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Checkpoint system for spawnpoints [Print this Article]

Posted by: jim_the_coder
Date posted: May 12 2004
User Rating: N/A

Number of views: 2001
Number of comments: 5

Description: A checkpoint system designed for cooperative play but possible in other game modes.

The purpose of this tutorial is to help you implement a checkpoint system into your mod. This means you start at checkpoint 0, and as you pass each checkpoint (who's number is set in Hammer/Worldcraft) it records your progress. When you die, you then respawn at the highest number checkpoint you passed. You can have multiple checkpoints with the same number; these will be picked from at random. I use this in my mod for large cooperative maps where you don't want to have to restart from the beginning of the map to catch up with the team every time you die. As my mod has four teams, there's also a master setting which allows you to specify which team can use the checkpoint. If no master is set, anyone can use it.

NOTE: This tutorial is based on code which incorporates the team system from the well-known tutorial by DarkKnight. If you have not completed this tutorial then the code may not function correctly.

To begin with, we need to actually implement our info_player_coop entity. Go into subs.cpp, and underneath CBaseDMStart::IsTriggered (or if you've changed stuff, just after all the CBaseDMStart stuff), add this code:

	CODE (C++)
	// ****************** // jim - checkpoint entity // ****************** class CBaseCoopStart : public CPointEntity { public: void Spawn( void ); void PassCheckpoint( void ); void EXPORT FindThink( void ); CBaseEntity FindEntity( void ); void KeyValue( KeyValueData pkvd ); void Use( CBaseEntity pActivator, CBaseEntity pCaller, USE_TYPE useType, float value ); private: float m_flRadius; // range to search }; #define SF_COOP_TRIGGERONLY 0// trigger only option in hammer LINK_ENTITY_TO_CLASS(info_player_coop,CBaseCoopStart); // // Spawn the entity and decided whether or not to look for players in the radius // void CBaseCoopStart::Spawn( void ) { // ALERT( at_console, "Coop spawn point spawned, master %s, checkpoint number %i\n", STRING(m_sCheckpointMaster), m_iCheckpointNumber ); if ( !(pev->spawnflags & SF_COOP_TRIGGERONLY) ) SetThink( FindThink ); pev->nextthink = gpGlobals->time; } // // Read off values set in hammer // void CBaseCoopStart::KeyValue( KeyValueData pkvd ) { if (FStrEq(pkvd->szKeyName, "number")) { m_iCheckpointNumber = atoi( pkvd->szValue ); pkvd->fHandled = TRUE; } else if (FStrEq(pkvd->szKeyName, "radius")) { m_flRadius = atof( pkvd->szValue ); pkvd->fHandled = TRUE; } else if (FStrEq(pkvd->szKeyName, "master")) { m_sCheckpointMaster = ALLOC_STRING(pkvd->szValue); pkvd->fHandled = TRUE; } else CPointEntity::KeyValue( pkvd ); } // // What to do when the entity is triggered by another ent // void CBaseCoopStart::Use( CBaseEntity pActivator, CBaseEntity pCaller, USE_TYPE useType, float value ) { CBasePlayer pPlayer = NULL; // cast the entity to a player... if ( pActivator ) pPlayer = (CBasePlayer)CBaseEntity::Instance( pActivator->pev ); // check it was a player and that they're not dead (don't let dead bodies fall into triggers!) if ( pPlayer && pPlayer->IsAlive() ) { // if we're trying to activate a checkpoint that's greater than the highest one we've reached and it's not the first one... if ( pPlayer->m_iCurrentCheckpointNumber < m_iCheckpointNumber && m_iCheckpointNumber > 0) { char text[128]; sprintf( text, "%s activated checkpoint %i\n", STRING(pPlayer->pev->netname), m_iCheckpointNumber ); UTIL_SayTextAll( text, pPlayer );// notify everyone who activated which checkpoint PassCheckpoint();// update everyone with the current checkpoint } } } // // Search for entities think code // void CBaseCoopStart :: FindThink( void ) { CBaseEntity pEnt = FindEntity();// call our entity finding function CBasePlayer pPlayer = NULL; if ( pEnt ) pPlayer = (CBasePlayer)CBaseEntity::Instance( pEnt->pev );// cast our entity to a player... // check it was a player and that they're not dead (don't let dead bodies fall into checkpoints!) if ( pPlayer && pPlayer->IsAlive() ) { // if we're trying to pass a checkpoint that's greater than the highest one we've reached and it's not the first one... if ( pPlayer->m_iCurrentCheckpointNumber < m_iCheckpointNumber && m_iCheckpointNumber > 0) { char text[128]; sprintf( text, "%s reached checkpoint %i\n", STRING(pPlayer->pev->netname), m_iCheckpointNumber ); UTIL_SayTextAll( text, pPlayer );// notify everyone who activated which checkpoint PassCheckpoint();// update everyone with the current checkpoint } } pev->nextthink = gpGlobals->time + 0.5;// don't search again for 1/2 a second } // // The actual entity finding function called by FindThink // CBaseEntity CBaseCoopStart :: FindEntity( void ) { CBaseEntity pEntity = NULL; // run through all the entities in a sphere (size set by radius in hammer) while ((pEntity = UTIL_FindEntityInSphere( pEntity, pev->origin, m_flRadius )) != NULL) { // and return then if they're clients if ( FBitSet( pEntity->pev->flags, FL_CLIENT ) ) { return pEntity; } } return NULL;// if we don't find any, return NULL } // // Update all the players on the server with the current checkpoint // void CBaseCoopStart::PassCheckpoint() { for ( int i = 1; i <= gpGlobals->maxClients; i++ ) { CBaseEntity pEntity = UTIL_PlayerByIndex( i );// get the player entities by their indices CBasePlayer pPlayer = (CBasePlayer)pEntity;// cast them to CBasePlayers if ( pPlayer )// check the player's valid and then set the checkpoint number pPlayer->m_iCurrentCheckpointNumber = m_iCheckpointNumber; } } // ******************** // jim - end checkpoint entity // *********************

Now for an explanation of this code; there's quite a bit going on. Firstly, the check point can be either reached or activated. If you set a radius value and don't check "Trigger only" in Hammer, then the checkpoint will be reached when a player enters that radius. This is simple and effective.
Activating the checkpoint can be done in two ways. Having named the checkpoint, you can then target it with a button to activate it when pressed. This way you can skip out several checkpoints if you want to map it like that. The other more useful use of activation is if you don't want to use the radius search (which isn't that great as if you set it large it will go through floors to the next level etc making activation a bit of a hit and miss affair with people being able to reach it from corridors which aren't supposed to allow access to the checkpoint yet. In this case, just make a brush-based trigger_once and target the checkpoint. Now you can cover several corridors, or just put a small trigger somewhere instead of a sphere. If you want the checkpoint to only be activated and not reached, you can check the "Trigger only" in Hammer. If you still want to allow it to be reached, leave this unchecked.
Note: setting the radius value to 0 merely makes the checkpoint effectively a point entity. It doesn't disable the radius find function.

Anyway, next we need to declare our variables somewhere. Open up cbase.h, and in the CBaseEntity class add this right at the bottom after int m_fireState;

	CODE (C++)
	int m_iCheckpointNumber;// jim string_t m_sCheckpointMaster;// jim

These store data about the checkpoints themselves. We also need to store which is the highest number checkpoint reached by the player. Open up player.h and put this at the bottom of the CBasePlayer class under float m_flNextChatTime;:

	CODE (C++)
	int m_iCurrentCheckpointNumber;

That's everything done for the actual spawnpoints. The other piece of code we need to change is the spawn point select function. Open player.cpp and find the EntSelectSpawnPoint function (just above CBasePlayer::Spawn()). It should read like this:

	CODE (C++)
	// choose a info_player_deathmatch point if (g_pGameRules->IsCoOp()) { pSpot = UTIL_FindEntityByClassname( g_pLastSpawn, "info_player_coop"); if ( !FNullEnt(pSpot) ) goto ReturnSpot; pSpot = UTIL_FindEntityByClassname( g_pLastSpawn, "info_player_start"); if ( !FNullEnt(pSpot) ) goto ReturnSpot; }

Replace that code with this:

	CODE (C++)
	// choose an info_player_coop point if (g_pGameRules->IsCoop()) { ALERT(at_console, "EntSelectSpawnPoint: looking for info_player_coop\n"); std::vector<CBaseEntity> spawnPoints; while( (pSpot = UTIL_FindEntityByClassname( pSpot, "info_player_coop" )) != NULL ) { // jim - if it's valid and the spawnpoint's number matches our current number if( !FNullEnt(pSpot) && pPlayer->m_iCurrentCheckpointNumber == pSpot->m_iCheckpointNumber ) { // jim - if theres no master set, we can use this one... if ( FStringNull( pSpot->m_sCheckpointMaster) ) { //ALERT(at_console, "info_player_coop: No master set\n"); spawnPoints.push_back(pSpot);// add this to the list } // jim - but if there is a master set... else { // jim - and it matches my team (or i'm not on a // team or i'm an observer) we're allowed use this one as well if ( (pPlayer->pev->flags & PFLAG_OBSERVER) \|\| !strcmp( pPlayer->m_szTeamName, "") \|\| !strcmp( pPlayer->m_szTeamName, STRING(pSpot->m_sCheckpointMaster)) ) { spawnPoints.push_back(pSpot);// add this to the list } } } } // using rand() (with the maximum set to the size of the vector) // choose a spawnpoint CBaseEntity pMySpot = spawnPoints[ RANDOM_LONG( 0, spawnPoints.size() -1 ) ]; // check it's valid if ( !FNullEnt(pMySpot) ) { g_pLastSpawn = pMySpot;// tell the code it was the last spawnpoint used return pMySpot->edict();// return this spot } // JIM - our mappers are clever and know how to use this system, // but it's easy to screw it up - // for example if you forget to make a checkpoint for a certain team, // and then don't have any points with blank masters so they're unable // to spawn and it might crash the whole server (will have to test) // Also there's a risk that a certain number, say 4, might not have // a master for each team and again have no points with blank // masters. You might want to code in something which allows // players to spawn as many checkpoints further back as // neccessary if theres no valid points for this number. // Or you can just do what I did, which was to write a little loop // that goes through each point and checks that there's either // one with no master or a master for every team :-) // Anyway... // if we couldn't find any valid points, return a windows error // message and terminate char error[128]; sprintf(error, "No valid info_player_coop in map\n" ); MessageBox( NULL, error, "Fatal Error", MB_OK\|MB_ICONERROR); exit(1); }

Here's an explanation of what's going on: using STL we create a vector of spawnpoints, and initialize the random number generator. Then, we scan through all the info_player_coop entities in the map, looking for any which aren't null entities (for safety) and which match the player's current max reached checkpoint. If the checkpoint has no master set, anyone can use it so we add it to the list of valid spawnpoints. If there is a master set, we check it against our team name and add it to the list if they match. At this point we also have to check in case the player is an observer or has no team set. This is because when you're choosing a team from DarkKnight's VGUI, you've already been spawned as an observer. Thus if you had a map with no blank-master spawnpoints, it would crash out as there would be no valid points.
Having created a list of all the valid spawnpoints we then select one at random, check again that it's safe, and then return it to the gamerules function that called it. If no valid spawn point has been found, the game spits out a windows error message and terminates.

Here is the entry for the spawnpoint entity in the FGD:

	CODE
	@PointClass base(PlayerClass,Targetname,Sequence) studio("models/player.mdl") = info_player_coop : "Player cooperative start" [ target(target_destination) : "Target on spawn" number(integer) : "Checkpoint number" : 0 radius(integer) : "Checkpoint radius" : 64 master(string) :"Master" : "" spawnflags(Flags) = [ 1 : "Trigger only" : 0 ] ]

I recommend you put it in after info_player_deathmatch. The values are all self-explanatory.

That's it! If you find any problems, please PM me and I'll sort them out. This tutorial could easily be expanded to have a visible model/sprite at each info_player_coop which changes color/disappears when it's reached, or else improve it in other ways. If you come up with anything you think's really good tell me and I'll add it to the tut.

Thanks to Zipster for introducing me to STL and vectors, and Persuter for his tutorial on them here which explains exactly what goes on, as well as correcting all this (along with Omega).

User Comments Showing comments 1-5

Posted By: Persuter on May 12 2004 at 11:50:04

Good article, jim, lots of code, lots of text, an interesting problem. And of course I always love to see people using STL. :)

Posted By: jim_the_coder on May 20 2004 at 10:01:36

I've just realised something; you might need to add some includes for STL...currently my main PC is offline but as soon as it's back (hopefully tonight) I'll check what I put and add it to this comment. Sorry about that!

[EDIT]

Ok, along with all the includes at the top of player.cpp you need to add:

	CODE (C++)
	#include >windows.h<// jim - for error messages #include >vector<// jim - for entselectspawnpoint using namespace std;

I've had to reverse the > and the < there otherwise it doesn't show up due to the website.

I also noticed another small bug: in the code in subs.cpp, I defined SF_COOP_TRIGGERONLY as 0, when it's actually 1 in the FGD, so you need to change that to 1 for that flag to work. Sorry!

[/EDIT]Edited by jim_the_coder on May 23 2004, 08:53:07

Posted By: Zipster on May 29 2004 at 04:18:19

Whahey, I get some mention somewhere!

* happy dance * :)

One of these days I'll introduce you to boost and you'll be the coolest kid on the block!Edited by Zipster on May 29 2004, 04:20:05

Posted By: GreenElephant on Dec 10 2004 at 01:43:02

where is this well known tut by DarkKnight?? can someone give me a link please?

Posted By: coldfeet on Jan 24 2005 at 05:56:28

I too would like a link to this well known tutorial by DarkKnight. A link in the article would be nice as well.

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