questions on powerups and p'up physics

[TheJamsh]

okay two questions involving powerups.

first, is it possible to get a powerup to emit an effect just once when it hits the ground? i want to get a bit of a 'dusty' effect that kicks dust out to the sides when it hits turf.

second, i know theres a lot more physics to enable control over the way powerups move/behave, however, i want the powerup to hit the ground and stop dead, like it would if you dropped a concrete block onto grass, i dont want it to bounce, just to sit solid on the ground.

can either be done?

[General BlackDragon]

I dont think u can fix the bounce.

For the dust, make a dust hp_emit, add an effecthard1/effectname1 to the ap file, and then add the min/max effect altitudes for it.

effectMinAltitude1 = 0.0 << Minimum altitude
effectMaxAltitude1 = 5.0  <<Maximum altitude.  I've input values that should work good for what you want.

[TheJamsh]

oh wow, i thought it would be entirely the other way around...

can i suppress the bounce at all?

[General BlackDragon]

There's some new powerup physics in the 1.3 thing, try playing with some, but i don't know if there's a way. Maybe slow down the fall rate, but that might only be for the day wrecker.

[TheJamsh]

fall rate is sped up, ive managed to get it so that it goes through the ground one but comes back up properly

also got a lovely smoke puff when they come near the ground and take off.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Could a parachute effect be added to the falling power up or is that pushing things a bit too much? The chute would need to disappear afterwords, but could it be done?

What would really rock if a unit could be dropped like a power up. Imagine dropping a Mauler next to a GT or worst yet the enemy recycler.

[bigbadbogie]

Should be possible with dlls and some vertex animation.

[TheJamsh]

it could be done with a draw_geom effect as well.

using min and max altitude adjustments again, trouble is the powerup would be launched with a parachute attached... if you were dropping soldiers out of a flying craft however, they can be equipped with parachutes that dissappear when they come below a certain level. they would literally dissapear though, so animation is preffered if you have the time to play with it...

[bigbadbogie]

I could do an animation of the chute coming up and opening, then being sucked back into the pilots backpack when he lands.

It could be done as the 'jump' animation, meaning that when he spends more than a few seconds above ground the chute automatically opens, and when he lands it will be sucked back in at lightspeed  .

I would prefer a way of making it possible to shoot out the parachutes and make the pilots fall screaming to the ground. Using a c++ dll class it could be done.

[Avatar]

I could do an animation of the chute coming up and opening, then being sucked back into the pilots backpack when he lands.

It could be done as the 'jump' animation, meaning that when he spends more than a few seconds above ground the chute automatically opens, and when he lands it will be sucked back in at lightspeed  .

I would prefer a way of making it possible to shoot out the parachutes and make the pilots fall screaming to the ground. Using a c++ dll class it could be done.

You'd have to put a few second delay in there as 'jump' is called each time the pilot jumps over a berm, hops out of a ship, or just whenever he's trying to get around something.  I've had herds of pilots jumping constantly as they try to get by each other to the Recycler.

-Av-

[bigbadbogie]

Yeah... that's exactly what I was thinking.

[TheJamsh]

OR, you could make a parachute special weapon. so you can trigger it yourself.

dumb AI wouldnt tho... aww shame.

what if animations could be applied to draw_geoms ?

[Steeveeo]

I bet a parachute would be doable by making a hoverpack with only a Draw_Geom for an effect, no forward velocity, and a small enough vertical speed so that it only slows your fall.

Be good for GH's 20th Century mod (if that's not dead).

[bigbadbogie]

Who needs draw_geom?

A jetpack has a deploy animation which would work perfectly for a parachute.

And a really wierd thing happened to me while testing QF2. A single pilot out of like 100 actually used his jetpack after his ship was destroyed.

[TheJamsh]

they always use it for me! particulalry in FE, which is actualyl realy annoying...