Map Entities and Water

Hi JCL, I am writing a template script for a local science center in hopes that they will upgrade an old copy of A6 to the latest A7/A8 due to several bugs within the script and engine. They have based their summer camp on a modified version of the A5 templates which are syntax incompatible or obsolete with the latest versions of Gamestudio. Recently, they have been searching for alternatives while still considering to upgrade their copy of Gamestudio in which I have recommended the A7/A8 upgrade. Unfortunately, their old scripts will no longer work in which I have offered to rewrite the scripts into Lite-C syntax. While working on the template, I have encountered several problems with using water and the animated textures found in the standard.wad and hires.wad where I could find no solution to both in the manual and the forums.

Since creating water seems to be shifting over to using terrain with shaders, will it still be possible to use blocks/map entities to create areas of water in future editions of Gamestudio?

In the current release v7.86, map entities are required to be compiled with the "Create Meshes" flag otherwise causing a "Crash in SYS" as discussed in this forum topic. Can you confirm whether this will be fixed?

Finally, using the animated textures in the standard.wad and hires.wad do not display their turbulence. You explained in this forum topic that the turbulence material could be set; however, even with the material applied to a block or map entity, the turbulence appears to only shift the texture from side to side. The material does not display the turbulence as it appears in the texture preview. Could you verify if this is a bug or suggest a work around?

If the turbulence material is required to display the turbulence textures, would that mean that free users of Gamestudio would not be able to support it?

Thank you for your time,
Dveyee

As to my knowledge, the A5 template scripts still work with A7 and A8. They are still included in the template_5 folder of the A7 version.

The quake water blocks from A4/A5 are not supported anymore since A7. Use passable terrain for water. You have then the choice between the old quake turbulence shader or the reflection shaders. Shaders are not supported by the free version, so you need Commercial for a real water effect. In the free version you could only use a transparent surface with a texture animation or a drift.

Also, the old A5/A6 block maps are not supported anymore since A7. But this should not be a problem, just recompile them to A7 mesh maps.

Could you explain why the A5 Template Project outputs the errors in the attached files?

Are there any resources which provides information on how to properly use the terrain for water? How would a terrain be correctly measured in MED to fit a certain area in WED without scaling?

You must define "ENTITY1" when you want to use A5 templates in A7 or A8. Add something like "define ENTITY1 skill99;" in your script before you include the templates.

There is one very old demo, the awful "office level" from 10 years ago. This demo used the A5 templates, and on my PC it still runs under A8.

As to measuring an object in MED, you can use your cursor. Its coordinates are displayed in the status line. You can also give your terrain a certain size on creating or resizing it in MED.