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He guys got a conversational question concerning destructible props in the Zero Engine. Okay when most of us think of a prop that has health and can be killed, we think of a mesh that is replaced by a exp version when the initial props health reaches zero right?

Well this theory is what most things like ammo droids, and other destructible props work off of, at least as a majority. So then when some one like me comes along and says, what if I wanted to blow multiple pieces off of a prop? Well you would then tell me it doesn't work like that because the hole thing blows up and gets replaced by it's destroyed version. Here is where my idea comes in. I don't know if it is possible, and since I don't see it in action, it is less then likely the engine has these abilities installed to it. So hear me out.

Now lets just say we wanted to make a building that has some bulky supports all around it's outside walls. Now if we wanted to make it realistically be able to have holes blown between every outer support, then we might even have a bunch of identical (destructible) walls to place between every support. Now if we wanted to extend this destructible option any further it would wreak havoc for the precision involved with placing all this stuff in zero edit.

So here same my idea when I thought about this: what if we could add those destructible walls by null "point and reference"? A little more in depth explains this theory to be kind of like your attaching effects to a vehicle, and then telling in the ODF what occupies that point. So then what if this were extended to the position of props in a prop? If this were a viable option, then all you would have to do is get creative with your walls and holes, and then be sure to position all of the (hole filling) walls under a null. Of course you would have to export the pieces separately, but it would then remove the hassle of messing with the meshes beyond exporting. Finish the ODF referencing, and theoretically that would be it.

Now comes the question, does the zero engine support anything like this. Or is this even some thing that could be edited into the way the engine is already setup? It's all up for conversation guys, just purely an idea. Post about your input on why this would or wouldn't work? I am no expert so just throwing it out there.

no, you cant do it like that. all you can attach to a prop is a light or an effect. you can put a model in the effect but it will not recieve light and look totally out of place.(in older games you might see fake looking pieces of something flying away in an explosion, thats are models in the explosioneffect)
i dont think there is any wy to have such a general destructability. you can only have selected props that you build out of multiple objects in ze. you can give them all the same origin so that you can just snap them together in ze and they fit but thats basically it.
you can have a modle with destructable geometry and chungs though so you could have a wall in which you can blow a hole with pieces flying away.

DarthD.U.C.K. wrote: you can only have selected props that you build out of multiple objects in ze. you can give them all the same origin so that you can just snap them together in ze and they fit but thats basically it.
you can have a modle with destructable geometry and chungs though so you could have a wall in which you can blow a hole with pieces flying away.

I think that this^ is the best way (and only way) to make it happen.

DarthD.U.C.K. wrote:you can put a model in the effect but it will not recieve light and look totally out of place.(in older games you might see fake looking pieces of something flying away in an explosion, thats are models in the explosioneffect)

Well its funny that it would work even slightly to be honest. Technically the only purpose of the attachment points (in this case), would be to pre-locate a separate destructible object (like that wall). Now this would be totally convenient, but as I suspected, not reasonably possible with out programming in a new kind of ODF class which I know we can't do.

Of course it's just an idea, and I know the only way to do this in the existing setup of the engine is to place all the geometry manually. I was just thinking yesterday, how nice it would be if there were these kinds of options. I don't know, I think that is the side of me wanting to sort of "prefabricate" my assets, so that they would be easy to use and place. Anyway thought I would just throw this out there, even if it's one of those what if topics.

when you give all pieces of the model the same origin you just have to place one of them in the right position and then can snap the pother pieces to it. thats the best you can get.

Also, if you want to place the group of objects more than once, it's easiest to multi-select them and save them as a group, and them load the group into the editor, similar to that one capital ship easy placement tool thingy. Since you'll probably want to rotate them, use Z to rotate the entire group around a single plane instead of each object around its own separate plane.

Well thanks for all the great tips. It's the age old story when we say it's to bad we couldn't re-code parts of the game for mods, but you know how that goes.

i was just wondering what if you set up the prop with some lua coding. like when an object gets to a certain health the lua tells it to be destroyed and another prop to replace it. you could have a second model with a peice missing and a chunk that explodes off of the first model when it gets to the health level of when the lua destroys it. you could in theory do this many times in a row for a desired effect but i'm not all that on lua or modeling so i don't know for sure just an idea.