GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion

[Wreck]

As brought up in another thread by Kode-Z, sometimes you'll find yourself trying to create clipping for stairs that just don't connect properly. The vertical tiles are short, and don't reach the horizontal one below them. To deal with this, you'll have to manually modify the Y-Coordinate of the short tiles in the Tile Point Editor. The following is a step-by-step walkthrough of just what you'll need to do.

i) The Stairs


Here we see the stairs in question. You'll notice right off the bat that the vertical parts are a bit short. They don't connect with the stair below it.

ii) Clipping Begins


The clipping has begun. Both the upper platform and floor at the base have already been done. Next, we'll tackle the stairs.

iii) The Dillemma


After using Edit Room Positions mode to convert tri's into clipping tiles, the bottom stair has been clipped. The only problem is, that the vertical tiles aren't long enough to connect with the floor.

iv) Open Tile Dialog


Right-clicking in Edit Clipping Mode, brings up a list of selectable options. One of which, is the "Open Tile Dialog" option. This menu will allow us to select individual tiles, view their coordinates, and modify them.

v) Lower Tile


First, we'll take a look at the floor tile, to see what its Y-Coordinates are set to. On the lefthand side of the menu, there's a list of room ID's. Go through them, until you find the one you need. In this case, room 28. On the righthand side of the menu, there's another list for each Tri (three pointed clipping tile). There are two ways to know which tile is which. The first, is to choose a tri and click "Goto Visual". This will automatically reposition the camera to be ontop of the tile in question. The other way to know, and the way I prefer, is to choose a tri, then move the arrow cursor into the Visual window. This will turn the selected tile a light purple colour. In this case, we're looking for the floor tile, which just happens to be "0000" in this example. Take note of the Y-Coordinates. Remember: Each point in the selected triangle is coloured differently in the Visual Window, though it may be difficult to notice without zooming in much closer to the tile. Point 1 is red, Point 2 is green, and Point 3 is blue. Since this is a flat vertical tri, they all share the same value. "-283.0" is the height at which this tile is located.

vi) Short Tile


Now that we've noted the Y-Coordinate of the tile directly beneath the bottom stair, we'll look up the vertical stair tile. Using the same method as we used to find the floor, you'll see that this tri is "002A" in the list. Rather than all three points sharing the same Y-Coordinate, this time they do not. Because this is vertical, only one or two will be at the same position. Unless it goes on a strange angle, which it does not for simple stairs. You'll notice that this tile has two points lower, and one higher. In this example, it's the Red (Point 1) and Blue (Point 3) coloured corners. These two are set at "-275.0".

vii) Lowering The Height


By taking the Y-Coordinate value at which the floor is positioned (-283.0), and replacing the value of the two lowest points of our bottom vertical tile, it'll "stretch" down to meet the floor. This only takes care of one of the two tiles, however. Make sure to click "Apply Change" in order for your modifications to take effect!

iix) The Other Tile


Selecting the remaining tile from the list, which happens to be "0027" in the example, shows us that it only has one lower point. It's Point 1, the red corner.

ix) Connected


By changing that value from "-275.0" to "-283.0", we'll also "stretch" this one to meet not only back up with its vertical partner, but with the floor. This connects everything together once and for all.

x) Clipping Completed


Using this same method, though using the next horizontal stair's Y-Coordinate, as opposed to the floor, will allow you to, slowly but surely, finish clipping your entire staircase.



It is a good idea to use the "Stan Convertor Current" option in the Visual window's right-click list in Edit Clipping Mode.



Afterwards, also use "Redo Clipping Connections", just to make sure everything goes together properly.



Clicking on a tile will show you all of the other tiles it is connected to. This will let you know that your tri's are going together without any issues.

SPECIAL CASES

What happens if the top-most stair doesn't have a vertical piece of its own, and instead uses the wall? Well, that requires more fun manual changes using the Tile Point Editor.

SC1 i) No Back Piece


After converting all of the other stairs into clipping tiles, you've found that the top stair connects with the wall. So... now what do you do?

SC1 ii) Too Long


Upon converting the wall behind the stairs, you realize that it stretches way down to the floor. This is no good, and will need to be dealt with in the Tile Point Editor.

SC1 iii) Check The Stair


First things first, you should take a look at the stair you want the wall to connect with. By looking it up in the Tile Point Editor, you'll see the Y-Coordinate height of the horizontal tile is "-32.0". This is the value we'll need to set those long wall tiles to.

SC1 iv) Wall Tile


Selecting one of the wall tiles allows us to see the Y-Coordinates it uses. In this case, two points go way down to "-133.0".

SC1 v) Height Change


With the value we took from the top stair in place, the wall tile reaches it exactly. The same was done with the other tile in this picture, so you'll notice that both line up together.

SC1 vi) Walk The Line


Once we've used the "Stan Convertor Current" and "Redo Clipping Connections" options in the Edit Clipping Mode's right-click list, you'll see that everything connects perfectly.

xi) In-Game Testing


Once you've injected it into your customized ROM, you can see how well players and characters interact with your clipping. Here we see a guard patrolling the area, descending our finished stairs.
_________________

YOUTUBE | TWITTER/X | FACEBOOK | VAULT | MOD DB | RHDN

Last edited by Wreck on Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:48 am; edited 14 times in total

[Dragonsbrethren]

Great tutorial. If I do the mission in AF1 this will really help, I'm pretty sure it uses those same style stairs in the lower areas.

[SubDrag]

Great tutorial!!! This should help a lot of people. Adding it to the vault too. I can't wait to see G5, it looks great in GE from screenshots with that guard type too. You can prob even use your lasers you used in those test levels we made.

Also, to add to it, RED = point 0, GREEN = point 1, BLUE = point 2 (those little tris around the selected clipping tri)

Last edited by SubDrag on Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:46 am; edited 1 time in total

[Kode-Z]

Nice work, Wreck! Much Appreciated!

[Wreck]

I'll likely have to include one extra piece of information...

What happens if the top-most stair doesn't have a vertical piece, but instead uses the wall? This happens twice in the G5 Building, so it'd probably be a good idea for me to add it in. It can be a little more work, since not just the Y-Coordinate could use adjusting.

Thanks, by the way.
I've gone through and made some edits to spelling, etc.
_________________

YOUTUBE | TWITTER/X | FACEBOOK | VAULT | MOD DB | RHDN

[SubDrag]

Also, add a bit about how if you click through the tris, you'll see the connections so you can tell the Stan Convert + Redo connections worked properly.

[Wreck]

Yeah, that's probably a good call.
I'll add some more onto this in a little bit.

I wasn't positive about using the Jungle Commando's in the mission. That's the default guard type chosen by the Editor, and the first in the list. However, I do like the way they look. They've grown on me, really.

Edit: I've added in a few more pictures regarding using the "Stan Convertor Current" and "Redo Clipping Connections" options, and how to view the connecting tiles afterward. Also, I've included a Special Case, which handles what to do if the top-most stair doesn't have its own vertical piece and uses the wall instead. It's the more basic type of this problem that I've encountered. I may cover the other, more advanced type, as well.
_________________

YOUTUBE | TWITTER/X | FACEBOOK | VAULT | MOD DB | RHDN

[Kode-Z]

Just tried it for myself, it works a treat! The tutorial is well written, and the pics are really helpful.

Thanks again, Wreck!

[Wreck]

Ah, good to see it's being of some use... and so fast, too!
If you run into any "special case", feel free to ask me about it.
_________________

YOUTUBE | TWITTER/X | FACEBOOK | VAULT | MOD DB | RHDN

[Kode-Z]

In the PD felicity map, in the large room with the set of stairs on the left hand side of the room - the clipping tile connecting the bottom step to the floor doesn't meet the tile of that on the floor.

I clipped the stairs, but the bottom step's tile has nothing to connect to.

Confused? So am I!

[Wreck]

Ahh, I see the problem. That is a tricky sort, isn't it? The floor tiles not only don't reach the base of the stairs, but the other tri's that do, go too far. Even the support posts under the catwalk are sitting smack dab in the middle of a floor tile. Hell, the broken down tankers are in the same boat. This room is a nightmare, and is going to require a lot of manual labour in the Tile Point Editor. I'd suggest moving on, then coming back to this near the very end.
_________________

YOUTUBE | TWITTER/X | FACEBOOK | VAULT | MOD DB | RHDN

[zoinkity]

That pretty much defines Car Park. Well, all the stages really. Anything vertical just happens to touch the floor, and it isn't easy to pick that up.

You just have to split the tile a few times, and be certain to block out a spot under the stairs where even a kneeling character can't fit.
_________________
(\_/) Beware
(O.o) ze
(> <) Hoppentruppen!