Does BZII support animated textures?

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I'm working on a helicopter type based off a hover class ODF, and was wondering if I can texture map essentially a round 2 sided plane shaped object for the main rotor blade on top of the unit. TS, supports texture animation, but will BZII show (render) my animated rotor texture? If not can I somehow fake it? Also, if that won't work can I name the rotor object with something like flame_1__h and have the flame point downward giving the effect of downward thrust. Tanks, BNG.

[Nielk1]

In 1.3pb4 or later use a drawgeom render and apply the rotation you need for it to spin.

You cannot animate textures, though computer class objects can have one piece of mesh where the uv can scroll.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Thanks N1, how is that done? Does the rotor needed to be named, drawgeom? Or is that a statement in the ODF file. Is that something like the drawwhirl line I've seen in other ODF files? Is the rotation applied in the 3d modeler as an animation sequence? Does the rotor object need any special naming itself? Tanks, BNG.

[mrtwosheds]

computer class is of limited use, as its name implies.
Otherwise animated textures are not possible.
You would need to make an single frame un-triangulated  xsi,  plane, 2 sided. and texture it like rotors, or shape it like rotors.
and use a drawgeom effect of some sort (like gun flashes). Not quite sure how I would go about it. would need to experiment, emits sounds like the place to start.
The rotation works though I have used it one of my weapons

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I sort of figured out something that works for me...I just set the transparency of the material for both the vertical and main horizontal rotor level to like 15 % with Threed. Do you guys think I should just use the __2g thingy for the rotor assembly instead of using Threed to do the same thing? It looks fairly nice and I can see the rest of the chopper body underneath it well. The cvtalon ODF had to be tweaked as my chopper needed better stability to keep it from rolling completely over when strafing. I also slowed the speed settings quite a bit to make it fly more like a regular chopper, and increased the pitch down setting to make it fly more normally too. The whole unit looks pretty typical and it's extruded from a single flat nurbs patch. Making custom ships from nurbs objects is way better then using standard primitives to get that special look. PS: Looks like file front is shutting down permanently....BNG.

[Spawn]

Just pull an xmod and make the helicopter blades a disk.

[Steeveeo]

Keep in mind, the blurred heli blade effect (so not to run up the polys) may be good for frames, but also has BZ2's good ol' Alpha Overlap issue.

Also keep in mind that draw_geoms do not stay in Multiworld environments. Seen most often on the SRV Base Shield.

So, unless you go for an SP only mod, you probably want the blurred blade effect, but keep the effect sparse enough so as not to get all flickery.

[TheJamsh]

do it with an emitter. i did it a while ago. its also much less damaging on framerate than you might think.

[Nielk1]

Keep in mind, the blurred heli blade effect (so not to run up the polys) may be good for frames, but also has BZ2's good ol' Alpha Overlap issue.

Also keep in mind that draw_geoms do not stay in Multiworld environments. Seen most often on the SRV Base Shield.

So, unless you go for an SP only mod, you probably want the blurred blade effect, but keep the effect sparse enough so as not to get all flickery.

Draw SPHEREs don't stay! Geoms, from what I can tell, do.

[mrtwosheds]

.I just set the transparency of the material for both the vertical and main horizontal rotor level to like 15 % with Threed.

This will Not be transparent with the no lights setting (unless something has changed in new versions of bz2)

Do you guys think I should just use the __2g thingy for the rotor assembly instead of using Threed to do the same thing?

__2g would probably be quite ugly and process heavy (again don't know about new versions of bz2) I would only advise using this where whatever is seen behind it is "not very much" like in building consoles.

Your best option is definitely an alpha channel transparent .dxtbz2, with either a circular or blade shaped geom model.

[Nielk1]

__2 (2 sided)
__g (glass)

I never looked into glass, but I suspect it might be safer than texture alphas since they bothered to add it.

[mrtwosheds]

It can be heavy on processing cycles, and some things don't look good behind it, like particle effects and animations.
Good for cockpits and consoles when the only thing seen behind it is always the same.

[Steeveeo]

Draw SPHEREs don't stay! Geoms, from what I can tell, do.

Actually basically any constant effect will die in MW, note the Smoke Bomb, Signal Smokes, and the experimental heli you sent me a long time ago.

The last of which, the blades were spinning draw_geoms, I tested it in Multiworld, and they died, essentially making it look like a floating bubble.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

What about using __e like on the power generator buildings? Could I some HOW use this to add/simulate rotation for my chopper blade part? The __2g renaming worked, but really looked ugly as you could actually see the triangulation within the rotor blade. I made several different heli's one a heavy assault type and another a very sleek and stealthy looking version along with several variations of both. I'll release them eventually to the community, but now that Filefront is closing down will need to find a new site to host the model files. In the mean time though anyone who would like them just PM me with an email addy on where to send them. Not to change the subject, but I'm going to try my hand at animation with TS then maybe I'll be able to actually just do a simple animation for the rotation of the rotor blades. BNG.   

[Nielk1]

__e is emissive, nothing to do with spinning. There ARE NO MOTION MODIFIERS.