Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: None

You guys probably remember the Half-Life Red Alert mod I was going to get going using Spirit? Well... it turns out the name HLRA is already taken by a Russian mod that has nothing to do with the game Red Alert... but that's OK.

Half-Life Command & Conquer is soon going to have a release for the public.

Here's some art of the soon-to-be mammoth tank model (big pics, 75K each, about 1200 x 900).

url=http://matt.yticodes.net/imagedump/mammoth-isometric.jpg" target="_blank[mammoth-isometric.jpg
url=http://matt.yticodes.net/imagedump/mammoth-shaded.jpg" target="_blank[mammoth-shaded.jpg

The mod is going to take advantage of Spirit's ability to make REAL drivable vehicles (you haven't seen nothing yet. One of the spirit demos will have the famous composite mammoth tank. Yes, a fully-functional, 'open-source' vehicle, if you like. Multi-pointed collision detection, pitch, yaw, roll, acceleration, properly positioned turret etc.)

url=http://matt.yticodes.net/imagedump/mammoth.jpg" target="_blank" style="float:left;[img[http://spirit.yticodes.net/img.jpg" style="border:1px solid #999;margin:4px;padding:1px;background:#eee;

As soon as I get some time together (i.e. after Spirit 1.4 is released), I'll get a website up (probably hlcnc.net) for the mod to live at. Oh. Just a note for you. The lasers in that picture are NOT required for the operation of the vehicle. They just make it MUCH easier to debug it - I position them in the same place as the calc_velocity_paths, and now I can see where those tracelines are flying. Guessing isn't good enough.

Shiny?


Message last edited by ytiAdmin on Oct 21st 2004 at 21:11.

Graduate

Joined: 2nd Nov 2003
From: Spain
Posts: 846
Reply to: 1

ytiAdmin, I can only say

OMG O_o
It's looking good

________________________________________

Bahamut A.K.A. Biohaz@rd

Leader of The Last Citizen team
http://tlcmod.hl2spain.com

Mentor

Joined: 2nd Jul 2003
From: New Zealand
Posts: 2382
Reply to: 2

Mmmmmm, 'Mammoth Tank'......drool. It's so beautiful! I can't wait to see it all finished!


Message last edited by Confused on Oct 21st 2004 at 19:45.

Mentor

Joined: 6th Sep 2003
From: Netherlands
Posts: 2671
Reply to: 3

you need help wiht the mod??
im a big ra fan!!



So many Snarks were fired down the Atlantic Ocean Test Firing Range that the crews referred to them as "Snark Infested Waters."

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 4

Well, if I can solve this 'flickering model' problem when models are motion_managed, then, a skinner and somebody with some modelling knowledge would be welcome - I intend to have the turret as a 'bone' and use bone controllers to rotate the top...

Its unrealistic to try and build everything from world geometry... it puts limits on everything, and also creates problems, e.g., when a tank is destroyed, am I supposed to temporarily teleport it out of sight somewhere until its needed?

Lots of lil problems have to be solved. The basic concept of the vehicles is OK though - its just killing them and relocating them for spawning etc that will prove tricky if they're world-based.

Mentor

Joined: 11th Aug 2000
From: United Kingdom
Posts: 2795
Reply to: 5

when a tank is destroyed, am I supposed to temporarily teleport it out of sight somewhere until its needed?

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 6

Of course, but that doesn't solve the problem of taking it out of a list of entities... and unless the whole map is lit with dynamic lights, there's limitations to what you can do that will look good.

With modelled tanks (assuming I can get them not to flicker), everything can get *a lot* nicer.

Mentor

Joined: 6th Sep 2003
From: Netherlands
Posts: 2671
Reply to: 7

i can model but im very bad at skinning. and im not really good in animating.



So many Snarks were fired down the Atlantic Ocean Test Firing Range that the crews referred to them as "Snark Infested Waters."

Apprentice

Joined: 16th Jun 2002
From: Canada
Posts: 203
Reply to: 8

Is this C&C Tiberian Dawn? or Red Alert? I love the C&C series, too bad Renegade 2 was cancled :*(
I would love to help but I might be too nub for someone with your experience. Also, if this is a TD mod, THE NOD UNITS WERE BLUE NOT RED!!!!!

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 9

It's probably going to start out as Red Alert, but it can really be a bit of everything... I'm just wondering if there's any point modelling vehicles, because of the 'flickerey' problem when moving models.

Mentor

Joined: 6th Sep 2003
From: Netherlands
Posts: 2671
Reply to: 10

maby, but it might work out well.



So many Snarks were fired down the Atlantic Ocean Test Firing Range that the crews referred to them as "Snark Infested Waters."

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 11

Here is my latest worst nightmare relating to HLC&C:



Smaller or larger images available:
http://matt.yticodes.net/imagedump/vehiclemethodology-small.gif
http://matt.yticodes.net/imagedump/vehiclemethodology-big.gif

Mentor

Joined: 11th Aug 2000
From: United Kingdom
Posts: 2795
Reply to: 12

lol!

Would it be useful to move features from some of these entities into the others, to simplify this setup? I mean, are there any patterns of entities that you use all the time?

If a tree falls in the forest but has no material type, does it make a sound?

Padawan

Joined: 13th Oct 2003
From: United States
Posts: 143
Reply to: 13

hey-if some total coding freak [like ICR] combines all of the necessary ents into one giga-entity that will give you a fully-functional vehicle, that would rle so much... The concept I'm thinking of here is ike the huge numbers of simple transistors are packed into a chip that is able to perform some more complex tasks.. you could call it "Info_vehicle" with a whole bunch of parameters and so on... i dunno though..

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 14

Laurie: Most of those entities are strings of polars, but each of them has to perform different calculations, and that's the absolute fewest entities possible to do it with - not a single field is wasted .

Lazermaniac: Yes, a motion_vehicle or similar 'could' be created this way, but there are a helluva lot of parameters, and I don't think people would like the style of control. Its also still a bit buggy, and I'm really not sure if its worth me putting any more effort into it seeing as HL2 appears on Nov16.

In the near future, if HL1 becomes open-source and is therefore redistributable for free, I might consider a stand-alone 3DC&C or RA3D. It's definitely feasible, but just takes time. If I'd done all this 3 years ago, then HLC&C might be right up there with counter-strike and natural selection. Life's like that

Mentor

Joined: 11th Aug 2000
From: United Kingdom
Posts: 2795
Reply to: 15

Interesting. What calculations are the polars performing, exactly? If they're all rotating 90 degrees, maybe another entity could be given a pull down menu, with options like "don't rotate", "rotate 90 up", "rotate 90 left", "rotate 90 down", "rotate 90 right" and "rotate 180"?

If a tree falls in the forest but has no material type, does it make a sound?

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 16

Most of the polars are actually adding vectors together, and the last one in the chain is set as the "add offset" value on a calc_position, so I can resolve the end of a vector even if it doesn't start at the origin of the vehicle.

I think a "calc_sumvectors" entity would be interesting, but only a token addition, as it would really just a stripped-down calc_velocity_polar without the options like "add offset" etc.

An interesting thing to note is when reading any vector with the 'based on LV' field of a calc_velocity_polar, it is flipped vertically - to get it right you have to 'rotate by' 180 180 0, which effectively flips it the right way up. This doesn't occur in the "add offset" field.

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 17

OK. "Better" system; less bugs; four-wheels-two-axel-dynamics (as opposed to tripod action):



And now with even fewer nightmares: (I have removed the debugging lasers). Something like this will be used in HLC&C.



The lasers were only actually there for the sake of showing me where the calc_velocity_paths were. They are not part of the system.

For a grand total of 41 entities, you get:
- pitch based on all four wheels,
- roll based on two back wheels,
- yaw based on player's movement sense,
- collision (obstacles) using one vector for now,
- customizable maximum rear and front displacement,

Not half bad, if you ask me .


Message last edited by ytiAdmin on Nov 06th 2004 at 23:51.

Mentor

Joined: 6th Sep 2003
From: Netherlands
Posts: 2671
Reply to: 18

and what about in-game footage?



So many Snarks were fired down the Atlantic Ocean Test Firing Range that the crews referred to them as "Snark Infested Waters."

Graduate

Joined: 26th Dec 2003
From: Australia
Posts: 780
Reply to: 19

Heh, what? You actually wanted to SEE it moving?

I'll think about that ;-).

It'll probably become a Spirit 1.4 demo map. It looks pretty funky ingame though... especially if I can get this frickin camera to work, and then get the chasecamera happening.

Thanks for your interest - for the time being I was just bragging about the complexity of the system yet boasting its efficienty. It looks really funky when going diagonally over speedbumps. Perfect, front-rear bouncing either side.