Question: Different volume types and tweaking gravity

Rantako on 28/3/2005 at 15:10

Does anyone know what the eleven different types of volume actually do?
As far as I've been able to work out, there seems to be no difference, other than with the ShallowWaterVolume. I assume the different types can do different things (perhaps physics volume allows you to alter physics effects like gravity - though I can't get it to do so), but it's far from obvious what they can do.

(On the subject of gravity - does anyone know if we could simulate the effect of pressing 'G' in playtest mode, but without detaching the camera from Garrett - effectively allowing him to fly... or even swim... )

There are a number of gravity related properties (yes, I know I'm being obsessive) such as Physics -> Gravity and another that PhysicsVolumes seem to have as default. However, my own experimenting and something one of the developers said a while ago seem to suggest that these will have no effects on anything inside the volume. I have a feeling gravity may have to be set for individual objects. If anyone discovers anything, could they post in here.

Gestalt on 28/3/2005 at 18:30

My understanding from what was posted was that you could only set gravity for an entire level, although I hope I'm wrong. If physics volumes don't have to do with gravity, what do they do?

Rantako on 28/3/2005 at 19:13

If it is possible to set gravity for an entire level, this could be used to make swimmable water - although you would have to put every water area in its own loadzone/unr file. That would be pretty suboptimal, especially for a map with lots of water, but would work. Do you know how to change a level's gravity? As for physics volumes, I know as much as you do - could they be something left over from Unreal?

ascottk on 28/3/2005 at 19:43

I've been experimenting with physics volumes with AI and player and they have absolutely no effect. The closet I've come to altering physics is through the use of triggerscripts. I made Garrett totally freeze when leaving a volume (CONDITION: When linked volume MYSELF is exited by PLAYER, ACTION: Remove PLAYER from physics). I think physics volumes are left over from UnReal.

Rantako on 28/3/2005 at 19:52

Giving the Physics -> Gravity property to the Level Info, a Zone Properties Marker, or the PlayerStart doesn't work either - I just tried it. The comment for that property says 'Gravity for this actor. Only works on objects with a character controller. If not specified, will default to world gravity.' I think it could have something to do with the Movement -> CharacterControllerInfo property, but I still haven't managed to do anything with it. Anyone know if you can change the 'world gravity'?

Krypt on 28/3/2005 at 20:26

Volume: A standard volume that doesn't do anything on its own. Usually used for scripting.
AmbientLightVolume: I can't recall if this actually works or not, but it's supposed to let you change the ambient light level inside the volume.
DeathWaterVolume: Used to create death water. Kills the player when he enters it.
ShallowWaterVolume: Creates the little splash emitters when an object enters the volume. Used for shallow water, obviously.
PhysicsVolume/DefaultPhysicsVolume: Left over from unreal. They don't do anything.
AITaggedVolume: Used to determine the type of area contained by the volume for context-sensitive AI barks. For example when a guard says "Hey, I saw him on the stairs!" it means you're in an AITaggedVolume labelled as stairs.
NavmeshSubtractionVolume: Subtracts from the NavMesh.
T3ContextVolume_HighSecurity/Public/Busy: I don't think these ended up actually being used in the game. They probably don't do anything. They were intended to define the type of area contained by the volume. High security would make AIs freak out if they saw you in it, public is a normal area where civilians don't bother with you, and busy would be like a public area except AIs can't hear you as well because of background noise. The functionality of the HighSecurity volume is still in the game, but is done through scripts instead.

Rantako on 28/3/2005 at 20:32

Thanks Krypt. Do you know anything about gravity, whether it can be changed or not?

OrbWeaver on 28/3/2005 at 20:53

Quote Posted by Rantako

If the note says that the property should be applied to the Actor, then I guess you would need to add it to the Garrett archetype, rather than any of the level properties or markers.

Rantako on 29/3/2005 at 09:16

Tried it - doesn't work. If you set the gravity to zero on Garrett, it has no effect. If you set it to anything else, he dies instantly.

2003MINI on 29/3/2005 at 17:52

Don't know if this is related or not, but how does one make a "Slow-fall potion" such as in the previous games? I thought it might be a gravity change, but maybe not. Any ideas?