Tomb Raider II: The Ancient Jade Mask

[thewolf]

Yes, there are multiple rooms with underwater flow, but they are some kind of weird. Lara gets sucked and pushed to the left or to the right.
In the room with the plane I wanted to add underwater flow infront of the propellers. The result was, that Lara got pushed away to the surface. Almost in the air
I deleted those and replaced it behind the propeller. If the trigger tiles would go
into the plane room Lara would end on the surface again.

Inside the propeller tunnel room you might noticed, that Lara gets pushed to the left and slightly up to the surface. I wanted her to be pushed straight, but this was the best result I could get.....

The second propeller sucks Lara only because of the small passage you came in.
Without it the sink didn't wanted to work for whatever reason


In my last level I used room 1 for the underwater flow and it worked exactly like I wanted

If you keep room 1 for your underwater flow you'll have atleast 1 room which is working perfect. Place the sink in room 1 , trigger tiles doesn't matter as long as those rooms are connected neighbours.

[Danath]

So no matter what, it seems i'm really screwed.... Oh well, i will do some tests when i finish fixing the first 2 maps, i'll let you know what i find.

[thewolf]

I could send you my level file This could help you to figure out how it works Fact is: If the sink is placed in room 1 your current will work as intended

[Feder]

It is strange, sinks don't work well in TR2 but they work perfectly in TR3. When I tested it a while ago, I used Diving Area (unaltered base level) and created one room to test the flow and it worked correctly, but then I built other rooms and it pushed Lara up and backwards (don't recall exactly if the base level remained unaltered). There has to be a way, maybe we should test every variable with patience to figure it out, but that could take a while.

[Danath]

Originally Posted by Feder

It is strange, sinks don't work well in TR2 but they work perfectly in TR3. When I tested it a while ago, I used Diving Area (unaltered base level) and created one room to test the flow and it worked correctly, but then I built other rooms and it pushed Lara up and backwards (don't recall exactly if the base level remained unaltered). There has to be a way, maybe we should test every variable with patience to figure it out, but that could take a while.

That's so weird.

If you're willing to do tests i would greatly appreciate it, as i said i'm going to be busy fixing the other levels first.

Update: First level is fixed now. Well, except some things i disagree with, and some damn light cracks that are impossible to correct. Revised all statics lighting and also updated pickup items brightness, so they are darker based on where they are placed, so no glowing items. Also, i managed to find just enough texture space to give locks a different texture each, but only on the front part, not enough space for the side texture as i have 2047 now.
And i managed to fix the inventory background texture, so there are no more weird shadowing! The only shadows are from the beautiful wave motion. I updated the first post with the fixed background.
Heat is becoming infernal at night, so i go even slower than usual.

Update 2: Second level is fixed. I changed the layout to improve the gameplay, reducing a bit of backtracking and moving one of the secrets to a better spot.
So now it is time to begin experimenting with sinks.

[Danath]

Please excuse the double post, but i have made an awesome discovery ( thewolf helped me, though! )

I discovered an easy method of having custom ambient music for TR2 levels! What i did was:
- Find the .wav track i want to include.
- Convert it to .wma using an audio converter software.
- Rename it to use an existing TR2 audio file name.
- Edit the .wma properties so it has the exact same details as the original that is replaced.
- Edit the script for the level so it uses that track number.

And now i can have custom looping music for my levels! Even if you enter and exit the inventory it keeps working.
I tried replacing one of the fmv tracks, since i noticed the fmv audio keeps looping itself if you put it in the script as the ambient track. I placed a music from TR3 and it works perfectly. Since they are fmv tracks they are never going to be used, so you can replace as many as you need, they will all loop! And you can keep having the original ambient tracks along with them.

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And yes, i will begin testing sinks now.

[thewolf]

Glad that I could help you out

[Danath]

Weather got less crazy today and i could concentrate to do tests with the darn sinks without feeling my brain melting.
The test level is using Diving Area as base level. Here's my findings:



Sink #1, room #1. It's a suction sink, pulling you down a hole. Works wonderful.



Sink #2, room #2. A repulsion sink, pushes you out. It works.



Sink #3, room #3. A suction sink, pushes you forwards. It also works!



But here comes the weirdness!
Sink #4, room #5. Should suction you downwards, but does the opposite. It pushes you out instead of in.


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So, given that i want the sink #1 type in this next level, i will have to reserve room #1 for that one, otherwise it won't work. Normal corridor sinks pushing you out/inside should work, but we'll see...

Originally Posted by thewolf

Glad that I could help you out

Thanks man.
In the case of music tracks, i have tested that indeed having more than one custom ambient track by replacing fmv sound works fine. I was afraid that having more than one would bug out the track sequences or something, but it seems not thankfully.

I was thinking of having the Trajan city music from TRC in the city level, but i'm not sure about it. Having no music and just bird sounds like in original Venice gives a certain "something" for the ambience that i love.

[Danath]

Now i have enough ideas written down, so i can start building the third level.
Yesterday i got an idea for the base from an unexpected place: Quake 2! I hope i can implement that idea without problems, would be awesome to have that in the level.

I find it very difficult to begin constructing a level from scratch. Does anyone else experience this? When i actually begin building something i can get the ball rollin', but the act of designing the beginning part always gets me stumped.

Update: I have just begun constructing the first rooms and i'm already pissed off. First sink i place to prevent you from going outside the map, doesn't want to work, and it's a 2 sector height room...
Edit: Wait now it works, forgot to put a strong value.... The heat must be getting to me.

[DaroRaider]

Originally Posted by Danath

I find it very difficult to begin constructing a level from scratch. Does anyone else experience this? When i actually begin building something i can get the ball rollin', but the act of designing the beginning part always gets me stumped.

The part of starting a level from scratch is indeed difficult, at least for me as well. I think you have to see a bit the insecurity of not knowing well if the level will end with the expectations that you want, since when you move forward it becomes more intuitive and you are more convinced of what you are doing. Anyway, it may be something subjective.

Another way to start a level, is to build the most significant environments from a specific idea and then connect it with the beginning of the level. In general, designers have more in mind some concrete idea that should be implemented somewhere in between the level and not necessarily "the beginning of the level". That would explain, if we inspect an official level, why Lara is never at the beginning of room # 0. Perhaps, the designers of Tomb Raider followed this same methodology. Who knows!