First, this is DoD 1.3 related. I was playing on a server that had custom flag models. The custom flags only appear when I play on their server. I found the flag models on my computer, but they weren't named the typical w_xflag.mdl as I expected.

How do they do that? I know how they get me to DL the model, but how do you force a client to use a custom model without using the standard model name?

they probably edited teh actual map and edited what models it looks for for teh flags.

Yeah, you can edit and entity table in the map BSP to use a different model and then, as the client doesn't have it, it will download it from the server.

That would make sense. But then again, why would the map revert to the standard flags when I play it in 'offline' mode? Its like something on their server config/setup is forcing the custom flags to be used.

What happens is when the map changes/round starts, the server transmits its entity table to all the clients.

It still uses your local BSP to get the geometric data to draw the map, however the entity table from the server overrides the one in your local BSP.

When you run in local/LAN mode, it uses the entity table from the version on your hard disk instead.

Could you elaborate on that? How exactly that is accomplished?
Thanks

I'll do my best.

The BSP contains a lot of stuff to do with the map, but at a basic level it contains the actual map geometry, lightmaps and entity table which is basically text and contains all the info related to entities in the map.

You can extract and edit this table with a tool called RipEnt. What it will give you is the entity table in text for which can be edited in something like notepad.

If you find the flag entities, you can edit them to refer to a different map model and even change the location (i've done this myself in 3.1 and put flags in different places).

Once you've done that, you can re-insert the entity table into the BSP and upload it to your server (or keep it locally if you want to host a LAN server).

Now, as I said previously the clients (those connecting to the server) use their local BSPs for the geometric data but the server always sents the entity table from its local BSP to every client at the start of the round. This way, the clients dont need to download a new BSP for the map, only the server needs the new BSP.

However, if you change the model to something that isn't shipped with the stock DoD 1.3, the clients will request if from the server. So the clients need to have downloads enabled and the server configured to send resources to the clients. Model files are usually pretty small anyway so it often doesnt take long.

You can do quite a lot with RIPEnt if you know what you're doing. I made a version of dod_overlord that had little radios that could be picked up and when taken to special places on the map would call in artillery strikes to help the allies advance.

Thanks Jed, that was clear enough that even I could understand it.

Thanks again!