Was recently working on a pretty complex set of entities to manage a
firing range. It involves a fairly complex set of entities
(game_counters, env_renders, func_guntargets, path_corners, weapon
strips, triggers, env_messages, func_buttons, etc. etc.
And what I found was that actually testing this in the "fuzzy"
environment of a game was not always easy for several reasons...
1) I had no way to actively check the exact state of entities
2) Things happened too fast at times
3) Trying to scroll through the console to view "developer 2"
output is not very good. Especially in a multi-player environment
where people talking, dying, etc. cause excessive scroll.
4) I had to shoot all 5 of the targets in the rifle range and there's
one that's pretty hard to hit :^)
OK so what do I want?
1) A set of code that can parse a .map file, analyze the entities
and identify...
a) common errors such as targets with no matching target ent
b) "orphan" entities that need to be targeted to do something,
but nothing targets them
c) "sequence trigger" entities that in some way start some
event or sequence of events. Examples are buttons,
trigger_once/multiples, etc.
2) Something that will diagram my entity relations in an abstract
way. Has anyone ever used National Instruments LabView?
3) A way to simulate some entity behaviour using this view. Click
on a func_button and "simulate" it's trigger - and watch just
what happens.
4) View all entity properties during simulations to see just
how they behave, etc.
Now what would be REALLY cool would be some extension to HL that let
extensive debugging/tracing information be sent to a second computer on
the net. So you could run the game on one machine, and monitor the
entities on another machine. Even perhaps manually trigger items via
the debugging panel. For example, what if you want to go into spectator
mode to properly view some event - yet then can't actually activate the
events because you're no longer a player?
Ah well maybe this tool is called "WorldCraft 4"?
--
I think...I think it's in my basement. Let me go upstairs and check.
-M.C. Escher
_______________________________________________
To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit:
http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
