish than the rest of the addon does at this point and I think it drags down the overall feeling of quality that the rest of it has

half nacelle
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i added it at the very start of this project as just a simple way to spawn it immersively without the spawn menu
i asked a friend if i could use a vm and they had this one ready to go

golden flare
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That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do

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It might be time to revisit that

half nacelle
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im not sure if i have access to a better one without making it myself

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im not much into texturing and never done animation so it's low priority for me

golden flare
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Well, the hands shouldn't matter

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You should use the C hands system so that it uses whatever your player model's hands are

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The animation rig for that is available on the wiki, and someone was kind enough to post a modified version of it that I'm told is better in some way that I don't know enough about rigging to relay here

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Other than the hands, the only other thing is the key, and that's a perfectly fine model as far as I can tell

half nacelle
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yeh that friend is a good model/texture artist

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i dont think theyve done much animation but they still did it solo

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so im not too hard on it

golden flare
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I wouldn't necessarily say I'm hard on it so much I'm saying that it's the least well-done part of this package

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I suspect that speaks more to how far the Tardis has come than it does about the view model itself

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I just don't think I'm capable of putting my hand in this pose

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half nacelle
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i can do it but it is very un-ergonomic

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i wouldnt hold a key like that now that i think about it

golden flare
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This, plus a little twist of the wrist is all it would really take, I think

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Maybe twisting in one direction for locked and the opposite direction for unlocked

half nacelle
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new disguising mechanic
previously the interior door would remain unchanged and would cause a disconnect with the exterior

main spire
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try setting Entity:SetRenderOrigin() to outside the players view to make the shadows not render

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when it's invisible

main spire
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it's how I manage the clients own shadow entity in a mod I'm making

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but maybe it wouldn't change much regarding the visuals, it'd just reappear suddenly anyways

half nacelle
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oh i hate when one tiny detail i got wrong distracts from the core feature im trying to display

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i was going to fix that anyway

main spire
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on second thought you probably wouldn't need to set the render origin to get rid of the shadows, you could probably just not render it in the ENT:Draw() function

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I need to do it for my mod since I'm managing the shadow rendering in the same frame just at a different time in the rendering

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like for it to render in an rt and not anywhere else

golden flare
half nacelle
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ye theyre seperate models so you technically have two doors

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they have to be lined up very precisely to not make it too obvious that its just a portal with a copy of the door model behind it

main spire
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you probably wouldnt have to worry about shadows if you could do that

kind axle
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I know it's a pretty big WIP, but are these available for download yet?

kind axle
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update: got it working

kind axle
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This mod is so flipping cool, thank you for doing the things nobody else would do. 🙏

half nacelle
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nothing groundbreaking sure but no one's done it for the tardis before

half nacelle
golden flare
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Why are the hands blue, though?

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Oh, god damnit

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It's because you're using a Payday playermodel, isn't it

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I just assumed that was a Doctor Who related set of hands that were some deep lore I'm not at all aware of about the Doctor's true form being a member of the Blue Man Group or something

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I have been assuming this for months

main spire
# half nacelle reworked it a bit

it looks cool but the projected textures just pop in and out. If you didn't want it to be visible outside of flight you could try fading it in and out with ProjectedTexture:SetBrightness(). Just lerp from 0 to the brightness you want and vice versa

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(im assuming it's projected textures)

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or math.Remap() it depending on how you have things working

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math.Remap() my beloved

kind axle
half nacelle
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all of this is intentional behavior

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the lights just switch on/off/to a different mode (rotating, static)

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they dont have a transition

main spire
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i guess it just looks abrupt to me at the end when it lands

kind axle
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are we able to suggest ideas? i do have a couple that i think would be neat.

golden flare
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The updated effect looks really nice, by the way

proud gust
half nacelle
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i happened to get around to tweaking it today so here is a screenshot

image.png
golden flare
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Exquisite

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It's everything I hoped it would be

sturdy ravine
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this addon is sick

kind axle
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fr i cannot wait for its release

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the github hasn't been updated in a while but i be patient 🙏

main spire
half nacelle
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sometimes due to its massive size the interior can be made up of several different models

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plus a prop may be placed on the console, on a chair, or anything else that's not the main interior

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so at that point you'd have to loop through every interior entity and now you're looping through more entities than just the props so ye..

main spire
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dang...

kind axle
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would be really cool if you could make support for infmap

half nacelle
golden flare
late palm
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Also is it currently possible to redecorate while in the tardis?

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Similar to day of the doctor

golden flare
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I'm saying that the translucent bottom portion of this transformation transition effect could be the bottom of the new model instead of the old one

image.png
uncut eagle
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out of curiosity what are you using for the like

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bigger on the inside stuff
I never looked at how the original TARDIS did it while not causing things that arent inside it to collide with it(?)
@half nacelle

uncut eagle
half nacelle
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oh the tardis uses a lua recreationg of portal's linked_portal_door (basically what everyone has been asking for for like 10 years)

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it's an adaptation of world portals

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i didnt make it, the addon is like 10 years old at this point

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im just adding on to the addon and remaking some systems

uncut eagle
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yeah, I remember though a server I'm an admin on removed the TARDIS because of issues with the original doors library

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idk if it was just addon incompatibility or what

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i think it was general instability ig

half nacelle
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far as i know the tardis has incompatabilities with very little things

uncut eagle
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I'm more curious about the physics aspect of like, where tf does it even put the "bigger on the inside" thing, but that may be better for me to look into myself since as you said you're just upgrading the addon

half nacelle
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99% of the tardis uses entirely local values and systems, even the entity hooks are contained to the tardis instead of using regular entity hooks

uncut eagle
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damn

half nacelle
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then link up the portal and it looks bigger on the inside while still just using regular map space

half nacelle
uncut eagle
uncut eagle
half nacelle
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ohh okay you mean colliding with the interior space somewhere in the skybox

uncut eagle
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yeah

half nacelle
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it's possible, there is technically no system preventing that

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the way the addon locates a place to put it however makes it very unlikely

uncut eagle
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ah ok

half nacelle
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it always seeks the highest available position, so it's typically placed up against the map ceiling

uncut eagle
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I've been looking into how to replicate how Portal's portals do things and I've basically come up with jackshit that would work nicely for that usecase, hence why I asked

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honestly considering just learning how to make binary modules and making something hacky as fuck but functional at least

half nacelle
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copying or just directly using the tardis' version of portals (which has a standalone addon called 'doors') might be the best or easiest choice

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it's entirely open source and free to use i think

uncut eagle
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the only issue is you cant disable collision with the world, seamless portals didn't even get around that

half nacelle
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collision with the world?

uncut eagle
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so if you have a portal on a world/brush wall you cant go thorugh it cause you cant disable player collision with the world

half nacelle
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ohh that

uncut eagle
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yea

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the way seamless portals kind of got around it was by adjusting the player hull to be offset

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and also added a slight rim to the edges

half nacelle
uncut eagle
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which I don't want

uncut eagle
half nacelle
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it did so by disabling player collision with the world and placing a physics prop around the portal hole, so that the player stands on the prop instead of falling through the map

uncut eagle
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yeah, I just don't see how you do that former part, disabling player collision with the world

half nacelle
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good question, i never thought about it

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maybe it's just like setting a vphysics tag on the player

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noclip can do it easily

uncut eagle
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I see at least for entities on this one its using the ballsocket trick

image.png
uncut eagle
half nacelle
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ohhh yeah you remind me

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that portal gun mod did make a custom movetype

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because i remember whenever you stand in the portal movement would feel slightly different

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acceleration and friction was different, suggesting a movetype change

uncut eagle
uncut eagle
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the combination of noclip and groundentity is interesting

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I wonder if doing this in something that was shared and predicted would fix the issues I personally had with that portal gun (it did not feel seamless at all)

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I already was thinking of a way to maybe do shared-triggers with PhysColliders or whatever they're called

half nacelle
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ive wanted to add prediction to the tardis entity (to make flight better in multiplayer) but i dont get it at all

uncut eagle
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its a bit confusing to me too

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yeah ok I just tried the setgroundentity thing, not working at all so idk wtf that was about

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or maybe i need to do it per tick or something

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jumps like have a 50% chance of not working

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idk wtf he's doing here tbh

half nacelle
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ive never used that function before i dont actually know what it does

golden flare
half nacelle
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bringing up 'custom' exteriors to full feature parity with 'default' exteriors (those that are built-in to the corresponding interior)

image.png image.png
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now switching exteriors is entirely seamless and functionally identical to having it built in as the interior's default

half nacelle
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i was using a bugged gmod function (clip 1) which is supposed to snap the player to the floor but instead screws up the player's movement
i replaced it with a traceline based snap to floor function and now portals are very seamless

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PSA avoid using DropToFloor() for players and instead use a traceline based implementation, idk what this shit does internally but it fucks up everything with player movement
https://wiki.facepunch.com/gmod/Entity:DropToFloor

Garry's Mod Wiki
Entity:DropToFloor

Move an entity down until it collides with something.
The entity needs to already have something below it within 256 units.

half nacelle
uncut eagle
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and you're testing all this in a multiplayer server?

half nacelle
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so i cant do much in multiplayer

uncut eagle
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sad

half nacelle
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it still works in multiplayer but some things are less ideal than singleplayer

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flight mode lags behind due to latency and i currently cant get effects to work

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(those created by util.effect)

kind axle
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window light rays my beloved

Doctor_Who___TARDIS_Materialisation___De-materialisation_Compilation_2005_present___2023_Edition_3-10_screenshot.png Doctor_Who___TARDIS_Materialisation___De-materialisation_Compilation_2005_present___2023_Edition_8-24_screenshot.png
main spire
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as well as fading it out when exiting

half nacelle
prime kindle
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I've never been more excited for anything ever in my life

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being able to travel between maps with the tardis, thats really all I need. I've been searching for that for like 2 months now. Couldn't do it myself. But then you've got VR support plus all these insane features

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My worry is ceasing to exist before these release/fully functional. Are they released? :o

prime kindle
# kind axle update: got it working

Figured it out, had to find the doc's github, hartnell's tardis is missing textures. Am I supposed to have something from the workshop?
No clue what i'm doing, but going to try vr later.... if that does anything.

Works great, interesting to use compared to the Tardis rewrite, its like a 3.0
But i cant seem to get it to transition map to map. (https://pastebin.com/0i5JPnzK) Thats the error.

(It says im missing something vital, but i have everything i know of)

kind axle
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I don't know why that would be happening, and unfortunately nor do I know how to help with that. Best guess is that it's out of date. Hope you get that fixed.

kind axle
# half nacelle

Really cool actually, Should look into light rays whether or not illumination for the windows are enabled.

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But then again, this tardis addon by default isn't meant for scenery. So I think it'd be a bit wack. Not sure really.

prime kindle
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No way to know unless the doc themself can help, right now Im just stuck closing my eyes or looking down when i load up a map, then i spawn in a tardis, and walk back out. It's.... something.

kind axle
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Again it's a best guess, I wouldn't take my word for it. Haha.

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It's still a massive WIP give Hugo some time.

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He's a hard working gentlemen.

prime kindle
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Agreed, its massively impressive for gmod. But my one dream for technology: To have a tardis. This is as close as im getting, so im not resting until i figure it out

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Im wayyyyy too into it

kind axle
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In that case, I wish you luck. 👍

prime kindle
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Just frustrating that it works perfectly for some people but never myself 😭 😂
Thank you very much! Appreciate the comment on it :D

prime kindle
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if i did everything right then i guess its just a bad version. It says im missing something and tons of different types of errors on diff maps.

half nacelle
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you are probably using it wrong because the github has no documentation

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what youre missing is the closed beta server that people interested in the project are invited to

dusky rapids
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guessing whoever posted this already mentioned you, but I found this funny how the tardis just.. ingests the stargate and dies

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10/10 accurate fandom collision

kind axle
#

Also I have a pretty big interest in this project. How can one be invited?

kind axle
prime kindle
#

Because I figured I just wasnt allowed to use it 😂

prime kindle
#

Even without documentation I managed to get it functional to the point its better than the regular tardis rewrite

#

Those map buttons are frustrating

prime kindle
#

Is there any way to switch maps with a tardis other than this?

main spire
#

wait for hugo to finish the mod

prime kindle
# main spire wait for hugo to finish the mod

yeah i am but also waiting and hoping to get lucky. But also I figure there are alternatives. I found a few sudo methods i guess
I just wanna explore places, there are zero games that let you do that in this way. Whatsoever

half nacelle
half nacelle
#

the others in the server can probably help out with issues installing it because im kind of exhausted at the moment

storm quest
#

Tardis stuff sounds like fun :o

late palm
#

Is this mod available on the workshop?

#

If not, could you send me an invite to the server?

rose cobalt
#

What if you used that BSP rendering method with another guys "dream" collisions to load other maps so you can travel map to map through the tardis?

late palm
main spire
# 
local blend = math.Remap(math.sin(CurTime()), -1, 1, 0, 255)

render.SetShadowColor(255, blend, blend)

self:DrawModel()
#

setting shadow color to 255, 255, 255 makes it invisible

golden flare
#

Oh!

#

I was never able to get that working

#

Perhaps I was just doing it wrong

main spire
#

it's running in ENT:Draw() btw

main spire
#

I can test if that makes it not work

golden flare
#

I don't think I was setting it in ENT:Draw()

main spire
#

nvm order doesn't matter, just calling that function in ENT:Draw() appears to make it work

#

I presume 0, 0, 0 is normal shadow color

golden flare
#

Does this only effect that entity, or others as well?

main spire
#

aw shucks it does effect other entities

#

maybe I can figure something out

main spire
#

ENTITY:GetShadowCastDirection() allows you to modify the direction of the shadow for that specific entity. If only that sort of control could be expanded for shadow color

half nacelle
#

its been like a billion years but im kind of updating this project again

#

reworked the vortex lighting to be more believable with specular and shit
looks less flat now

image.png image.png
golden flare
half nacelle
#

i dropped it for a long time because i have been ill

late palm
#

Do you have it publicly available yet?

half nacelle
#

i fixed my color table to actually use the correct values so now the effect is more stylized than before
also fixed the light origins not matching the two centers of the vortex

lucid lodge
#

coolest effect I've ever seen in gmod

half nacelle
#

wait until you see it all fade in and out over the entire map >:3

half nacelle
#

all these pretty vortex visuals had me thinking... i need an excuse to actually spend time and hang out in the vortex
so i got one of the most fun ideas of the entire project

golden flare
#

Excellent

late palm
#

Are we able to use the mod ourselves yet or is it still heavily under development?

half nacelle
uncut eagle
half nacelle
half nacelle
#

if your project ever becomes public i think it would be super neat to integrate it and 'travel' to your space environment on any map, letting the player feel like theyre leaving the earth

late flower
#

Im being paid to make my space system, but I intend to release it publicly once they give me the go ahead

half nacelle
#

my eepy props have come such a long way from being sleepy

#

only @golden flare will get that reference

golden flare
#

You should spend a bunch of time learning to do VFX so you can make stuff do a "burning up in the atmosphere" type of effect as they cross the border of the vortex

half nacelle
#

i can barely even get z order to work properly ;-;

golden flare
#

a bunch of time

#

I would never imply it was a good way to invest your time

half nacelle
#

i really cant figure out how to make any draw/render function only affect the entity i want

golden flare
#

But it would be neat-o

half nacelle
#

im trying to call cam.ignorez on the vortex props so they can render over the vortex

#

because the vortex itself already ignores z

#

so it can render over the map

#

but calling cam.ignorez on vortex props makes the tardis exterior itself ignore z ASWELL

#

and i literally dont understand why this happens

golden flare
#

Sounds like you might want to clear color and clear the depth buffer, then suppress writing to the depth buffer, draw the vortex, start drawing to the depth buffer again, draw the tardis, then draw the vortex props

#

or something

main spire
#

or how are you doing this in code

half nacelle
#

it fixed the exterior rendering through everything
the props themselves still show through every wall though but i dont know if i can fix that

main spire
#

render the interior after the props

#

I assume thats what you mean by walls

#

(I hope im not misunderstanding, send screenshots if you can)

half nacelle
#

yeah i meant the interior

#

i dont know how i just uh
render it 'after' the props

half nacelle
main spire
#

so like your rendering should have some kinda order like:

first vortex is rendered
then props outside are rendered
finally interior is rendered

#

it's like layers, what comes after will be rendered on top of what was rendered previously

half nacelle
#

i have seriously no idea how i could control rendering like that

#

everything is its own entity with its own render functions

#

and the interior especially has like 20 different render functions and hooks with a 10 year old codebase at this point

main spire
#

I kinda wish I could see the code so I know what kinda spaghetti monster we're dealing with here

#

there's definitely a way for this to work right

main spire
half nacelle
#

nope, it is kind of scattered over different modules
(i dont know how many it actually is, im just saying it is very complex)

main spire
#

I guess try and figure out where things like the walls are being rendered (specific rendering function/hook) and see if you can render everything outside before the interior is rendered

main spire
# half nacelle

this didn't used to be a problem in the base addon I don't think right? with the publicly available vortex effect

main spire
#

so you can run your custom rendering code before the normal rendering code for the interior gets ran

main spire
half nacelle
#

ohhh woah

main spire
#

(im sure there is a much better way to explain it but hopefully that makes it a bit easier to understand)

golden flare
#

To reiterate the point:
All rendering operations are done on a Render Target. This could be a custom Render Target you make, or the main game view which is also a Render Target.
Render Targets are a picture that lives in memory. It's a grid of pixels where each pixel usually has a red, green, blue, alpha, stencil, and depth value. (Some are optional)
If you save a Render Target as a .png, it will take the red, green, blue, and alpha values from each pixel and will ignore the stencil and depth values.
When you do a rendering operation, it directly modifies the red, green, blue, alpha, and depth in the Render Target's pixels.

#

It can be helpful to keep in mind that, ultimately, all of the "channels" of a Render Target (red, green, blue, alpha, depth, and stencil) are just whole integer numbers between 0 and 255

#

Render operations modify these numbers in various ways. If you render an opaque model somewhere on a Render Target, it simply replaces the current values of those pixels with the new ones created by rendering that model

#

Translucent models will take the current values of the pixels and the new values from rendering the model and combine them together, using the new alpha values to control how much of the current color values will be in the final pixel colors

#

The way that new pixel values combine with/replace current pixel values is called "blending" and is what functions like render.GetBlend, render.SetBlend, and render.OverrideBlend allow you to control directly

#

Ultimately all of this is just simple math (addition, subtraction, negation, etc.) involving numbers between 0 and 255 to produce a new number between 0 and 255

#

You can control which of these values do and do not get modified by rendering operations using the render library's functions:
render.OverrideAlphaWriteEnable
render.OverrideColorWriteEnable
render.OverrideDepthEnable
render.OverrideBlend
render.OverrideBlendFunc

Do note that when you enable an override, it will remain enabled until something disables it. This means its very important to disable these overrides as soon as you're done with them, otherwise they will affect rendering of things you don't intend them to.

summer basalt
#

Goddamn aristoka is spitting fire

golden flare
#

Thanks, bestie. I want people to understand

half nacelle
#

yeah this is actually so cool

#

why is this not on the wiki

golden flare
#

It mostly is

half nacelle
#

it is??

golden flare
#

I wrote several articles about the rendering system's components

#

My overall goal here is to make the render library and its related components as understandable as I can. If you're finding the existing documentation unhelpful, I would love to know more about where you were looking, what you found/didn't find, and what parts might have been confusing or difficult to understand

half nacelle
#

all i ever saw was the function pages themselves

#

i guess i would have noticed if something like render.setblend had a small note "for more information see render reference" and a link

golden flare
#

I guess I should probably add a link to them to those function pages

#

I'd like to create some infographics to help convey these ideas, but I haven't found a good way to create animations and I'm pretty sure animations would be extremely helpful in getting the ideas across

main spire
main spire
#

thinking of rendering as layers definitely helped me but explaining it in detail is just better

half nacelle
#

fuck im trying so hard to fix the viewmodel sway being affected by teleports but i just cant find a solution

#

this feels like a hopeless issue

half nacelle
#

i need someone smarter than me to figure this out so bad

golden flare
#

I dunno, could you get the position, angle, velocity, etc of the viewmodel before the teleport and reapply those values after the teleport?

half nacelle
#

but how do i actually stop the sway movement...

#

its like some internal value that is lerped over time

#

all i have to work with is calcviewmodelview

#

it only gives viewmodel position and angle

#

right now im just kind of desperately trying to lerp from "before" the teleport to whatever the vm should be "after" the teleport

#

and i have literally no idea what i am doing.

#

this is just miserable i dont fucking get it

image.png
half nacelle
#

fdkjdskjnfdkjnsdfkjfgjkfg

#

this is "better" i guess???

#

but its not good enough to be seamless

main spire
#

is your code on github or something

half nacelle
#

nop its not good enough for that

main spire
#

the stuff i write ain't pretty either... It's just hard to get a grasp of the problems you're having when no one can see what's going on under the hood

plus if you're in the prototyping phase with most things then it's understandable if it's a mess. The stuff I'm working on ""right now"" is a complete mess of ideas as i brainstorm and test

#

also it might be cool if people could make pr's and possibly help you with development

#

but if you just don't want it public at all then that's also understandable

half nacelle
main spire
#

maybe something like this could work

-- get previous pos, ang, and time from before entering tardis
local old_pos = Vector(pos)
local old_ang = Angle(ang)
local old_time = CurTime()

-- somewhere down the line, lerp from old position to current position
local time_diff = CurTime() - old_time
if time_diff <= 0.5 then -- 0.5 is the amount of seconds to lerp
    local frac = math.Remap(time_diff, 0, 0.5, 0, 1)
    return LerpVector(frac, old_pos, pos), LerpAngle(frac, old_ang, ang)
end
#

btw this is viewmodel pos and ang before viewmodel sway is applied so it is not what you need to use

image.png
#

you need to get the position and angles of the viewmodel from before you've entered/exited the tardis for the lerping to work correctly

half nacelle
#

i eventually arrived on this

image.png
#

but after restarting the game

main spire
#

I assume vmfixenabled marks when you're doing the transition?

local old_pos
local old_ang
local old_time
if !vmfixenabled then
    old_pos = Vector(pos)
    old_ang = Angle(ang)
    old_time = CurTime()
else
    local time_diff = CurTime() - old_time
    if time_diff <= 0.5 then -- 0.5 is the amount of seconds to lerp
        local frac = math.Remap(time_diff, 0, 0.5, 0, 1)
        return LerpVector(frac, old_pos, pos), LerpAngle(frac, old_ang, ang)
    else
        vmfixenabled = false
    end
end
#

oh shoot

#

hang on

#

there

# 
local old_pos
local old_ang
local old_time

have to be outside the CalcViewModelView hook

half nacelle
#

pos and ang just return whatever values they would be without that addon installed

main spire
#

viewmodel lagger probably uses CalcViewModelView

half nacelle
#

thats
what im using

main spire
#

try directly modifying the pos and ang maybe rather than returning a new pos and ang

-- these are outside CalcViewModelView
local old_pos
local old_ang
local old_time
-- these are outside CalcViewModelView

hook.Add("CalcViewModelView", "swayfixer3", function(wep, vm, oldPos, oldAng, pos, ang)
    if !vmfixenabled then
         -- this is not optimized, you should only really do this once before transitioning
        old_pos = Vector(pos)
        old_ang = Angle(ang)
        old_time = CurTime()
    else
        local time_diff = CurTime() - old_time
        if time_diff <= 0.5 then -- 0.5 is the amount of seconds to lerp
            local frac = math.Clamp(math.Remap(time_diff, 0, 0.5, 0, 1), 0, 1) -- clamping to be safe
            local lerp_vec, lerp_ang = LerpVector(frac, old_pos, pos), LerpAngle(frac, old_ang, ang)

            for i = 1, 3 do
                pos[i] = lerp_vec[i]
                ang[i] = lerp_ang[i]
            end
        else
            vmfixenabled = false
        end
    end
end)
half nacelle
#

if i just do this. then it basically TURNS OFF the viewmodel lagger addon

image.png
main spire
#

I think only one hook can have a return value, and your hook happens to be the one returning a pos and ang before the viewmodel lagger can run its hook

#

perhaps viewmode lagger is not returning a pos and ang but instead modifying the pos and ang for addon compatibility

main spire
half nacelle
#

this doesnt do anything

image.png
#

this should set the viewmodel to vector 0 if this worked

main spire
#

no I mean like

pos[1] = 0
pos[2] = 0
pos[3] = 0
half nacelle
#

it only has oldpos, oldang, and pos, ang

main spire
#

im going to do a sanity check in gmod real quick

#

its not you i just think im being stupid

#

lua_run_cl hook.Add("CalcViewModelView", "test", function(wep, vm, oldPos, oldAng, pos, ang) ang[1] = 0 end)

#

with sv_cheats 1

main spire
main spire
#

and assuming i coded it correctly

main spire
#

you can think of vector and angle objects like tables that are indexed from 1 to 3

#

or x,y,z

#

so modifying index 1 of a vector object is like directly modifying the x axis of the vector

half nacelle
#

now it just doesnt do anything anymore

image.png
main spire
#

im not sure what this math is doing and your replacing the x, y, and z axis of the vector with another vector

#

since npos and pos are vectors

#

and you're trying to make the x axis of pos a vector

#

pos[1] = ((npos[1] * fixfactor) + (pos[1] * unfixfactor))

main spire
half nacelle
#

still nothing...

image.png
main spire
#

it's probably doing something, but idk how this math works that you're doing

main spire
#

be sure to retry in console or remove those other hooks

#

since they're still running if you are only renaming them and not retrying or removing them

#

that code is simply to just test and see if we can get something working, but I wouldn't consider it final just cause it's constantly making vector and angle objects when not transitioning

half nacelle
#

the viewmodel disappears for a second

main spire
#

OHHH

#

cause the position of the viewmodel is all the way in some other part of the map

#

and it lerps to you all the way in the tardis

half nacelle
#

im not imagining this

main spire
#

I don't know why it worked then and not now. Getting a more robust solution is what im aiming for

main spire
#

maybe try this

-- these are outside CalcViewModelView
local old_pos
local old_ang
local old_time
local transition_time = 0.5
-- these are outside CalcViewModelView

hook.Add("CalcViewModelView", "swayfixer3", function(wep, vm, oldPos, oldAng, pos, ang)
    if !vmfixenabled then
        -- this is not optimized, you should only really do this once before transitioning
        old_pos, old_ang = WorldToLocal(pos, ang, EyePos(), EyeAngles())
        old_time = CurTime()
    else
        local time_diff = CurTime() - old_time
        if time_diff <= transition_time then -- transition_time is the amount of seconds to lerp
            local frac = math.Clamp(math.Remap(time_diff, 0, transition_time, 0, 1), 0, 1) -- clamping to be safe
            local w_pos, w_ang = LocalToWorld(old_pos, old_ang, EyePos(), EyeAngles())
            local lerp_vec, lerp_ang = LerpVector(frac, w_pos, pos), LerpAngle(frac, w_ang, ang)

            for i = 1, 3 do
                pos[i] = lerp_vec[i]
                ang[i] = lerp_ang[i]
            end
        else
            vmfixenabled = false
        end
    end
end)
#

it shouldn't disappear anymore, but it might transition fairly slowly since it's transitioning in 0.5 seconds

main spire
half nacelle
#

i cant try any more

#

its 6 am i didnt get any sleep

main spire
#

I hope you can get some sleep then, it's probably best to just step away from this for now anyway

#

I get burnt out a lot cause I don't let myself take breaks or rest. In fact I just haven't really been working on any of my stuff cause it always burns me out

#

and then I usually lose all my passion I had cause of it. As long as you're giving yourself breaks and rest you're doing a lot better than me lol

half nacelle
#

i still cant recreate it

half nacelle
#

it works and i can REPRODUCE it this time

#

it survived multiple game restarts

#

it works only, ONLY WHEN i have TWO hooks running, with the "second" one coming BEFORE the "first" one

image.png
#

THEN i can somehow manage to grab the calculated viewmodel after other addons like viewmodel lagger affect it

#

i dont fucking know what is going on here, but through literal hours of trial and error i found a way that works

half nacelle
#

this time i actually dont know what could be improved

#

it now looks exactly how i always imagined it

late palm
#

I’m noticing that you can see the interior through the skybox, is there any way to prevent that that doesn’t break the other rendering layers?

golden flare
half nacelle
late flower
#

I dont know much about doctor who but that was pretty fucking cool

golden flare
#

The doors should move a little with the motion, I think

#

Not enough to open or close, but something to not look like video game doors frozen in place

half nacelle
#

unless you want me to just

#

toggle the animation twice really quickly

golden flare
#

That puts you in a really strong position, actually

#

Animations are extremely valuable for this exact kind of thing

#

Plus, as a bonus, you don't need to be a world-class animator to get good results

#

I'll explain a bit more after I get some lunch

#

I'm realizing mid-thought that I'm real hungry

half nacelle
#

if youre saying i should animate it myself thats not happening

golden flare
#

Why not?

half nacelle
#

unless someone personally teaches me

golden flare
#

What aspect of it do you find difficult?

half nacelle
#

all of it

#

i dont know how to work with rigs or keyframes or whatever you need

#

blender source tools doesnt even work for me anymore

#

i cant export models
crowbar also doesnt work so i cant compile

#

both tools just stopped working and i have no way to figure out how to fix it.

#

my only shot at this point is to try exporting and compiling on my steam deck because last time i tried that it worked

#

but that was a year ago so i dont know if it still works

golden flare
#

As with most things, modeling and animation appear more daunting than they actually are. I assure you that there are many, many people far, far stupider than you who are successfully making models and animations. If they can figure it out, so can you (faster than them, but don't tell them that it'll make them sad)

half nacelle
#

i tried decompiling and recompiling one of the door models once so i can make a change to the model

#

after importing it back into the game the animations stopped working

golden flare
#

On the topic of "rigs or keyframes or whatever you need", that's something you're a couple of 10 minute YouTube videos away from knowing well enough to do what you would need to do

half nacelle
#

at that point i gave up with anything animation related because decompiling a model just fucks up everything

golden flare
#

The main issue, as it sounds like you've experienced, is the Source Engine part of the process where 2025 abruptly meets 2004

#

I'm by no means an expert on any of this, but I've messed around enough with it to have some idea of how it works

#

Are you familiar with QC files?

half nacelle
#

vaguely

#

but none of that matters if i cant even export an smd

#

this is so fucking annoying because there are no resources, i dont have any lead to fix this

#

all i get is this and i dont know what it means

image.png
golden flare
#

I also have no idea what that means but I do have some ideas on what might fix it

#

I would start by double checking the version of Blender you have and the version of the Source Engine tools addon to make sure that they're explicitly listed as being compatible with each other

#

The Blender addons are very "fragile" and break easily. It's possible that even a slight change that they aren't expecting (like Blender being a single version more updated than them) might cause them to shit their pants and freak out

golden flare
half nacelle
#

the moment i click 'export smd'

#

this is with the most recent version of blender and the most recent version of blender source tools

#

however ive verified that the version doesnt matter

#

i went back to a version of blender i used before, with a version of blender source tools i also used at that time (when it still worked)

#

and the same setup just didnt work anymore

golden flare
#

Can you post a screenshot of your Blender Source Tools config panel?

#

It lives somewhere in the right-hand sidebar

half nacelle
#

same settings ive always used

golden flare
#

Try filling in that "Engine Pa..." field
I don't trust it being blank

half nacelle
#

i tried

#

the internet doesnt even have information on what to put in it

#

anytime i put anything in it it just went red indicating it's wrong

#

i tried copying to the gmod exe, to the gmod game info file, whatever else

#

nothing worked

golden flare
half nacelle
#

a single reddit post from some time ago told me i should just leave engine path blank

#

but reddit doesnt know fuckall so i dont trust it

golden flare
#

Reddit may not be helpful, but the Source Film Maker crowd is constantly producing video tutorials on the topic

#

I'm pretty sure these tools are only updated and maintained these days because of the Source Film Maker sickos (complimentary)

late flower
#

instead of animating, set the door bone angles relative to the pitch of the tardis

golden flare
#

Oh, of course

#

You're absolutely right, that's a way simpler solution

#

I've even done that to animate doors before!

#

I don't know how I didn't think of it

half nacelle
golden flare
#

I’m glad it helped!

#

What was the missing piece?

half nacelle
#

just the one single detail of disabling suppressenginelighting after drawing the model

image.png
#

thats all it took to fix it
but i had no idea because i just didnt understand any of these processes

golden flare
#

I'm quite pleased to hear that

#

Writing documentation—which that barrage of messages probably counts as—is not something that people frequently provide feedback on, so it's really nice to hear back that it was helpful

#

and, to be very clear, I would be pleased also (though somewhat less pleased, perhaps) to receive negative feedback about documentation that was incorrect, poorly worded, misleading, incomplete, or in some other way flawed

half nacelle
#

after all the effort you put in i didnt want to just leave it unappreciated

golden flare
#

Are the Tardis' doors two separate entities, or a single one?

golden flare
half nacelle
#

i say doors plural because the interior and exterior both have one copy of the entity but no the two panels are not seperate

golden flare
#

A very slight shame, but not much of one

half nacelle
#

this is one entity yeh

image.png
golden flare
#

Are the doors their own entity class, or is it just like a prop_physics that the Tardis entity spawns and parents to itself?

half nacelle
#

they have a special class labeled as gmod_tardis_part_door

golden flare
#

I'm basically trying to figure out if those doors have a self:DrawModel() somewhere

half nacelle
#

yeah they do

golden flare
#

Excellent

half nacelle
#

as a result it has no collisions with props, only the player

#

but this is kinda necessary for it to move with the exterior

golden flare
#

That seems weird to me, but I'm ignoring it for now

half nacelle
#

there is no way to parent entities without losing collisions

#

the only alternative would be to setpos() on every tick

#

i do that with the exterior forcefield so it can block props and projectiles

#

since i cannot parent it

#

i wish i had a better way

golden flare
#

We were talking yesterday or the day before about animating doors

#

I was reminded of bone manipulation as an alternative, which is a great idea, I think

#

This is some real barebones, janky code that is definitely broken and in need of fixing BUT it should get the core idea across:


-- Just to try to keep the doors from being exact mirrors of each other
local rightDoorTimeOffset = 0.1

local leftDoorBoneId = 0
local rightDoorBoneId = 1

local minAng = Angle( 0, 0, 0 )
local maxAng = Angle( 0, 100, 0 )

function ENT:Draw()
    local time = CurTime()

    local leftSin = math.Remap( math.sin( time ), -1, 1, 0, 1 )
    local rightSin = math.Remap( math.sin( time + rightDoorTimeOffset ), -1, 1, 0, 1 )

    local leftAng = LerpAngle( leftSin, minAng, maxAng )
    local rightAng = LerpAngle( rightSin, -minAng, -maxAng )

    self:ManipulateBoneAngles( leftDoorBoneId, leftAng )
    self:ManipulateBoneAngles( rightDoorBoneId, rightAng )

    self:DrawModel()
end
#

The jiggle of the door handle is entirely done in code with the same basic code as I sent above

main spire
#

im sure you can do some basic physics simulation for the doors with like an angle limit so it can't flip outside or spin all the way into the wall

#

with like inertia and maybe even have it bounce when it reaches a limit

#

could even make it able to close itself if it flips shut if you want to be fancy

half nacelle
#

there is alot of stuff that will need to be synced

#

anything that react to the door being open

#

the portal, the teleporting, sounds and light that move through the doorway

golden flare
#

If it were me, I would just introduce a very small amount of movement that doesn't require those things to be changed

#

No sense making lots of work if you can get away with much less

main spire
half nacelle
#

small little bonus for spacebuild maps based on the snow matproxy ive been adding

golden flare
#

Looks nice!

half nacelle
#

kinda posting this out of order but oh well
since the thing above was just a bonus here is the main feature that this matproxy is actually for

half nacelle
golden flare
#

Now put that external view on a monitor inside the Tardis instead of it being a completely separate view mode

half nacelle
#

it already has them

image.png
golden flare
#

Then abolish the third-person camera view and only use the monitors

#

If that’s a hardship, it’s because the monitors need improvement of some kind

#

It is, in my opinion, way cooler to do everything that way whenever possible

#

A separate camera view breaks the “magic” of the fact that the Tardis has been made “real” in all these other ways

half nacelle
#

if you just stand infront of the monitors instead of the doors it works the same way

#

then it already does what you want

golden flare
#

You're probably right that it already does what I'm talking about

grave crown
half nacelle
#

i recently learned that some people play with HDR disabled for some reason and thats also when i learned that lights/lamps have a different brightness between the two options

#

now im trying to equalize the brightness to keep interior lighting consistent regardless of option

image.png
#

i dont know the exact values, right now a factor of 0.3 (if HDR is OFF, change all lights to 0.3x brightness) seems pretty close

half nacelle
#

can also do it the other way around depending on which light style is supposed to be the 'intended' lighting

image.png
half nacelle
#

made a brand new sound detour method that finally captures npc sounds, gunshots and more

golden flare
#

First of all, that's very cool

#

The effect is quite convincing

#

Second, it makes me wonder why we can't currently use Lua to say "For the purposes of hearing audio, pretend the camera is at this location and orientation"

half nacelle
#

because stuff like that is up to rubat to add and that means if its not important enough it isnt happening

#

like how ive been wishing for simple soundscape bindings for a full 1.5 years now

golden flare
# half nacelle because stuff like that is up to rubat to add and that means if its not importan...

I've just created a request for it. Perhaps you could voice your support on the issue https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-requests/issues/2809

GitHub
Add Lua override to audio listener position/orientation · Issue #2...

Details For things like portals, remote cameras, and long-range microphones, it would be nice to be able to override the position of the audio listener using Lua. I believe the override would need ...

half nacelle
#

there is technically the env_microphone, used for some half life 2 monitors

#

i dont know if it actually works in gmod

#

however it only broadcasts sounds to one exact position so it would not be useful for sound detours that need spacial audio

half nacelle
#

refined the device that they place to ground your tardis

golden flare
#

Oh, is it deployed by the Combine soldiers?

half nacelle
#

ye they place it to disable your engines

#

force you into combat

golden flare
#

It should use the animation for deploying a manhack

half nacelle
#

when i asked about it i was just fucking ignored so i guess its not happening

golden flare
#

I wouldn’t take that too personally. Not everyone who knows the answers to those things are online at the same time so you may need to ask at different times

half nacelle
#

this might be my favorite combination

image.png
late palm
#

Do you have a specific list of interiors/exteriors with compatibility or does it work with any?

half nacelle
#

finally a way to move large amounts of furniture inside when the doors arent wide enough to fit it :v

golden flare
#

Hopefully this also works to kidnap players

half nacelle
golden flare
#

What if they sprint away?

half nacelle
#

it seamlessly fades between interior/exterior view

golden flare
#

Very nice

#

Out of curiosity, how flexible is the "bigger on the inside" code? Could it easily support, as an example, a Tardis with two entrances?

#

I've been thinking about potential ways that I might implement buildings from Command & Conquer: Renegade as a spawnable Entity and it occurred to me that this is effectively a Tardis of sorts

half nacelle
#

however it is possible and someone has once done it for a specialized purpose

#

the bigger on the inside mechanic is really just enabled by the doors framework which by itself is a generic portal addon that attempts to replicate the portal 1/2 portals in gmod

#

so it doesn't even need a tardis entity to exist, you can just spawn portals by themselves however you want

half nacelle
#

trying to replicate the xray effect during dematerialization that was present during the early series of the revived show (about 2005-2010)

#

original reference

half nacelle
#

im starting to wonder if it would be possible to have an invisible material that still has phong reflections

#

that would be truly perfect for this effect

half nacelle
half nacelle
#

i wish i could invert the culling on the texture so it only shows on inside faces

#

enabling nocull makes it show on inside and outside faces

half nacelle
#

theres also render.cullmode but it inverts the lighting aswell while $nocull does not

#

so that doesnt work

main spire
#

you could make an inverted model as annoying as that would be to do

half nacelle
#

not really feasible for every model thats out there

golden flare
#

In Lua

#

They aren’t scary it’s just triangles in a table

#

You just gotta rearrange the points of each triangle

golden flare
half nacelle
#

instead of just flipping the culling direction, it also flips the face's lighting direction
which means faces will be lit on the opposite side of where the light source is coming from

#

this might show it a bit more clearly

image.png
#

huh i think it actually works this way with $nocull aswell so it actually looks wrong in both cases

golden flare
#

The lighting will, as far as I'm aware, always use the visible faces

half nacelle
#

this might be good enough as it is

#

this seems to be incredibly close to whatever the vfx crew did in the show (seems like they used a model and then used the top lamp to light the inside faces of the model)

#

which creates a sort of xray ghost effect as it fades out

#

but it looks bad when the environment is bright, like under a map lamp or in sunlight

#

thinking of using render.suppressenginelighting to force it to ignore map lighting and only be lit by the tardis' own lamp

half nacelle
rough star
#

actual time travelling is cool! the ability to see through the door is also a nice touch, I like seeing the vortex there

half nacelle
#

yeah the time travel is cool but it's starting to become my least favorite feature

#

stormfox is just so awful to work with

#

the glass windows and vortex fade in on the other hand are some of my absolute favorites

golden flare
half nacelle
#

it has no interface for other addons to work with it, no api functions, so anything i want to do i have to ram into stormfox's code manually

#

and the code is completely unreadable to me with nearly no comments so i can barely figure out what anything is doing

#

and due to that lack of functions to work with, i cant really use its built in weather system for time travel

#

ideally the built in weather system generates a temperature and weather pattern for each point in time for the day, but this completely breaks if you manually change the time (like time traveling)

#

soooo instead i basically have to manually recreate the calculations it runs to generate a weather pattern for whatever given point in time i travel to

#

and this is just. fucking atrocious

#

trying to figure this stuff out is the most painful and unfun experience ive had working on this project

#

and it still doesnt even work properly

golden flare
#

Perhaps you could ask Nak to add some of the API functionality you're looking for

half nacelle
#

i have.

#

over a year ago

#

and got ignored

#

multiple times

golden flare
#

Well that's not very convenient

half nacelle
#

its not worth a try, id just feel worse

#

last time a feature request was addressed was in 2022

#

every other response was exclusively for game breaking hotfixes like convar removals

#

and the last of that was in january of this year

#

i dont think stormfox 2 is an active project anymore

golden flare
#

Fair enough

half nacelle
#

finally diversifying the exterior/interior combinations

image.png image.png image.png
half nacelle
#

going back through someone's interior and refining the lighting inside as a pet project

image.png image.png
#

as old and outdated as it is i absolutely love phong

#

just a tiny bit of it can add so much to a scene, like on these cables

image.png image.png
#

always makes me sad when some creators forgo phong entirely

rough star
late palm
half nacelle
#

yeh that ^

half nacelle
#

overhaul complete, i think it looks better

image.png image.png
#

did i mention that i love proper moody lighting for standby mode

image.png image.png
golden flare
#

It looks quite a lot better

late palm
#

That looks amazing

half nacelle
#

trying out a new style for this interior's danger mode lighting after i got inspired by a spontaneous vision

image.png
#

instead of the usual generic blood red alarm colors, this one takes a blazing hot orange look when at low health

#

basically wanted to combine hurt's sort of golden-ish theme with the usual alarm color scheme which led to blazing orange

#

fits his character i think considering it's all about war

golden flare
#

I really appreciate the dedication to detail you have for this project

late palm
#

Have there been any updates on this addon?

golden flare
#

@half nacelle You're now legally required to rework your Tardis effect to use the new cullmode Rubat very politely added

half nacelle
#

in the meanwhile i made this funny thing that only fans of 10 will get

rough star
#

*hit me with your rhythm stick 🎵 *

#

is it going to be used for energy repair? would be cool for immersion

half nacelle
#

the red number specifically, that's artron (aka just the tardis energy. you cannot take off with less than 8)

rough star
#

next feature: if the energy is low, any random bride NPCs are teleported into the Tardis funny

half nacelle
#

i liked the little joke in the show that whacking it with a hammer makes it run better, so i wanted an excuse to make that an actual gameplay feature

#

there's also a wrench prop somewhere on the console that does the same thing, but with health instead of energy

#

basically repairing a building in tf2

rough star
#

someone needs to commission the Engineer voice actor to record some "deploying a tardis!" "repairing my tardis" "SPY SAPPIN MAH TARDIS!" smart

half nacelle
#

close enough, welcome back runaway bride

half nacelle
rough star
#

is that a special weapon that could be deployed by any enemy NPC (/player), or is it a scripted thing?

half nacelle
#

both?

#

it's an entity that combine soldiers are scripted to deploy if they get close enough to an active tardis

#

i also tell them via some npc schedules to run in so they can deploy it and after that, shoot it once it's grounded

rough star
#

that's cool. would it work with multiple tardises? I'm guessing they'd individually go for the closest one and get multiple that way

half nacelle
#

so far they only target the first player's tardis as i do pretty much all my stuff in singleplayer; it should be simple to make it multiplayer/multiple tardis compatible by looping through all of them and sorting by distance

#

since i closely control/know when a tardis spawns, i can conveniently make a table of all active tardises to avoid using ents.getall/findbyclass

rough star
#

what if it's the same tardis but from a later point in time meaning it should have the same entity index, and if an entity is placed in the earlier tardis then the same entity would exist in the later tardis even if it didn't originally, and if the earlier tardis is destroyed then the later tardis couldn't have existed in the first place table of active tardises sounds easier

half nacelle
#

i see. you just want me to port over 'no time' to glua

rough star
#

not familiar with that one. I don't really think it'd be viable to do future/past linked tardises without a lot of work and it'd still be subject to paradoxes, especially in multiplayer.

half nacelle
#

was a little joke; no time is a game someone's making with the most solid time travel mechanics ever programmed so far

#

it actually handles past/present/future versions of yourself and accounts for changes you make in the timelines aswell as paradoxes

rough star
#

sounds cool, I'll have to check that out. best I've seen before is the time travel section in Dishonored, and I recall Portal Reloaded's time travel being fun

storm quest
#

Woah more Tardis stuff :o

#

Looking pretty good

golden flare
half nacelle
#

like its really annoying and in singleplayer the response is instant

golden flare
#

Sounds like you, my friend, need to learn the dark art of prediction

half nacelle
#

they always say that and every time i never get anywhere

#

how do i predict a scripted entity?? its not like the player where i just have my move hook or whatever and do stuff in that

late flower
#

physics predictions are wack, gotta make your own trace movement to predict effectively imo

half nacelle
#

so its effectively impossible to do for a regular physics entity?

#

without restarting it from scratch

#

that seems like a pretty good reason to just use singleplayer instead

golden flare
# half nacelle so its effectively impossible to do for a regular physics entity?

It shouldn't be too horrible. My experience here is limited, but the core idea is that you need the client to do the movement clientside in the same way that the server does the movement serverside so that your client can "pretend" to do the movement while it waits for the server to do the movement itself and say "yep, you can move there"

#

The lag is caused by the client not doing the movement clientside and instead just waiting for the server to tell it "yep, you can move there"

#

I think you can probably accomplish this by making the movement part of the Tardis's code (probably in ENT:Think() I would guess) be executed both on the client and on the server (aka "shared")

half nacelle
#

so literally just make it shared instead of serveronly and itll work?

golden flare
#

I dunno, maybe?

#

physicsupdate is shared, so probably

half nacelle
#

im 100% expecting it to change nothing tbh

half nacelle
#

ill just try it out when i find the time to do it

golden flare
#

I’m honestly waiting eagerly

half nacelle
#

turns out it does nothing. idfk physicsupdate just isnt called on client for me

golden flare
#

This hook won't be called if the Entity's PhysObj goes asleep
This?

half nacelle
#

i was actively moving it

#

and it was being called on server

#

but not the client
i checked if the code was run shared and yep it was

golden flare
#

Man I just have no idea why that would be

half nacelle
#

either the wiki is wrong or something about the tardis entity is just weird

#

can you check if the physicsupdate hook runs on client in any custom entity you know?

golden flare
#

I'll do what I always do in this situation

#

Make a shitty little entity and try it there

#

I cannot recommend this approach enough

#

I go to this page on the wiki: https://wiki.facepunch.com/gmod/Entity_Creating_Custom_Entities
I scroll down to the "Creating an Entity with a single file" section which I added specifically to facilitate being able to do this (and because it's good to showcase both approaches)
then I make a new addon folder and slap that into the lua/entities folder

Garry's Mod Wiki
Creating Custom Entities/Entity

Nearly everything you can see and touch in Garry's Mod is an Entity. Any object with a position in the game world is an Entity. The Player is an Entity, props are Entities, even the the Game World itself is an Entity—albiet a special and unique one...

#

I'm not seeing it get called serverside or clientside

#

Nevermind, ignore that, I put it in the client-only zone without realizing

#

It does get called on the server, but only on the server

half nacelle
#

huh, so i didnt do anything wrong? physicsupdate is not called on client?

golden flare
#

It really doesn't seem like it's called clientside to me

#

Or if it is, it needs to be enabled in some way

half nacelle
#

is it even possible to predict vehicles if their physics are never done on client?

golden flare
#

It's definitely possible, but I'll admit I'm at a loss for exactly how

half nacelle
#

i wonder if it was possible at all 10 years ago, when the tardis rewrite first started (and the entity was defined)

golden flare
#

What exactly is all done in PhysicsUpdate ?

half nacelle
#

for the tardis specifically? all of the flight movement code

golden flare
#

What would happen if you put it into ENT:Think() instead?

half nacelle
#

it receives the player inputs, and then applies force and spin on the tardis every tick

golden flare
#

That sure sounds like something ENT:Think() could do

half nacelle
#

i just got timeout'd for forwarding rubat's message in #wiki

image.png
#

the forward feature is straight up not functional here

golden flare
#

We're not allowed to use the features of the platform, you see

#

Because we're only allowed to suffer

half nacelle
#

as rubat said the physics object doesnt really exist clientside

#

even if i run it in think, i will need the physics object to apply force

golden flare
#

But
Crucially
it can exist clientside

half nacelle
#

yeah clientside entities exist but that sounds like then they only exist clientside

#

unless they can be completely shared?

golden flare
#

You just gotta make it initialize physics on the client

half nacelle
#

it doesn't sound like it's commonly done either

golden flare
#

None that I wrote, certainly

#

I just tried initializing physics clientside and it's calling the physicsupdate function now

half nacelle
#

ohhh

golden flare
#

@half nacelle I am now pretty confident that it's possible to remove that input delay in multiplayer

#

@undone flame claims to know more

undone flame
#

the only thing stopping anyone from turning any entity predicted is just the server overriding the entity over and over again iirc

#

like i've physicsinit clientside before one time, i do remember it being choppy and the server basically resetting its pos and angle over and over since the physics were slightly different

half nacelle
#

man ive lost all interest in this project

#

the community behind it unironically makes me want to kill myself

#

theyve sucked every last bit of optimism ive had out of my soul

golden flare
#

🙁

#

Have you considered not talking to them?

#

I really appreciate your dedication to finding minute details that are wrong and throwing yourself into fixing them

#

One of my personal philosophies is that the best things in life come from a strong imbalance between the effort required to accomplish something and the perceived payoff from doing that thing.
This project is a perfect example of that.

half nacelle
#

all theyve done is replace me, show that they dont care a single bit about me, and hate me for who i am

#

i feel miserable in that community.

#

like a true, hollowing misery that makes me want to stop being alive

golden flare
#

I'll let you in on a secret

#

I've been working nonstop for around 8 months so far on a project that no one wants or cares about

#

When I told the core audience about it, they told me they already had that and pointed me to a far worse attempt at the same concept I did 8 years ago in college

half nacelle
#

surely they would appreciate if they got a better verison of what they already have..?

#

maybe they just dont realize

#

i hope atleast

golden flare
#

Well, you'd think so, but the overlap in audience is real slim to begin with

#

My point is not "woe is me" but rather that I'm not really doing the project because I think it'll be a big hit and everyone will love it

#

I'm doing it because I want to

#

It's not always the right mindset, but I think if the people who are most likely to like the project are rejecting it or you for some reason, you would be right to disregard their opinions

#

If they're unwelcoming of you for who you are or for what you make in your free time, they're probably huge assholes.
I'm not in the business of wasting time listening to huge assholes and you shouldn't be either.

half nacelle
#

i get this advice alot

#

i dont know what to make of it

#

it's in my nature to want to share something i make with others

#

otherwise it quickly feels meaningless

#

i dont actually derive much fun from playing with all the stuff ive done in this project

#

its really all about making it and then sharing it

#

for some reason i dont feel any joy when i go and play around with my features in game

#

or well

#

i do for about an hour, and then it feels empty

golden flare
#

It's absolutely a lot better when people use what you make and like it

#

There's no question that that's a great feeling and is definitely a huge amount of why people make things

#

What I mean is that you should be proud of what you've made because of the quality of the work and the quality of the final product. Some person or people on the internet not appreciating that work and quality has no influence on whether or not you've done a good job

#

Everyone I've seen in this Discord has been pretty positive about what you've made

#

Why not believe them?

half nacelle
#

yeah everyone here in this discord is very nice

#

but over in the actual gmod tardis community discord, i can literally feel any last happiness being sucked out of my body

#

i told myself i have to stay in it to atleast keep up with updates to the base addon

#

but i dont know if it's worth it anymore

#

that place is so hateful and its just making me want to die

golden flare
#

Fuck 'em

#

Make your own Tardis

late flower
#

I make stuff for me and include others

#

alot of the gmod community discords are filled with lurkers who shitpost

half nacelle
#

the tardis addon community is just filled with heartless elitists that separate "artists" and "creatives" from those that arent

#

and see them as lesser or inferior

#

theyve been crying about wanting my project to be released for months but they treat me as less than worthless because im not "one of them"

rough star
#

I'm surprised to hear they're giving you hate, I would've expected them to be interested in the cool stuff that you've been able to do. Maybe you should mute it and disconnect from it for a while so it doesn't damage your mental health? Stick to places that appreciate what you've made and can give constructive feedback.

#

Could always keep up with updates to the base addon via github

half nacelle
#

i wish i could just go to other places for this but there are none

#

aside from this one little channel here i have nowhere else to post it

main spire
#

this is one of those channels I hope to see lit up with an unread notification when i come to the discord. It's always disappointing when it isn't you sharing some progress. Not to sound like I'm foaming at the mouth and shaking in anticipation but it's cool to see the kinds of stuff you experiment with

I don't doubt there's some who like what you do but silently appreciate it and appreciate you

I don't know anything about you, but i would find other things beyond the computer to look toward. I don't say this with intent to hurt or put you down but I do hope you know that desiring to end your life because of some careless and/or selfish people online is really not good. Your worth is not decided by random people online

#

i hope i got that out right

late flower
#

I lurk in here but I do read your dev posts, idk doctor who from doctor house but its cool to see the progress

late palm
#

Updates on this mod is probably the only reason that I look at this server, I always get excited when I see an unread message from this chat.

half nacelle
#

i forgot to say it but this feedback was very encouraging

#

way more motivating than anything else in the past half year

#

finally decided to try a new thing again and made a way for env_fire to light up the interior

image.png image.png