Height Of Mortar Shells

(metalheadFX) #1

:smiley: Does anyone know the Max Height of a Mortar shell ?? I am working on a Map that has a open area about the same size as the distance from the back off the fuel dump to the other side of the map(where the snipers are always at). I have a pretty high skybox but it seems to still hit it. Is there a good height to set the skybox at so this will not happen?? :???:

(Konigstiger) #2

i also need to know this :drink:

(SCDS_reyalP) #3

You need a tracemap, then the mortars go right through the sky.

(metalheadFX) #4

:drink: Thx, I will make one to test it out. I had not made one yet because I was still working on the map layout and not ready for the scripting and stuff. but if that will work I can move on :banana:

(niko) #5

i had luck with making my map 3200 units high

(Doc) #6

Just keep raising the sky and testing it with mortar at 90 degrees until you kill yourself.

Or do a tracemap. :drink:

(SoulRebel) #7

the mortar hight is app. 1856 units

(RR2DO2) #8

Donā€™t bother raising the sky, as suggested, just use a tracemap and all will be good.

(damocles) #9

Just for info (and for those to lazy to search fourms or read docs):

A trace map is used to represent the height of ceilings and floors in the game. With a trace map, the mortar shells will go straight through any sky surfaces and continue their trajectory until they return to the game area, so sky heigfht is only relevant for grenades/panzers. Mortars donā€™t care about sky. Read the docs that came with ET for more info on making tracemaps and how to use them properly.

(and donā€™t panic, the trace map feature is pretty much automated, so you wonā€™t have to do much more work)

(]UBC[ McNite) #10

Ok soā€¦ i have a tracemap but the mortarshells still donā€™t come down? I can see the impacts on the command map though, but def no explosions in the map (tried with angle of 85ƂĀ°, shell should ve come down right in front of my nose).

Suggestions anyone?

(damocles) #11

What is at the ceiling of the area of the shell is coming down in? Make sure the brush that is the ceiling is sky on the underside and caulk on the other sides. It sounds like the tracemap is treating the ceiling in the area as solid, which should only happen if the ceiling brushes use solid textures, non-sky textures.

(psyco_mario) #12

simple try 90 on 85 coz its goin so high it will move quite far, either that or bad trace map!

(]UBC[ McNite) #13

Make sure the brush that is the ceiling is sky on the underside and caulk on the other sides.

That s exactly what it is. And there are no explosions in the sky either.
Even when the whole ceiling brush had sky tex on all sides it was no problem in the last version.

(damocles) #14

I assume you have remade the tracemap since making changes to the map?

(]UBC[ McNite) #15

yeppā€¦ maybe not right after the last compileā€¦ do count changes inside rooms too? The buildings and all the outside stuff hasnā€™t changed for sure.

edit: I m at work so i canā€™t test that right nowā€¦ will do later.

(damocles) #16

Usually, as long as the sky bruishes havenā€™t changed and you havenā€™t changed the min/max coords keys then it should be okay without a tracemap update. You havenā€™t done anything to the tracemap in a paint program have you? Or have you changed the name of the bsp - check the console to ensure there are no ā€œcanā€™t find image for <mapname>_tracemap.tgaā€ errors.

Is it all one giant sky brush or are there several? If the later, have you tried landing the shells in differrent sky zones?

another idea is to try adding rain effects to the worldspawn keys - if you can see the rain in the sky area then the tracemap is probably fine and problem lies elsewhere.

(]UBC[ McNite) #17

Ok and here comes the solution:

I divide my whole map in 2 different areas with one skybox each. They r completely cut off from each other to optimize tris etc.
The ceilings of the 2 parts were at different heights (app. 128 units diff or so), and the tracemap generated from that doesnt work with mortar.
I tried the BSP of the buggy version with a tracemap of the new version with the ceilings all at the same height and everything is fine.

Conclusion: if u want mortars and work with more n 1 skybox ALL ceilings have to be at the same height when generating the tracemap.

(edit: and yea the ceiling is made from 4 brushes too, but that doesnt affect the mortar as it seems. The sky is pretty low too, to get less volume into the map.)