Dev FAQ   

NOTICE that these answers are written before May 28, 2003's Public Beta 3.

Question: Where do I find more painter/builder tutorials?

Answer:

A list of builder tutorials

Designing clothing for There

Builder_Developer club (for builders with approved items only)

New Designer Support League (NDSL)

How to apply for funding from the NDSL

Question: Previewer crashes with error "choosing pixel format failed" or "video card problem"

Answer:

If the Previewer fails to launch through the automatically created shortcut, then delete the shortcut and recreate it from the original executable.  The shortcut probably has incorrect working directory.

Question: Where are the clothing client files?

Answer:

(from whimsy)

There/ThereClient/Resources/av/

ft0 is female, mt0 is male.

Inside the male and female folders are more folders...
ub = shirts
lb = pants
sh = shoes
hr = hair
hd = head (eyes/lips)
 

If you still have your default white tshirt that you got as a newbie, you can replace it by using this file name:

t0075avmtub_sk1white.jpg.dds
 

(from storm_chan)

There > There Client > Resources > av > mt0 > ub

ft0 is for the female stuff and mt0 is for the male stuff. I'm pretty sure that ub stands for upper body.. lb for lower body.. sh for shoes.. hr for hair.. and hd for head (as in facial features).. that should help you navigate them a little better. I had to figure all that out myself. I know how hard it can be trying to figure it out on your own. =)
 

Question: Where can I find a list of skin tones?

Answer:

http://www.fergusonv.com/skinpics/

Question: How do I open .dds files in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro?

Answer:

(from KittenKat)

I'd also recommend downloading the patch for Photoshop which allows you to open .dds files and the application which allows you to see the thumbnails of .dds images... both are available at

http://developer.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=ps_texture_compression_plugin

 ... it makes it much easier to weed through the thousands of .dds files.
 

(from pog)

1. download the dlls and unzip them to your C:\Windows\system directory (or any other directory that appear in your PATH, if you know what you are doing)

2.Download the plugin and put it ino the file formats folder for Photoshop. restart the computer and it should work. When opening the dds Windows will say it cant find a program to open it. Point it to Photoshop. When the file loads it will ask about Mip Maps, click no and you will have the texture.

3. Download the Thumbnail viewer as well. In stall it and change the view in any folder u want to use to "Thumbnail"

In the There folder under There Client/Resources, The importaint folders I use the thumbnail viewer for are the av and bg folders. the av folder contains fto and mto folders , fto for female clothes and mto for male clothes. The bg folder contains the buggys.

(from mercuria)

I used the DirectX8 Texure Tool under Utilities to view .dds files until I finally got the PSP plug in.
 

Question: Where do I find a Painter Tutorial?

Answer:

(from Randra_Loqqet)

http://www.loqtech.com/there/dev/tutorials/painting101.htm

Question: There Gamepak loading problem

While loading gmax using the There Gamepack, at the initialization, I get an error with this message:
"DLL <gamepacks\There\ModelExporter.dle> failed to initialize"
 

Answer: (from slyder)

I've found the solution to this problem. It seems as though the dynamic lib 'ModelExporter.dle' requires access to the There client's binaries. Therefore the one must put the path to the 'ThereClient' subdirectory in one's system's PATH env variable. in win2k this is done through controlpanel->system->advanced->environmentvariables.  Add to the 'Path' env variable
 

(from Randra_Loqqet)

wow, excellent catch slyder. its working now for me after i added the ThereClient to the path. good job! I had tried adding in the gmax and therebuilder dirs to my path, but i never figured it would need the THERECLIENT in there as well.

I wonder why it wasnt there and/or why it was there the previous time.. perhaps a raw PB2 install doesnt include in in the path, since when i had it working on my previous OS install i had upgraded from PB1, whereas now i was going from a straight PB2 install. There_Dev, any thoughts ?

you dont want to make a new variable entry (which from the sound of it you are?), but rather you want to append to the existing PATH variable in the System Variables. just tack it on the end of whats already there, and be sure to use a ; after the entry that precedes it.
 

Question: How do I access the Developer website during off hours?

Answer:

First login to the There Forum: http://forums.prod.there.com

Once you are there, you can paste the following URLs onto your browser's Address box to access Developer site as well as auction site:

http://developer.prod.there.com/ (Dev)

http://webapps.prod.there.com/catalog/ (Shop)

http://webapps.prod.there.com/items/home (Auction)

Notice that you may not be able to access these pages from your work site.  I think some companies' firewall, filter or information security mechanism redirect your requests, and I haven't spent time figuring out how to make Dev-site-at-off-hour work under those situations.

Question: How do I search for past discussions on the Forum?

Answer:

The forum doesn't have Search capability yet.  The best way to search at this moment is to use the Control-F search functionality built-in in Internet Explorer.  Go to the forum most appropriate for the kind of questions you have in mind.  Then use Control-F to search for words in the subject line of posts.  This is not optimal, as you can't search for words in content nor words in subjects that are now shown on your current page.  It may help to change your Forum preference, so you are sorting posts by decreasing "Last Post" date.  Also, when you post, give the subject line of your posts a descriptive text, so that future forum readers can quickly find past posts.

We have found that at times, you can access this URL to search forums.  Just paste this into your browser's address box, after you login to the forum:

http://forums.prod.there.com/forums/search.pl

Questions: Where can I find other Painter/Builder tutorials?

Answer:

Obviously, go to the There Dev site (http://developer.prod.there.com/) and download the Dev kit, read tutorials, look at third-party dev site list, etc.

More sites:

Randra_Loqqet's painter tutorial

My shark hoverboard tutorial

Clothing painter tutorial from There dev site

Question: What is the difference between Radical and Cruiser hoverboards?

Answer: (from satire)

In fact, way back in the day radicals were the only way to go. Since only cruisers could be modified, though, cruisers are now dominating the market.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. The Radicals move SLIGHTLY faster, by maybe a few miles an hour. Also, they jump higher. They both boost to exactly the same speed, for exactly the same length of time. With tactics, a good cruiser boarder can out-race a radical board with ease.

Biggest difference to notice, though: They look different, have only one large get instead of two little ones, and the animations while on them are different.
 

(from Myrmex)

After switching back to my radical yesterday, I discovered that it handles better than the cruiser. Well, maybe not better, per se, but it is MUCH more responsive, ESPECIALLY when you're pulling tricks. For example, jumping off a cliff and doing a clockwise spin, I would estimate I was rotating about twice as fast as I did with my cruiser board. And I think that it turns a bit faster, too. It's hard to say for certain, though because I tend to use both the arrow keys and the mouse to make sharp turns. But I think the radicals do turn quicker. Which, I think, is why most people race on cruiser boards, they're much easier to control in a racetrack environment. That, and the fact that if there are any jumps in the course, you tend to sail too far when you're ridin' a radical.

(from HUGSaLOT)

It used to be that cruisers boards were some what cheaper than radical boards in Shop Central. Now all boards are exactly the same price, except for the Grommet board, and the Jaws. They even cost more than most Buggies! I think the price of cruisers should not exceed 10k.

Radicals are faster at both cruising speed, and BOOST speed than a cruiser. The boosts last as long as the cruisers does. However a cruisers boost speed is faster than a radicals cruising speed.

Radical boards have a quicker/tighter turning radius than Cruisers. This maybe because they respond/spin/flip faster than cruisers.

Radicals do get higher air/jump height simply because they are faster boards. Since, if you did a jump from a stand still the height is the same as with a cruiser board.

Cruiser boards seem to be easier to pull off the "tornado" trick, than with Radicals. but I have been able to do it on both.

What's the "Tornado" trick? it's when you jump in the air, land on the tail end of your board, and hit the boost as you hit the ground. What happens when done properly you'll twirl around, making "donuts" with your boost contrails.
 

Question: How do I make the dds-compression work better?

Answer: (from chiasmodus)

About "adding noise" I have seen that mentioned in the Clothing Painter Tutorial available for download on the Developer site. It says:

"*Tip: The file compression used by There to reduce texture file sizes can do some ugly things to the appearance of flat fields of color. Using a slight Noise Filter on your image will give the compression software more to work with and give you better inWorld results."

I have successfully used this method on one of my recent designs where I was using large flat areas of 2 colors. The 2 colors were bleeding together quite badly but adding a bit of noise did the trick. :)
 

Question: How do I add bookmarks to the in-world browser?

Answer: (from Digital_Signal_X)

I've been struggling with the in-game browser function for a while. I suspect a lot of people (myself included) rarely uses the in-game browser because it lacks a bookmark functionality and requires you to type in addresses by hand. Not to mention the 800x600 viewing, etc.

Well, I got the first part covered. You're aware that it defaults to your home page: so if you have a default home page with all your links on it, it adds about 100% more functionality in my book. It allows me to keep There Full screen almost exclusively now.

Here's how: Download 'bookmark exporter' from KLMsoft.com or download.com.

Export all your favorites in IE to a file. Edit the file as you see fit or leave it as it sits.

Open that file, and make it your new default home page.

Viola!

If you use netscape as your "out of there" browser, you can do this already, as your bookmarks are already saved in a single HTML file inside the program files/navigator/user/ directory. Just make that your default home page in IE.
 

Question: How do I add a spell check browser plug-in?

Answer: (from HUGSaLOT)

Install IEspell. This little app gives you a spell checker in your web browser, and it works PERFECTLY fine with in There. I use it to spell check forum posts, Auction descriptions, Event descriptions, just about anything that has an edit field you can spell check.

All you have to do is highlight the text you wanna spell check, right click it, and "check spelling" will appear in the popup menu. It's that simple! and is FREE!

http://www.iespell.com/
 

Question: How do I download the There client again for installation on another machine?

Answer: http://webapps.prod.there.com/xform?app=/download/download

Question: How do I take screenshots?

Answer:

• If you are tired of going back and forth between There and Paint Shop Pro, you can download Mad_Dugan's There_Capture utility. You can download it here.  It allows you to have a worry-free screen capturing spree.  You just keep pressing print-screen, and the utility saves pictures with serial numbers to a directory you specify beforehand.

http://theredev.onestop.net/There_Capture.zip

You can also join the ThereWare club:
http://webapps.prod.there.com/clubs/clubs?op=home&id=103120143
 

Question: I've heard of magic keys to show object id?

Answer:

CTRL+SHIFT+P    Show performance bar

CTRL+SHIFT+D    Show a unique id for each object in-world