FPS Mod FAQ Read before asking

Most of the detailed information regarding how to run the FPS Mod on your computer and how the code in FPS Mod works can be found in:

http://fps.wc3campaigns.com

In fact, most of the things covered here can be found simply by accessing fps.wc3campaigns.com. This FAQ is mainly for visitors who are unsure about the FPS mod and don't know if they want to download it, or simply to put up a nice big fat notice for those who are too lazy to check the above address before asking a question.

If you have any questions, post them in the "Having Trouble" topic. If a question warrents enough attention, I'll put it here since Ganon has left the site :( and can't update the guide.


Q - What is FPS Mod anyway?
A - FPS Mod is a project that developed a method of creating a FPS (First person shooter, e.g. doom, half-life, etc.) using normal Warcraft world editing.

Q - Can I make my own maps with FPS Mod?
A - Of course you can! The sample map provided when you download the FPS Mod provides the skeleton that you can use to build your map from. It includes moving, the camera and its various functions, and shooting.

Q - What can FPS Mod do?
A - FPS Mod was used to build a first person shooter, but it's not restricted to that.
Basically, the FPS Mod control program allows you to use Warcraft World Editor to detect events that are never able to be detected on normal world editor, like the mouse moving, and the PRECISE pressing and releasing of keys on the keyboard. This allows many more things to be done on the warcraft world editor, not just first person games but also third person games, even platform games, fighting games, flying games, top-down view action games, and about anything you can think of.
The FPS Mod sample map contains code that allows you to consistently maintain the camera above the ground, simulate jumping and physics, shooting bullets, and many others. For the full explanation, go to http://fps.wc3campaigns.com

Q - What can't FPS Mod do?
A - By itself, without any other heavy modifications, multiplayer is not possible using FPS Mod by means of battle.net. Other than that, pretty much everything depends on what you can do with the world editor.
Multiplayer is also illegal under the EULA (although blizzard probably couldn't care less) and, as the FPS Mod team has said, takes too much time.

Q - And what else can't FPS Mod do?
A - It can't work on mac. Yup. No planned mac support.

Q - Who made the FPS Mod?
A - A lot of people, actually. The key players are TheEpigoni, Ganon, and Stonedstoopid. Kattana (however you spell it and however the upper-lower-casing is), Nicoli_s, and others also did the triggering and art that you can find in the "Download the FPS Mod here" topic.

Q - Okay, I've downloaded the FPS Mod, now what do I do?
A - If you downloaded it, you should have seen this, but I'll quote it anyway:


Q - My FPS Mod is not working! Help!
A - If a new version of warcraft has been released, then FPS Mod won't work until the control program is updated. Currently (patch 1.18), the old FPS Mod control program won't work. You have to download the Permedit zip file in the stickied thread "Solution to not finding problems".

Just to end off, here are a few bugs found or gathered already over my experience with FPS Mod. Some are solvable, the rest probably are but haven't been solved by me. If you have any more bugs or solutions, post them in this thread. If you need clarification, do that too.

Bug - The camera sinks slowly into the ground when I lock onto no unit.
Solution - What causes this is the CamZAdjust function in your custom script area, it should be somewhere near the bottom. In this section, you should see a few lines, something, than 0.01 at the end. When not locked on to any unit, this 0.01 gradually causes the camera to sink into the ground. To solve this, change the 0.01 to 0.00. HOWEVER, if the value is 0.00, when you DO lock the camera on to a unit, the camera will fly into the air and do all sorts of weird shit. I tried replacing 0.01 with udg_aVariable, and setting aVariable to 0.00 and 0.01 depending on whether the camera is locked onto something, but it somehow doesn't work. So what I do is I use an if-else and a boolean. If the boolean == true (when there is a unit locked on), I run the default action. Else, I run the action replacing 0.01 with 0.00.

Bug - I can see the model of my unit when I'm in first person view.
Solution - You can try to reduce the size of the model or push the camera in front. Since this is a single player game though, you can set the transparency of the FPS Unit to 100% when you're in 1st person, assuming that you want to see the unit later and want to make him visible again.

Bug - When I run against a wall, my FPS unit suddenly zooms at LUDICROUS SPEED.
Solution - This is not FPS Mod's fault. It happens everytime worldeditor tries to move an object into a barrier at an angle that isn't the normal. If you can solve this (other than by just issueing orders which isn't very good), let me know.

Bug - My unit won't play the walking animation while walking.
Solution - FPS Mod models replace the standing animation with the walking animation so that it can be played. By default, the walking animation cannot be called on reliably, so instead FPS Mod plays the standing animation and meks it seem like it's walking.

Bug - My unit slowly moves up walls.
Solution - I have no intention of looking at the movement trigger and height triggers anytime soon, but those are the cause of it. The way I do it is to make the unit a ground unit, but this doesn't solve things. If you have any solution, let me know.

Bug - My map crashes.
Solution - Known causes for map crashes that exist exclusively in FPS Mod are:
- Setting the initial facing angle of the FPS unit within a certain region (just rotate him and solve this).
- Setting the height variables to be too long making it overflow into the next line (this actually is a problem all the time but usually you never need to have such a long variable). Just make the map no larger than 192x192.
- Not unlocking the FPS control while switching maps. Before maps are opened, keep the FPS control program untabbed. Do not lock it. Once the map is loaded, give it some time before locking the controls.

Bug - The sample map doesn't work at the start.
Solution - You must remember to delete (or modify until it works) the grenade firing trigger and all related actions. Also, if firing doesn't work, you have to change the currentweapon to 2 (by typing /weapon 2 or by doing it in the world editor).

Get on IRC (or use a private message / e-mail) and ask Draco to give you FTP access, so that you can update the guide. It's still all intact. Maybe you could complete the changes I was trying to make back in the summer.