AreaManager

AreaManager is a Union plugin implementation of the area.nut and areamanager.nut behavior. Daedalus code creates polygon, portal-room, or mixed areas through integer handles and can register enter/exit callbacks for the hero.

The manager checks the hero every 500 ms, matching the Squirrel implementation. Polygons can use X/Z coordinates with flat height bounds, or X/Y/Z vertices whose Y values form a variable ceiling. Global height bounds can also restrict the polygon component of a mixed area; they do not restrict its portal rooms. World names are compared case-insensitively and / is normalized to \. Portal-room names are also compared case-insensitively. One area may contain multiple portal rooms.

Daedalus setup

Do not add userapi/AreaManager.d to Gothic.src. The plugin registers its externals before Gothic.dat is parsed; the declaration file is an API reference for editors and other tooling only. AreaManager must therefore be loaded while the scripts are compiled.

Install either the generated AreaManager.vdf in Gothic/Data, or install the standalone AreaManager.dll in Gothic/System/Autorun. Union itself must be installed, but the plugin does not require a separate UnionAPI.dll.

Example

var int MonasteryArea;

func void Monastery_OnEnter()
{
	PrintScreen("Entered monastery", -1, -1, "FONT_OLD_10_WHITE.TGA", 2);
};

func void Monastery_OnExit()
{
	PrintScreen("Left monastery", -1, -1, "FONT_OLD_10_WHITE.TGA", 2);
};

func void Monastery_CreateArea()
{
	MonasteryArea = AM_Create("NEWWORLD\\NEWWORLD.ZEN");

	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 45078.16, 20583.71);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 46043.58, 18982.20);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 46671.66, 19360.81);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 47497.69, 17990.53);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 46869.62, 17611.92);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 47835.04, 16010.40);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 52353.40, 18734.15);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 49596.51, 23307.47);

	AM_SetWeather(MonasteryArea, 1); // Rain
	AM_SetDebug(TRUE);
	AM_Add(MonasteryArea, Monastery_OnEnter, Monastery_OnExit);
};

Call the setup function once per process. AM_Clear is available when scripts need to recreate every area after a development-time script reload.

AM_SetWeather makes a registered area force full-intensity rain or snow while the hero is inside it. The effect fades in and out over three seconds; the world's native weather schedule is restored after the fade-out. The effect requires an outdoor sky controller. Gothic II supports rain (1) and snow (2); Gothic I only supports rain and returns FALSE when snow is requested. Set weather to none (0) to remove the attribute.

When weather-enabled areas overlap, the area with the highest handle (the most recently created matching area) takes precedence. Leaving it falls back to the next matching weather-enabled area instead of stopping the effect. A rain/snow type change fades the old type out before fading the new type in.

A portal-room component is defined by adding one or more room names. It may be used alone or combined with polygon points:

func void Monastery_CreateMixedArea()
{
	MonasteryArea = AM_Create("NEWWORLD\\NEWWORLD.ZEN");

	AM_AddPortalRoom(MonasteryArea, "MONASTERY_LIBRARY");
	AM_AddPortalRoom(MonasteryArea, "MONASTERY_CHAPEL");
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 45078.16, 20583.71);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 46043.58, 18982.20);
	AM_AddPoint(MonasteryArea, 46671.66, 19360.81);

	AM_Add(MonasteryArea, Monastery_OnEnter, Monastery_OnExit);
};

Use the BSP sector names defined by the world portals. In a mixed area, portal rooms and the polygon are combined as a union: either component can make the hero enter the area. Polygon height limits do not apply when the hero matches one of the assigned portal rooms.

For a polygon with a variable ceiling, use X/Y/Z points consistently:

AM_AddPoint3D(area, 31411.8, 3465.7, -18821.0);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 31135.8, 3263.01, -8778.73);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 23351.7, 3002.57, -8166.29);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 21004.5, 3002.57, -10267.5);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 20334.7, 5556.29, -9904.75);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 17803.0, 5761.09, -11013.9);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 21325.7, 5114.56, -20234.9);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 24000.6, 3061.89, -19984.2);
AM_AddPoint3D(area, 29421.7, 3190.53, -19631.1);

The polygon is triangulated in X/Z and its ceiling height is interpolated over each triangle. The hero must be below that local ceiling. AM_SetMinHeight can provide a flat floor, while AM_SetMaxHeight remains an optional global cap. Vertices must trace one simple boundary, clockwise or counterclockwise; holes and self-intersecting outlines are not supported. Do not mix AM_AddPoint and AM_AddPoint3D within one polygon.

Externals

• AM_Create(world) creates an area and returns a nonzero handle.
• AM_AddPoint(area, x, z) adds a polygon vertex.
• AM_AddPoint3D(area, x, y, z) adds a polygon vertex whose Y coordinate is the local ceiling height.
• AM_AddPortalRoom(area, portalRoom) adds a BSP portal-room name. Repeat it to make the area the union of multiple rooms; polygon points may be added to the same area.
• AM_SetHeight(area, minY, maxY) enables the polygon's optional global height interval.
• AM_SetMinHeight(area, minY) enables only the polygon's global lower bound.
• AM_SetMaxHeight(area, maxY) enables only the polygon's global upper bound. For an X/Y/Z polygon, this is an additional cap on the interpolated ceiling.
• AM_ClearHeight(area) removes the global height bounds. Per-point ceilings remain active.
• AM_SetWeather(area, weather) assigns none (0), rain (1), or snow (2). A registered area forces that weather while the hero is inside. Snow is unsupported by Gothic I and returns FALSE there.
• AM_IsIn(area, x, y, z, world) performs the same point-in-polygon test as Area.isIn, including a variable ceiling when present. It tests only the polygon component because an arbitrary coordinate has no vob whose BSP sector can be queried.
• AM_IsHeroIn(area) tests the hero immediately.
• AM_Add(area, onEnter, onExit) registers a completed area with the manager. It returns false when the handle is already registered, the area has neither a valid polygon nor a portal room, or a callback is invalid.
• AM_Remove(area) stops processing an area without destroying it.
• AM_Destroy(area) removes and destroys an area handle.
• AM_IsRegistered(area) reports whether the manager processes the area.
• AM_SetDebug(enabled) globally enables or disables continuously rendered red borders for all completed polygon areas in the current world. Each closing edge from the last point to the first is included. Portal-only areas are ignored, while mixed areas render their polygon component. X/Y/Z borders use their supplied ceiling heights; X/Z borders follow the hero's current Y with a small visibility offset clamped to the area's height bounds. Areas do not need to be registered.
• AM_GetCurrentArea() returns the active area handle from inside an enter or exit callback and zero outside callbacks.
• AM_SetProcessCallback(callback) registers one parameterless Daedalus function that is called after area transitions on every 500 ms manager tick.
• AM_ClearProcessCallback() removes the periodic callback.
• AM_Clear() removes and destroys all areas.

All mutating/query operations except AM_Clear and AM_GetCurrentArea return TRUE on success and FALSE on failure.

Building

Configure and build the preset for the target executable, for example G2A-Release. The project retains all G1, G1A, G2, G2A, and MP presets from the Union plugin template.