Been toying with this for a few hours now and im going insane with it...
Im using a gun tower which fires a weapon with local ammo. Now my problem is i want ONLY a special service pod to replenish that ammo... Tried all sorts of ODF lines including masks to get the tower to take on the powerup but it wont.
As a side-note, removing the collision_hc frame didnt work either.
If this doesnt work, is it possible to have mobile service bays (no NOT trucks). SO that whenever they are within so many metres of a filtered object they will replenish its ammo? I ask because the service bay NEEDS to be a tuggable object...
That's how BZC makes its GTs work.
any chance blackdBagon or Avatar could swing my way then :)? I couldnt for the life of me get it to work.
So long as the tower doesnt have a crap collision afterwards (by BZ2 standards :D) and you can still use the terminal its alll good.
Quote from: TheJamsh on July 06, 2009, 06:30:09 PM
Been toying with this for a few hours now and im going insane with it...
Im using a gun tower which fires a weapon with local ammo. Now my problem is i want ONLY a special service pod to replenish that ammo... Tried all sorts of ODF lines including masks to get the tower to take on the powerup but it wont.
As a side-note, removing the collision_hc frame didnt work either.
It has to not own terrain, which means no terrain plate. Perhapse it can own terrain but have no plate... Plate imply collision, even if it has to make its own.
Quote from: TheJamsh on July 06, 2009, 06:30:09 PM
If this doesnt work, is it possible to have mobile service bays (no NOT trucks). SO that whenever they are within so many metres of a filtered object they will replenish its ammo? I ask because the service bay NEEDS to be a tuggable object...
Mobile service bays are DLL in that way. IE position a service bay inside of a moving unit. As a tuggleable object? Even better. SHOULD work without DLL.
I had an idea to make my PASC have batteries near GTs that expired, but I did not like that idea very much for actual game play.
it has to have no collision model or base plate.
:)
The tuggable service bay wouldnt service the GT, even with the correct settings under [ServiceDepotClass] or whatever it was.
Will try to remove the base plate (by remove i mean re-name to something else :D), with ownsTerrain = 1. But that means that the terminal wont work doesnt it?
Is a dll similar to creating a custom ai process? We've all heard tons about the magic stuff that can be done with dll's, but very little in how they're actually constructed in general terms. Are there any sources of information on how to get started in making custom dll's?
for that you need Mircosoft Visual Studio (easy to download) and need to learn C++.
aiprocess 'es are hard coded into BZ2, so you cant create new ones. They basically tell bz2 what said object is and how it should behave, what options to give you in the command menu etc.
The readme included with the 1.3ta5 DLL source distribution -- a file I've mentioned before -- notes what additional software you need in order to build DLLs. It's a free (but large) download from Microsoft. However, you would also need to learn C++ programming in order to edit/modify DLLs effectively. If you have previously programmed, this may not be that hard. If you haven't programmed before, let me caution you that it's a BIG amount to learn -- especially because C/C++ is not usually regarded as beginner-friendly.
-- GSH
and yes, making gun towers able to accept powerups makes them also non interfacable (breaks terminal)
Pick one.
I did rather well going from Java and VB to C++. I still do not know a lot and C++ is a real pain in the ass. With it though you could detect nearby powerups and apply them automatically.
About the service bay, when you tugged it, did it service at all? I mean a general one set to service all, does it service you? Or does the service area get stuck where it was made? Or does it not service when not owning terrain?
The moving object i made didnt service anything at all. It was literally a powerup crate with a few frames added in the XSI, and a modified service bay ODF file.
I tried with the service truck, but forgot that 'turrets' class as 'craft' and not buildings, so that didnt work too well.
As a side note, i tried the no collision or baseplate trick, still didnt work.
should have
Would it be possible to make the GT into a self-upgrading class? Or at least have it be a factory type building which can 'upgrade' its guntower tap to the exact same thing, but in doing so reset its ammo count?
WITHOUT a constructor? no.
THOUGH, i suppose you could spawn an invisible constructor and make it the factory. And make another tap the gun tower. Constructors can build units too, so it would work.
Could learning specific C/C++ commands relevent to BZ be posted as like snipets of code for non programmers to use as examples? I have both C and C++ just sitting on my PC wasting drive space. Would like to learn a bit of them to use with BZ. Could someone with programming experience please post a few how to articles that would serve as a spring board for others to get started and applying that knowledge as relevent to our beloved game? Just food for thought BNG.
there is dll documentation for 1.3 DLL source
I have a PDF copy of a book called "C++ for dummies" that I intend to learn from in the near future :)
I looked into learning C/C++, and then realized why people go to school to learn programming. It's no easy task for the average BZ modder to undertake. That said, learning bits and pieces relevent to the game is a different story and a bit easier to comprehend and apply.
Code Project, is one place to start, but so far I've yet to see much specific information there relating to BZII or many other video games for that matter. Still, most modders would love to learn enough to make a few silly custom DLL's if a few programmers that hang around this forum would be willing to post some basic tutorials to get us rolling on our own.
Actually, I was thinking of something like posting a few generic templates related to the game and how to do stuff like those discussed in various forum posts throughout the years. Seems like phrases like "you could do it with a DLL" are tossed around freely but never lead anywhere. I'd rather see such a topic stickied instead of the current one labelled, Poly count for BZII models and props to optimize performance in game. I was really surprized when that one was stickied.
Quote from: BNG Da BZ Fool on July 10, 2009, 05:16:00 PM
I looked into learning C/C++, and then realized why people go to school to learn programming. It's no easy task for the average BZ modder to undertake. That said, learning bits and pieces relevent to the game is a different story and a bit easier to comprehend and apply.
And there is a reason many programming jobs will not hire programmers who are taught at a school, they never have the proper drive and are missing huge amount of necessary knowledge. Self-taught is the way to go! Still need a degree though.
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Quote from: OvermindDL1 on July 16, 2009, 06:06:55 AM
And there is a reason many programming jobs will not hire programmers who are taught at a school, they never have the proper drive and are missing huge amount of necessary knowledge. Self-taught is the way to go! Still need a degree though.
You need both. The education provides the basis for understanding and then you yourself use that to extend what you know.
I dropped IT as soon as I could, it's a bloody boring course and all it ever does (even at A-Level which is roughly 16-18) is teach you how to use Microsoft Office, which I barely use anyway.
Yep. Computer-based classes at our school were the same. You don't delve into the real knowledge, you just learn how to use microsoft office.
My teachers wanted to bring back computer science, one of the better subjects which actually teaches you something. Unfortunately all the oxygen thieves decided it was going to be too hard for them and the extra work wasn't what they needed. So the smaller percentage of my year who actually wanted to learn something couldn't...
Same for me. All the kids were complaining about how easy everything was and how braindead the teacher was. Luckily I left that school.
Quoteoxygen thieves
You don't mind if I borrow that phrase?
lol... not at all. Red Devil seemed to like it as well...