HOW TO ADD A WORKING PDA TO YOUR MAP
By: lophyte <lophyteNO@SPAMgmail.com>

This is my first tutorial, and I'm rather new to DOOM Radiant/DOOM 3 so bear with me. I'm going to write this step-by-step, and if you have any problems, let me know. This tutorial is based on BNA's build a box map tutorial, so take a glance at that first if you're new to mapping.

1. SETUP

First we're gonna need to do a little setting up. I'm going to go the easy way for now and add the PDA map and data to doom3's base directory, and perhaps in later revisions of this tutorial I'll describe how to put it into mod form, complete with a PK4 file.

The easy way to do this is to create a directory in your doom3/base directory called "newpdas". As well, if you're going to have audio logs, create a directory called "sound".

2. CREATE THE PDA

Now, fire up the doom editor and load the one-room map.
Right click on the grid and go to item, then item_pda. This creates a PDA entity in the map.

Since you're starting a custom map, the marine does not have his own PDA, so we'll need to create two PDAs: one for the marine's personal PDA, and one for our other PDA.

That said, with the PDA selected, hit the spacebar to clone it. Drag the cloned PDA further away from the intial PDA. Now you have two blank PDAs that don't do much other than sit there.

3. MAKING THE PDA WORK

Select the marine's personal PDA, then click on the Entity tab in the Inspectors window. Click on the "Gui..." button at the bottom, which brings up the GUI selection window.

Go down the tree to base/guis/pda/pda_world.gui and click OK -- This adds the animated screen to the PDA in the game. Repeat this process for the second PDA. Once you're finished, look at the Entity tab in the Inspectors window for the second PDA. In the "Key" textbox, type in "pda_name" and hit enter. Then, in the "Val" textbox, type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter. Our PDA is now half finished.

4. ADDING E-MAILS AND AUDIOLOGS

This is the real fun part. Go into the newpdas directory that you created, and create an empty text file. Name it "test_schmoe.pda". Now, open it up in notepad. The following is an example PDA file that I created.

Quote:

pda test_schmoe { // the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor
name "Joe Schmoe"
fullname "Joe C. Schmoe"
icon "gui/pda/bio1"
id "3683-54" // this can be anything, have fun
post "My Test Map"
title "Some Guy"
security "" // this is used for informational purposes, but relates to security clearances
pda_email "schmoe_email_1"
pda_audio "schmoe_audio_1"
}

email schmoe_email_1 {
date "10-25-2145"
to "Joe Schmoe"
from "John Smith"
subject "Test"
text {
"Joe,\n\n"
"This is a test of the UAC's new e-mail system. Please e-mail me back to confirm.\n\n"
"John Smith\nUAC's Other Guy"
}
}

audio schmoe_audio_1 {
name "Schmoe's Audio Test"
info "Made by: Joe Schmoe\nDate: 10-27-2145\n"
preview "sound/vo/video/novideo"
audio "audiolog_test_schmoe"
}

I don't wanna go into in-depth detail about this, as its pretty self-explanatory, but that's your PDA data file. The \n is a symbol for a newline in the e-mail. If you don't want any audio logs, remove the pda_audio line and the audio schmoe_audio_1 line.
Save this PDA file and compile your map. Fire up doom and check out your brand new Union Aerospace PDA!

EDIT: Coming soon: requiring security clearances to open a door

5. ADDING AN AUDIOLOG [OPTIONAL]

If you'd like to add an audiolog, go into the sounds directory you made and create a directory called "audiologs". Copy your WAV audio file into here. Now, go back into the sound directory and create an empty text file. Name the file audiologs.sndshd, and open it in notepad. Here's an example sndshd file I made:

Quote:

audiolog_test_schmoe {
volume 2
onDemand
unclamped
sound/audiologs/schmoe_testlog.wav
}

The first line, audiolog_test_schmoe, must match the value in the audio line of our PDA file above in order for it to work. I haven't had a chance to explore onDemand or unclamped yet, and the last line is pretty self explanatory -- the path to your WAV file.

Well, that's it. If you have any questions, comments, feedback, suggestions, rants, etc. let me know.

- lophyte

Very nice - thanks!

Just for info on text formatting in pda's:

Code:

\n

Means newline.

What's a good format to put the .WAV files in to make them sound decent? Currenty I have mine set at 44.1kHz and 16 bit stereo. I think that's good enough right?

*edit* Ugh I can't get it to work. I first pick up the personnel PDA, and then I go to the Schmoe PDA but it says Downloading Default.PDA... :\ I think it's because no matter what I do, deselect one PDA and then rename the other, it renames both of them to match, however I don't get the Joe Schmoe info stuff.

The only problem that I can think of is that you should make sure that the Schmoe PDA has the pda_name value of "test_schmoe". This value has to match the "pda test_schmoe" line in the PDA file. As for WAV files, if you're worried about size you can use Ogg Vorbis -- many of the sound files in Doom are encoded in Ogg. Here's the website for that.

EDIT: Since writing the tutorial, I had deleted my newpdas directory. I re-created the directory and dumped the PDA file into there, then tried the map. To my surprise, I too got the Default PDA problem. However, when I restarted the game it worked fine. I think the reason is because the game looks for all game files when it loads up, so if you make any changes (ie, adding the newpdas and sounds directory) it won't recognize them until you restart it. Hope that helps.

- lophyte

Where exactly is the "newpda" folder?

pak000.pk4 (Open with Winrar or Winzip)

That way would take forever, try doing it the right way, just type editpdas in console, quite a bit of work gets done that way. :idea:

I didn't find out about editpdas until after I wrote the tutorial.. but I figured I'd leave it the way it is anyway

I did exactly what you said, but its not working...
the game calles the second pda "default pda", and the emails and audio logs are not there. Can you help me?

Im also having the default PDA problem. I noticed something in the tutorial (although this didnt fix the problem). You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct? Anyways.. I tried it both ways and it still didnt work. So with that.. I've got a question...

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

bljohnson wrote:

You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct?

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

btjohnson wrote:

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

- lophyte

lophyte wrote:

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

D'oh! I guess I was just associating "name" with what was listed on the next line instead of actually reading what it said about "after the pda"

lophyte wrote:

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

Great - this will definitely come in handy. Thanks!

Hello,i have a question regarding something about personal PDAs.First,id like to say that i do have a background in scripting and mapping.Im really good at both for the game Star Trek Elite Force 2,which uses a very similar map editor,and a VERY similar scripting code,so i do know how to do it

Anyway,my question is this: If i have a map,how can i get that message about picking up the PDA at the reception desk to go away?I looked through the maps AND scripts for the game,but i found no reference that said whether the player starts out with the PDA or not for that level

Well I got my level, pdas and sounds going ok. Then of course wanted to show a friend so I placed the dirs into a pk4 and sent it to him. Level worked fine, pdas loaded up what I wrote for them, but the audiologs wouldn't work.

I moved the raw dirs out of my base dir to make sure while testing the pk4 and no luck. But when the raw dirs (/maps /sound /newpdas) are there and the pk4 gone the sounds play fine. I looked around the boards a little, is there a thread on pk4 folder whackiness I missed? Any help would be great.

Edit: Oops looks like I named my pk4 file so it was parsed before the game ones, so the game's audio was kicking mine out. My bad. :roll:

Can someone upload a demo of this -- I can't seem to get it working, it just uploads another personal.

this is odd. i just wanted one pda, the first one, to be personalised. i put a personal.pda in, made sure the names matched and put in details. made sure name matched on the actual pda model, and nothing.

i DID get it to work when i had 2 pda's. but the first one didnt show as personal it showed as a blank default one. then the second pda that i had named test_schmoe etc showed the details that were in the personal.pda

i have no idea why

help?!

Cool tut.

If your lazy like I am and hate hunting in game PDAs just to unlock cabinets. You can extract /newpdas/personal.pda and replace the code with this:

Code:

// NO audio files in the personal pda and subsequently no video files in other pdas
// all vidoes are downloaded to your personal pda and individual pdas can contain
// audio logs

pda personal
{
   name      "^5Personal^0"
   fullname   "Unidentified Marine"
   icon      "gui/pda/bio1"
   id         "3819x-22"
   post      "Mars"            // for the personal pda this is ignored
   title      "Marine Security"   // this is used for title or rank ( for the player )
   security   "Marine HQ"         // only set this if it contains a new security clearance.. as far as the pda and hud goes this is informational only
   pda_email   "personal"
   pda_email   "personal2"
   pda_email   "personal3"
   pda_video   "marine_sop"
}

email personal
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "All Imcoming Personnel"
   from      "Director W. Banks"
   subject      "Welcome Message"
   text 
   {
   "Welcome to Mars Marine.\n\n"
   "I would like to take a brief moment of your time and welcome you to what we call our 'home away from home'. We will make every effort to make your stay here as pleasant as possible, and if you need something, please feel free to contact your supervisor for immediate assistance.  I hope that you can find the time to take advantage of some of our great staff amenities.  As a reminder, we engage in technical, highly secure testing and research here, please refrain from wandering into unauthorized areas.  Any security team member will assist you if help is needed.\n\n"
   "Sincerely,\n"
   "Director William Banks\n"
   }
}

email personal2 
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Sergeant Kelly"
   subject      "Report to Marine HQ"
   text 
   {
"Marine,\n"   
"Report to Marine command as soon as possible.  Don't waste any time getting here.  We're short on troops and I need you out on patrol as soon as possible.\n\n"
   "Sergeant Kelly\n"
   }
}

email personal3
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Budmeister"
   subject      "All Locker Combinations"
   text 
   {
   "Marine,\n\n"
   "Here are those Locker Codes you requested.\n\n"
   "Passwords\n"
   "Cabinet Lock Codes\n"
   "Enter these on the panels found on the numbered cabinets through out the game.\n\n"
   "Password...............Effect\n"
   "#001...................396\n"
   "#003...................483\n"
   "#009...................752\n"
   "#013...................586\n"
   "#017...................347\n"
   "#023...................531\n"
   "#038...................409\n"
   "#039...................102\n"
   "#047...................123\n"
   "#048...................123\n"
   "#049...................123\n"
   "#054...................246\n"
   "#054 (second)..........142\n"
   "#063...................972\n"
   "#064...................651\n"
   "#078...................364\n"
   "#079...................364\n"
   "#103...................259\n"
   "#104...................579\n"
   "#112...................538\n"
   "#114...................715\n"
   "#116...................972\n"
   "#116 (second)..........624\n"
   "#117...................624\n"
   "#213...................371\n"
   "#215...................298\n"
   "#317...................841\n"
   "#386...................836\n"
   "#387...................836\n"
   "#452...................571\n"
   "#666...................372\n"
   "#669...................468\n"
   "Martian Buddies 1 and 2........0508\n"
   "Weapons Storage 1 and 2........734\n\n"   
   "Have a nice day,\n"
   "Budmeister\n"
   }
}

And have instant access to all the locker codes.

Bud

HOW TO ADD A WORKING PDA TO YOUR MAP
By: lophyte <lophyteNO@SPAMgmail.com>

This is my first tutorial, and I'm rather new to DOOM Radiant/DOOM 3 so bear with me. I'm going to write this step-by-step, and if you have any problems, let me know. This tutorial is based on BNA's build a box map tutorial, so take a glance at that first if you're new to mapping.

1. SETUP

First we're gonna need to do a little setting up. I'm going to go the easy way for now and add the PDA map and data to doom3's base directory, and perhaps in later revisions of this tutorial I'll describe how to put it into mod form, complete with a PK4 file.

The easy way to do this is to create a directory in your doom3/base directory called "newpdas". As well, if you're going to have audio logs, create a directory called "sound".

2. CREATE THE PDA

Now, fire up the doom editor and load the one-room map.
Right click on the grid and go to item, then item_pda. This creates a PDA entity in the map.

Since you're starting a custom map, the marine does not have his own PDA, so we'll need to create two PDAs: one for the marine's personal PDA, and one for our other PDA.

That said, with the PDA selected, hit the spacebar to clone it. Drag the cloned PDA further away from the intial PDA. Now you have two blank PDAs that don't do much other than sit there.

3. MAKING THE PDA WORK

Select the marine's personal PDA, then click on the Entity tab in the Inspectors window. Click on the "Gui..." button at the bottom, which brings up the GUI selection window.

Go down the tree to base/guis/pda/pda_world.gui and click OK -- This adds the animated screen to the PDA in the game. Repeat this process for the second PDA. Once you're finished, look at the Entity tab in the Inspectors window for the second PDA. In the "Key" textbox, type in "pda_name" and hit enter. Then, in the "Val" textbox, type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter. Our PDA is now half finished.

4. ADDING E-MAILS AND AUDIOLOGS

This is the real fun part. Go into the newpdas directory that you created, and create an empty text file. Name it "test_schmoe.pda". Now, open it up in notepad. The following is an example PDA file that I created.

Quote:

pda test_schmoe { // the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor
name "Joe Schmoe"
fullname "Joe C. Schmoe"
icon "gui/pda/bio1"
id "3683-54" // this can be anything, have fun
post "My Test Map"
title "Some Guy"
security "" // this is used for informational purposes, but relates to security clearances
pda_email "schmoe_email_1"
pda_audio "schmoe_audio_1"
}

email schmoe_email_1 {
date "10-25-2145"
to "Joe Schmoe"
from "John Smith"
subject "Test"
text {
"Joe,\n\n"
"This is a test of the UAC's new e-mail system. Please e-mail me back to confirm.\n\n"
"John Smith\nUAC's Other Guy"
}
}

audio schmoe_audio_1 {
name "Schmoe's Audio Test"
info "Made by: Joe Schmoe\nDate: 10-27-2145\n"
preview "sound/vo/video/novideo"
audio "audiolog_test_schmoe"
}

I don't wanna go into in-depth detail about this, as its pretty self-explanatory, but that's your PDA data file. The \n is a symbol for a newline in the e-mail. If you don't want any audio logs, remove the pda_audio line and the audio schmoe_audio_1 line.
Save this PDA file and compile your map. Fire up doom and check out your brand new Union Aerospace PDA!

EDIT: Coming soon: requiring security clearances to open a door

5. ADDING AN AUDIOLOG [OPTIONAL]

If you'd like to add an audiolog, go into the sounds directory you made and create a directory called "audiologs". Copy your WAV audio file into here. Now, go back into the sound directory and create an empty text file. Name the file audiologs.sndshd, and open it in notepad. Here's an example sndshd file I made:

Quote:

audiolog_test_schmoe {
volume 2
onDemand
unclamped
sound/audiologs/schmoe_testlog.wav
}

The first line, audiolog_test_schmoe, must match the value in the audio line of our PDA file above in order for it to work. I haven't had a chance to explore onDemand or unclamped yet, and the last line is pretty self explanatory -- the path to your WAV file.

Well, that's it. If you have any questions, comments, feedback, suggestions, rants, etc. let me know.

- lophyte

Very nice - thanks!

Just for info on text formatting in pda's:

Code:

\n

Means newline.

What's a good format to put the .WAV files in to make them sound decent? Currenty I have mine set at 44.1kHz and 16 bit stereo. I think that's good enough right?

*edit* Ugh I can't get it to work. I first pick up the personnel PDA, and then I go to the Schmoe PDA but it says Downloading Default.PDA... :\ I think it's because no matter what I do, deselect one PDA and then rename the other, it renames both of them to match, however I don't get the Joe Schmoe info stuff.

The only problem that I can think of is that you should make sure that the Schmoe PDA has the pda_name value of "test_schmoe". This value has to match the "pda test_schmoe" line in the PDA file. As for WAV files, if you're worried about size you can use Ogg Vorbis -- many of the sound files in Doom are encoded in Ogg. Here's the website for that.

EDIT: Since writing the tutorial, I had deleted my newpdas directory. I re-created the directory and dumped the PDA file into there, then tried the map. To my surprise, I too got the Default PDA problem. However, when I restarted the game it worked fine. I think the reason is because the game looks for all game files when it loads up, so if you make any changes (ie, adding the newpdas and sounds directory) it won't recognize them until you restart it. Hope that helps.

- lophyte

Where exactly is the "newpda" folder?

pak000.pk4 (Open with Winrar or Winzip)

That way would take forever, try doing it the right way, just type editpdas in console, quite a bit of work gets done that way. :idea:

I didn't find out about editpdas until after I wrote the tutorial.. but I figured I'd leave it the way it is anyway

I did exactly what you said, but its not working...
the game calles the second pda "default pda", and the emails and audio logs are not there. Can you help me?

Im also having the default PDA problem. I noticed something in the tutorial (although this didnt fix the problem). You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct? Anyways.. I tried it both ways and it still didnt work. So with that.. I've got a question...

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

bljohnson wrote:

You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct?

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

btjohnson wrote:

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

- lophyte

lophyte wrote:

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

D'oh! I guess I was just associating "name" with what was listed on the next line instead of actually reading what it said about "after the pda"

lophyte wrote:

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

Great - this will definitely come in handy. Thanks!

Hello,i have a question regarding something about personal PDAs.First,id like to say that i do have a background in scripting and mapping.Im really good at both for the game Star Trek Elite Force 2,which uses a very similar map editor,and a VERY similar scripting code,so i do know how to do it

Anyway,my question is this: If i have a map,how can i get that message about picking up the PDA at the reception desk to go away?I looked through the maps AND scripts for the game,but i found no reference that said whether the player starts out with the PDA or not for that level

Well I got my level, pdas and sounds going ok. Then of course wanted to show a friend so I placed the dirs into a pk4 and sent it to him. Level worked fine, pdas loaded up what I wrote for them, but the audiologs wouldn't work.

I moved the raw dirs out of my base dir to make sure while testing the pk4 and no luck. But when the raw dirs (/maps /sound /newpdas) are there and the pk4 gone the sounds play fine. I looked around the boards a little, is there a thread on pk4 folder whackiness I missed? Any help would be great.

Edit: Oops looks like I named my pk4 file so it was parsed before the game ones, so the game's audio was kicking mine out. My bad. :roll:

Can someone upload a demo of this -- I can't seem to get it working, it just uploads another personal.

this is odd. i just wanted one pda, the first one, to be personalised. i put a personal.pda in, made sure the names matched and put in details. made sure name matched on the actual pda model, and nothing.

i DID get it to work when i had 2 pda's. but the first one didnt show as personal it showed as a blank default one. then the second pda that i had named test_schmoe etc showed the details that were in the personal.pda

i have no idea why

help?!

Cool tut.

If your lazy like I am and hate hunting in game PDAs just to unlock cabinets. You can extract /newpdas/personal.pda and replace the code with this:

Code:

// NO audio files in the personal pda and subsequently no video files in other pdas
// all vidoes are downloaded to your personal pda and individual pdas can contain
// audio logs

pda personal
{
   name      "^5Personal^0"
   fullname   "Unidentified Marine"
   icon      "gui/pda/bio1"
   id         "3819x-22"
   post      "Mars"            // for the personal pda this is ignored
   title      "Marine Security"   // this is used for title or rank ( for the player )
   security   "Marine HQ"         // only set this if it contains a new security clearance.. as far as the pda and hud goes this is informational only
   pda_email   "personal"
   pda_email   "personal2"
   pda_email   "personal3"
   pda_video   "marine_sop"
}

email personal
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "All Imcoming Personnel"
   from      "Director W. Banks"
   subject      "Welcome Message"
   text 
   {
   "Welcome to Mars Marine.\n\n"
   "I would like to take a brief moment of your time and welcome you to what we call our 'home away from home'. We will make every effort to make your stay here as pleasant as possible, and if you need something, please feel free to contact your supervisor for immediate assistance.  I hope that you can find the time to take advantage of some of our great staff amenities.  As a reminder, we engage in technical, highly secure testing and research here, please refrain from wandering into unauthorized areas.  Any security team member will assist you if help is needed.\n\n"
   "Sincerely,\n"
   "Director William Banks\n"
   }
}

email personal2 
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Sergeant Kelly"
   subject      "Report to Marine HQ"
   text 
   {
"Marine,\n"   
"Report to Marine command as soon as possible.  Don't waste any time getting here.  We're short on troops and I need you out on patrol as soon as possible.\n\n"
   "Sergeant Kelly\n"
   }
}

email personal3
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Budmeister"
   subject      "All Locker Combinations"
   text 
   {
   "Marine,\n\n"
   "Here are those Locker Codes you requested.\n\n"
   "Passwords\n"
   "Cabinet Lock Codes\n"
   "Enter these on the panels found on the numbered cabinets through out the game.\n\n"
   "Password...............Effect\n"
   "#001...................396\n"
   "#003...................483\n"
   "#009...................752\n"
   "#013...................586\n"
   "#017...................347\n"
   "#023...................531\n"
   "#038...................409\n"
   "#039...................102\n"
   "#047...................123\n"
   "#048...................123\n"
   "#049...................123\n"
   "#054...................246\n"
   "#054 (second)..........142\n"
   "#063...................972\n"
   "#064...................651\n"
   "#078...................364\n"
   "#079...................364\n"
   "#103...................259\n"
   "#104...................579\n"
   "#112...................538\n"
   "#114...................715\n"
   "#116...................972\n"
   "#116 (second)..........624\n"
   "#117...................624\n"
   "#213...................371\n"
   "#215...................298\n"
   "#317...................841\n"
   "#386...................836\n"
   "#387...................836\n"
   "#452...................571\n"
   "#666...................372\n"
   "#669...................468\n"
   "Martian Buddies 1 and 2........0508\n"
   "Weapons Storage 1 and 2........734\n\n"   
   "Have a nice day,\n"
   "Budmeister\n"
   }
}

And have instant access to all the locker codes.

Bud

Hi i know the thread is old, but I felt its the most appropriate place to post at

I'd like to know how I can edit the "weapon info", which is located in the normal game on the bottom right. thanks

The pda.gui points to a string in the english.lang file.
Example:
pda.gui

Code:

               onMouseEnter {
                  transition "TextWeapName::forecolor" "1 1 1 0.8" "1 1 1 0.4" "150" ;
                  set "TextWeapName::text" "#str_06780" ;
               }

               onMouseExit {
                  set "TextWeapName::forecolor" "1 1 1 0" ;
                  set "TextWeapName::text" " " ;

english.lang

Code:

   "#str_06780"   "PIPEWRENCH"
   "#str_06781"   "Pipewrench"
   "#str_06782"   "Plain ordinary pipewrench. People have no idea how deadly a pipewrench can be in the hands of a trained killer."

Bud

Thanks dude, I overlooked the string folder

-edit- Hmm seems like I can't find the part which shows the weapon specs. I only managed to find the weapon names in english.lang

Also, does anyone know how I can edit english.lang?

HOW TO ADD A WORKING PDA TO YOUR MAP
By: lophyte <lophyteNO@SPAMgmail.com>

This is my first tutorial, and I'm rather new to DOOM Radiant/DOOM 3 so bear with me. I'm going to write this step-by-step, and if you have any problems, let me know. This tutorial is based on BNA's build a box map tutorial, so take a glance at that first if you're new to mapping.

1. SETUP

First we're gonna need to do a little setting up. I'm going to go the easy way for now and add the PDA map and data to doom3's base directory, and perhaps in later revisions of this tutorial I'll describe how to put it into mod form, complete with a PK4 file.

The easy way to do this is to create a directory in your doom3/base directory called "newpdas". As well, if you're going to have audio logs, create a directory called "sound".

2. CREATE THE PDA

Now, fire up the doom editor and load the one-room map.
Right click on the grid and go to item, then item_pda. This creates a PDA entity in the map.

Since you're starting a custom map, the marine does not have his own PDA, so we'll need to create two PDAs: one for the marine's personal PDA, and one for our other PDA.

That said, with the PDA selected, hit the spacebar to clone it. Drag the cloned PDA further away from the intial PDA. Now you have two blank PDAs that don't do much other than sit there.

3. MAKING THE PDA WORK

Select the marine's personal PDA, then click on the Entity tab in the Inspectors window. Click on the "Gui..." button at the bottom, which brings up the GUI selection window.

Go down the tree to base/guis/pda/pda_world.gui and click OK -- This adds the animated screen to the PDA in the game. Repeat this process for the second PDA. Once you're finished, look at the Entity tab in the Inspectors window for the second PDA. In the "Key" textbox, type in "pda_name" and hit enter. Then, in the "Val" textbox, type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter. Our PDA is now half finished.

4. ADDING E-MAILS AND AUDIOLOGS

This is the real fun part. Go into the newpdas directory that you created, and create an empty text file. Name it "test_schmoe.pda". Now, open it up in notepad. The following is an example PDA file that I created.

Quote:

pda test_schmoe { // the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor
name "Joe Schmoe"
fullname "Joe C. Schmoe"
icon "gui/pda/bio1"
id "3683-54" // this can be anything, have fun
post "My Test Map"
title "Some Guy"
security "" // this is used for informational purposes, but relates to security clearances
pda_email "schmoe_email_1"
pda_audio "schmoe_audio_1"
}

email schmoe_email_1 {
date "10-25-2145"
to "Joe Schmoe"
from "John Smith"
subject "Test"
text {
"Joe,\n\n"
"This is a test of the UAC's new e-mail system. Please e-mail me back to confirm.\n\n"
"John Smith\nUAC's Other Guy"
}
}

audio schmoe_audio_1 {
name "Schmoe's Audio Test"
info "Made by: Joe Schmoe\nDate: 10-27-2145\n"
preview "sound/vo/video/novideo"
audio "audiolog_test_schmoe"
}

I don't wanna go into in-depth detail about this, as its pretty self-explanatory, but that's your PDA data file. The \n is a symbol for a newline in the e-mail. If you don't want any audio logs, remove the pda_audio line and the audio schmoe_audio_1 line.
Save this PDA file and compile your map. Fire up doom and check out your brand new Union Aerospace PDA!

EDIT: Coming soon: requiring security clearances to open a door

5. ADDING AN AUDIOLOG [OPTIONAL]

If you'd like to add an audiolog, go into the sounds directory you made and create a directory called "audiologs". Copy your WAV audio file into here. Now, go back into the sound directory and create an empty text file. Name the file audiologs.sndshd, and open it in notepad. Here's an example sndshd file I made:

Quote:

audiolog_test_schmoe {
volume 2
onDemand
unclamped
sound/audiologs/schmoe_testlog.wav
}

The first line, audiolog_test_schmoe, must match the value in the audio line of our PDA file above in order for it to work. I haven't had a chance to explore onDemand or unclamped yet, and the last line is pretty self explanatory -- the path to your WAV file.

Well, that's it. If you have any questions, comments, feedback, suggestions, rants, etc. let me know.

- lophyte

Very nice - thanks!

Just for info on text formatting in pda's:

Code:

\n

Means newline.

What's a good format to put the .WAV files in to make them sound decent? Currenty I have mine set at 44.1kHz and 16 bit stereo. I think that's good enough right?

*edit* Ugh I can't get it to work. I first pick up the personnel PDA, and then I go to the Schmoe PDA but it says Downloading Default.PDA... :\ I think it's because no matter what I do, deselect one PDA and then rename the other, it renames both of them to match, however I don't get the Joe Schmoe info stuff.

The only problem that I can think of is that you should make sure that the Schmoe PDA has the pda_name value of "test_schmoe". This value has to match the "pda test_schmoe" line in the PDA file. As for WAV files, if you're worried about size you can use Ogg Vorbis -- many of the sound files in Doom are encoded in Ogg. Here's the website for that.

EDIT: Since writing the tutorial, I had deleted my newpdas directory. I re-created the directory and dumped the PDA file into there, then tried the map. To my surprise, I too got the Default PDA problem. However, when I restarted the game it worked fine. I think the reason is because the game looks for all game files when it loads up, so if you make any changes (ie, adding the newpdas and sounds directory) it won't recognize them until you restart it. Hope that helps.

- lophyte

Where exactly is the "newpda" folder?

pak000.pk4 (Open with Winrar or Winzip)

That way would take forever, try doing it the right way, just type editpdas in console, quite a bit of work gets done that way. :idea:

I didn't find out about editpdas until after I wrote the tutorial.. but I figured I'd leave it the way it is anyway

I did exactly what you said, but its not working...
the game calles the second pda "default pda", and the emails and audio logs are not there. Can you help me?

Im also having the default PDA problem. I noticed something in the tutorial (although this didnt fix the problem). You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct? Anyways.. I tried it both ways and it still didnt work. So with that.. I've got a question...

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

bljohnson wrote:

You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct?

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

btjohnson wrote:

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

- lophyte

lophyte wrote:

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

D'oh! I guess I was just associating "name" with what was listed on the next line instead of actually reading what it said about "after the pda"

lophyte wrote:

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

Great - this will definitely come in handy. Thanks!

Hello,i have a question regarding something about personal PDAs.First,id like to say that i do have a background in scripting and mapping.Im really good at both for the game Star Trek Elite Force 2,which uses a very similar map editor,and a VERY similar scripting code,so i do know how to do it

Anyway,my question is this: If i have a map,how can i get that message about picking up the PDA at the reception desk to go away?I looked through the maps AND scripts for the game,but i found no reference that said whether the player starts out with the PDA or not for that level

Well I got my level, pdas and sounds going ok. Then of course wanted to show a friend so I placed the dirs into a pk4 and sent it to him. Level worked fine, pdas loaded up what I wrote for them, but the audiologs wouldn't work.

I moved the raw dirs out of my base dir to make sure while testing the pk4 and no luck. But when the raw dirs (/maps /sound /newpdas) are there and the pk4 gone the sounds play fine. I looked around the boards a little, is there a thread on pk4 folder whackiness I missed? Any help would be great.

Edit: Oops looks like I named my pk4 file so it was parsed before the game ones, so the game's audio was kicking mine out. My bad. :roll:

Can someone upload a demo of this -- I can't seem to get it working, it just uploads another personal.

this is odd. i just wanted one pda, the first one, to be personalised. i put a personal.pda in, made sure the names matched and put in details. made sure name matched on the actual pda model, and nothing.

i DID get it to work when i had 2 pda's. but the first one didnt show as personal it showed as a blank default one. then the second pda that i had named test_schmoe etc showed the details that were in the personal.pda

i have no idea why

help?!

Cool tut.

If your lazy like I am and hate hunting in game PDAs just to unlock cabinets. You can extract /newpdas/personal.pda and replace the code with this:

Code:

// NO audio files in the personal pda and subsequently no video files in other pdas
// all vidoes are downloaded to your personal pda and individual pdas can contain
// audio logs

pda personal
{
   name      "^5Personal^0"
   fullname   "Unidentified Marine"
   icon      "gui/pda/bio1"
   id         "3819x-22"
   post      "Mars"            // for the personal pda this is ignored
   title      "Marine Security"   // this is used for title or rank ( for the player )
   security   "Marine HQ"         // only set this if it contains a new security clearance.. as far as the pda and hud goes this is informational only
   pda_email   "personal"
   pda_email   "personal2"
   pda_email   "personal3"
   pda_video   "marine_sop"
}

email personal
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "All Imcoming Personnel"
   from      "Director W. Banks"
   subject      "Welcome Message"
   text 
   {
   "Welcome to Mars Marine.\n\n"
   "I would like to take a brief moment of your time and welcome you to what we call our 'home away from home'. We will make every effort to make your stay here as pleasant as possible, and if you need something, please feel free to contact your supervisor for immediate assistance.  I hope that you can find the time to take advantage of some of our great staff amenities.  As a reminder, we engage in technical, highly secure testing and research here, please refrain from wandering into unauthorized areas.  Any security team member will assist you if help is needed.\n\n"
   "Sincerely,\n"
   "Director William Banks\n"
   }
}

email personal2 
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Sergeant Kelly"
   subject      "Report to Marine HQ"
   text 
   {
"Marine,\n"   
"Report to Marine command as soon as possible.  Don't waste any time getting here.  We're short on troops and I need you out on patrol as soon as possible.\n\n"
   "Sergeant Kelly\n"
   }
}

email personal3
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Budmeister"
   subject      "All Locker Combinations"
   text 
   {
   "Marine,\n\n"
   "Here are those Locker Codes you requested.\n\n"
   "Passwords\n"
   "Cabinet Lock Codes\n"
   "Enter these on the panels found on the numbered cabinets through out the game.\n\n"
   "Password...............Effect\n"
   "#001...................396\n"
   "#003...................483\n"
   "#009...................752\n"
   "#013...................586\n"
   "#017...................347\n"
   "#023...................531\n"
   "#038...................409\n"
   "#039...................102\n"
   "#047...................123\n"
   "#048...................123\n"
   "#049...................123\n"
   "#054...................246\n"
   "#054 (second)..........142\n"
   "#063...................972\n"
   "#064...................651\n"
   "#078...................364\n"
   "#079...................364\n"
   "#103...................259\n"
   "#104...................579\n"
   "#112...................538\n"
   "#114...................715\n"
   "#116...................972\n"
   "#116 (second)..........624\n"
   "#117...................624\n"
   "#213...................371\n"
   "#215...................298\n"
   "#317...................841\n"
   "#386...................836\n"
   "#387...................836\n"
   "#452...................571\n"
   "#666...................372\n"
   "#669...................468\n"
   "Martian Buddies 1 and 2........0508\n"
   "Weapons Storage 1 and 2........734\n\n"   
   "Have a nice day,\n"
   "Budmeister\n"
   }
}

And have instant access to all the locker codes.

Bud

Hi i know the thread is old, but I felt its the most appropriate place to post at

I'd like to know how I can edit the "weapon info", which is located in the normal game on the bottom right. thanks

The pda.gui points to a string in the english.lang file.
Example:
pda.gui

Code:

               onMouseEnter {
                  transition "TextWeapName::forecolor" "1 1 1 0.8" "1 1 1 0.4" "150" ;
                  set "TextWeapName::text" "#str_06780" ;
               }

               onMouseExit {
                  set "TextWeapName::forecolor" "1 1 1 0" ;
                  set "TextWeapName::text" " " ;

english.lang

Code:

   "#str_06780"   "PIPEWRENCH"
   "#str_06781"   "Pipewrench"
   "#str_06782"   "Plain ordinary pipewrench. People have no idea how deadly a pipewrench can be in the hands of a trained killer."

Bud

Thanks dude, I overlooked the string folder

-edit- Hmm seems like I can't find the part which shows the weapon specs. I only managed to find the weapon names in english.lang

Also, does anyone know how I can edit english.lang?

Someone should make a:

PDA Builder

application, that woulnd't be too hard?

Also a texture creation application which would convert the pictures in a folder or the ones who is dragged into the application into TGA's and then write the correct MTR shader.

It's too bad that the editpdas which came with D3 was rather limited. Woulda been cooler if it has a wider range of capabilities that are also user-friendly

strings/english.lang is just a text file, though its in unix text format, use an editor thats a little more capable than notepad. Wordpad should do the trick.

There is a built-in PDA editor. Just type
editpdas
in console.

Can we have someone who knows what they're talking about redo this tutorial please?

I know this thread is sh*t old but i wanted to know how you can put an audio log in when you are using the editPdas command. Is it possible?

very nice tutorial but I have one question about the audiologs
I tried to place a .wav file in the sound/audiologs folder (like it is said in the tut) but I can't get any sound when I run my map;
mean the audiologs does not work
on the other hand if I use a .ogg it works perfectly
could someone help me out please

I've done all the things mentioned in the tutorial, but when I got the pda, it said "default pda" and nothing inside. What can I do? :roll:

Its not working for me at all! I followed the tutorial step by step and when o pick up the pda all I get is default pda with nothing in it. I've been trying to figure this out for 3 hours now and I am very fusterated. Please I need help! Thank you. :cry:

I finally got around to doing the PDAs for my mod, and I ran into the same problems as listed here. After some playing around, I managed to get the PDAs working properly, and without the pop-up instruction screen.

You just need to make the 'personal.pda' in /newpdas and then place it's item_pda inside the info_player_start boundbox.
Then, when the map loads, you already have a PDA with whatever info you placed in the personal.pda, and the pop-up window never appears.

Max Kot wrote:

There is a built-in PDA editor. Just type
editpdas
in console.

Have uyou seen those pda`s from that program?? That damn editor. It makes pda`s , yes, but the syntax is not good. I always have to edit the pda manually.

But right, in the top of the screen, there`s is a text "This usually work. You can`t add or edit video`s or audiologs or edit emails." Something like that.

The audio is a really annoying thing to do. What do you do with the preview line leave it or change it to the directory of your music. Also for the audiologs.sndshd inside that the directory you do is it meant to be the directory just from the file or full directory from computer eg.C:\Games\Doom3\base\sound\Audiologs?? or just sound\audiologs??

Could someone please create a video tutorial. Thanks

There is one little problem with this. The audio logs in the game stop working as you have another file called audiologs, this is in a pk4 file, cant remember which one. What i mean by ingame is actualy in doom 3 campaign. So is there a way around that?? Cant change the name, but any way it works great!

I err fixed the problem, by renaming the audiologs file with music in it to audiologs1. It seems to work.

HOW TO ADD A WORKING PDA TO YOUR MAP
By: lophyte <lophyteNO@SPAMgmail.com>

This is my first tutorial, and I'm rather new to DOOM Radiant/DOOM 3 so bear with me. I'm going to write this step-by-step, and if you have any problems, let me know. This tutorial is based on BNA's build a box map tutorial, so take a glance at that first if you're new to mapping.

1. SETUP

First we're gonna need to do a little setting up. I'm going to go the easy way for now and add the PDA map and data to doom3's base directory, and perhaps in later revisions of this tutorial I'll describe how to put it into mod form, complete with a PK4 file.

The easy way to do this is to create a directory in your doom3/base directory called "newpdas". As well, if you're going to have audio logs, create a directory called "sound".

2. CREATE THE PDA

Now, fire up the doom editor and load the one-room map.
Right click on the grid and go to item, then item_pda. This creates a PDA entity in the map.

Since you're starting a custom map, the marine does not have his own PDA, so we'll need to create two PDAs: one for the marine's personal PDA, and one for our other PDA.

That said, with the PDA selected, hit the spacebar to clone it. Drag the cloned PDA further away from the intial PDA. Now you have two blank PDAs that don't do much other than sit there.

3. MAKING THE PDA WORK

Select the marine's personal PDA, then click on the Entity tab in the Inspectors window. Click on the "Gui..." button at the bottom, which brings up the GUI selection window.

Go down the tree to base/guis/pda/pda_world.gui and click OK -- This adds the animated screen to the PDA in the game. Repeat this process for the second PDA. Once you're finished, look at the Entity tab in the Inspectors window for the second PDA. In the "Key" textbox, type in "pda_name" and hit enter. Then, in the "Val" textbox, type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter. Our PDA is now half finished.

4. ADDING E-MAILS AND AUDIOLOGS

This is the real fun part. Go into the newpdas directory that you created, and create an empty text file. Name it "test_schmoe.pda". Now, open it up in notepad. The following is an example PDA file that I created.

Quote:

pda test_schmoe { // the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor
name "Joe Schmoe"
fullname "Joe C. Schmoe"
icon "gui/pda/bio1"
id "3683-54" // this can be anything, have fun
post "My Test Map"
title "Some Guy"
security "" // this is used for informational purposes, but relates to security clearances
pda_email "schmoe_email_1"
pda_audio "schmoe_audio_1"
}

email schmoe_email_1 {
date "10-25-2145"
to "Joe Schmoe"
from "John Smith"
subject "Test"
text {
"Joe,\n\n"
"This is a test of the UAC's new e-mail system. Please e-mail me back to confirm.\n\n"
"John Smith\nUAC's Other Guy"
}
}

audio schmoe_audio_1 {
name "Schmoe's Audio Test"
info "Made by: Joe Schmoe\nDate: 10-27-2145\n"
preview "sound/vo/video/novideo"
audio "audiolog_test_schmoe"
}

I don't wanna go into in-depth detail about this, as its pretty self-explanatory, but that's your PDA data file. The \n is a symbol for a newline in the e-mail. If you don't want any audio logs, remove the pda_audio line and the audio schmoe_audio_1 line.
Save this PDA file and compile your map. Fire up doom and check out your brand new Union Aerospace PDA!

EDIT: Coming soon: requiring security clearances to open a door

5. ADDING AN AUDIOLOG [OPTIONAL]

If you'd like to add an audiolog, go into the sounds directory you made and create a directory called "audiologs". Copy your WAV audio file into here. Now, go back into the sound directory and create an empty text file. Name the file audiologs.sndshd, and open it in notepad. Here's an example sndshd file I made:

Quote:

audiolog_test_schmoe {
volume 2
onDemand
unclamped
sound/audiologs/schmoe_testlog.wav
}

The first line, audiolog_test_schmoe, must match the value in the audio line of our PDA file above in order for it to work. I haven't had a chance to explore onDemand or unclamped yet, and the last line is pretty self explanatory -- the path to your WAV file.

Well, that's it. If you have any questions, comments, feedback, suggestions, rants, etc. let me know.

- lophyte

Very nice - thanks!

Just for info on text formatting in pda's:

Code:

\n

Means newline.

What's a good format to put the .WAV files in to make them sound decent? Currenty I have mine set at 44.1kHz and 16 bit stereo. I think that's good enough right?

*edit* Ugh I can't get it to work. I first pick up the personnel PDA, and then I go to the Schmoe PDA but it says Downloading Default.PDA... :\ I think it's because no matter what I do, deselect one PDA and then rename the other, it renames both of them to match, however I don't get the Joe Schmoe info stuff.

The only problem that I can think of is that you should make sure that the Schmoe PDA has the pda_name value of "test_schmoe". This value has to match the "pda test_schmoe" line in the PDA file. As for WAV files, if you're worried about size you can use Ogg Vorbis -- many of the sound files in Doom are encoded in Ogg. Here's the website for that.

EDIT: Since writing the tutorial, I had deleted my newpdas directory. I re-created the directory and dumped the PDA file into there, then tried the map. To my surprise, I too got the Default PDA problem. However, when I restarted the game it worked fine. I think the reason is because the game looks for all game files when it loads up, so if you make any changes (ie, adding the newpdas and sounds directory) it won't recognize them until you restart it. Hope that helps.

- lophyte

Where exactly is the "newpda" folder?

pak000.pk4 (Open with Winrar or Winzip)

That way would take forever, try doing it the right way, just type editpdas in console, quite a bit of work gets done that way. :idea:

I didn't find out about editpdas until after I wrote the tutorial.. but I figured I'd leave it the way it is anyway

I did exactly what you said, but its not working...
the game calles the second pda "default pda", and the emails and audio logs are not there. Can you help me?

Im also having the default PDA problem. I noticed something in the tutorial (although this didnt fix the problem). You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct? Anyways.. I tried it both ways and it still didnt work. So with that.. I've got a question...

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

bljohnson wrote:

You say this for entering the pda_name: type in "test_schmoe" and hit enter

But in the comments for the PDA file you say:
// the name after "pda" here must match the pda_name value that we gave in the editor

"Joe Schmoe" != "test_schmoe" correct?

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

btjohnson wrote:

Does the player have to get the players initial PDA first? I'd like the player to have their own custom PDA without including the initial ingame one (with your normal doom3 objectives and such.. I'd like to have my own objectives and initial emails).

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

- lophyte

lophyte wrote:

When I say they have to match, I mean these two things have to match:

key: pda_name - val: test_schmoe

... and in the PDA file:

pda test_schmoe {
name "Joe Schmoe"
etc, etc...
}

D'oh! I guess I was just associating "name" with what was listed on the next line instead of actually reading what it said about "after the pda"

lophyte wrote:

If you create a file called personal.pda in the newpdas directory, the engine will use the data in that file as the player's initial PDA.

Great - this will definitely come in handy. Thanks!

Hello,i have a question regarding something about personal PDAs.First,id like to say that i do have a background in scripting and mapping.Im really good at both for the game Star Trek Elite Force 2,which uses a very similar map editor,and a VERY similar scripting code,so i do know how to do it

Anyway,my question is this: If i have a map,how can i get that message about picking up the PDA at the reception desk to go away?I looked through the maps AND scripts for the game,but i found no reference that said whether the player starts out with the PDA or not for that level

Well I got my level, pdas and sounds going ok. Then of course wanted to show a friend so I placed the dirs into a pk4 and sent it to him. Level worked fine, pdas loaded up what I wrote for them, but the audiologs wouldn't work.

I moved the raw dirs out of my base dir to make sure while testing the pk4 and no luck. But when the raw dirs (/maps /sound /newpdas) are there and the pk4 gone the sounds play fine. I looked around the boards a little, is there a thread on pk4 folder whackiness I missed? Any help would be great.

Edit: Oops looks like I named my pk4 file so it was parsed before the game ones, so the game's audio was kicking mine out. My bad. :roll:

Can someone upload a demo of this -- I can't seem to get it working, it just uploads another personal.

this is odd. i just wanted one pda, the first one, to be personalised. i put a personal.pda in, made sure the names matched and put in details. made sure name matched on the actual pda model, and nothing.

i DID get it to work when i had 2 pda's. but the first one didnt show as personal it showed as a blank default one. then the second pda that i had named test_schmoe etc showed the details that were in the personal.pda

i have no idea why

help?!

Cool tut.

If your lazy like I am and hate hunting in game PDAs just to unlock cabinets. You can extract /newpdas/personal.pda and replace the code with this:

Code:

// NO audio files in the personal pda and subsequently no video files in other pdas
// all vidoes are downloaded to your personal pda and individual pdas can contain
// audio logs

pda personal
{
   name      "^5Personal^0"
   fullname   "Unidentified Marine"
   icon      "gui/pda/bio1"
   id         "3819x-22"
   post      "Mars"            // for the personal pda this is ignored
   title      "Marine Security"   // this is used for title or rank ( for the player )
   security   "Marine HQ"         // only set this if it contains a new security clearance.. as far as the pda and hud goes this is informational only
   pda_email   "personal"
   pda_email   "personal2"
   pda_email   "personal3"
   pda_video   "marine_sop"
}

email personal
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "All Imcoming Personnel"
   from      "Director W. Banks"
   subject      "Welcome Message"
   text 
   {
   "Welcome to Mars Marine.\n\n"
   "I would like to take a brief moment of your time and welcome you to what we call our 'home away from home'. We will make every effort to make your stay here as pleasant as possible, and if you need something, please feel free to contact your supervisor for immediate assistance.  I hope that you can find the time to take advantage of some of our great staff amenities.  As a reminder, we engage in technical, highly secure testing and research here, please refrain from wandering into unauthorized areas.  Any security team member will assist you if help is needed.\n\n"
   "Sincerely,\n"
   "Director William Banks\n"
   }
}

email personal2 
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Sergeant Kelly"
   subject      "Report to Marine HQ"
   text 
   {
"Marine,\n"   
"Report to Marine command as soon as possible.  Don't waste any time getting here.  We're short on troops and I need you out on patrol as soon as possible.\n\n"
   "Sergeant Kelly\n"
   }
}

email personal3
{
   date      "11-15-2145"
   to         "Marine"
   from      "Budmeister"
   subject      "All Locker Combinations"
   text 
   {
   "Marine,\n\n"
   "Here are those Locker Codes you requested.\n\n"
   "Passwords\n"
   "Cabinet Lock Codes\n"
   "Enter these on the panels found on the numbered cabinets through out the game.\n\n"
   "Password...............Effect\n"
   "#001...................396\n"
   "#003...................483\n"
   "#009...................752\n"
   "#013...................586\n"
   "#017...................347\n"
   "#023...................531\n"
   "#038...................409\n"
   "#039...................102\n"
   "#047...................123\n"
   "#048...................123\n"
   "#049...................123\n"
   "#054...................246\n"
   "#054 (second)..........142\n"
   "#063...................972\n"
   "#064...................651\n"
   "#078...................364\n"
   "#079...................364\n"
   "#103...................259\n"
   "#104...................579\n"
   "#112...................538\n"
   "#114...................715\n"
   "#116...................972\n"
   "#116 (second)..........624\n"
   "#117...................624\n"
   "#213...................371\n"
   "#215...................298\n"
   "#317...................841\n"
   "#386...................836\n"
   "#387...................836\n"
   "#452...................571\n"
   "#666...................372\n"
   "#669...................468\n"
   "Martian Buddies 1 and 2........0508\n"
   "Weapons Storage 1 and 2........734\n\n"   
   "Have a nice day,\n"
   "Budmeister\n"
   }
}

And have instant access to all the locker codes.

Bud

Hi i know the thread is old, but I felt its the most appropriate place to post at

I'd like to know how I can edit the "weapon info", which is located in the normal game on the bottom right. thanks

The pda.gui points to a string in the english.lang file.
Example:
pda.gui

Code:

               onMouseEnter {
                  transition "TextWeapName::forecolor" "1 1 1 0.8" "1 1 1 0.4" "150" ;
                  set "TextWeapName::text" "#str_06780" ;
               }

               onMouseExit {
                  set "TextWeapName::forecolor" "1 1 1 0" ;
                  set "TextWeapName::text" " " ;

english.lang

Code:

   "#str_06780"   "PIPEWRENCH"
   "#str_06781"   "Pipewrench"
   "#str_06782"   "Plain ordinary pipewrench. People have no idea how deadly a pipewrench can be in the hands of a trained killer."

Bud

Thanks dude, I overlooked the string folder

-edit- Hmm seems like I can't find the part which shows the weapon specs. I only managed to find the weapon names in english.lang

Also, does anyone know how I can edit english.lang?