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Naughty spawner

by Dan Pascal · in Torque X 2D · 10/30/2007 (6:48 pm) · 8 replies

Car hits robot and robot is stuck on car as it drives by

I got a sprite marked as a template (the sprite is a car)
I set up a link point on it
I make a spawner object for it

I create another sprite (the mangled robot), mark it as a template
I make a spawner object for that and then mount the spawner object to the car template sprite.
On the mangled robot spawner I uncheck enable Spawn and I uncheck Spawn Once

The car spawns(good) and the mangled robot spawns with it (bad), I can't disable it from spawning!!?

I have a component on the car template. In the _OnRegister section I put a call to find my mangled robot spawner so I can reference it.... but it never finds it. ( torqDatabaseFindObject<>). I can find all other objects though...
When the car template spawns and _onRegister is called should it be able to find the other spawner mounted to it, or should it not because the mounted spawner hasn't spawned yet?

someone show me the way


Many thanks
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Associate John Kanalakis
EnvyGames
#1
10/30/2007 (9:59 pm)
I think you're right, there might be a bug here. The mounting spawner (robot) should not be spawning, but I think it is receiving its parent spawner's (car) signal to spawn. Spawners also seem to wipe out the name of spawned objects, so a named lookup doesn't seem to work.

The only workaround I can think of is to start off with the mangled robot template that is invisible (and has no collision enabled) initially mounted to the car spawner. Then when the car hits the robot, you make the hit robot invisible and at the same time, make the mounted corpse visible in one swoop... something like this:

public static void ProcessRobotCollision(
T2DSceneObject myObject,
T2DSceneObject theirObject,
T2DCollisionInfo info,
ref T2DResolveCollisionDelegate resolve,
ref T2DCollisionMaterial physicsMaterial)
{
    //hide the standing robot
    theirObject.Visible = false;
 
    //delete the standing robot
    theirObject.MarkForDelete = true;
 
    //get the list of mounts 
    List<T2DSceneObject> list = new List<T2DSceneObject>();
    myObject.GetMountedObjects("", list);
 
    //make the already mounted corpse visible
    list[0].Visible = true;
}
 
[TorqueXmlSchemaType]
public static T2DOnCollisionDelegate RobotCollision
{
    get { return ProcessRobotCollision; }
}

Just add the RobotCollision OnCollision delegate to the car's T2DCollisionComponent and make the collision object type match the standing robot object type.

You can try my simple test.

Since I don't know the specifics of your game, I'm not positive if this "workaround" will do. But, I can tell you that I'm seeing the same problem you are and that it's not how I expect the spawner to behave.

John K.

Torque Owner Dan Pascal
#2
10/31/2007 (9:06 am)
Excellent-
Thanks John!

This is for an update on the green robot video tutorial series. That test piece really spells it out, this should do the trick...

Associate John Kanalakis
EnvyGames
#3
10/31/2007 (9:18 am)
No problem Dan, I think your robot video tutorial series is great!

John K.

Torque Owner Dan Pascal
#4
11/01/2007 (9:01 am)
Here's a clip of it in action.
Works like a charm.

www.danpascal.com/carHit.zip wmv 1mb

Associate John Kanalakis
EnvyGames
#5
11/01/2007 (2:40 pm)
Wow, that video looks great! I Love that lingering robot arm left behind on the road ;) - kind of reminds me of a futuristic next-gen Frogger. Great Job!

John K.

Associate James Ford
Sickhead Games
#6
11/01/2007 (3:30 pm)
What game is this, I'm very curious...

Torque Owner Dan Pascal
#7
11/02/2007 (8:27 am)
It's the next installment of the green robot video deal

Torque Owner Chris Howell
#8
11/06/2007 (1:17 pm)
Nice video Dan, I love it! :)