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

[Deuce Wayne]

As a 20 year player of GE, and an on and off passive observer of the community for the last 10 or so, I recently got the itch to tinker with the GE Setup Editor and try to give back to the community. I didn't assume this to be easy by any measure, but I figured through my knowledge of game mechanics, a lot of perseverance, and a little bit of guile, I could decipher its inner workings.

Clearly, I was wrong, and way out of my depth. I went in search online for guides and tutorials, only to find many fragmented pieces of information scattered about the net. None too comprehensive for basically a beginner. I'm not asking anyone to particularly spell it out for me, I just wanted to ask what seems like the only active community to know about this stuff if there was something along the way that I missed.

I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong place, and I thank you in advance for any insights you might have.

[Carnivorous]

Best way to learn is to just jump into it. Start by making small changes to level setups, bunker i or runway being the simplest. Try adding a new objective with new text entries [even as simple as throwing a bug onto a prop].

Eventually after doing this a few times you'll understand the somewhat awkward workflow of the editor, which is required for some of the more advance stuff [custom backgrounds, models, etc].

[Deuce Wayne]

I suppose I jumped in a little too deep by trying to start with a blank slate level right off of the bat. I tried tinkering with an empty Facility map, trying to nail the simple things; place a few simple objects, fill out an intro block, make a starting point, and two simple objectives (destroy a thing, go to this room). It worked well enough the first time, aside from the intro cinema glitching, but any work after that causes the game to hang. So the whole thing has me really scratching my head.

However, you pose a good idea, one I wanted to start with but couldn't quite figure out how. I know how to load level maps, but they always load in totally empty, just the map. How do I open a map in the editor with all of its standard presets and blocks so I can at least observe the work as a finished product?

[Carnivorous]

Hope it helps https://files.catbox.moe/0zsg81.mp4

[Deuce Wayne]

That was actually incredibly enlightening, thank you very much.

After a whole 3 hours of trial, error, and endless tinkering; I succeeded in writing a single action block to code in a single objective. Seeing "OBJECTIVE F: COMPLETED" was positively elating. A small step, but a significant one.

I'm still getting issues getting blank level (Facility, set spawn point, set items, set objective, set intro camera and animation, just the bare bones) to load just as a preliminary test. The game always seems to hang at the objective screen when you choose the difficulty. But I'm sure things will come a little clearer when I have time to further inspect the inner workings of the vanilla levels. Again, thank you very much for your time and effort.

[Carnivorous]

Not as clear as the last video, but here is a simple test mission with intro camera and ending cutscene https://files.catbox.moe/b0ks2q.mp4

[Wreck]

Be sure to always use text that belongs to the level, or else the game may crash. Text files are only loaded into RAM as needed, so calling anything from an unloaded file will encounter an error. It is a common mistake for newer users, which results in either objectives screen (folders or watch) to cause crashing. Facility uses LarkE, so be sure all your level text is in that one.

[Deuce Wayne]

I've made good progress from my humble pile of nothing. My test level is basically finished. I seem be having an odd issue with my Level End action block, seems to trigger the fade out immediately after completing all objectives, even though I tried to follow the block you laid out to a tee. Though, I am pleased as a peach that I was able to "finish" an at least functional level. Your help as really been invaluable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOz8eGJtSmM

[Deuce Wayne]

Attached is my current Level Exit Logic block. I've gone over it a few times and carefully inspected each line and it's function, checked the syntax; all clear. Yet I still get the premature end fade out.

[/img]

[Carnivorous]

Are you using a 2E camera object for your switch camera command?

[Deuce Wayne]

Yes, I created one for the scene when I realize I lacked one. The outro camera works, even though I placed it incorrectly and triggers the scene as it should. It just seems that the action block is failing to detect Bond being in the room with the required preset, and jumping straight to the outro cinematic when all objectives are completed.

[Carnivorous]

That's intentional, you could instead use a whitelist approach instead like the default levels. I recommend using the exit block from bunker i.

[Wreck]

From what I see, it is detecting if Bond in room with pad 001A, to jump ahead, and then loop back up to the top. But if Bond is in any other room, it proceeds ahead to the level completion.

You could update the goto label on the pad test to goto 02, delete the 0002 and 0200 after it (keeping the 0100). That should get it to cooperate.

(pad is PD term for GE preset, I use it for both)

[Deuce Wayne]

You hit the nail on the head, Wreck. Works perfectly now. I'm now in the process of testing a few other things, and cobbling together the rest of this into a "demo" level. I'd be more than happy to share when it's done.

[Deuce Wayne]

After getting all of the basic functions working properly, I tinkered around for a while, adding a few guards, some static objects, and a drone gun. None of them required extensive tinkering to place, no custom action blocks or flags for mission objectives; yet I seem to now be suffering from minor corrupted textures (aim reticle, ammo counter, bullet holes, computer screens, etc.)

All of the objects I placed kept their textures un-corrupted and were in their correct placements. The guards function correctly, but have broken bullet/bullet hole textures. The drone gun placed also functioned correctly, and had no broken textures. All objectives still work and complete as does the level exit block correctly.

Most of this is probably irrelevant, but I guess my question is; is there a common issue/mistake that usually leads to broken textures?