can terrain be a script_mover?

(tsakali) #1

I need to create terrain that will actually scroll (move) under my zeppelin to give the effect of movement, but for some reason when I make my terrain a script_mover, it doesn’t show in my map when I run it. Is this possible or is terrain not possible to move in-game?

(EB) #2

it is possible…
-Explain what you have done so far and be specific plz.

(]UBC[ McNite) #3

Just a question… how far up in the air will teh zeppelin be? I mean, if its reall high, you won’t need real terrain under it to get a good graphical effect. All you d need would be a flat brush then, and could easily write a shader taht will make a large gfx file (like a birdseye photo) scroll slowly along beneath the zeppelin. That would also save quite some filesize which could be well invested in a realistic and good looking birds eye pic. And if you put another brush on top of taht with clouds that have some openings through which you can see the “landscape” below, you d get a fantastic realistic look (also nobody would notice taht your landscapepic down below is actually repeating itself after a while.

(tsakali) #4

I just created a chunk of terrain with easy gen.

I imported it in my map and it shows up in game with the textures I set up in easy gen.

now when I select the terrain in radiant and choose script_mover I give it this info

spawnflags 2
scriptname terrainmv

now when I compile the map again the terrain does not show in the map (when I run it in enemy territory) …it IS possible that for some reason the terrain has been moved to a location I cannot see but I doubt it because I have not added any scripting for it yet so it should not move from it’s original location

I also noticed that when I chose the terrain and made it into a script_mover, when I click “n” to see the settings for that entity the obvious spawnflag checkboxes options do not show up, as if the editor did not really recognise it as a script_mover entity

I just need to be able to make that terrain scroll on one axissay ‘x’ to give the effect of motion.

but I am not even concerned with the actuall movement yet since I cannot even get the terrain to show up ingame when it is a script_mover

ps

I tried to add an origin brush to that entity but as you can imagine it made no difference since the terrain doesn’t even show up ingame

(tsakali) #5

the zeppelin will be fairly high yes, but I’ve tried that and the problem is in order for the effect to work I need to use fog (obviously because without fog you could see the edges of the ground) and when I simply use a flat brush the fog has this horrible flat clean cut edge to it always on the horrizon of your field of view and I don’t want that, unless you can help me (or point me to) a better looking fog

if you would like to see here are my fog settings:


 textures/zep/fog05
{
	qer_editorimage textures/zep/fog05.tga
	q3map_globaltexture
	q3map_surfacelight 0
	fogparms ( .094 .098 .125 ) 10000
      //fogparms ( .05 .10 .13 ) 128

	surfaceparm fog
	surfaceparm nomarks
	surfaceparm nonsolid
	surfaceparm pointlight
	surfaceparm trans
	{
		map textures/liquids/kc_fogcloud3.tga
		blendfunc gl_dst_color gl_zero
		rgbgen identity
		tcmod scale -.05 -.05
		tcmod scroll .01 -.01
	}
	{
		map textures/liquids/kc_fogcloud3.tga
		blendfunc gl_dst_color gl_zero
		rgbgen identity
		tcmod scale .05 .05
		tcmod scroll .01 -.01
	}
}

and in radiant under my worldspawn I have these setting for fog:

_color 1 1 1
farplanedist 15000
fogclip 1
_fog textures/zep/fog05

anyway my idea was to add some mountains that way the ugly fog clipping that naturaly happens will look a little more natural since there will be mountain like protrusion in the ground which makes the fog clipping seem more natural since it follows the terrain shape instead of just a flat brush…I hope I am making sense

(EB) #6

Let me explain in an informal manner: The terrain from easygen needs to remain as a Func_Group with it’s specific settings or you will end up with an invisible terrain. Once you change the terrain to a Script_Mover, you lose vital information for it’s properties…thus making it=invisible. This is not to say that you cannot use the “moving terrain idea” but rather that if you do change the func_group to a Script_mover, that you will have to texture the terrain in radiant.

(tsakali) #7

I see, heh, sorry for asking the obvious but I’m a noob and I definately set off for an idea that I slowly come to realise is beyond my capabilities but I think I can struggle through it. for example I have to make this door that has to open(rotate ) in more than one axis because the wall of the room the door is giving access to is at a 70 degree angle instead of the normal 90 degree vertical wall so I’ll have to script a door from scratch, and I cant just make the door 90 degrees ans give depth to the wall because the wall is supposed to be the zeppelin’s abllon material which is my nature very thin

anyway, thanx for the help and I will consider texturing the terrain manually even though it sounds tricky

(]UBC[ McNite) #8

I d really go for the simple idea as i suggested. You ll need just a small map. 15000 as fogclip is crazy, i mean how large is your map? For a good fog, take this one:

textures/tr2redux_t/tr2r_fog // used for _fog in worldspawn
{
	qer_editorimage path/to/editorimage // i used a custome one

	surfaceparm nodraw
	// surfaceparm nolightmap
	surfaceparm nonsolid
	surfaceparm trans
	surfaceparm fog

	fogparms ( 0.518 0.549 0.557 ) 4950	 // adapt the color setting to your needs, also the distance
}

Its the fog I used the TheRiver II Redux, with a fogclip of about 5000. For your idea, you ll just need a box of a bit more than 6000 x 6000 units, and a fogclip of about 2500, then nobody won’t see any walls.

On the otehr hand: I would not use any fog, but make a nice large skybox with a beautiful blue sky, and below the zeppelin the 2 texture layers as i said: 1 like clouds (you ll need a good shader an a .tga with alpha channel for that, and 1 like the landscape pic, tha s scrolling along beneath.
Saves all the script work and will surely look cool.

(tsakali) #9

thanx for the help as well I will definately try out your settings

and for your information here are my dimentions which pretty much describe the dimentions of my sky box:

mapcoordsmins -1024 10500
mapcoordsmaxs 4600 -17650
and the height is about 14000 units

the zeppelin by nature is very big in length and fairly small in width.
the zeppelin’s length is about 17000 units
the fogclip is so outrageous because I need good visibility on the zeppelin from one point to another(but not really the entire length of the zeppelin) yet still be able to hide the ground brush edges…

question: does the value of the fogclip parameter make any difference in the map’s fps performance or is the framehit pretty much the same for any fog value?

(2Bit) #10

I think you should go for McNite’s suggested and more elegant solution, but as moving terrain was a novel idea I did just quickly try it out.

It works fine. A bit of terrain created with gtkgensurf, add an origin, make them all a script mover, chuck in a couple of path_corners and a tiny script and away it goes :smiley:

Looks weird seeing the hills go by :eek: Sadly I don’t have an application for this. Maybe an earthquake?

(SCDS_reyalP) #11

If you break the brush up into smaller brushes, singificantly smaller than your fog distance, it should work better.

As for moving terrain, you might want to create it in the normal manner, but then turn it into a model (search for more information on making models).

That said, ]UBC[ McNite solution sounds ideal. You might also think about using a props_skyportal (again, search the forum).

(]UBC[ McNite) #12

With a building the size of 17.000 units… you are in such trouble. That s way too big… I already wonder what your BSP size and your FPS are, especially if you say u need such long view distance inside the zeppelin. You don’t see anything at that distance, not even with a scoped sniper I d say. Did you ever try out and put in black func_explosives teh size of a player to check on how big they are and can be hit or even seen when you run through the compiled map?

(sodsm live) #13

17,000? man that’s big. i built the Great Pyramid to scale(as close as i could figure) and the base of it is only about 13,000. i know somewhere it recomends that 12 units in radiant is roughly equal to a foot in real life, but i’ve found 18 units to be more realistic when you take the player bounding box and eyeline into account.

the Hindenburg was only about 50ft longer than any given side of the Great Pyramid. it’s not my place to judge anyone’s artistic vision, but damn that’s big.

(]UBC[ McNite) #14

1 unit = 1 inch = 2,54 cm

But dont try building to scale, that s too small. There r threads on here about good dimension for decent movement, so just check them when in question.

(kamikazee) #15

In the Q3 Radiant manual they said you had about 8 units in 1 foot, so about 24 in one meter.

But as ]UBC[ McNite says: real-life scales don’t work out that well. In Q3, player models should have been over 2m tall if you calculated it IIRC.

(]UBC[ McNite) #16

about 8 units in 1 foot

Sry that s the old RtCW measures i think. 8 x 2.54 = 20 cm, but 1 ft is about 30 cm which would be 12 units. A playermodel = 72 units = 6 ft = 1,83 m

What really makes the places too small if you build real life is the fact that the jumps are just higher, longer and movement is faster than real life. A real life map would mean bumping into walls, ceilings etc. all the time. Smooth gameflow is real important, and a map where you get stuck all the time just sucks.

(SCDS_reyalP) #17

That number is for Q3, which uses a different scale than RTCW/ET.

(carnage) #18

I d really go for the simple idea as i suggested. You ll need just a small map. 15000 as fogclip is crazy, i mean how large is your map? For a good fog, take this one:

i would actauly make a fog coloured skybox then using a birds eye view image and circualr alpha channel make a scroling terrin on the bottom of the skybox… can get the exact same effect as fog but without any fog calcualtions saving lots of fps

but if this is the same zeplin map as i gave feedback on the concept of a lil while ago then i surgest you do the same idea with the skybox but set the map at night… will look more realistic then plain grey fog everywhere and the scroling bottom pannel should look better as streetlight etc

(codejockey13) #19

why not just make a flat terrain and use a shader with a scroll option? that would seem easiest.

(tsakali) #20

yeah it might be too big yet again it IS a zeppelin and I’m sure those things were quite the spectacle up close, Ill have to take a few screenies and give you guys some ideas

truth be told I didn’t even consider trying to get any dimentions as far as the player size goes but the zeppelin is correct in dimentions but prolly not to correct scale

I’ll have to research this a little longer, thank you all again for the interest in my project, and I’ll try not to let you down with the final product , after all I want this idea to be enjoyed by the community as much as possible

ps
I’ll be back later to answer all the questions/ comments… and yes it is the same zeppelin project from a few weeks back