SCROLLING (DEATH) MESSAGES

"Machismo"
cool_machismo@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

A quick tutorial on how to set up scrolling messages so that it displays the frag status - like in DM-Morpheus. Personally speaking I like to see my name in lights when I'm on top of the dogpile.

HOW TO DO IT

1. Lets do a quick tutorial map. Carve out a room 256x1024x1024, place lights and a palyerstart.

2. Time to do the scrolling screen. Load the Scripted.utx texture package and make your screen to display the message using the Condemned Scroll texture. Remember this is the screen, you can add in fancy decorations on the side for the box to house your screen in, so to speak. For now make a sheet brush u=256 and v=32 x or y orientation. Add this in using the condemned scroll as the texture. That should finish your screen for now. I've found doing this in any other way without these measurements really screws it up.

3. Now for the most important part. From the classes browser expand info and then client scripted texture. Locate and add a Scrolling Message Texture actor in front of the screen that we made before.

4. Go to the properties of the scrolling message texture and set it to the following:
(a). Expand Client Scripted Texture and under Scripted Texture hit the use button after seeing that the condemned scroll texture is still selected.
(b). Now a matter of setting all the necessary things under Scrolling Message Texture (still in the properties sheet) to the following:
i. bCaps- Whether the full message has to be in caps.
ii. bResetPosOnTextChange- True as you want the frag status to be updated regularly. What this does is that once the message has scrolled across if a change occurs in the position then it will change the display to match status
iii. Font- Enter this: Font'Scripted.CondemnedFont'
iv. FontColor- Don't choose something stupid like black. Just hit the ... button at the end and choose the color that you want.
v. PixelsPersecond- 130, how fast the message will go across the screen.
vi. Scrolling Message- The message to be displayed on the screen. %lp means that the player who has the leading frags will see his name here and %lf shows the amount of frags that person has (%h to define whether player is "his or her").
vii. ScrollWidth- How much of the added in "screen" the message will scroll across and the length of the message that will be displayed 
viii. YPos- How high the text will appear on the "screen" we built.

5. That's it rebuild the level and you should see the message going across the screen.

SOME TIPS

• You can use this in CTF games to denote the red base and the blue base. You could have a big screen out side the blue and red base stating that it is that base. One problem though, whereas in deatmatch you would most probably use the same texture for all the screens remember that it will all display the same message. For the blue base screen use the condemned scroll texture and for the red base use the message scroll texture2, and for any other signs the different textures available. Make sure that when you set up the scrolling message texture under client scripted texture make sure the scripted texture that you used for each screen is used for the texture.

• This means that you don't have to create a new picture and have it imported in to describe something like Launch Control Room. Just use these different screens for the different descriptions of the various rooms.