Explosions and Projectiles
by James Novosel · in RTS Starter Kit · 02/14/2005 (9:12 am) · 2 replies
Wondering if anyone has addressed any of this yet or can explain it:
The projectile being used for the rifleman is the crossbow projectile. When this thing reaches its destination (the target) it explodes. Where is the explosion ? All I see is a round light on the ground, no flames or explosion.
I've tried several other projectiles with the same results. I can get the other projectiles visual effects while in route to the target, but once it explodes its just a flat 2d effect on the ground ( a flat cirlce that expands from the center).
Any ideas as to why it these don't explode aka like the crossbow projectile does in the RPG ?
Any ideas on how to make a projectile arc ? Say like a cannon would send a cannon ball, (not straight line missile type of effect) ?
Anyone solved or have a work around for attacks that are always hits ?
I saw some prior posts but no good solution yet. With slower projectiles the projectiles appear to be misses yet we inflict damage on every shot. I'm sure this is due to the collisions being not present for bandwidth, but not every shot is a hit (only in a perfect world...).
Have also toyed with the tracking projectiles from other non-RTS posts ( the game beavers one and some others with no joy. The RTS projectiles or implementation is different enough that I cannot get these plugged in, (yet)).
Any feedback/ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks !!
The projectile being used for the rifleman is the crossbow projectile. When this thing reaches its destination (the target) it explodes. Where is the explosion ? All I see is a round light on the ground, no flames or explosion.
I've tried several other projectiles with the same results. I can get the other projectiles visual effects while in route to the target, but once it explodes its just a flat 2d effect on the ground ( a flat cirlce that expands from the center).
Any ideas as to why it these don't explode aka like the crossbow projectile does in the RPG ?
Any ideas on how to make a projectile arc ? Say like a cannon would send a cannon ball, (not straight line missile type of effect) ?
Anyone solved or have a work around for attacks that are always hits ?
I saw some prior posts but no good solution yet. With slower projectiles the projectiles appear to be misses yet we inflict damage on every shot. I'm sure this is due to the collisions being not present for bandwidth, but not every shot is a hit (only in a perfect world...).
Have also toyed with the tracking projectiles from other non-RTS posts ( the game beavers one and some others with no joy. The RTS projectiles or implementation is different enough that I cannot get these plugged in, (yet)).
Any feedback/ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks !!
#2
Until a few weeks before shipping, we had full, normal TGE projectiles in the RTS. So, it's certainly possible to do so. We just made a lightweight projectile class as an example of an RTS optimization. You can easily put full projectiles back in, if it's much better for your game design. Just remember that you'll either not want to use many of them, or come up with some optimizations of your own if you want full los-collision vs units.
02/14/2005 (11:46 pm)
I don't know if there is any better way to answer this question (other than what Stephen has said) than to tell you to look at the code. :) Know that sounds dumb, but really, if you do a diff between the standard TGE projectile and the RTS projectile, you'll see immediately what was changed and what each piece does.Until a few weeks before shipping, we had full, normal TGE projectiles in the RTS. So, it's certainly possible to do so. We just made a lightweight projectile class as an example of an RTS optimization. You can easily put full projectiles back in, if it's much better for your game design. Just remember that you'll either not want to use many of them, or come up with some optimizations of your own if you want full los-collision vs units.
Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp
FPS SK projectiles are designed for FPS genre games--it's a real object in the game that can be avoided if you predict it's flight path successfully, and manuever your player character to not be at the impact point. That's a very important game mechanic for the FPS genre, but it's just not one that most RTS style games utilize--the projectile that is rendered on the screen is simply a visual indication of an attack that has already occured, and already been evaluated for damage. RTS Players aren't going to be tracking the flight path of each projectile, and they also aren't going to be evaluating the effect of each individual projectile.
Regarding damage done per attack, the code for that is in the various unit's .cs files (bot.cs, shocker.cs, etc.) in your /server directory. You can easily modify these scripts for whatever game mechanic you want to implement, just keep in mind again that performance for this type of thing is very important.
I haven't paid too much attention yet to the projectile/projectile explosion itself as it's rendered, so I'm not sure if what you are describing is expected behaviour, or something unusual. However, keep in mind that while they kept the same name, it is not the same explosion as the starter.fps explosion--it's customized in the RTS SK. Again, becuase they are different genres.