Plan for Michael Hense
by Michael Hense · 08/06/2005 (9:57 pm) · 3 comments
i spent about two weeks trying to get a mounted player avatar to animate reliably... two weeks without much success...
i could get the animation to run alright... but sometimes it wouldn't run... there obviously was something going on between the player and his representative that i was not privy to... and no matter subtle bribery i tried, playThread() just wouldn't do it for me...
i searched around... i asked around... all to no avail...
i needed him to animate while mounted on a mount point that itself would be running its own animation thread... fake movement on a moving platform... and i wanted it done in script entirely...
then, after the two weeks it finally dawned on me... if you can't solve the problem, why not sidestep around it... get rid of the uncooperative lil bugger... make him dissapear... literally...
so... on him being mounted, i now have the player guy disappear, and replace him with a shapebase clone that seems much more cooperative when it comes to running animation threads...
i mount the new guy on the same movable mount point along with the invisible player avatar, and have both of em move around, the visible clone running the walking thread while it moves... and the invisible player providing the view... and whatever player stuff i may need...
i know this all sounds pretty messy... but the users will never see what's happening under the hood...
... that is, if i can finish up the rest of this trickery, and present a believable submarine (or space ship, or cruise ship for that matter) that can move around, as well as have its crew move around on or inside it and maybe even control where it's going.
--Mike
i could get the animation to run alright... but sometimes it wouldn't run... there obviously was something going on between the player and his representative that i was not privy to... and no matter subtle bribery i tried, playThread() just wouldn't do it for me...
i searched around... i asked around... all to no avail...
i needed him to animate while mounted on a mount point that itself would be running its own animation thread... fake movement on a moving platform... and i wanted it done in script entirely...
then, after the two weeks it finally dawned on me... if you can't solve the problem, why not sidestep around it... get rid of the uncooperative lil bugger... make him dissapear... literally...
so... on him being mounted, i now have the player guy disappear, and replace him with a shapebase clone that seems much more cooperative when it comes to running animation threads...
i mount the new guy on the same movable mount point along with the invisible player avatar, and have both of em move around, the visible clone running the walking thread while it moves... and the invisible player providing the view... and whatever player stuff i may need...
i know this all sounds pretty messy... but the users will never see what's happening under the hood...
... that is, if i can finish up the rest of this trickery, and present a believable submarine (or space ship, or cruise ship for that matter) that can move around, as well as have its crew move around on or inside it and maybe even control where it's going.
--Mike
#2
yup... trying to get it up and running in Torque as well... i've got a lil interim time between two engine updates, so i decided to hit the books (the Finney books that is) and actually learn a lil bit about this thing... my plan is to eventually go over to the Shader Engine when it gets far enough down the line for game releases... i mean, for goodness sake... that water, it's just tooooooo pretty to pass up...
but... coming up with a good moving platform has been a nagging problem though... not so much in an attempt to have a whole sub interior moving around with the sub, but to to have the 'crew' be able to move along the deck of the sub while it was moving on the surface... and to have em move around an interior (dts) that, while it may not follow the sub around, it will need to be able to pitch and roll in real time as the sub, in order to convey a virtual impression of actually being aboard a submarine interior...
i'm trying to get it all done in scripting code without any engine mods that might compromise the project being cross platform (win/mac)... but if i absolutely need to, i think i can do a lil bit of hacking around inside the engine code... the only real problem is learning how things are already being done, and how to circumvent them... which is the real reason i'm on my current path of sidestepping issues i just can't find quick answers to...
anyway...
here's two real short vid clip of using an animated mount point allowing a 'moving player' on a platform (before i implemented the character animations)...
one player watches the other mounted and moving in the model
from the mounted players perspective...
and these are some of the post detailing a bit of my frustrations getting this to work and a lil code here and there...
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=32899
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=32262
wish me luck... i'm gonna need it :)
--Mike
08/07/2005 (5:46 am)
hey Jeremy... yes, it's me... my cover has been blown... yup... trying to get it up and running in Torque as well... i've got a lil interim time between two engine updates, so i decided to hit the books (the Finney books that is) and actually learn a lil bit about this thing... my plan is to eventually go over to the Shader Engine when it gets far enough down the line for game releases... i mean, for goodness sake... that water, it's just tooooooo pretty to pass up...
but... coming up with a good moving platform has been a nagging problem though... not so much in an attempt to have a whole sub interior moving around with the sub, but to to have the 'crew' be able to move along the deck of the sub while it was moving on the surface... and to have em move around an interior (dts) that, while it may not follow the sub around, it will need to be able to pitch and roll in real time as the sub, in order to convey a virtual impression of actually being aboard a submarine interior...
i'm trying to get it all done in scripting code without any engine mods that might compromise the project being cross platform (win/mac)... but if i absolutely need to, i think i can do a lil bit of hacking around inside the engine code... the only real problem is learning how things are already being done, and how to circumvent them... which is the real reason i'm on my current path of sidestepping issues i just can't find quick answers to...
anyway...
here's two real short vid clip of using an animated mount point allowing a 'moving player' on a platform (before i implemented the character animations)...
one player watches the other mounted and moving in the model
from the mounted players perspective...
and these are some of the post detailing a bit of my frustrations getting this to work and a lil code here and there...
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=32899
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=32262
wish me luck... i'm gonna need it :)
--Mike
#3
I've had similar problems, basically you can't use playThread reliably on the player class - instead try using "setActionThread".
-John
08/07/2005 (7:36 am)
Hi Mike,I've had similar problems, basically you can't use playThread reliably on the player class - instead try using "setActionThread".
-John
Torque Owner Jeremy Alessi