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Old 29-10-20, 15:17   #1
Topixtor
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Default How to setup different "mutant eggs" and maybe more (TR1)

Since TE supports old engines now, and since I still don't know much about it, I'm posting this tutorial here not knowing where it should be and because it's only tested with DxTre3d; I kindly ask moderators to move this thread where it should be, and I apologize for any possible inconvenience

TL;DR: I found out how you can setup which mutant enemy the egg spawns when activated (at least how it works in DxTre3d), scroll down if you aren't interested in me babbling about how I got there etc.

Hi there! So, recently it came to my knowledge that, when building a TR1 Atlantis themed level, there was "no way" to make the Mutant Eggs objects spawn any different type of mutant except for the winged one;

As you may know, this isn't true at all in the original game, as every single type of mutant enemy (except Bacon Lara and Natla of course) including both shooting and running-only variants of the normal ones could crawl out of them. In Unfinished Business, we even get to see how both small and big Eggs can contain everything, including nothing at all! (Shoutout to LoreRaider that showed me how they aren't actually empty, they "spawn" a "Lara's Butt" placeholder mesh)

Intrigued by that, and having kind of a plan of building an Atlantis thing for the upcoming ORC, I wanted to investigate, so I began looking through "The Hive" level, the one with the most variations, via Fexinspect in search of clues... and while I found 0 variations in triggers and object placement, the thing was "easier" than expected: here is an "empty" giant egg from the last rooms of the level:



Then I saw the "Flag" was the same for the other empty eggs but changed when the egg contained something in the preceeding rooms:



After that I naturally checked other eggs and saw other 3 different flag values (Total number of mutant enemies: 5), and even more combinations in the Atlantis level (but I don't know if that's relevant, don't think so, it just seems a different way to obtain the same things).

So that was the realization: that flag value in fexinspect refers to the "activation" flags of DxTre3d, that control if the object is already activated at the start of the level or if it's invisible etc. and a "1" in Fexinspect translates to "activated", while "0" means no. After a couple of experiments I understood those flag buttons function somewhat like "OCB codes" for TR1, and potentially other TR's before they actually got implemented.

How to actually do it

I placed 5 different eggs (big or small makes only one difference: the big one explodes instantly, the small ones simply start an animation and an sfx until the player gets too near to make them explode) having one of the 5 different flags active while placing it, like that:



And yeah. All 5 possible mutants spawned with no problems (except that the Torso Boss always comes from the sky as in the original game ). I got it

To be clear, here is what each number corresponds to, at least using the original Atlantis level file:

1 = Normal Mutant (can shoot)
2 = Centaur Mutant
3 = Giant Mutant (aka Torso Boss)
4 = Normal Mutant (melee only)
5/no flag pressed/more than 1 pressed = Winged Mutant* (and unused winged mummy from egypt, probably, but don't know if it can shoot)**; note that, unlike the normal one, the winged variant is always able to shoot.


*The Winged Mutant seem to have a somewhat similar AI to the Flying Jade Warrior from Floating Islands in TR2, since he can both walk and fly; aka, he doesn't really work when flying. I tried to setup zones etc. like I did with my other tutorial (here if you are interested and since it's relevant: https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...d.php?t=222821 ) but unfortunately, from my first tests, I couldn't get it to find Lara consistently; he can however fly and get to where she is, it's only pretty random, at least with this old editor, not sure about TE.

**I did not test every possible combination of flags, but it seems pressing more than one is equal as if none is pressed, which in turn is equal to 5. I may be wrong tho.

How to obtain an empty egg like in UB

That's simple: in UB, the Torso Boss is the only absent mutant; the "Empty" eggs are simply set up to spawn him, but since it's not present in the game files they just spawn a placeholder mesh instead. So, to have empty eggs you need to sacrifice at least one enemy, I'm afraid... I also don't know if you can make the placeholder mesh invisible, probably yes by magenta texturing the placeholder objects in your level, something you should do only at the final stage of building to ensure you don't lose track of them if you are using them for other things (like I did with "camera targets" placeholders in my TR2 ORC project to save up on textures).

Final words

As I said, it's possible that the "flag" values can apply to other objects too; the first things that came to my mind, for TR1, was Pierre: in Tomb of Tihocan there is only one "Pierre" object in the level file but he is both seen as "escaping" and mortal, but from my initial tests this doesn't seem to be the case at least in DxTre3d. Feel free to experiment!

Last edited by Topixtor; 29-10-20 at 15:35.
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Old 29-10-20, 22:21   #2
AkyV
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Should I move/copy it into the tutorial section?
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Old 29-10-20, 23:34   #3
Topixtor
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AkyV View Post
Should I move/copy it into the tutorial section?
Yes I guess, now that this can work with Tomb Editor, I guess it can be put there; sry for not having it done myself
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