Hi all, long time no see.
I'm currently building a UT99 Strangelove portal map. No, not the GAME Portal, but a map with 8 teleporters url'd to 7 servers within the UT99 Strangelove ut-slv.com community. The map is 95% complete. All that's left to do is add 7, (there're 7 active servers in our community at the time of typing this), teleporters url'd to the 7 servers.
The thing is though, players entering the portal map need to be able to see the most up-to date server info to see which teleporter, (portal), they wish to enter. At the moment, I cannot add any real-time server info because it's WAY too technical for my little brain to cope with.
I'm pretty sure I want to TRY to use Mychaeel's, 'Screen', component to give real-time info on all of the 7 servers with 7 different screens near a portal, (teleporter). I just have NO idea how to do it all, so here I am asking for help on how to go about it.
My key questions are:
I can't find all the files for the screen component, (I only have one .u file for it in my C:\UT\System\ folder and some textures but am not sure if I am missing any other important files or not), I don't have the Jailbreak mod installed, (Jailbreak maps have the screen component in most of them but I couldn't find the files; lots of download links I found are dead).
My skills mainly are in building the geometry / eye-candy of maps; so any real hands-on help to get this thing downloaded, built in to the map, reading real-time, (as near as instant as possible), server data for the 7 active servers correctly, looking very tidy and lastly bearing in mind that the majority of players all seem to have lower-end rigs, so any graphical and/or net-data otimisations would be very useful too.
Oh, one other thing not really related to this but too insignificant to make another post about - does anyone know what game-type I should set the portal map as? Is it important? If so, what should I do so it doesn't get confused as a game but solely a portal for players to link to as means to get to other servers? Help with this would be cool but is not vital or as important as the Screen component help is.
Please contact me or reply here if you can help me, thank you!
Screenshot of the map as it looked last week, (15th Sept-ish), below:
Peace, R3p'.
I'm currently building a UT99 Strangelove portal map. No, not the GAME Portal, but a map with 8 teleporters url'd to 7 servers within the UT99 Strangelove ut-slv.com community. The map is 95% complete. All that's left to do is add 7, (there're 7 active servers in our community at the time of typing this), teleporters url'd to the 7 servers.
The thing is though, players entering the portal map need to be able to see the most up-to date server info to see which teleporter, (portal), they wish to enter. At the moment, I cannot add any real-time server info because it's WAY too technical for my little brain to cope with.
I'm pretty sure I want to TRY to use Mychaeel's, 'Screen', component to give real-time info on all of the 7 servers with 7 different screens near a portal, (teleporter). I just have NO idea how to do it all, so here I am asking for help on how to go about it.
My key questions are:
- How do I get the Screen component in to the map? (Just open the .u file into the editor?)
- How do I get each screen to read data from each of the 7 game servers to display its info in text in real-time on the 7 screens?
- How do I build a screen properly? (like applying the right type of textures etc).
- Can I add my own fonts, if so, how? (Scripted textures? This is way beyond my capabilities, I tried making a scripted font texture once, it failed every time I tried and could not at all find any help to create a custom font let alone one that could be turned into something that MIGHT have worked).
- I read in a bit of blurb on Mychaeel's Screen website that the data transmission between game server and map with Screen component is minimal, is this true? Would there be any net-lag to potentially cause issues for players while in the portal map?
- Are there any better textures that I can use, (I do have the screen component textures, but frankly they're not suitable for my map because they're too traditional looking, [I need a clean, fresh, sexy space-tech look, perhaps made from PhilipK tech textures] instead of the traditional 4:3 TV look).
- Would the replacement textures need to be made into scripted textures, if so, which?
- How would I know which textures to make into scripted and which not to?
I can't find all the files for the screen component, (I only have one .u file for it in my C:\UT\System\ folder and some textures but am not sure if I am missing any other important files or not), I don't have the Jailbreak mod installed, (Jailbreak maps have the screen component in most of them but I couldn't find the files; lots of download links I found are dead).
My skills mainly are in building the geometry / eye-candy of maps; so any real hands-on help to get this thing downloaded, built in to the map, reading real-time, (as near as instant as possible), server data for the 7 active servers correctly, looking very tidy and lastly bearing in mind that the majority of players all seem to have lower-end rigs, so any graphical and/or net-data otimisations would be very useful too.
Oh, one other thing not really related to this but too insignificant to make another post about - does anyone know what game-type I should set the portal map as? Is it important? If so, what should I do so it doesn't get confused as a game but solely a portal for players to link to as means to get to other servers? Help with this would be cool but is not vital or as important as the Screen component help is.
Please contact me or reply here if you can help me, thank you!
Screenshot of the map as it looked last week, (15th Sept-ish), below:
Peace, R3p'.