ground-hugging physics

[TheJamsh]

does anyone have any?

Im trying to create a ship that will stay virtually spot-on its setAltitude value. The ship basically needs to hug the ground, rather than being able to ramp off of terrain and basically 'get air'

obviously the vehicle is a [HoverCraftClass]

[mrtwosheds]

Increasing its mass should cause it to fly less, but of course it will also cause it to knock other units about harder.
Decreasing the jump thrusters will also help, but might cause it to get stuck on hills more.

[TheJamsh]

I was thinking about adjusting the damping values really.

[Red Devil]

velocForward = 20.0 // [40]
velocReverse = 20.0 // [15.6]
velocStrafe = 20.0  // [20]

accelBrake = 36.0
aiAccelDrag = 46.0
accelDragFull = 16.0 // 6.0 // 0 = nothing
accelDragStop = 22.0 // how fast it stops once hands are off controls [5.9]
accelJump = 0.0
accelThrust = 5.0  // acceleration [25.0]  [32.0]

LIFT_DAMP = 0.0
LIFT_SPRING = -10.0

[TheJamsh]

vely naice

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Would the same apply to water vessels? I've made a ship, but even though I set the altitude to like
-1.25 it still hovers above the terrain and water. I set to accel jump really low along with accel thrust. Is there a way to make water based ships float evenly with the water? Or would it be more practical to make the ships look more like hydra-foil types? Something like the stealth ship in the James Bond movie Goldeneye. Tanks, BNG.

[Clavin12]

Is your ship supposed to traverse only on water.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I guess not as the odf is a hover class, but I don't think BZII directly supports water vessel types. It seems to get non-standard models to work right you have to monkey around with existing settings to improvise possible solutions. I'd like make a few other water vessels like an aircraft carrier, fast attack boats, etc. They are doable, but quite a bit of in game testing slows down development to get the physics to do what you to get them to do. I find the geometryScale very handy for keeping the model size manageable in my 3d modeler; otherwise they're so large in the 3d workspace it's a challenge editing them efficiently. Large long ships are kind of neat to create; especially the aircraft class where secondary 3d models like air units are displayed on the carriers deck to simulate proper visual effect.

[mrtwosheds]

As far as I know only TV has made functioning water only craft, submarines. They are water only because the custom dll makes them explode if you drive them out of the water.

[Nielk1]

The custom DLL works by height. I requested (and thank GSH got) the ability to detect water in DLL, so now we can all do it in a more dynamic way. Picture, aircraft under water, hovercraft that ignores water (falls though) with no thought above water. PERFECT. Just a quick DLL swap.

[TheJamsh]

you can get hovercraft under-water without .dll. set AccelJump to -6 or something, drive over water and hit 'e'. You will sink and stay put.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Not true with the subs on other maps (the exploding must be specific to TV's DLL) as I've placed them out of water without them destructing. They're just APC class craft which seem to just land under water or on land. I just want my water vessels to glide even with the terrain or water like a normal ship would do perhaps even slightly submerged but still mostly above the water level.

Unfortunately, many maps have little or no water at all, so the use of water vessels is quite limited and only a few current maps like seabattle can make any use of water vessels. I guess one solution would be to modify existing maps to include like rivers with a few bridges placed at key points to allow land based units to get across the rivers. Considering that bridges are destroyable objects this would create problems for tracked units or an advantage for water based vessels.

Anybody remember Command and Conquer? Quite similar to BZ, but with some odd twists, and quite a array of land, water and air based units. 

[Nielk1]

you can get hovercraft under-water without .dll. set AccelJump to -6 or something, drive over water and hit 'e'. You will sink and stay put.

My point was I can get a unit with aircraft physics underwater, and dead thrust hovercraft above, like a real sub.

That and just make a hover unit ignore water and only have any speed when on water if you want to have a quick and dirty sub. Yes, you can do BOTH those things in TA5.

[TheJamsh]

Actually you're right... i forgot about all those ex-constants. I did my dodgy one in PB4a i think, hell it may have even been PB3.

[bb1]

As a matter of circumstance since it was brought up here, does a negative accelJump still put you under the terrain if held too long?