Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: General Battuta on June 03, 2014, 02:17:09 am

Title: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: General Battuta on June 03, 2014, 02:17:09 am: It's messages.tbl. The default organization on that table is a huuuuuuge waaaaaste of tiiiiiime and it is just there to SLOW YOU DOWN.

Group your messages by persona, not type. Copy paste them all in a big ol' block every time you want to add a new persona! Liberate yourself from pointless busywork!

Spoiler:
i haven't actually tested to make sure this works but hey
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: ssmit132 on June 03, 2014, 04:51:29 am: It should, since I've done it before. Much easier to deal with it that way!
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Nyctaeus on June 03, 2014, 05:54:30 am: Icons.tbl sucks. Instead of something like current custom briefing icon feature implemented in 3.7.1, we had... Yeah. Icons.tbl. With totaly lack of proper system of implementation custom briefing icons [impossible without replacing some existing ones] and strange table structure [new species will not work without their own entries in icons tbl, even if the same as terran or vasudan ones etcc.]. Working with icons.tbl may be instinctive and frustrating for new members.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: procdrone on June 03, 2014, 07:21:00 am: Quote from: General Battuta on June 03, 2014, 02:17:09 am
It's messages.tbl. The default organization on that table is a huuuuuuge waaaaaste of tiiiiiime and it is just there to SLOW YOU DOWN.

Group your messages by persona, not type. Copy paste them all in a big ol' block every time you want to add a new persona! Liberate yourself from pointless busywork!

Spoiler:
i haven't actually tested to make sure this works but hey

I double that.

messages.tbl is such a pain....
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: zookeeper on June 03, 2014, 08:38:59 am: The mere existence of weapon_expl.tbl seems colossally dumb too.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: General Battuta on June 03, 2014, 10:04:53 am: Quote from: ssmit132 on June 03, 2014, 04:51:29 am
It should, since I've done it before. Much easier to deal with it that way!

You are clearly much smarter than me, I just thought of it.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Dragon on June 03, 2014, 11:07:28 am: Quote from: zookeeper on June 03, 2014, 08:38:59 am
The mere existence of weapon_expl.tbl seems colossally dumb too.
Yeah. Remind me again why it isn't deprecated already. A small change to default number of explosion effect LODs would've made it completely redundant. I even proposed it at one point in SCP forum (don't remember why they didn't make the change).
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: swashmebuckle on June 03, 2014, 01:43:47 pm: I nominate music.tbl, where you get to carve up your song into chunks and calculate their measure lengths (based on sample rate!), and then maybe the game will be able to sort of dynamically respond to whether there are enemy ships near the player and transition from one chunk to the next in a kind-of-but-not-really seamless manner (assuming your music doesn't have any tempo or metric variation).
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Boomer20 on June 03, 2014, 06:06:46 pm: I vote the weapons tables in general, mainly cause they never work as intended for me and cause theres a table here and table there and really why cant it be all one easy to do table instead of 3 [I think correct me if I'm wrong]
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: fightermedic on June 03, 2014, 07:13:30 pm: Quote from: swashmebuckle on June 03, 2014, 01:43:47 pm
I nominate music.tbl, where you get to carve up your song into chunks and calculate their measure lengths (based on sample rate!), and then maybe the game will be able to sort of dynamically respond to whether there are enemy ships near the player and transition from one chunk to the next in a kind-of-but-not-really seamless manner (assuming your music doesn't have any tempo or metric variation).
agreed
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Axem on June 03, 2014, 08:10:29 pm: pixels.tbl

Code: [Select]
+ND 255 255 255 +ND 41 41 255 +ND 255 0 0 +ND 0 255 0 +ND 255 244 126 #END
Liek wtf
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: niffiwan on June 03, 2014, 09:28:12 pm: pixels.tbl? What the... I don't even...
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Shivan Hunter on June 03, 2014, 09:31:57 pm: it (and the similar entries in ships.tbl) defined pixel colors that would be rendered unlit, so they were always bright. Unusable with htl code unless they were passed to the shaders, which would be dumb anyway since shaders use glowmaps instead.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on June 03, 2014, 09:36:21 pm: I think pixels.tbl wins the "dumbest table" award hands down, then.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Dragon on June 03, 2014, 10:06:33 pm: Don't forget hud.tbl. It literally existed only to list available shield icons in the mod. Good thing it's obsolete now. At least pixels.tbl used to do something useful...
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Black Wolf on June 03, 2014, 10:59:55 pm: pixels.tbl was glowmapping before we had glowmapping. Therefore, it's awesome, if potentially a tad clunky. Any table that exists to list files rather than drawing them from the file structure directly is dumb, IMO - elements of stars.tbl, the old hud.tbl, but icons.tbl is the dumbest - at least, the way it works with species_defs.tbl. And Species.tbl had the dumbest name.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Shivan Hunter on June 04, 2014, 01:19:24 am: yeah, pixels.tbl doesn't deserve the hate it got, it's just deprecated. hud.tbl legit sucks though.

I guess species.tbl is so named because the only tech entries in FS1 were Terrans, Vasudans and Shivans. Damn short entries, too.

[edit] there is another contender! http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Menu.tbl
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: ssmit132 on June 04, 2014, 01:33:20 am: Quote from: General Battuta on June 03, 2014, 10:04:53 am
You are clearly much smarter than me, I just thought of it.
:nervous: I don't even remember when I worked it out since I have played around with messages.tbl every so often for years now. I probably just dumped a new persona at the end of the table to see if it worked. So that means it may not work now but I don't see why it shouldn't since all the information for what each message needs is there in the entry.

I wouldn't say messages.tbl is the dumbest table, though. At least hud.tbl isn't needed anymore, that was pretty silly. I agree with Black Wolf that icons.tbl is a bit annoying too if you're adding new species. It would be nice if you could define generic icons for all species rather than have to have entries for all of them (granted, you can do that by simply copying the entries for the amount of species you have, but still). And yep, species.tbl should have a different name, too - it was obsolete even in vanilla FS2!

Finally, how about mflash.tbl? Sure, it has more of a use than weapon_expl.tbl, but would it make more sense for it to be defined in weapons.tbl now? Especially if few, if any, weapons are going to have the same muzzle flash (e.g. even if it's the same colours, you might want to vary the size).
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Nuke on June 04, 2014, 02:47:03 am: Quote from: Axem on June 03, 2014, 08:10:29 pm
pixels.tbl

Code: [Select]
+ND 255 255 255 +ND 41 41 255 +ND 255 0 0 +ND 0 255 0 +ND 255 244 126 #END
Liek wtf

those bring back memories. those were used for the few lucky people that were able to run retail in glide.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Rodo on June 04, 2014, 01:52:57 pm: I do agree with music.tbl, such a pita to make it work.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 04, 2014, 02:09:03 pm: Quote from: Nuke on June 04, 2014, 02:47:03 am
Quote from: Axem on June 03, 2014, 08:10:29 pm
pixels.tbl

Code: [Select]
+ND 255 255 255 +ND 41 41 255 +ND 255 0 0 +ND 0 255 0 +ND 255 244 126 #END
Liek wtf

those bring back memories. those were used for the few lucky people that were able to run retail in glide.

Nostalgia bomb detonated.

My voodoo 3 :(
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Scooby_Doo on June 04, 2014, 03:25:25 pm: LOL I almost bought a voodoo 5 a couple years ago. It got donated to us but I have no use for it anymore LOL
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Nuke on June 04, 2014, 04:22:34 pm: voodoo 3 was one hell of a card.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Col. Fishguts on June 05, 2014, 05:49:57 am: Quote from: Dekker on June 04, 2014, 02:09:03 pm
Quote from: Nuke on June 04, 2014, 02:47:03 am
Quote from: Axem on June 03, 2014, 08:10:29 pm
pixels.tbl

Code: [Select]
+ND 255 255 255 +ND 41 41 255 +ND 255 0 0 +ND 0 255 0 +ND 255 244 126 #END
Liek wtf

those bring back memories. those were used for the few lucky people that were able to run retail in glide.

Nostalgia bomb detonated.

My voodoo 3 :(

Get off my lawn with your modern shenanigans!

*strokes SLI Voodoo2 cards in retro-gaming rig*
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 05, 2014, 09:37:59 am: Free copies of battlezone and tomb raider included?
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Nuke on June 05, 2014, 09:43:20 am: Quote from: Col. Fishguts on June 05, 2014, 05:49:57 am
Quote from: Dekker on June 04, 2014, 02:09:03 pm
Quote from: Nuke on June 04, 2014, 02:47:03 am
Quote from: Axem on June 03, 2014, 08:10:29 pm
pixels.tbl

Code: [Select]
+ND 255 255 255 +ND 41 41 255 +ND 255 0 0 +ND 0 255 0 +ND 255 244 126 #END
Liek wtf

those bring back memories. those were used for the few lucky people that were able to run retail in glide.

Nostalgia bomb detonated.

My voodoo 3 :(

Get off my lawn with your modern shenanigans!

*strokes SLI Voodoo2 cards in retro-gaming rig*

i owned a voodoo 1 so hah!
get off my lawn.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 05, 2014, 11:11:35 am: Matrix millennium ftw.
Title: Re: Which table is the dumbest?
Post by: Scooby_Doo on June 05, 2014, 10:03:52 pm: Quote from: Dekker on June 05, 2014, 11:11:35 am
Matrix millennium ftw.

LOL Matrox Mystique FTDW!