Possible to animate dif's in the Mission Editor?
by Lee Latham · in Torque Game Engine · 10/09/2006 (6:01 pm) · 12 replies
I'm having conniptions with various BSP editors and Torque entities. Is it possible to pypass that and animate elevators, platforms, etc. in the Mission Editor? That would REALLY be preferable, anyway, since it would speed up tweaking quite a bit.
#2
10/09/2006 (9:27 pm)
Is that a suggestion for a search or do you have a specific thread in mind? I've tried all kinds of searches on that phrase and can't find it...? 
#3
yes, i had a specific thread in mind,
and now with a little more time to actually do the search, here's the direct link:
ramen-sama's moving objects thing
i suspect it's probably a bit more work than you're hoping to do,
but AFAIK it's the best thing going for animating DIFs.
10/09/2006 (10:33 pm)
Hi, sorry for the vague post!yes, i had a specific thread in mind,
and now with a little more time to actually do the search, here's the direct link:
ramen-sama's moving objects thing
i suspect it's probably a bit more work than you're hoping to do,
but AFAIK it's the best thing going for animating DIFs.
#4
Thanks for that!! I'll report back here how it goes for posterity... :-)
10/09/2006 (11:11 pm)
Innnntterresting. I get the idea--it's not built in, but it's do-able, in any case. I'm learning to be a script monkey, so it's very nice to have a starting point, in any case.Thanks for that!! I'll report back here how it goes for posterity... :-)
#5
I think Ramen's code only supports animated .DTS shapes rather than .DIFs. However, players can walk around on the .DTS platforms, jump, shoot, etc. It's pretty cool.
10/10/2006 (4:33 am)
Hi guys,I think Ramen's code only supports animated .DTS shapes rather than .DIFs. However, players can walk around on the .DTS platforms, jump, shoot, etc. It's pretty cool.
#6
10/10/2006 (2:37 pm)
So I take it it's not "normal" to do it with dif's in the mission editor? The map2dif path is the way to go, then?
#7
10/10/2006 (8:01 pm)
DIFs can't really animate. And putting a DIF inside another DIF is a bad idea, it's said, because apparently the zone manager gets all confused and performance goes down. Thus, anything animating should be done with a DTS.
#8
icky. I can't WAIT for polysoup collision. It's supposed to be coming...
10/10/2006 (8:52 pm)
Hmm, DTS is fine for a simple platform, but if I want something with a little more complex collision, DIF is currently the only way to go, is it not? For example, if I wanted a nice railing on my platform?icky. I can't WAIT for polysoup collision. It's supposed to be coming...
#9
You could use multiple DTS collisions.
Given that this is still an active and open research area, I wouldn't hold my breath for truly robust, well-performing mesh-to-mesh collisions. Sphere-to-mesh, and capsule-to-mesh, and box-to-mesh are better solved, though. You might want to integrate something like Bullet or ODE for those particular functions.
10/11/2006 (11:34 am)
Quote:For example, if I wanted a nice railing on my platform?
You could use multiple DTS collisions.
Quote:I can't WAIT for polysoup collision. It's supposed to be coming
Given that this is still an active and open research area, I wouldn't hold my breath for truly robust, well-performing mesh-to-mesh collisions. Sphere-to-mesh, and capsule-to-mesh, and box-to-mesh are better solved, though. You might want to integrate something like Bullet or ODE for those particular functions.
#10
10/11/2006 (1:14 pm)
What you need is refered to as 'Pathed interiors'. Use them for doors, platforms, elevators, etc. Someone around here updated the original resource to work with TGE 1.4, and did a nice job. Doing the same in TSE is quite a bit more involved, but it is possible.
#12
This class lets you translate an interior along a path. It does not, however, allow you to rotate it, or generally animate it. It exposes a function to set a desired location along the path (0.0 being the start), and the interior will move there, using translation. Good enough for a door or platform, I hope (although the physics engine may have some issues with that, as it doesn't special-case moving collisions).
10/12/2006 (4:04 pm)
Actually, Erik is right: there is a "PathedInterior" class (at least in the 1.4.2 code base).This class lets you translate an interior along a path. It does not, however, allow you to rotate it, or generally animate it. It exposes a function to set a desired location along the path (0.0 being the start), and the interior will move there, using translation. Good enough for a door or platform, I hope (although the physics engine may have some issues with that, as it doesn't special-case moving collisions).
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