Dynamic DNC

[Strydhaizer]

Hello, I'm looking for someone who can make a "dynamic" DNC for my map. I will really appreciate it if someone can help.

 

[ThisPOT]

Just curious, what is a DNC?

 

[Strydhaizer]

Day - Night Cycle, it's the lighting that changes depending on what time it is ingame.

 

[ThisPOT]

What are you trying to get done? I can probably help with that.

Just some system where you can manipulate the timers or day and night during game?

 

[Strydhaizer]

No not a system, I want someone to make me a modified version of the default DNC with the preference I need for my map.

In the Warcraft 3 CASC/MPQ (depending on which version you have), explore Environment / DNC / DNCAshenvale (for example) then you can edit either the Terrain or the Unit (since both are the same anyway).

By default we have Dawn, Dusk, Noon and Midnight, the Noon emits white ambient color while midnight emits the blue color.

Now these are the specifics/preference I need for the custom DNC.

Noon - RGB (45, 45, 45)
Dusk - RGB (30, 25, 25)
Night - RGB (15, 15, 15)
Dawn - RGB (30, 35, 35)
Intensity and Ambient Intensity - 200
Attenuation Start and Attenuation End is not necessary to be edited because it does nothing special anyway.

It's a complicated work (at least for me), it requires someone who has skill in modifiying hex data (based on the tutorials I've read) and I can't follow it myself (even the author of the tutorial admitted that most of the reader may not understand it, and I am one of it) which is why I am asking favors to someone else who can.

 

[ThisPOT]

Hmm I'm not sure I understand what you need, but I will try to help (I'm all right with color codes and lighting wether its hex or RGB or w/e). What is it exactly that you are trying to do though?

PS: Sorry for the long wait was on the phone, also I can't find this MPQ, can you upload it? (I'm using the newer version so I don't think its there by default unless you extract it?)

PPS: By dynamic you are saying that it will update/adapt according to certain factors, I believe all this can be done better via triggers (I think)

I understand better what you are trying to do after doing some research.

I believe the best way to do dynamic lighting would be a combination of triggers and editing the DNC.
Design each DNC have a different "time of day" effect, and make timer with triggers to go through them to give the feel of the day actually going by (not just day and night, but the whole feel).

What is Dynamic Lighting ?

Your desired colors converted to hex (trying to do your request atm, but that file is a mess):

|cff2D2D2D
|cff1E1919
|cff0F0F0F
|cff1E2323

 

[Strydhaizer]

No, I already tried making static DNC for each hour of time and it's not good, it shouldn't be that way, it is not the best way either. First, the transition of lighting is terrible if you change the DNC lighting when the time hits an hour (ex. call the DNC with 40,40,40 RGB at 12:00 using custom script, then call 35,35,35 RGB at 1:00). Second, I will have to make a lot of DNC with different colors just to make the transition smooth every hour.

This is the reason why Im asking for someone who can edit the existing animated DNC instead of making alot of DNC just to recreate one animated DNC.

Your desired colors converted to hex (trying to do your request atm, but that file is a mess):

|cff2D2D2D
|cff1E1919
|cff0F0F0F
|cff1E2323

That's not the hex I'm talking about, view the tutorial I've linked at my previous response and find 'Hex'.

 

[Hermit]

All Im asking is an edit of the existing DNC to maintain it's animation/transition and not making it a static.

I don't see why you can't do that with just War3 Model Editor. Just click the "Color" button and set the Interpolation Type at the bottom of the window to "linear" to create smooth, gradual color transitions.

Color is animated in lines that look like this:

v: {x, y, z}

v - animation keyframe
x - blue
y - green
z - red

The colors use values from 0 to 1.

The animation lasts from 333 to 60333, so make sure those two frames are identical to make the animation loop seamlessly.

You just have to figure out at what time of the day the animation starts (noon, midnight, etc.)

 

[Strydhaizer]

It doesn't work as easy as that sadly, I already tried editing the DNC's RGB colors (both color and ambient color) with my preference but when you try to edit it, save it and import it to my map it will all just pitch black even if you import it to the correct path or call it with custom script.

This is what happens when you directly edit the colors using Magos Editor.

 

[Hermit]

It doesn't work as easy as that sadly, I already tried editing the DNC's RGB colors (both color and ambient color) with my preference but when you try to edit it, save it and import it to my map it will all just pitch black even if you import it to the correct path or call it with custom script.

It works, I just tested it. Magos has a few problems when it comes to saving models in the MDX format, so make sure to save the model as an MDL and then use MDLX Converter to convert it to MDX.

 

[Strydhaizer]

I actually did the painful way (the triggers with lots of static DNCs) a week ago. I wish I learned that earlier, that's so much easier compared to the tutorial I've read and the triggers + lots of DNCs that I made.

Spoiler

Your method actually works, I'm actually surprised, I've been trying to edit dynamic DNCs for years and I only learned to make it work from you. Thank you very much!

Spoiler