More WCSO Editing Questions

[Jason_Ryock]

1) Which STRING file contains the text for the mission comms? Is it done by pilot? IE: Comms from Amazon pertaining to the mission are stored in amazon.eng?

2) Is it possible to put a message in game with a video but without a related sound?

3) I see that from the UE Source Code, the missions in UE compile with the .eng and .iff files for their comms. Do I need to do this with my own missions?

I read the comms tutorial on Killerwaves site, but it didn't help me all that much.

Also, Briefing text. Can I create a new series to use my briefing text? SecOps is running 10, and UE Appears to use 20-31. What happened to 1-9, and should I use 31+?

 

[Quarto]

1. Look at the UE source code again . That's what the srsxx.eng/iff files are all about. When you send a special comm, you use the command AI_SendSpecialComm(series, msg);
...Where series is, enter the number of the srs file, and where msg, the number of that specific comm.
2. Yes, but it won't show up. At the very least, you would need the sound of silence - the game only plays videos when there's a sound attached to them.
3. If you want to have special comms (see number 1 above), then yes, you do.
4. You can use any number you like for the series. You can use series 1-10, series 20-30, heck, you could use series 1-100 or something, or even just series 1 if you want to put all your briefing lines in one file. You only need to concern yourself with the numbers for existing files if you're planning to co-exist with them - so, if you want your mission to be playable with UE, you'll want to avoid any file used by UE.

Same goes for the comm files, BTW - UE has a separate srs file for every mission, but SO has just one srs file (srs12) for all the missions.

 

[Jason_Ryock]

Okay, some more questions then, if you can remember.

1) To compile .iff and .eng files with my mission, I open them in wcpascal and save them as .pas, correct?

2) What code do I then put into my mission to make it compile those files as well?

3) How do I tell it where those files are?

4) How do I tell it where to put those files?

I think 2-4 are all related, and I'm sure with enough time I could figure it out from the UE source, but I've been fighting with it all day and found nothing. I'm not sure what to do without getting more information.

5) Just for clarity, AI_SendSpeicalComm(srs,#) will look in that series at that line number and display text in my mission. The series file is a file like srs12.iff. The IFF File will tell the program what video & audio file to play, and for how long, as well as what line to print on the screen. That line is called up from the .eng file that I have also compiled with my mission.

6) Where should the .iff and .eng files get placed after they have been compiled?

7) Is it possible to compile them seperatly, as individual files, and simply place them in the right place, or MUST they be compiled with the mission file?

Anyway, more questions later, I'm sure. Thanks for your help as always Quarto, you told me best way to thank you for the UE source code would be to do something with it - so I'm trying!

 

[Quarto]

1) To compile .iff and .eng files with my mission, I open them in wcpascal and save them as .pas, correct?

Refer to the source code.

2) What code do I then put into my mission to make it compile those files as well?

Refer to the source code.

3) How do I tell it where those files are?

Refer to the source code.

4) How do I tell it where to put those files?

Refer to the source code.

5) Just for clarity, AI_SendSpeicalComm(srs,#) will look in that series at that line number and display text in my mission. The series file is a file like srs12.iff. The IFF File will tell the program what video & audio file to play, and for how long, as well as what line to print on the screen. That line is called up from the .eng file that I have also compiled with my mission.

I'm pretty sure I wrote a tutorial about this stuff.

6) Where should the .iff and .eng files get placed after they have been compiled?

Refer to the source code.

7) Is it possible to compile them seperatly, as individual files, and simply place them in the right place, or MUST they be compiled with the mission file?

Give it a try .


This is all pretty simple stuff that you can figure out in a matter of minutes. I'm not sure how it is that you spent all day trying to figure it out and failed, but regardless, I don't have time to answer questions this simple. Again, I urge you to use this forum as the last resort - check the source code, check the tutorials. The answers are there. You have to learn to understand how the game works, and that means learning to research and experiment on your own - if I was to help you every time you get stuck, I'd simply prevent you from making any progress at all.

 

[Jason_Ryock]

Okay Quarto - what I'm going to do is this:

I'm going to setup a directory structure that matches the one the UE Source Code uses. Then I'm going to put all my mod files in there. I will include say, a thousand empty sound files to use to play video without voices. I'll develop the mod hand in hand with the UE Way and in the end, copy those folders into the SO Directory. NOTHING should be overwritten, however, the Mod should work just fine.

I'll wait a week before posting more questions here - I promise. I don't know why I can't figure out the comms folder structure tree from that tutorial but the solution is clearly to play with it longer!

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