Building Actions resource--looking for install testers

#21 Yes, almost certain that's it, since it's hard coded into the engine code itself:

terrData.cc: line 801 or so:

mSelectionTexture = TextureHandle("starter.RTS/client/ui/ring_white", BitmapTexture, true);

If you find that file (ring_white.png) and place it in the directory indicated above, it should fix that issue.

#22 Stephen,
everything works ok, as a point of interest - maybe worth including the formation movement stuff as well, or remove it from the playGui.gui, incase there are some peps who ask why dont this work LOL
and as I feel like everyone is doing the work and I'm not, i have a barracks.dts model i built it's basic, very basic,

and I also changed a little bit of the client\scripts\building.cs
the reason for that is that when you select a building wouldn't it be nice if the blue building icon changed to reflect that building???
I'm not entirly sure if I placed the call to change the image in the right place, so I'll let you be the judge!

I did icons for all buildings including my barracks(which has profilePortaits as well), and packed them alltogether,
including a readme.txt into a zip file which can be nabbed from here
Hope this helps

#23 @Chris--yes, I need to take that out of the playGui.gui, you are correct!

Great to hear about the barracks, I'll take a look!

You are correct about the icon--John hadn't had a chance to finish putting them all together yet--I think he finished many last night. Hopefully he'll see your message and take a look at the ones you did, and see if they cover any of the ones he hadn't finished yet.

We're hoping to finish up a sawmill as well, and I think the only building artwork that still needs somone to work on (now that you have a barracks) is a town center.

John/DejaBlue is working on getting the shop adjusted so it doesn't sink into the terrain as well.

#24 As to the texture madness have a look at:
This for a potential fix.

#25 Stephen:
Trying to get blasted Paint Shop Pro to install caused me to fall behind. (Still haven't gotten it to work, yet.) Give me a few hours from now (11:00am) and I'll be able to resume work. I have yet another family gathering to attend, this time for the other side of the family. Could you send me those models you need editing? I honestly don't feel like signing up for TurboSquid. :) I have designs for a sawmill drawn up, as well. If I am lucky, I may be able to work on it today after the GUI work.

Chris:
I looked at those icons. They are pretty cool. The only problem I saw was that on the selectionDisplay ones, the letters are so bunched. Maybe look into using a contraction of the word instead of it being spelled out. Perhaps find an actual military contraction to use. They have them for everything! :)

#26 @John: We don't -need- the new/adjusted buildings for release of the resource--can simply hand them over when they are fully ready, so don't worry too much.

One thing today that would be nice to have is an icon for a generic "peon" as a placeholder--32x32. With that, and some final testing, we can post the resource pack to the community, and get broadband feedback/enhancements.

I'm not signed up for Turbosquid myself, DejaBlue had the building files, but I know she had a computer crash and is basically out of business for a while :( I'll take a look at signing up today (hehe..if it concerns you, it's probably a good reason -not- to sign up!).

#27 @Stephen: sweet :-)
EDIT: Stephen, I also wonderd if this was worth doing:
when we place a building either loop through the build animation for a few ticks, or seconds, then that would make it a bit more realistic.
Also if no-one has looked at it yet, i'm going to try and figure out a way of offsetting the spawn point for peons, based upon if the spawn point is already occupied, unless we can have a max amount of people to build say 8, then in a simple for(%i .... ) {%spawnOffset = "-8+%i -8 0";} count through the array and spawn them that way
I take it this would be in the server/buildings.cs
@John: yep i wasn't sure about what font to use or the size, and the names I just banged out to sort of match the dts models,
so if you and Stephen want to come up with some cool new names, hint which fonts, I can whack em out in no time, as I have base image as a template and when we got the sawmill??? and TownCenter???, I'll get them done as well,
if it helps

#28 Well, it took me quite a lot longer than it should, but I have Anthony's villager's harvesting in a dedicated server-dedicated client environment (which will work for all configurations.

I haven't had a chance to look yet, but I think that he's also gotten them now able to build buildings on their own, so once I get that ported over we'll have peons able to do more than just harvest (assuming that is in fact working for him).

It's shaping up...not the cleanest thing in the world (for now, peons go to the center of the resource object, and the center of the drop off point, etc.), but it's working!

@Chris:
1) I'd have to see what you mean--not an artist, I have trouble visualizing it!
2) Spawn point semi-randomization should be relatively easy: look for the variable %spawnOffset in /server/scripts/items/building.cs
3) I'll leave that to John to coordinate, with how big this project has been getting, I'm kinda busy enough handling code with Anthony that I can't really focus on the art! Maybe you guys can work via email and coordinate.

#29 Sorry Stephen, when I posted that I had just done a 30hrs straight with no sleep, and i got a stinking cold, and it sounded right when i typed it obviously looking at it know it makes no sense LOL
1)basicly what I ment to say was when we place a building rather than have it place automaticly, maybe it would be an idea to have on the command menu a progressbar saying "constructing the building!" and have the animation for that building loop through for x amount of seconds/ticks, a bit like CCGenerals does when placing say a weapons factory??
2) yep I have been looking at that, but I got stuck, my idea was to call a function (if there is one, and i havent found one yet, unless you know of one??) to see if there is an object at that point, if there is then we add to the x or y and recheck until we have no objects in the way., otherwise, I was thinking along the lines off once spawned give the peon a move command to a certain point and run it with some sort of collision detection, but i think thats a resource all in it's self

#30 1) The hooks are in the resource to make this happen, it's just outside the scope of the resource. I'm very confident someone will hook in a timer for building construction (as well as having the peon move to the selected building location before the building is placed), but we are trying our best to avoid feature creep in the resource!

2) With collision off in stock RTS SK, this isn't feasible in the resource itself either. I would probably create a variable somewhere to track which peons have been created recently, and which %spawnOffsets they used, and cycle through them, but again, feature creep has already delayed this resource at least a week! The hooks are there, play with it!

THE primary goal of this resource was to make it work with stock RTS SK, and the secondary goal was to do it all in script. We had to basically ignore some errors/bad assumptions that are in the kit right now to do this (all of which have been documented by my team in the Bugs forum), but overall I think the functionalty that came out of the development is a great add to the community, and hopefully will spark some really neat games!

I have to package it up yet, and give John another day or so for art fine tuning, but it's functionally complete.

@Chris: Any chance you could make some 32x32 icons of the various building Portraits? Right now, in the peon command window we only have text buttons, mostly due to the fact that if we put an image placeholder there, the player won't be able to know what building the button makes--the images would all be the same!

We need 32x32 icons for:
Factory (image avail)
Farm (no image yet, no dts)
Foundry (image avail)
Town Center (no image avail)
Shop (no image avail)
Barracks(image avail)

We also need a building Portrait for the town center--these are the icons with the building name on the side. Until we get a .dts for the town center, you could just make an icon with the name, and use the foundry image.

EDIT: If you can make those icons, and want to just email them to me, I'll add them in to the resource.

#31 It's gotten really quiet around here--I hope everyone is playing with the SK (and maybe even the community resource!)--so here are some screenshots from NemV's implementation of the resource:

Town Center


Shopping!


Dusk Approaches

#32 Hi Stephen, yep I agree it has got quiet,
I'm busy building our game up,
anyway if those models are done, send them over and I'll get the menu images finished for the pack

#33 Those look really awesome, guys. I'm amazed to see how the community around RTS SK is embracing it! :)