Script objects

Introduction

A script object is an object that is written in the idTech4 scripting language, and an be attached to arbitrary entities. Each entity can have only one script object, but one script object can be attached to multiple entities.

To use a script object on an entity, give it the spawnarg script_object set to the name of the script object. For your convience, TDM already contains a few useful script objects, here is a list:

List of script objects

tdm_suicide

 "script_object" "tdm_suicide"
 "remove_delay"  "100"              // remove this entity 100 seconds after spawning it

Note: In TDM v1.03 the delay must be >= 1, or the script will wait 360 seconds. In TDM v1.04, the time can also be between 0 and 1 second, for instance 0.5 seconds.

tdm_light_holder

 "script_object" "tdm_light_holder"
 "extinguished"  "1"                // the light starts off, but can be lit by the player

This is typical attached to either lights (an electrical lamp f.i.) or light holders (a candle holder with attached candle + flame, or a torch with attached flame). This script object has handy methods to toggle all lights that this holder has, regardless how many (multiple flames?) or where (flame on holder or flame on candle on holder?).

This script object also makes the entity react to stims (f.i. fire, water and gas), and/or triggers like when you link a button/lever/trigger to this entity.

tdm_gui_message

This script object is attached to an atdm:target_message entity, and the entity shows a message to the player, based on cvars and spawnargs. You can use this script object for the "popup" messages that appear on the upper left corner (f.i. to give the player hints) or for screeen overlays like in a movie, where it says f.i. "Random Town, past midnight". Where the message appears and how it looks is entirely customizable by using a different gui.

CVARs

• tdm_show_trainer_messages - if true, the messages are shown, if false, suppressed

Spawnargs

• show- The time in seconds the message is shown, will be longer by approx. one second to fade the message out. If set to 0, shows the message for 6 seconds plus 1s fade out.
• lines - Number of lines the text has
• text - The text to be shown on the message.
• gui - Name of the GUI file, defaults to guis/message.gui
• wait, delay - These two are inherited from atdm:target_callobjectfunction and set the "wait" between triggers and the initial "delay" before the messsage show.
• fade_out_time - Defaults to 1, in seconds. This time is waited for the GUI to fade out, then the message is forcefully removed. If you use a different gui with "gui", then set this spawnarg to match the fadeout time of your gui.
• auto_trigger - Boolean, if true, the msg is triggered "delay" seconds after map load automatically.
• force - Boolean, if true, the msg is always shown, regardless of the menu setting (e.g. the CVAR).

Notes

1. Currently messages just overlay each other on the screen. So if a later messages is displayed while an old message is still there, they fade over from the old one to the new one.
2. If the player then steps back into the first trigger, the old message is not displayed again, because it is still waiting around.

tdm_voice

A script object for atdm:voice, which can play voices (or any other sounds) so they appear to come from the player. Can be used for voice overs and speaker-from-off effects. Both effects use the volume in two different CVARs, so their volume can be controlled separately.

How to use:

1. Place an atdm:voice entity in your map (location does not matter, and you need only one)
2. Place multiple atdm:voice_trigger entities in your map
3. link your atdm:voice_trigger entities to your atdm:voice entity (CTRL+K in DarkRadiant)

Give the following spawnargs to the atdm:voice_trigger entities:

"snd_say"    "sound_you_want_to_play"                       // generic, male or female
"as_player"  "1"                                            // if the player should say things
"as_player"  "0"                                            // if the speaker (from off) should say things

The difference between "as_player" "0" and "1" is the volume as set in the menu.

CVARS

• tdm_voice_player_volume
• tdm_voice_from_off_volume

Unsupported options (taken out because the team doesn't want to add them):

• CVAR: tdm_player_is_female
• Spawnarg: "snd_say_female" "female_sound_you_want_to_play" // overrides snd_say if the player is female
• Menu settings (the sliders were taken out of the audio menu)

See also

• Writing script objects