Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby BlackRocket » 19 Jan 2014, 02:02

I've got another couple questions about making Red Eclipse more kid friendly, I think they'd get a kick out of creating and playing in it together. Thanks for all of the help so far.

Is it possible to remove the weapon models from the players' hands? They'd still be able to shoot beams and whatnot at each other, it just wouldn't look like they're holding guns. Maybe replace every weapon with a light disc or something. Or the beams can just come out of their open hands.

Can I change the text that comes up when enemies are fragged? I'd want to change it into something more like defeated and other wording.

Can I change the name of the modes? Instead of deathmatch, arena play or something of the sorts.

Thanks!
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby greaserpirate » 19 Jan 2014, 03:30

All these can be done in-game, with the right autoexec.cfg file.

Creating and rigging kid-friendly weapons would be a ton of work, but simply removing the hands and model with /firstpersonmodel would look fine. It's what we do in time-trial in any case.

Obituaries can be set to "fragged by" using /obitverbose 0.

Mode names can't be changed without editing the source (which isn't too hard, and I could do for you if it's really necessary), but you can edit the menus so instead of having the "play online/offline", you can have a button to connect to your server; this also prevents kids from joining a server and getting harassed by less friendly players.

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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby qreeves » 19 Jan 2014, 05:05

We're an open source project, anything is possible. That being said, I have no plans of converting the game to be entirely kid friendly, but you are welcome to modify the game to suit your needs (see: http://redeclipse.net/license, http://redeclipse.net/readme, and carefully with http://redeclipse.net/trademark). The abovementioned suggestions are probably the best you will get without modifying the source code.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby BlackRocket » 19 Jan 2014, 22:44

Thanks for help so far!

I achieved a good degree of toning it down by reducing the weapon model scales to 1, making them essentially so small it doesn't look like the players are holding anything. All of the projectiles come directly from the players' hands, as I moved some animation files around as well.

The only hangup I'm left with is changing the text in menus, like changing "Deathmatch" to Arena when selecting a game mode and removing "shoot to kill" from the description when deathmatch loads.

I've been looking through the cfg files to see if I can set those, without luck yet. That's something I'd need to change in the source of the engine, like GreaserPirate had said? I wouldnt be looking to change what the underlying mode name is, and all it's references, just what shows up in menus.

If it is in the source where would that be found? And can i recompile the source from here?

Engine modification is a new venture for me, sorry for all of the questions, I just think the kids would really learn game design using RedEclipse.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby TheLastProject » 19 Jan 2014, 23:18

If you're going to compile the game from source, it's probably easiest to just grab the development version: http://redeclipse.net/wiki/Obtain_development_version, which also contains instructions for compiling on GNU/Linux and OS X (no clue what platform you run).

To change the wording of Deathmatch, you'd want to change the following in the code (file: src/game/gamemode.h):

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
Index: gamemode.h
===================================================================
--- gamemode.h  (revision 6280)
+++ gamemode.h  (working copy)
@@ -80,8 +80,8 @@
             (1<<G_M_MULTI)|(1<<G_M_FFA)|(1<<G_M_COOP)|(1<<G_M_INSTA)|(1<<G_M_DUEL)|(1<<G_M_SURVIVOR)|(1<<G_M_CLASSIC)|(1<<G_M_MEDIEVAL)|(1<<G_M_KABOOM)|(1<<G_M_ONSLAUGHT)|(1<<G_M_JETPACK)|(1<<G_M_VAMPIRE)|(1<<G_M_EXPERT)|(1<<G_M_RESIZE),
             0, 0, 0
         },
-        "deathmatch", "dm", { "", "", "" },
-        "shoot to kill and increase score by fragging", { "", "", "" },
+        "arena", "dm", { "", "", "" },
+        "increase score by fragging", { "", "", "" },
     },
     {
         G_CAPTURE, 0, 0,
@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@
 VAR(0, modeidxcampaign, 1, G_CAMPAIGN, -1);
 VAR(0, modebitcampaign, 1, (1<<G_CAMPAIGN), -1);
 #else
-SVAR(0, modename, "demo editing deathmatch capture-the-flag defend-and-control bomber-ball time-trial gauntlet");
+SVAR(0, modename, "demo editing arena capture-the-flag defend-and-control bomber-ball time-trial gauntlet");
 SVAR(0, modeidxname, "demo editing deathmatch capture defend bomber trial gauntlet");
 #endif
 VAR(0, modeidxdemo, 1, G_DEMO, -1);


It's a diff file, I hope that's readable. The basic idea is: sentences starting with a - were removed, those starting with a + added. It should be possible to apply that somehow but I'm not sure how either.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby BlackRocket » 20 Jan 2014, 16:33

I'm primarily working in a Windows environment in the SVN version, but have access to a mac as well. Would I be able to compile the code using Windows? While following the guide at http://redeclipse.net/wiki/Obtain_devel ... on#Windows there's no section for compiling under Windows.

If I compile using a mac would that give me the binaries I need for windows as well? That could actually be ideal since I'll need to edit both the Mac and PC versions for students.

Thanks again.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby qreeves » 21 Jan 2014, 01:48

Windows: use Code::Blocks. You can only compile RE for the platform you are running.

Please note that we are a gaming community, not a programming one. I will give you RE-specific information, but I won't teach you how to code, as it is outside the scope of this project. There are more appropriate places for that which do not clog up our support pipeline; it would literally take over a year just to bring you up to speed with the basics, which is time we can better spend on other things.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby Silux » 21 Jan 2014, 10:29

To make the game even more kid friendly you can change player models with animals, have colourful glitter explosions instead of organs.
Grenade and rocket can be changed to a water splash and a banana launcher without changing models.
Renaming weapons with playful names and changing sounds and bullets to funny effects may be better than removing the.

Many maps have indeed a dark and realistic theme, and, in my opinion, they have a bigger impact than weapons and soldiers. Having battles in candy land or some colourful playground give the sensation that it's a cartoon.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby greaserpirate » 21 Jan 2014, 22:23

Silux {l Wrote}:To make the game even more kid friendly you can change player models with animals, have colourful glitter explosions instead of organs.
Grenade and rocket can be changed to a water splash and a banana launcher without changing models.
Renaming weapons with playful names and changing sounds and bullets to funny effects may be better than removing the.

Many maps have indeed a dark and realistic theme, and, in my opinion, they have a bigger impact than weapons and soldiers. Having battles in candy land or some colourful playground give the sensation that it's a cartoon.


if that's sarcasm: He's hosting a LAN party with kids, it won't affect development. A 'pyro-vision' Red Eclipse would be pretty cool though, and there's already a mod for it.

If it isn't: Gibs and blood might turn heads for parents, but I don't think Darkness is going to cause any nightmares just because it's a scary castle; ever heard of Bowser? :p
Kids like scary stuff! It's a lot better for them to have fun together doing something creative than it is to suppress their feelings until they break down in high school or middle school.

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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby BlackRocket » 21 Jan 2014, 23:40

Thanks for the help so far!

I've got the gamemodes edited as well as various other text, like powers instead of weapons, and have the source recompiled into an x86 binary using the Code::Blocks IDE with the default compiler. I'm hung up on compiling the amd64 bit compiler though.

I followed a thread from last year (viewtopic.php?f=74&t=4507) and saw that the http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/ compiler should be used, as recommended by qreeves.

When I set the GNU GCC Compiler's toolchain executables to "X:\TDM-GCC-64" the amd64 compile still fails. Am I setting that directory wrong?

Would it matter much if I run the 32-bit executable on 64 bit machines? I can force the redeclipse.bat file to not bother checking architecture if that's the case.

If i run the edited 32 bit binary on my development machine (Win7 64bit) it runs fine.

Yes, the students would only be playing in a LAN setting and the blood and gibs are quite unsettling for parents. Even though some of the levels are darker, I'll be focusing on the futuristic ones and have the students create their own textures for their levels as well.

I checked out that "kid friendly" mod, it was pretty tongue-in-cheek, but funny.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby Silux » 22 Jan 2014, 00:49

Scary is a good theme for kids, but not realistic bloody scary. Even if the kid maybe is fine with it, it's scary for the parents to have him to play within a bloody hell and like it.
Maps like Fatal Error and DeathTrap are fine as they are so exaggerated that they seem fake. Maps like Deli and Center instead are believable battlegrounds, except for jump pads or rocket launcher spawn point. Parents may be upset that kids are playing something that may seem a military videogame.

A 32bit executable on a 64bit pc runs well. There are problems on running a 64bit exe on a 32bit machine.
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Re: Questions making red eclipse more kid friendly

Postby greaserpirate » 31 Jan 2014, 03:52

I'm interested in seeing how it turns out, and I'm really sure BlackRocket wants to teach kids about game design. Finding Red Eclipse (and Sauer before it) was a godsend to me; I'd always dreamed of making crazy game worlds since I played Rayman 2 as a kid, and RE is the real thing: with the time and expertise, you can create any environment and share it with people.

BlackRocket, if there's anything you'd like help with in terms of teaching kids how to edit, I'm happy to help. :)

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