Ultimate Stunters Main SCM

[Dannye]

So I have ended up doing some more work on the (Vice City engine) USCM project. Not only were a few old bugs, strange behviours, and missing features bothering me, but also the source code was horrible and I really wanted to make it better. I'm still in the middle of it, but being excited for the improvements I thought I'd share some of the user-facing changes coming soon:

• Ghost-town setting will be correctly remembered on save/load.
• Weather changing now cycles sequentially through each weather type. Is not random anymore. Also there is an option to let the game take control back of the weather instead of having it locked-in.
• More spawners (looking at 8 sets of them - the usual two, which use left/right keys, now include two more on up/down - and now you can use spawners while jetpack is enabled, and it spawns different vehicles [including boats/skimmer] and that should mean 4 more sets).
• ALL functions work while in/under-water. It used to be that you could use the teleport functions but nothing else. Not anymore! When on foot, you can even enable jetpack and fly out of the water (and thus I have removed the on-foot 'water respawn' function, because jetpacking out is so much more useful).
• If trigger jetpack during certain player animations (eg. crashing off a bike), you previously might not have been able to use the mouse to turn - now you can. Jetpacking will also include strafe-left/right and move-backwards, as well as a button which if held will decrease jetpack speed.
• With the on-foot functions that interact with your last car (teleport into vehicle, bring vehicle to player, bring player to vehicle), there will now be a separate setting that can be toggled to affect which vehicle these functions interact with, your last one OR your second last one.
• (and maybe some more, not sure yet)

Also included will be the significant behind-the-scenes improvements, and as such with the source I'll include on release, it would be much simpler for anyone who desires to jump-in and make any changes and/or copy it into the scm of a different map mod, or whatever.

But an important note, anyone who is using the really old gamepad version, the one with most features excluded, I am currently not thinking of making any changes to that (it is too much trouble to maintain such a significantly different version), so hopefully you are happy to stick with what you have already, or consider trying one of the other fully-featured variants (which includes another one designed with gamepads in mind) that will come with the new release and hopefully will work okay for you.

Cheers all, stay tuned!

[Jason]

The big dawg!!

[Blaze]

Always gave me a chuckle

[Dannye]

Always gave me a chuckle

Haha yes, that silly mistake has done well to stick around all these years, but I think perhaps now it is time to finally say goodbye to it.

[Dannye]

All the new features/fixes I wanted have now been implemented, yay! The next steps for me will be trying to setup all the variants for the different control layouts, and for each of the main games/mods (VC, LC and probably SAiVC if I can). Other than that just some changes to american.gxt and getting the documentation up to scratch, and that should be about it hopefully!

Regarding gamepad stuff I am now thinking I will include *both* gamepad variants: the fully-featured one (previously called version B ) plus the original less-features one. The latter will continue to have many features turned off, but I will include ALL the features in the code, just without the button combinations to trigger them. This makes it easier for me to maintain the codebase with all variants intact, plus now anyone who prefers that version also has the option to jump into the code and activate any of the disabled features with (relative) ease - they just gotta decide what game actions to map them to (and be keen to dabble in some scm coding).

Now for the fun part, here's some more new stuff I've been able to add to the project (in addition to bug fixes and code simplification):

• (the stuff from my earlier post https://www.gtastunting.net/index.php?topic=9046.msg1369708#msg1369708), plus...
• While jetpacking, you'll now be able to use any other (on-foot) feature, including teleporting. Also you can now jetpack along multiple axes at once (eg. you can now hold left + forward to go diagonally; this also acts as a way of going faster).
• Along with the 8 sets of 8-vehicle spawners, there is one additional 'random vehicle spawner'. In case you want the game to help you decide your next stunt!
• You can now also save your game at any time, while on foot    (yep, even while jetpacking, if you desire). Just press the button combination and up pops the save screen, no more needing to head to a safehouse.

[Aries]

Great work, Dannye  That save feature is awesome!

[Dannye]

Thanks Aries!

Things have progressed well, and now the main thing left is documentation. But while I work on that, I was wondering if I could get a little help from anyone here regarding the potential SAiVC version I am making.

It seems there are a number of different proper/customised versions of 'SA map in VC'-type map mods out there, and multiple different base main.scm files floating around for each. So in my attempt to build the v7 USCM with support for SAiVC, there are some unknowns there. The one I have built thus far seems to work great for me in the two different such map mods I have tried it on, but I don't want to assume that will be the case for everyone.

So, here's a link to my current/potential v7 USCM for SAiVC: https://easyupload.io/bywpq6

If anyone wants to have a quick try of this on their SAiVC installation, and see whether it works okay, let me know how it goes. If it seems to have decent compatibility then I will incorporate it into my upcoming proper v7 USCM release (along with the VC and LC versions), otherwise I might just keep it a separate thing.

Thanks!

[Amaluna]

Am I allowed to suggest things to add to the SCM? There's something I'm sure a lot of stunters would LOVE to have. And if it's possible to make, it'd be freaking fantastic.

I'd love to see save warps and load warps, where in your runup you can save location somewhere and upon loading, it keeps the speed you had at the time. It'd make stunt testing significantly easier. Not sure if it's realistic to make. But I know this works on MTA. You know better than I if it's a possibility or not.

I'm sorry if you don't accept suggestions, I'm just opportunistic right now.

[Prog]

I'd love to see save warps and load warps, where in your runup you can save location somewhere and upon loading, it keeps the speed you had at the time. It'd make stunt testing significantly easier. Not sure if it's realistic to make. But I know this works on MTA. You know better than I if it's a possibility or not.

it already exists, but for me it is modding.
the stunt is already easier nowadays, taking a run up is an integral part of a try.

[Amaluna]

I'd love to see save warps and load warps, where in your runup you can save location somewhere and upon loading, it keeps the speed you had at the time. It'd make stunt testing significantly easier. Not sure if it's realistic to make. But I know this works on MTA. You know better than I if it's a possibility or not.

it already exists, but for me it is modding.
the stunt is already easier nowadays, taking a run up is an integral part of a try.

For me it is modding as well. Loading the warp with the speed saved will also show in the rep. Hence why I specified I wanted it for testing. Sorry if it was unclear.

And you say it exists, do you happen to have a link to it? I'd like to test some stuff with it!

[puzzLe]

Awesome to see how the community's kind of coning back together. Thanks for still putting work into the scm 15 years down the line, Dannye 🙌🏼
Have you ever considered adding a perfect north/south keybind to it by the way?

[Dannye]

Am I allowed to suggest things to add to the SCM? There's something I'm sure a lot of stunters would LOVE to have. And if it's possible to make, it'd be freaking fantastic.

I'd love to see save warps and load warps, where in your runup you can save location somewhere and upon loading, it keeps the speed you had at the time. It'd make stunt testing significantly easier. Not sure if it's realistic to make. But I know this works on MTA. You know better than I if it's a possibility or not.

I'm sorry if you don't accept suggestions, I'm just opportunistic right now.

Happy to hear suggestions, and I appreciate the feedback! Regarding your idea, that's not something I have looked into before and I am not sure how to go about it (nor certain whether I would want to include it in the primary USCM project or not). But the best part of the upcoming release is that the source code will be included and is much more accessible than its ever been (aka no longer a horrible mess of undecipherable code ), so hopefully that opens the door to anyone willing/able to customise it, and since it sounds like the code you are after may already exist (based on Prog's reply), then perhaps someone else could create an alternate version of base USCMs which includes it for you?

Awesome to see how the community's kind of coning back together. Thanks for still putting work into the scm 15 years down the line, Dannye 🙌🏼
Have you ever considered adding a perfect north/south keybind to it by the way?

Thank you for the support puzzLe  . Regarding your suggestion I am not certain what you mean by it - something like a button which rotates your player/vehicle to face those precise directions when you press it? If so, what kind of use-cases do you have in mind for it?


All that said, I am leaning towards the whole thing being feature-complete for now, and hopefully having a release over the weekend, so not thinking about any other changes (at least at the moment), other than bug-fixes if necessary/possible. But, as I mentioned above, I would have no objection to anyone taking the source code I bundle with the release and making any additions they see fit!


Thanks all, fingers crossed I'll be able to get the whole thing up soon for ya

[PrzemOO]

Would it be posaible to convert your updated code into SA USCM? Not specifically asking you to do so, but rather if the games are somewhat compatible in that regard.

[Sheep]

@Dannye you can do perfect front/backflips with bikes if you go directly to north/south in SA engine.
There was cleo mod made by Ptrvy afaik. Maybe having it in uscm its easier to use? No idea

[Dannye]

Re Sheep/PrzemOO: Thanks for the explanation about the north/south thing, I never knew about that quirk of the SA engine. It would be nice if the SA USCM could be brought up to the same level as the VC ones, but its been a very long time since I last looked at the SA USCM, so I really don't know how easy it would be. I am not going to commit to anything, but maybe I'll look into it at some point. (Sorry to all the SA stunters who have been a bit let down in the USCM department, I admit my focus has always leant more towards VC)


Anyways:
A new version, v7, of the Vice City engine Ultimate Stunter's SCM is finally here, 15 years since the very first release (yikes!  ). It includes the USCM for Vice City, Liberty City and SAiVC (I can't be sure of how well it works for the latter, with many different versions about, but it seems to be okay for 2 I tested it on).

Download here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/ultimate-stunters-scm/downloads/vice-city-uscm-v7
(hopefully with this hosting I won't have to worry about dead links anymore)

I've already mentioned some of the changes recently, and its all covered in the documentation file I've included in the download (don't feel like you have to read it all, it goes on a bit - there's lots you can expand in there for even more detail), but here's a quick rundown of some of the main stuff:

• Can make a savegame at any time while on-foot
• Can toggle between your last and 2nd-last vehicle, for which will be used by certain on-foot Features that interact with a prior-vehicle
• All USCM variants do better at accepting the use of any type of input device, aka better support for gamepads regardless of which variant you use (as a result, the old names I had for each variant made no sense anymore, but dont worry, all 4 are still included, and I note their old names as well as their new ones, so you should be able to find what you are after)
• Can use any Feature while jetpacking or in/underwater (including using jetpack while underwater, thus no need for on-foot-based Water Respawn Feature anymore)
• Jetpack has more movement options (more directions, simultaneous movement on multiple axes, slow/fast, etc) and wont be able to get stuck in an animation that prevents turning anymore
• A bunch more vehicle spawners (4 while on foot, each of them spawning different vehicles if performed while jetpacking), including an extra one which spawns a single random vehicle
• Weather changing will go sequentially through the supported weather types, instead of randomly, and includes one extra step of letting the game take over (aka allowing weather to change naturally)
• Bug fixes!! (eg. ghosttown wont get forgotten on loading a saved game; you will no longer be able to teleport into a destroyed car that had been underwater; and more)
• Massive source code overhaul - the code is included in release, and is much more accessible for anyone wanting to get in and change stuff
• Please see the changelog section of the included Documentation file for a more thorough run-down of all the changes.

Regressions in v7, and/or things to consider before using, in case you would prefer the behaviour of older verions instead:

• Old savegames wont work, and I haven't included new ones, sorry, so you will have to start a New Game the first time you use this (for VC, it still includes the [not perfect, but better than nothing] attempt at ensuring most things are open/unlocked from the start at least; for LC and SAiVC it shouldn't matter anyway, well, outside of the loss of previous savegames you may of had been using for the purpose of Teleport Locations)
• I removed the second 0-stars case in the Wanted Level Up/Down feature, which set you as having '0 stars, not ignored, and can be carjacked'. It was the only step which allowed the latter (but surely no-one wanted that while stunting anyway), and as for the prior the 1-6 stars steps all still support that. I am hoping this isn't a dealbreaker and was a relatively unused feature, with most people either staying on '0 stars and ignored' or picking a specific star level, which is all still possible.
• You should never have been able to have jetpack enabled while in a vehicle, but previously it was possible, if you really tried. It had no effect once in the vehicle, but as soon as you got/fell out you could immediately, and possibly accidentally, start jetpacking again. None of this was ever intended, and thus now I have added the 'Enter Vehicle' button as an additional trigger to disable jetpacking. In addition, if you perform a Teleport Load (into a vehicle) while jetpacking, it will also disable it.
• Because you can now perform other in-vehicle functions while underwater in a vehicle, there was a conflict with the old button used for the vehicle-based Water Respawn Feature - it could be accidentally activated while trying to press a button combo for a different feature. As such, I have changed the trigger for vehicle water respawns to 'Camera' - which I admit may be a little annoying (as it will also change your camera angle), but at least no other Features conflict with that. Hopefully this also wont be a big deal as it won't get used much - it's only relevant for car (not bike) stunting, and in most cases you've probably already got a Teleport Location you could Load instead.