K, finally Blade isn't just stumbling around trying to keep his map from crashing, now I'm just wondering something theoretical

I'm sure most of you have played Halo 1, 2, or 3, and what I'm wondering is if we could incorporate something that I'm sure a LOT of people would love.

Gravity Lifts.

I have absolutely NO idea if/how this could be done, but I'm wondering if anyone would know a way to have something like a big fan, that blows people into the air, without making the "tumble." This would be sweet for large infantry maps as a means of getting across the battlefield quickly, and, in corporation with some sort of sticky detanator, could be AMAZING combat-wise.

So, if anyone even knows if it would be possible or not, tell me. I doubt that I would be able to pull it off, being new to modding and all, but I just think it would be a really cool idea.

-Blade

You could animate an invisible collision box like an elevator.

Well, with all the elevator-type animations I've done, it's seemed like you just fall through the object.

But that is a good idea. However, could you tell me how to do this (the invisible object collision) or say what tut/documentation would explain it?

The invisible collison boxes are in the data_***\Common\odfs folder. (com_inv_col_8 and three larger sizes)

If the object is moving too fast, you will fall through it (really it flies through you).

You could put an immobile auto-turret that uses force push at the bottom of a hole, but that would still cause you to flop around like a fish.

Or you could just set up a teleporter.

(Yes, I know I'm bumping, but this time I'm actually helping!)

Darth_Squoobus wrote:You could put an immobile auto-turret that uses force push at the bottom of a hole, but that would still cause you to flop around like a fish.

And you'd take damage if you were a non Jet or Jedi class (unless you removed fall damage from all units).

Darth_Squoobus wrote:Or you could just set up a teleporter.

That would be an instantaneous movement and wouldn't be able to produce the desired effect.

Wait. You could put a string of teleports. It might look a bit jumpy, but that might work...

Or invisible jet packs on every unit that would be activated upon entering the lift.

The easiest and best looking thing would be to force the player into an invisible animated turret.

Frisbeetarian wrote:The easiest and best looking thing would be to force the player into an invisible animated turret.

Yeah, that would be the best.

General_Nate wrote:

Frisbeetarian wrote:The easiest and best looking thing would be to force the player into an invisible animated turret.

Yeah, that would be the best.

I think the simple answer is that there is no really good way to do it. I haven't played Halo 2 more than a couple times, but if he's talking about the feature (or maybe was this in Halo 1?) where you get shot through the sky in an enclosed map, then we can't duplicate it accurately, because while you were shot, you could use a weapon. In a "falling" state you can't do that, so any sort of push value is useless. In an animated turret, you have no control of your weapons, so that is useless. The only way is to force your unit to be animated along with a static object, but that is nearly useless if you want to make an accurate duplication, because you can't move it at a comparable speed without being pushed through the collision.

Maveritchell wrote:

General_Nate wrote:

Frisbeetarian wrote:The easiest and best looking thing would be to force the player into an invisible animated turret.

Yeah, that would be the best.

I think the simple answer is that there is no really good way to do it. I haven't played Halo 2 more than a couple times, but if he's talking about the feature (or maybe was this in Halo 1?) where you get shot through the sky in an enclosed map, then we can't duplicate it accurately, because while you were shot, you could use a weapon. In a "falling" state you can't do that, so any sort of push value is useless. In an animated turret, you have no control of your weapons, so that is useless. The only way is to force your unit to be animated along with a static object, but that is nearly useless if you want to make an accurate duplication, because you can't move it at a comparable speed without being pushed through the collision.

How'd you get those fans to work on The Big "L"? Surely a gravity lift would work on the same principle.

Darth_Squoobus wrote:How'd you get those fans to work on The Big "L"? Surely a gravity lift would work on the same principle.

They wouldn't - I used collision, but since I had to push people neither very far nor very fast (nor was I limited by whether they could shoot when they were pushed), I could do that without any of the problems I mentioned. I'm pretty sure the "gravity lifts" in Halo shoot you at a pretty substantial rate of speed and across a long distance - for them to work with invisible collision, you'd have to move pretty slowly (or a very, very short distance).

What about a chain of short distance lifts?

Darth_Squoobus wrote:What about a chain of short distance lifts?

Inefficient (in terms of animation use, prop use, region use, code required to make it work) and prone to failure - counting on a series of triggered small collisions really isn't going to work any better than just animating one collision slowly.

Of course no, I haven't tried this and you are welcome to, but I'm pretty sure that trying to recreate what's mentioned here is a futile gesture.

Excuse me, I thought he was referring to the Gravity Lift a la the end of the chapter: The Truth and Reconciliation.

Frisbeetarian wrote:Excuse me, I thought he was referring to the Gravity Lift a la the end of the chapter: The Truth and Reconciliation.

I suppose he is. Looking at some videos of it, though, anything mentioned above applies to this as well as whatever it was I was thinking of. It moves a little slower, so maybe you could do something with collision, although it's still going to be a problem with more than one person. Regardless, invisible collision is the only viable option if you want to have your unit use weapons.

Well, what if you'd use multiple insisible/semitransparant (to go with the colour of the beam) platforms and then animate then within Zeroeditor? Making them have some sort of soft colour makes it more realistic, so that it looks like the gravity lifts in waves.

You're likely to have issues with that online, or if someone's framerate drops in single player. Having to time everything just right would require a consistently high frame rate and/or everyone online having a really awesome internet connection.

Personally I'd file this one under the "you could probably do it, but it would be an utter hack job and would work/look like crap". Given SWBF2's limitations I just don't see a way this could work with any sort of realism, accuracy or efficiency.