Okay I made a walking tridroid.. It has no collision whatsoever. When i look at the ATAT odf, i almost get an heartattack for the collision-calls! Is there a quick, simple way on adding collision for vehicles? I know primitives with their names, and that kinda stuff, but i just want to hear from someone who has done it succesfull before. Also, if i built the model out of collision primitives, can i use 1 primitive for more? For example and ?

Thanks in advance, and if you have time, can you also explain how to simply and quickly make a nice shadowvolume?

Edit: Short vid about the walker.. It was a test msh, but it's working, so now i will model the dude. PLEASE don't say 'Ace made one, you should ask him!' because Ace will release those models when he wants, and he also mentioned not to ask about one of his models..

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MandeRek wrote:Is there a quick, simple way on adding collision for vehicles?

It's all simple, but how quick it gets done depends on your workflow.

MandeRek wrote:Also, if i built the model out of collision primitives, can i use 1 primitive for more?

Yes

MandeRek wrote:......can you also explain how to simply and quickly make a nice shadowvolume?

It's already explained in the art_guide.doc and there's also a link in the Tutorial Thread.

I've read the art guide, but it didn't make much sense.. I did merged all objects together, removed every material and called it sv_tridroid, and then hide it. The collision are all cylinders and one sphere, so i can use these for Ordnance and Soldier.. Name doesn't matter I guess?

What you did for the SV sounds correct, BTW you can also filter polygons on it too to reduce the overall poly count for the model as you are just making a shadow and it doesn't have to be highly detailed. But make sure there aren't any missing polies (like a not intended hole in the model as Visual Munge will crap oout and give you an error)

As for primitives they can be called anything they just have to fit the format for primitives which is:

p_-svbot-nameofcollision

svbot being the types of collisions soldier, vehicle, building, ordinance and terrain. You can have different collisions do different things like for a walker you would have a separate set of collisions for terrain just for the feet.

Okay, I made 1 sphere and lots of cylinders, and called them c_-svbot-leg1, c_-svbot-leg2 etc., and c_-svbot-head.

They're child of dummyroot.. I haven't added summin to the odf! Now, ingame, it still doesn't seem to work.. When it walks to step, and seems to have a change in terrain, it dies, while it's got 60000 health!

Do i need to add summin to the odf, or make something different since it's a walker?

Thanks for your help btw Frag!

you have to write them into the odf
from the at-sts odf: and you have to make the collsionparts child of the bones they belong to

I thought when doing primitives, with names like c_-svbot-... didn't need to be noticed in the odf; the names do the work (s= soldier, v= vehicles, b= building, o= ordnance and t= terrain, all from the art_guide.doc, which told me i didn't need to work with the old p_ system..)

I might place them under the bone.. You know for sure?

c_ is for cloth only, you should be using p_ for soldier, ordnance, building, terrain, or vehicle collision primitives, when you start trying to create new ways of doing something you're only making the process harder on yourself, do it the way you know works.

AceMastermind wrote:c_ is for cloth only, you should be using p_ for soldier, ordnance, building, terrain, or vehicle collision primitives, when you start trying to create new ways of doing something you're only making the process harder on yourself, do it the way you know works.

That's the problem, this is my first time with vehicle collisions

I'll change the names.. Still under dummyroot?

And.. thanks for your help Ace, you're the King!

The best thing you could do if you're having trouble figuring out how to setup vehicle collision or turrets or whatever is to launch Unwrap3d and open up some vehicle meshes and examine the hierarchy under the Bones section and look at the names of the objects and where they are located in the hierarchy and then open the ODF for that msh to see what they reference and to understand what they're for and what they do, the rest of it is just following the guidelines provided in the art_guide.doc and some experimenting and ingame testing.

I see.. I renamed them, and the results were.. suprising! It now has some sort of collision, since it's floating in the air, standing on 1 small pillar with 1 leg (the rest is just in the air) Then, still, when i walk he dies.. Is a huge walker impossible on a rough terrain?

I'll just do what you say Ace, with looking at asset's meshes and odfs.. Thanks

Just so others can see what we are talking about, the attached picture is the collisions that were made for the Dewback.



The rectangle for the head, bigger spheres for the body and the cylinders for the tail have collision properties for soldier, vehicle, building and ordanace p_-svbo- They are put under the bone_root. The smaller spheres on the pelvis, and the cylinders for the thighs and calves also have the same properties as above -svbo but since the are on bones that move they go under the respective bones for example the p_-svbo-pelvis_fr would go under the bone_fr_pelvis and
p_-svbo-calf_br would go under the bone+br_calf.

This brings us to the last set which are the cylinders on the feet. Now these are just labelled p_-t-foot_fr (for example)
this means it only has terrain collision, plus it is the only primitives that do have terrain collision so theoretically are the only parts that will interact with the terrain these would go under the repective foot bones. Note you can also put a b in the name as well p_-bt-foot_fr especially if you are going to have bridges in you map as they are buildings and not terrain.

The one thing to remember about collision primitives is only a cube can be scaled, spheres and cylinders should be sized in the creation box. Primitives must also never be frozen they lose their primitive properties. If you want to see if the primitives are working correctly DON'T hide them before export the munge process will actually hide them so if you don't see any of your collisions in game you are doing it right. The other way is to turn on render collisions in the BFmodtools exe and toggle freelook because it will also show you if they are moving correctly with the model.

Hope this helps you and others understand a more about primitives for vehicles and walkers.

FragMe! wrote:Just so others can see what we are talking about, the attached picture is the collisions that were made for the Dewback.

Good Lord in heaven! You must have the patience of a saint! :0
The hierarchy it burns!

Okay, I'm getting SOOOO frustrated! I really need to smash my computer out of the window soon!!

The art_guide.doc told me that cubes could be used as primitives-collision, and that they could be scaled how you want it.. Now, I've got the head, which is a sphere, and the 'torso' which is a cylinder.. Both are scaled using property page.

The 3 legs' collision consists of these cubes, scaled to fit them. Every collision primitive is child of the bone where it's supposed to move with..

All collisions are called p_-svbot-name.. The hierarchy is perfect, i just know that (can't take pic; taking a screen in U.Unwrap makes my whole computer freeze) Ingame, it still dies on every step, i walk and shoot straight through the model!! I can't see what's wrong.. Also, some freaking polygons are missing while the model is 100% clean; no single blue- or double edge!

Help me, PLEASE!! I've worked on this for hours, days actually, and I just want it to work.. I don't ask this quickly, but FragMe!, could i send you the scene so you could give your opinion and vision on it?

Here's a pic of the model to get a general idea what i mean..


Here's a vid, that shows that i walks perfectly on flat terrain:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=t9fzNP3d9NQ
In this vid, the texture isn't there, and the model sucked, but it walks!

Export it as a model and PM it to me I'll have a look

FragMe! wrote:Export it as a model and PM it to me I'll have a look

Thanks FragMe! i know this seems random but i made the model and 1/2 the texture and manderek is doing the collision ect...