Pilot Questions

[mrtwosheds]

In the pilot ODF's there are animfile entrys that specify which anim to play when the pilot is either empty handed, carrying a rifle, or a bazooka.

eg
animName2 = "walk"
animName6 = "walkC"
animName10 = "walkA"

what I can't figure out is, what is the switch that causes these to be used, how does the game know if a weapon is a rifle or a bazooka? It works, but I cannot figure out how, can't see any obvious entrys in the weapon ODF's.

[mrtwosheds]

Answers his own question...
isFlying = 0// or no entry
Uses the rifle animation.
isFlying = 1
Uses the bazooka animation
No weapon at all, presumably uses the empty handed animation.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I wish there was a complete list of these items. I noticed that the = sign is used extensively in the odf file. Some extries make logical sense while others seem to be understood mainly by technical engineers that understand the physics involved in moving a 3d object around in a 3d environment.

[TheJamsh]

I was under the impression it changed to the correct animation if the pilot was in 'assault' mode. C for combat, A for assault. Makes sense

Obviously wether or not he switches to assault mode is done with the weapons (isAssault = 1/0) and the hardpoints (WeaponAssault# = 1/0)

[mrtwosheds]

Both rifle and bazooka already use combat/assault modes (the crouch and sniper rifle animation) isFlying =1/0 is used in the weapon ODF to determine whether the rifle or bazooka pilot animation sets are used to do this. The third animation set is empty handed and is presumably dependant on not having a weapon at all. (in slot 1?)

[Avatar]

Combat/Assault goes hand in hand with Deployed/Undeployed or as BZ2 also thinks of it Morphed/UnMorphed.

These are all just the engine looking at something and seeing if it's Deployed or not, which is pretty much the same as the "Assault/Combat" flag being set to "A" or "C".

See?

I have pilots that don't crouch but still switch between Assault and Combat, and those that lie flat on the ground rather than crouch.  The engine handles switching the weapon no matter what the animation actually does.

***

Another cool thing is that pilot weapon models can have animations, and they'll loop when you're looking at them through the cockpit view.   

-Av-

[Red Devil]

"...and those that lie flat on the ground rather than crouch."

...

[TheJamsh]

The name of the animation doesnt matter, it can be called whatever. Bazooka/Rifle isnt necesary.

i wish pilots in the BZ2 world were larger. I've done lots of pretty explosion with pilots blowing up and body parts flying everywhere, but i had to scale the effects down so much you can barely see whats happening.

[Avatar]

Hey, people went nuts when a Jak Killer actually ate someone in the Demo...   they certainly don't want gibs flying...

It's like the Babylon 5 episode where the janitors are watching a space battle.  They can tell what ship blows up by the color of the explosion, which is based on the atmosphere in the ship blowing up.   

Our pilots spray little red blobs.  Aliens can do green, or blue, or purple...     

I also thought Scion Pilots should leave a tiny scrap blob when they blow up...

***

"...and those that lie flat on the ground rather than crouch."

...

?

I tried lying down for the Ancient Olympian pilots but it looked stupid...  very terrain dependent (imagine lying straight off of a cliff, with only your toes touching the ground, or lying down and embedding yourself in a sand dune).   That's why I switched to standing up for their sniping pose, bringing the gun up to them.

-Av-

[mrtwosheds]

And if you get too low down your sniper rifles goes underground when you look down, Dalek Pilots are very short, so they splay their tentacles and stretch upwards in order to snipe.

[TheJamsh]

Wheres the fun in blobs?

GSH doesn't know how much evil he has allowed me to create with one flag... Nothing like blowing up a downed infiltrator carrying a scorcher flame tank on his back and seeing his arms bounce off the nearest scion windshield

[Rocket]

Hey, people went nuts when a Jak Killer actually ate someone in the Demo...

i did...

[AHadley]

Want bigger pilots? Make bigger pilots. All you'll need is a model... and let's face it, doing worse than the original can't be easy

Unless you're me.

[mrtwosheds]

Pilots are, as far as I'm concerned, the hardest of models to make for bz2. The originals are in my opinion very well made! considering their low poly count and the limitations the game engine places on their animation. Very few modder's have done better.

[bigbadbogie]

I agree. Pilots are damn hard!

Here is an old one from QF2 that was never quite finished:





The legs are too skinny and shoulders are a bit weird shaped.