Map abnormalities

This thread is meant as a record of all the strange abnormalities discovered in the original Sierra maps.

These abnormalities are discovered while reverse engineering the .SCN mission files using community made tools.

Mission A

Mission A has several entities that seem left over and don't work. Perhaps this happened when they switched from 3D studio max to Worldcraft as the map editor.

- an entity with no classname. You can tell it was a light entity by the fields. Tested. Doesn't work in game
- a light entity with no color field. Tested. Will give pure white light as in 1.000 1.000 1.000
- a gun entity with a spawnflags field. This shouldn't exist. Is this a mistake that happened in Worldcraft or is this a spawnflag the developers forgot to put in?
- a target entity with a spawnflags field.
- "a_teak.bmp" texture missing from game but mentioned in .SCN file.


Mission F

Mission F has the following issues:

entity 942 has null classname attribute
entity 2064 has null classname attribute
entity 2065 has null classname attribute
entity 2066 has null classname attribute
entity 2067 has null classname attribute
entity 2068 has null classname attribute
entity 2261 has null classname attribute
entity 2262 has null classname attribute
entity 2263 has null classname attribute
entity 2264 has null classname attribute


Mission R

Mission R has following issues (all of them char_start entities):

entity 1954 has null classname attribute
entity 1955 has null classname attribute
entity 1956 has null classname attribute
entity 1957 has null classname attribute
entity 1958 has null classname attribute
entity 1959 has null classname attribute
entity 2214 has null classname attribute
entity 2215 has null classname attribute
entity 2216 has null classname attribute
entity 2217 has null classname attribute
entity 2218 has null classname attribute
entity 2219 has null classname attribute


Mission S

Mission S (char_start)

entity 1526 has null classname attribute

Mission W - Sunshine shooting range

Mission W has the following fields in the Worldspawn entity (most of them are not valid for Swat 3):

0x00382ddc: classname -> "worldspawn"
0x00382df5: message -> "SWAT Mission A"
0x00382e10: sky -> "swat2_"
0x00382e1f: sounds -> "1"
0x00382e2c: gravity -> "1200"
0x00382e3d: skyaxis -> "0 0 1"
0x00382e4f: skyrotate -> "1"

The message "SWAT Mission A" is interesting. Perhaps they originally planned on this being the first mission. Sort of a training mission. This map may have originally been built in 3D Studio Max?


Mission V

Mission V had the following as part of the worldspawn:

0x001969a1: Origin -> "-747.5000 -77.0000 167.5000"
0x001969c8: Origin -> "-258.5000 -140.0000 -41.5000"
0x001969f0: Origin2 -> "-258.5000 -81.0000 -41.5000"
0x00196a18: Origin -> "-12.5000 -71.0000 -44.5000"

How and why would this be here? It is used on door entities.

The Import Store - MissionL

The Import Store's front door behaves in ways that can't be duplicated with Worldcraft. I suspect this map was originally built in 3D Studio Max.

If you shoot the middle of the door it behaves like glass but when you shoot other parts it behaves like wood. This sounds normal but isn't possible to do in Worldcraft the way the door is constructed.

Usually bullet hits are assigned by material. A texture can only only be assigned to one material at a time. The door uses the same texture for the whole door. Using Worldcraft the only way to replicate the exact same behavior is to use two different textures.

UPDATE:  Using the Swat 3 Browser Map Viewer you can actually see that the door has invisible glass geometry laid over the top.  Since you can't tie two entities together (ie the door and a func_solidref) the texture on this glass geometry must be transparent and probably assigned the transparency in another editor other that Worldcraft.

I suspect that this is one of those original 3D Studio Max made maps because some of the door entity fields are not valid. An example of this would be "mass"...the only entity to use mass is actors. Other invalid fields are "Latched", "AutoLatch", "MinAngle" "CollideActors", "CollideWorld".



Ramps: Normally in Swat 3 stairs can't be higher than 8 units high otherwise the player can't climb them. To get around this limitation map makers usually build a ramp at no more than a 45 degree angle. Any ramp even slightly larger angle won't work and when you descend this sort of ramp your officer model travels really fast downwards.

Somehow on MissionL the original map makers had ramps greater than 45 degree angle. Not sure how they accomplished this.

UPDATE:  According to Copy-Cat the ramp can be greater than 45 degree angle by ticking Weaker Clip and No Player Clip



Lights: The buildings across the street from the import store don't have a light entity hitting them but somehow they are not in shadow. Not sure how this was achieved. Must be a light build done 3D Studio Max.

Mission decals/sprites that are in the .dat file but don't actually exist:  l_poster4, l_doorsmudge, l_clothes_4, l_papers_3, l_papers_5, l_picture5 thru l_picture9, l_mask, l_tallpot, l_pot_4, l_candlestand.   Sometimes the textures exist but there is no entity in the map to make it work.

Mission I - TV station

There are 3 sprite/decal entities that are not positioned properly in the TV Station map. The original map makers have the entries in the "i_sprites.dat" file but they don't show up in the game. You can even see that they added light entities to specifically light up these missing decals.

Decals/sprite entities can be touchy. If you position them even 1 unit too close to a wall they won't show up when you run the map. They may have built the map in 3D Studio Max and then finished the map in Worldcraft (the problem wasn't noticed when they switched to the different editor).

i_poster5b
(poster of Donna in her dressing room)
origin -221 214 821 (fixed with -221 214 818)


i_poster5
(poster of Donna in green room)
origin 393 68 946 (fixed with 390 68 946)


i_bullboard
(bulletin board in control room)
origin 38 217 1061 (fixed with origin 38 217 1051)

The question is how many other maps also have this issue? I have seen that other maps also have missing decals but I never tried hex editing (or using SCNHacking) the origins to fix them before this.


Update 1:
Also noticed two decals that were placed badly and needed to be removed. They were the base of tables on the "disco" set. The dance floor is actually made of decals and the base of the tables were also decals. You can't place two entities on top of each other like that. I removed the two bad ones but kept the one that is properly placed on floor geometry.

sprite: table_base (entity 1526)
origin: 677 8 204 (delete because it was buggy)

sprite: table_base (entity 1527)
origin: 752 8 127 (delete because it was buggy)

Mission A:

If you strip the light maps and then rebuild it some lights are missing. I suspect the original build of this map was done in 3D Studio Max before they switched to Worldcraft.


* Entity 143 is a light_spot entity and works only in a non-existent cell named "hall_cell"

* Entity 146 is a light_spot entity in the dining room but it uses a target called "dininglight" that doesn't exist

* Entity 152 has no classname but appears to be a flickering light_spot entity. It works only in a non-existent cell named "hall_cell"

* Entity 160 is a light_spot entity and works only in a non-existent cell named "hall_cell"

* Entity 161 is a light_spot entity and works only in a non-existent cell named "hall_cell"
The origin of this entity is outside the kitchen window shining in the damaged louvers onto the kitchen counter top. If you rename it to function in the cell named "kitchen" the light shows up and works.

* Entity 172 is a light entity that acts as the sun. The "porch" cell should have been included in the list of cells that this light entity works in. Mistake by the developers.