NAB622

I had loads of issues with func_train. It is quite a hackjob and I don't like to use it. Unless there is a specific reason you're using func_train, you should switch over to using a func_static and move it with an Icarus script. It is actually easier and a lot more flexible.

That will work as far as hiding the inside of the room, yes, but the game would still be drawing the inside of the room. I'm trying to prevent that, both for sound leakage reasons and for rendering speed. I intend to have a LOT of stuff in this room.

I know patch meshes can be used to make one way walls and walls that can be seen through on one side, but is there any way to make an area of the map able to see another without the reverse being possible? I am trying to make a room in the front of a large ship that has a large glass wall that looks out into space. Due to the large number of polygons in this room, i want to use a wall texture on the outside of the ship, and seal it off. But i still want people in the room to be able to see into space. Is there any way to do this without using portals? Sorry for the hasty post, I am actually at work trying to figure this out on my head and I have no idea how.

What shader support needs added? Can you elaborate?

So, I am wondering. Cagelight and myself are already swimming in work to be done. Is there any interest in this community in making an HD texture pack, that scales all the base textures up by 4 times the original resolution? One of the big reasons I ask is, if/when this mod is released, I'm hoping to have a community content pack to go with it, with authors' permission (Kind of like how JA+ included a bunch of hilts and swords). I can't say the other big reason yet - all I can do is promise that the end result will be very much worth the effort. Ah yes, Stalax. I couldn't remember the name of the mod, thanks. If I recall the old demo video correctly, the game ran super super slow with only a few objects. The physics in Cagelight's videos are implemented from an outside library (Bullet), and will be far smoother. But physics aren't even the half of it. There is much more on the way. As far as scripting, that has already been taken care of and the language choice was made. I will remain silent on this as well, if only because we have not gone anywhere with it at this time, but it is implemented and working.

Oh really? Good, at least I'm not the only one. One of the big things I wanted to do with it is to have the level randomize itself. The idea I started with is that the players are prisoners being transported on an Imperial Dreadnaught, and the Dreadnaught becomes disabled and the prisoners have to escape. I intend to map out as much of the ship as I possibly can. Randomizing the level would be as easy as disabling random turbolifts and locking random doors. Could be a lot of fun. And then having waves of stormtroopers and other NPCs that grow or shrink based on the number of players would make it more challenging. Add in NPC squad behavior and the physics engine, and everything gets awesome. I also wanted to have multiplayer "cutscenes" of sorts. EDIT: I'm hoping to also make music for this, although it'd likely be techno-oriented. Once the back end of the engine is ready, I guess the most reasonable thing to do would be to release an updated mp_entities.def file and some kind of updated shader editor so people can join in....but that's down the road. And I have to bite my lip and stop there.

Not only that, Siege has been removed as well. A long time ago, we had wanted to do a Left 4 Dead style game with JA, where a group of players would be attacked by waves of NPCs with slightly random boss encounters. But I ran into so many bugs that we had to stop. Now, with the source code available, we might be able to give this a new approach. However, there is still much to be done on the back end, and we must wait until it is complete before continuing.

So Parabolic is a bit bored of the way JA is currently. A month or two ago, a friend of mine started doing some serious code modifications. Currently, the name of the mod is Jedi Academy Of Weird New Things, although that will likely be changed before it is complete. This mod is far from completion, and will make massive changes to large portions of the game. My friend is a little shy about it, but I wanted to see people's reactions, so I am posting some of his videos here. I have been asked to keep quiet about some of the things for now, simply because they are too far from completion and he is not sure if they are possible. Currently: The entity limit has been massively increased. Of course. EDIT: EDIT: OBJ support has been added. It is not intended to replace MD3, but it is a more useful format for models. The force powers are getting a massive rethink. Push, pull, and sense will be getting some major updates. Protect and rage are being replaced with something else. We already know what we want to replace them with, but I will say no more, just to keep things fresh for now. Suffice to say, it looks like all force powers will receive massive adjustments, except for heal and drain. Now, on to the stuff with videos. First, everyone's favorite - a physics engine. I know this has been tried before, and usually has slow results or a plethora of limitations. Introducing: the Bullet physics engine. This is an old video, but it shows the engine at work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpPipbxjfvM After the physics movement was smoothed and force powers were added: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI6D733Fs84 Crushers actually crush, and multiple NPCs in a doorway does not cause the door to reverse (Thanks to the physics engine). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aa3Kda3S90 The motion of movers has been adjusted for both a slow start and a slow stop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Aq84q_ISE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X81ecl1B3Ec There is much, much more to come in the future, but nothing to show yet. Comments are welcome!

I have confirmed a bug where server responses are randomly not being recognized as ANSI encoding. I'm not quite sure how to handle this yet, but when I have a solution, I will implement it. It will fix both the Euro sign in the server name, and the unrecognized characters in player names.

Oh, I know they're doing it to wind up at the top of the server list..... It's just dumb, though, in my opinion. If I'm looking for a server, I usually look for one that's running a map I like. Also, if I find a server I like, I have no way to know which one to return to, since they all show up as ........................... on the list. That's why I don't understand it.... But hey, whatever. To each their own.

Okay, I just updated the Git repository, and it includes some bug fixes as well as removing the Euro symbol. Before making any changes, you should download and start over with the new files, since the config file has changed. Also, if there are any other habitually-abused server name symbols, let me know and I will add those to the removal function.

Actually I was going to suggest that you make a theme. Have at it. I'm interested in seeing what you do with it. Filtering the € character.....I can make an option for it in the config file, and have it turned on by default. Honestly, though, the practice is the problem, and I never understood why people did it. Special characters in player names are still showing up as question marks? Hmmmm.....it sounds like player names aren't being displayed as ANSI. I'll have to look into that. Do you happen to have the server info with the offending player name in it? It would go a long way towards fixing the issue. The file should be found in info/<serverIP>-<serverPort>/playerList.txt

Unfortunately, it sounds like it, yes. If it was something on your end, you would get a custom error message. What provider are you using?

Updated to 1.2.1. In the unlikely event that anyone is running an older version, update right away or disable the dynamic mode, as I accidentally left it on by default instead of off.

ParaTracker 1.1 is complete (Skipped 1.0 because it's launching with two skins), and a dynamic tracker is live, for those interested. I know the CSS files are a bit of a mess. I'll have to work on that with the next skins. I did try to comment everything to make it easier. Download: https://github.com/ParabolicMinds/ParaTracker Dynamic Tracker: http://pt.dogi.us/ParaTrackerDynamic.php If the JKHub staff would like to host ParaTracker here, that is fine with me as well. Also, if you guys play with the styles, please post back here, so I can see what you've done and learn from it for the future skins.

All right, a friend helped me get the release candidate up and it's live! Please toy with it and let me know if you find any errors. http://pt.dogi.us/ParaTrackerDynamic.php

One more thing. I just threw this together as well. Same story as above, it is not functional, but it will allow the user to operate ParaTracker the same way JediTracker is: http://www.nab622.com/ParaTracker/ParaTrackerDynamic.php

All right......Since my web host does not allow any outgoing network connections, I will have to switch providers. In the meantime, I uploaded a version of ParaTracker that loads an old server dump, and re-parses it as if it is new data. Everything you see here will be the same as the finished product, except that it will get REAL server info, not re-use old stuff. It will take the same amount of time to refresh (I did not disable the netcode, I just inserted a text file with the old info after it), and it will automatically refresh every so often (This can be changed in the config file, of course). http://www.nab622.com/ParaTracker/ParaTrackerA.php As far as I am concerned, this is what the 1.0 release will be, and with each of the additional skins I plan to make I will increment the version by .1, so when it's all done we should have ParaTracker 1.7. If you have any thoughts/criticisms, now is the time, before I commit to a 1.0 release. Let me know what you think!

Actually, if I recall correctly, isn't FFA2 a night time map? I remember it being crazy dark, and that was one of the reasons I didn't like it. Wasn't it a night-time map? From memory, yours looks brighter, for the most part, and I really like it. Also, nice to see another familiar face still active in JA, Pande. <3

Update! I have uploaded a release candidate to github for the first theme only. I still have some background work to do before the other, smaller themes are available - but if anyone could help bug test this one, it would be much appreciated! This release still uses the old, low resolution levelshots I have from years back, so they are really bad. I'll update them later. Also, if my documentation is not adequate, please tell me where and I will correct that as well. https://github.com/ParabolicMinds/ParaTracker

Sorry for the slow updates - I've been very busy and there has been a lot of progress. The biggest problem is that much of the code is spaghetti, since I didn't know much about what I was doing all those years ago. I have a prototype ready at this point.....unfortunately, when I put it on my web host, I found out that they block the outgoing connection to the game server. So, as much as I wanted to give you guys a working demo, all I can offer is more screenshots. Standard layout: Layout with frame removed: CVar list: Aaaaand RCon: Everything is fully functional as far as I can tell. I have some more security code and floodprotect code to add, and the RCon log isn't working right, but it is 100% functional and usable in it's current state. All colors and font details are in a CSS file separate from the sensitive stuff, so they can be changed at will. The background color can be changed, made translucent, made transparent, or even have an image on it. The levelshots will optionally fade between as many as the tracker can find. By default I'm hoping for 3, but I set the maximum limit at 99. PNG, JPG and GIF are all acceptable. The time delay and frame rate of transitions can be changed, so you can make them as fast or as slow as you like. I do plan on making 7 smaller layouts after this, but it will require restructuring a large portion of the code, so it will take a little while to finish them. They will range in size from the current size down to banner ad size, horizontal and vertical, if I can make it work. Thoughts and opinions are welcome!

Oh, almost forgot - @@Circa, I will add a setting in the config file to remove the frame as well.

I still have a long ways to go, but I did finish a mockup of the current layout. I know the tracker is very large; I am starting with the largest size, and working down from there. After I get this skin working live, I will work on some smaller iterations, ideally with only the data people request on each one. Other skins are a remote possibility.....but we'll see about that when I finish this one. Also, the black background is clear, so the background color can be anything, or even an image. I just chose black because it makes things easier to see and I like it. Hit me with thoughts/criticisms. Currently, the only things not working on this skin are the RCON and PARAM rollover images and the fading levelshots. After that, I am moving it into the PHP code, and then I will start on ways to shrink it down.

I am all for customizability. In all honesty, though, that may be beyond my capabilities. I am a very poor coder at best, IMHO. My CSS file is also a mess and needs cleaned up. At the very least, it will have wait until after I finish the base look and clean things up. I did already put some thought into more compact "Mini" tracker banner image, like for forum signatures, and I think it's a great idea if I can figure it out. Editing fonts and colors should be easy with just some CSS changes, once I clean up the CSS file. Multiple different widths would be possible, although it would be a lot of editing. Responsive width, though.....I'm not sure that's even possible without eventually breaking the page. Then again I know nothing about <div>, so.....if I am wrong, feel free to enlighten me. Regardless - I have added your suggestions to the to-do list!

Since Parabolic had an old PHP server tracker project that we never released, and apparently there is still some interest in this community in having a working tracker, I am taking a fresh look at the project and trying to get it up to snuff. It isn't very efficient, but it is in an operable state. At the moment, I cannot screenshot what I have, as it will reflect very poorly on the final product. Once I actually learn how to use HTML <div> tags correctly, I think I'll be home free. For now, here is what the background looks like, with no data on it: The top left is the server name, below that is the player list, and the bottom left is for player count, and the RCON and parameter list buttons. The upper right is for the screenshots, and the lower right is for IP/port, map name, mod name, and gametype. First and foremost, I want to know what you, as a community, want to see in a tracker. Currently, the project contains: A config file for easy setupMultiple levelshots per map (Upwards of seven currently) that fade between each otherA complete list of online players (No partial list crap from years back -- UGH)The possibility to be used on just about any Quake III based game (Untested thus far, but Jedi Outcast will be supported for sure!)RCONFlood protection, in case of high trafficAnd some very bad PHP code from years backThe current size of the tracker is 675 x 300. Again, I'll try and have an image soon, but I need it to not look like a haphazard mess first. Anyhow; if anyone else has some suggestions, now is a great time. I'm all ears. If you think what I have planned now is sufficient, please chime in with that as well. Oh, and this project is intended to be open sourced when it is complete.