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[EN] Recursive Extras

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Valdir da Costa Júnior edited this page May 12, 2018 · 25 revisions

New extra (variations) system

Utility

Before proceeding, be sure to read the Introduction.

The current variation part system of GTA SA is very limited. This function aims to eliminate these limits.
It works on a whole new system (without replacing the current game extras system), providing many advantages.

Strong points:

  • Unlimited amount of extra parts (originally is only 6);
  • Extras on literally any part of the vehicle, can vary doors, bumpers, wheels etc, including working damage;
  • Recursive system: When an extra is selected, it will select a child, and so on, creating a "grouping" where an extra will only appear if the other appears;
  • You can define how many extras from each grouping will be selected;
  • Possibility to add extras also on trains (originally is possible in all vehicles types except trains);
  • Can be used in conjunction with the Characteristics para criar variar características de um veículo.

Weak points:

  • If the player who download your vehicle mod doesn't have VehFuncs installed, all extras will be visible by default.

Basics

The basic syntax is as follows: The above image is self-explanatory and already teaches you the basics of how it works.
Note that the name "extra" is just an example, it can be anything else.

Before proceeding I want to make it clear that the system is very flexible and convenient, you do not need to use too much memory, even, the names of the functions can be written in any order and as you please. In fact, each node doesn't even need a name, nor some visible model inside it.

If you want to do wheel variations, you need to read also about Variable Wheels.

Trigger 'f_extras'

f_extras is a "trigger", that is, a node that represents the starting point; it will always be visible, however, there doesn't have to be any model inside it, it can simply be a dummy (an empty node).
All childs of f_extras will be considered "extras". Note that they can have absolutely any name, don't need to be called "extras" as in the image above.

Suffix ':'

Read this as "select X childs", for example :2 will select 2 childs; :1 will select 1 child (the default); :0 may select 1, or none.
As said, if you use : by default will select 1 child, but if the parent has only 1 child? So will have 50% of chances to the child be selected. To force that the single child always be selected (100% of chance), use the suffix :1 on parent. As said, you can use :0 to create a chance to select no child. For example, there's 3 childs and you want to select one of them, but you also want a chance to select none of them, just use :0 on parent. But probably what you will most use is the :0+ or :1+. To understand, the + at the end is literally "randomize up to maximum quantity", so, if you use :0+, it will select no one, or one, or some, or all childs! As so :1+ will select at least one, or some, or all. In short, the number after : mean "select at least this" and the + mean "...randomly up to the maximum possible".

Damage

You can use extras inside damageable parts, as bump_front_dummy, just add normally inside it and include _ok or _dam at end of the extra part name as needed.
It's important to remember that it's still necessary to have the original damage parts. That is, in this example, it's still necessary for your car to have some bump_front_ok and bump_front_dam otherwise the damage will be completely disabled, but don't put them inside the f_extras because it will not work correctly. Here is a correct example of use.

Characteristics

It is possible to use the Characteristics along with extras, thus enabling the vehicle to have certain features based on which extras were selected.

In the above example,

  • The mod will select randomly the extras gas or cargo;
  • If select gas, will also apply a custom ID driver (190) configured at drv=190 ("drv" from "driver") and the paintjob 1 configured at pj=1 (from "paintjob"), which would be a gas truck painting;
  • And what is that :2? How many child extras will be selected;
  • In this case, the childs of gas extra is cylinders and interior, will select both;
  • cylinders have 2 extras which contains variations of cylinders, will be selected and 1 of them will appear;
  • Interior has 3 extras and is set to select 2 extras (:2), so you will select 2 of 3: magazines and/or bottles and/or crowbar. If select bottles, there is also a chance to select cup;
  • And if gas was not selected? Will be selected cargo;
  • Selecting carga, the script will apply a custom driver of ID 160 or 161;
  • And we have 2 extras: furniture and rubble, where if rubble is selected, will apply between 7 and 9 dirt level ("drt" from "dirty") (the setting goes from 0 to 9).

If you find it confusing, that's fine, at the bottom of the page there's an easier example, but it's also important that you understand the basics of this.

Read more about Characteristics.

Class selection

Right, we learned to put extras somewhere in the car, but how to communicate between different parts of the car?
After all, for example, we want a decal to appear on the doors if a ladder appears on the roof (chassis).


In the example above we have f_class that will select unocompany ou unoold. If unocompany is selected, the category will be defined [unocompany].
When you process door extras, you can apply the companydecal[unocompany]. Note that in the example there is a 50% chance that the decal will be applied or not. If you want to force the decal to always appear if the [unocompany] has been selected, in f_extras_ok and f_extras_dam, let f_extras:1_ok and f_extras:1_dam, so will always select, as explained above.

It's possible to create different versions/models of the car inside the same .dff, like this example:

You can also place characteristics in the class name, so the characteristics will be applied soon if this class is chosen.

Note: Only one category per node is supported. Also remember that the mod process the nodes from top to bottom, so the class selection should stay on top.

And what happens if we have brothers from the same class?
If there are 2 nodes brothers marked with the same class, the operation of choosing the extras will be exactly the same between them. However, if you have set the suffix":" as a number greater than the total of brothers, will first be selected among the brothers from the same class, and then select the nodes that are left over that there's no category (very convenient, no?).

See a last example similar to what we saw before. Inside ZModeler:

Examples

Tractor + Cart

Uses the extras system. In the cart is a great example of :1+.
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