ALFA Books Reading & Writing

New models, textures, & integration of 3rd party content.

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bartleby
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by bartleby »

I thought id try out the new Movie Posting you tube thing I made some promotional stuff i need to redo the title but everything else is decentish you tube made the video look like crap but i uploaded the two videos to the tech ftp theres also a done version of books and an instalation read me.



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hollyfant
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by hollyfant »

The resolution doesn't do it justice.

Wow. Just wow. :hail:
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Wynna
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by Wynna »

Dear heavens, Bartleby. I cannot WAIT to have this in game. Thank you for your effort.
Enjoy the game
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indio
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by indio »

Good grief.

You've created a mini-game, an entire roleplaying mechanism within NWN2. Bravo.
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Keryn
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by Keryn »

when can we see this IG *drools*
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AcadiusLost
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by AcadiusLost »

About #4 or #5 on my priority list ATM. Stay tuned.
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Rotku
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by Rotku »

My god, Bartleby! That is amazing! Have you posted those videos to the vault?
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bartleby
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by bartleby »

My god, Bartleby! That is amazing! Have you posted those videos to the vault?
Thanks for the kind words! I have the videos posted in higher res and better quality on the vault here. Hopefully the actualy book pack should be released publicly some time after alfa adopts it.

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... ail&id=158
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bartleby
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by bartleby »

If anyone would like to give these a try a beta version is up on the vault

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... ail&id=273
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Aelred
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by Aelred »

Hi Bartleby - I tested out the no DMFI version and have a few questions.

How do I use the toolset to make books that will open up using this tool? I tried making a copy blueprint of the base item then changing the name, and tag and adding text to the description (as you would normally do with a book) but ingame this item will not open up. Is it designed only to be used within the game itself? via a player character or DM? Or can I create the books with the toolset?

My dream is to create a library of books for Myth Drannor that would be written in original languages and have pictures? But it would make sense if those same books could also be passed to other servers for their respective libraries. Is this possible?

When I tried it ingame I wrote out text and closed the window. Sometimes on opening the book the page was blank until I went to the edit panel and clicked the translate button and then it would appear. Seemed like it wasn't loading correctly. I also used the personalize button to name the book but it didn't seem to do anything to the item. Is this dependent on saving first? And does the item actually get renamed in the mod so if I looked with the toolset it would have a different name now?

Possibly all of this is dependent on all that server stuff I am clueless about SQL Nwnx4 et all. If so, sorry for the noobishness.

One request from me, a real life artist and calligrapher, please use the beautiful elegant flowing elvish 3rd Edition Espruar and not the horribly ugly alien 2nd Edition Espruar.

UGLY 2nd Edition Espruar:
Image

BEAUTIFUL 3rd Edition Espruar:
Image

I've posted the .ttf up on my Cormanthor wiki on the Learn Elven page or just click here for the font
3rd edition Espruar.

The font is also available on the Candlekeep site (see Espruar 2) where they give credit to Reed "Celebithron" Williams.

Your other choices for fonts for all the different languages look amazing as does the font you use for the UI.

Thanks for all your hard work on this project!
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Kest
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by Kest »

Aelred wrote:One request from me, a real life artist and calligrapher, please use the beautiful elegant flowing elvish 3rd Edition Espruar and not the horribly ugly alien 2nd Edition Espruar.
Not sure if I already mentioned this, but anyways I agree completely.
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bartleby
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by bartleby »

Aelred wrote:Hi Bartleby - I tested out the no DMFI version and have a few questions.

How do I use the toolset to make books that will open up using this tool? I tried making a copy blueprint of the base item then changing the name, and tag and adding text to the description (as you would normally do with a book) but ingame this item will not open up. Is it designed only to be used within the game itself? via a player character or DM? Or can I create the books with the toolset?
As of right now there is no finalized means of inputing text to the book without having to type it out. So cant toolset them yet ... Im not settled on what the best way to do this would be yet and could use some input from builders.

Currently I have a 100% working prototype done that uses GUI screens to automaticly input text from a text box where you would store the books text. (Good thing about this method is there is no limit to the size of txt Im not sure if thats the case in the toolset i thought there was a char limit to descriptions there that wouldnt allow longer books to be written if this isnt true it might be easier to do it they way you suggested : ) )

So the way the protype works is you make a copy of an item with the tag "alfa_static_book" and rename it to the name of the book lets say "hamlet" and create a copy of a base static .xml file rename it to "alfa_stat_book_hamlet.xml" and insert the text you want the book to have in a text box located there. Then an on activate script exists that will take the name of the book and use it to open the correct gui screen that has the text and let the user choose to initilize the book or not. If the user chooses to initilize the book it everything keeps going as if it were just a normal book.

So to make a new book via the gui system:
1) Copy base book obj + rename it to name of book
2) Copy base book xml + rename it to name of book
3) Open .xml file and enter the text you want in the place labels "Put Text Here"

Done

After that the txt is stored on the actual book itself and will work anywhere the book scripts exist even if the initilization .xml file isnt present. (This could be changed if needed for static books but not for readable writeable)
Aelred wrote: My dream is to create a library of books for Myth Drannor that would be written in original languages and have pictures? But it would make sense if those same books could also be passed to other servers for their respective libraries. Is this possible?
100%
Aelred wrote: When I tried it ingame I wrote out text and closed the window. Sometimes on opening the book the page was blank until I went to the edit panel and clicked the translate button and then it would appear. Seemed like it wasn't loading correctly. I also used the personalize button to name the book but it didn't seem to do anything to the item. Is this dependent on saving first? And does the item actually get renamed in the mod so if I looked with the toolset it would have a different name now?

Possibly all of this is dependent on all that server stuff I am clueless about SQL Nwnx4 et all. If so, sorry for the noobishness.
The blank page seems odd to me i dont think ive seen anything like that. When you are creating a book currently you shoudl input text starting with a <sl:***> to choose an inital starting language if one isnt selected it is supposed to default to common but that may not be working try starting your text with <sl:com> and see if that fixes it maybe it may be a bug so thanks! As far as renaming the book goes it shoudlnt rename it in the tool set it shoudl only rename the specific instance of the book and it may take some time i think its just the nature of the function i genearaly put the book down and pick it up a few times but it does change sooner or later. Right now im not using any SQL Nwnx4 or database type things too so no need to worry about that

Aelred wrote: One request from me, a real life artist and calligrapher, please use the beautiful elegant flowing elvish 3rd Edition Espruar and not the horribly ugly alien 2nd Edition Espruar.


I've posted the .ttf up on my Cormanthor wiki on the Learn Elven page or just click here for the font
3rd edition Espruar.

The font is also available on the Candlekeep site (see Espruar 2) where they give credit to Reed "Celebithron" Williams.

Your other choices for fonts for all the different languages look amazing as does the font you use for the UI.

Thanks for all your hard work on this project!
Thanks a ton man and i will definitly try to use the nicer elven i didnt know it existed and in the lack of having any actual cannon info i just defaulted to what was spelled out for me. I will try to see if the font works with the books I think it should if you know of a fixed width version those are the easiest and thanks for the links they help a ton!
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Wynna
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by Wynna »

Oh. My. God. Bartleby....I finally had time to go in and test this out. It is...astonishing. Amazing. Everything I could have ever wanted for University, book-based RP. It worked perfectly first time -- except for your inbuilt personalization box. I couldn't make that work, but the DMFI renames things just fine. A little practice was all I need to learn the ins and outs of your system.

I would now like to be able to identify individual books in game. The tag can't change, as I understand it, but do you use the SetName function in your personalization function that I couldn't make work? I'm going to dig into the depths of the DMFI naming functions, too. It seems to me the best way to script an identification of individual books is to search first for the common tag, to identify it as an act_book, then for a unique name. After that, my brain is bursting with possible applications.

Thank you, so very much, for all your work on this.
Enjoy the game
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bartleby
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by bartleby »

Hehe thanks Im glad it worked! Oh and the renaming some times just takes a bit of time droping it and picking it up again some times works but it should eventualy change it.

Final Version is up on the Tech FTP its called "ALFA Books with DMFI Final.rar"

Last push was not easy but hopefully worth it. New 3rd edition elven is in and static book support is finaly done. Dms can easily copy and paste any book into a renamed static book template xml file and have it accessable in game. As examples i have three versions of hamlet added to the sample mod. I also have the full old AMP in as well to illustrate pictures. Parsing still takes a while maybe one of these days ill be able to make a small C program that parses the text for you outside of the game and formats the text before you get into it but that may take a while and even so i would keep the ability to do it in game so its done!

To make a custom book all you have to do is copy and rename a static template book object (hamlet will do in this mod all it needs is the correct tag) remember the name and make a copy of a template xml file (one of the hamlets will work in this mod) rename the last part of the xml file (after the alfa_bk_ ) to the name you had to remember above and look for where its labeled for text to go and paste in there you can also paste in image instuctions if you would like!

I hope people like it!
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hollyfant
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Re: ALFA Books Reading & Writing

Post by hollyfant »

Was this ever actually implemented on the live servers and if so: how can PCs get their hands on something to write on?

And if not: why the :evil: not?
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