gamophyte on 14/8/2022 at 16:17
Hello all, long time no talk.
For the sake of not spoiling, lets say I have a creature with a physical "shape" model of a cube, and can fly (z coord) as copied after the T1 air elemental. Love it, it flies at me and tries to blow me up like the frog beast, fun times.
I made another object just under "SFX" in obj hierarchy, just adding "shape" model of a core I want to rotate within the cube above, and it spins on X using tweq settings. I can place it alone and there it is spinning as expected, floating in the air because of where I placed it. It doesn't need any other physics with location-rotation as it will just be for effects.
Although I verified that it spins when placed on its own, when I link it as a creatureattachment or a detailattachment in the hierarchy, to my flying cube creature, it appears in the word but doesn't spin.
Is there something more I must do to my SFX object, a missing prop, to ensure it keeps rotating once attached to my AI? THANKS!
gamophyte on 14/8/2022 at 17:43
Hrmmmm maybe the attached "SFX" will always go with the main AI rotation / orientation for the attachment types I've been trying, thus ignoring the tweq. I will try a centered Vhot and see if the intended rotating "core" sfx will rotate then.
gamophyte on 14/8/2022 at 19:00
Checking TalismanField from t1 to see how it's done.
ZylonBane on 14/8/2022 at 19:48
Attached particle systems have their orientation locked to the parent object. That means both rotation tweqs and spin/pulse groups become unable to perform rotation.
For example, the flies that rotate around the zombies in Cragscleft don't actually rotate around them. They're spawned with a short duration and random X/Y motion to create the illusion that they're rotating around the zombies. So even Looking Glass had to work around this limitation.
Now, SS2 in its final level has an enemy with multiple platonic solids orbiting around a center object. This was accomplished with rotating joints.
gamophyte on 14/8/2022 at 20:23
Gotcha. It's fascinating to sometimes see what LG had to do. I was tickled when I saw the AI of the Air Elemental is actually the Frog. I'm like OH that makes sense.
I have been avoiding rotating joints, as it always seemed scary but I'll have a look at all the current documentation and try some things. Thanks ZB!
PS. I should see if I can find sliptips rock creature and see how it was done. Rather, it was likely joints, but will copy props. Gunna go ahead and setup the joint on the model.
nicked on 14/8/2022 at 21:43
Objects will rotate with a joint if attached to it, but I don't think you can attach particles to a joint?
gamophyte on 14/8/2022 at 23:02
Thanks Nicked, I'll keep this in mind. The core is an object, I just have it in the SFX portion of the obj hierarchy because I don't need it to have much inherited. Still in case there is something deep in Dromed that has roped off obj coming from that hierarchy I will just use another place in the hierarchy.
I have sliptop's rock elemental converted to 3ds, but oddly when opening it I don't see any joints. Just the Base object, and sub-objects. Then also a random vhot that I don't think was ever used. I will just start with actually learning more here (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142374) and start from scratch. I might just see what it would be like to make a joint with no sub-objects and see how detailattachment link would work too.
john9818a on 15/8/2022 at 03:26
Your base object does not have to be large. On one of my objects I used a small base object that was barely visible, and the sub object was substantially large. I don't think an object with a joint and no sub objects would work as the joint and sub object have to be paired together with the same joint number.
gamophyte on 15/8/2022 at 21:13
Thanks to all for the help here.
@john9818a, I tend to agree, as I did make just a joint on the base and nothing else and nothing really happened in trying different attachment types.
In reading the tutorial LarryG made linked just above, there was no mention of what to name sub-object that would presume to use the same joint as another sub-object.
I posted the question but it may be unfollowed or people annoyed at my necromancy.
In your example john9818a, you say you did have more than one sub-object use the same joint?
My example I gave in the other thread:
Quote:
Example: ("Aa" Orrery Sun) ➜ ("x01aa0000" axel) ➜ ("@s01bb" Moon)
➥ ("@s01cc" Earth)
I worry about the name of my Earth object. I know it should start with "@s01" as it, like the moon, uses the same joint, but I don't know what to name it but "@s01cc" but I am not trying to denote it's a sub-sub-object.
How did you name yours?
john9818a on 16/8/2022 at 01:21
I used the same naming format as what Larry posted in his tutorial. Honestly I don't think you can use more than one sub object on the same joint, but if you could then both sub objects would have the same parameters in the Joints property in dromed, so there would really be no reason to not make the two sub objects into a single sub object. I don't think bsp would be able to deal with two sub objects in line on the same joint.
When I made the triple expansion engine in Derelict Dock District FM I had some really complicated jointed objects, and since I had so many joints for the whole engine I had to make the moving parts in three objects. I'll go back and look at how I did it & post back here.
