So, after extensive searching of the forums I haven't found much that discusses my desired visual implementation of an ability I am creating.
The ability is a spell that is cast in a cone originating from the caster and extending outwards in a cone centered on the mouse.
If you can help with any of the following, I may be able to finish it myself.
1) Attaching the Search Area to the caster's origin (i.e. rather than Psi Storm's circle moving with the mouse, it rotates about the HT's origin towards the mouse)
2) The ability to show this area as a cone (it may be a matter of importing a custom cone model I guess)
Something like this? Thats an old testmap of mine experimenting on how to get a cone cursor to work without a custom model.
Note, that it relies heavily on global references, like Raynor's Railgun Snipe, and it suffers from the same problems, aka not MUI. Also, the map was not designed to be looked at, so its a bit chaotic ;)
Something like this? Thats an old testmap of mine experimenting on how to get a cone cursor to work without a custom model.
Note, that it relies heavily on global references, like Raynor's Railgun Snipe, and it suffers from the same problems, aka not MUI. Also, the map was not designed to be looked at, so its a bit chaotic ;)
That's actually really impressive though Kueken. Do you know if it's possible to make the unit turn with the cursor as well using only a data solution?
That would be tricky. It is probably possible to turn the actor of the unit, however I am pretty sure there is no way for non-actor objects ro retrieve the cursor position, so we cannot physically turn the unit in its direction. For this, I would recommend using triggers.
I just remembered some issues with the map you probably should be aware of:
The Cursor Effect for the ability does not support cone shapes or areas located at the caster; it will only mark targets in a circle around the cursor. I used a dummy cursor effect with a small radius, which does not represent the real valid targets. You could probably skip it just as well.
For some reason, the splats do not turn properly with every model. You might notice, that the original base unit for the caster is a Marauder with the model changed to a Marine. The splat does work for the Marine model, but malfunctions for the Marauder one.
For universal use, it should be possible to intersect an invisible marine model.
Quick question: what are the linkages of all of these moves and why is it required to not be MUI?
I'm a super noob when it comes to making abilities in SC2, though I was capable of just about anything in WC3... And, though I am confident I could likely manipulate things the way I'd like through triggers, I want to learn the Data module.
If you can better explain the linkages of this ability, I'd be deeply grateful. Thanks again for sticking with this post.
The ability itself is perfectly MUI, it is just one ability, linked to a search, linked to a damage effect. Nothing more. Some settings were made to set the location of the search to the source point instead of the target point and to limit the angle. Pretty straight forward.
Whats not MUI is the cursor effect. This one is quite tricky. There is no way for an actor created by the cursor event of an ability to reference the source unit, so I use a tool available for actors called global references. They do basically work like global variables for triggers, however much more limited. You cannot really set those references for individual actors (at least data-only), so you have 1 reference per actor type. Multiple actors of the same type using the same reference will break the cursor effect.
So I set the unit to a global reference, then when targeting the ability, an invisible actor follows the mouse cursor, which is set to reference 2. Then I create the beam models at reference 1 pointing to reference 2, adjust their rotation slightly and thats it.
The links between the references and actors are located in the Target - fields for the actor messages in the events and in the Hosting - fields of the actors.
So, after extensive searching of the forums I haven't found much that discusses my desired visual implementation of an ability I am creating.
The ability is a spell that is cast in a cone originating from the caster and extending outwards in a cone centered on the mouse.
If you can help with any of the following, I may be able to finish it myself.
1) Attaching the Search Area to the caster's origin (i.e. rather than Psi Storm's circle moving with the mouse, it rotates about the HT's origin towards the mouse)
2) The ability to show this area as a cone (it may be a matter of importing a custom cone model I guess)
Let me know, thanks a lot!
Something like this? Thats an old testmap of mine experimenting on how to get a cone cursor to work without a custom model.
Note, that it relies heavily on global references, like Raynor's Railgun Snipe, and it suffers from the same problems, aka not MUI. Also, the map was not designed to be looked at, so its a bit chaotic ;)
That's actually really impressive though Kueken. Do you know if it's possible to make the unit turn with the cursor as well using only a data solution?
That would be tricky. It is probably possible to turn the actor of the unit, however I am pretty sure there is no way for non-actor objects ro retrieve the cursor position, so we cannot physically turn the unit in its direction. For this, I would recommend using triggers.
This is very much along the lines of what I'm looking for, if nothing else an excellent point to begin working from.
Thanks a ton for taking the time to pass it along.
I just remembered some issues with the map you probably should be aware of:
For universal use, it should be possible to intersect an invisible marine model.
@Kueken531: Go
Thanks again, still fudging around with this.
Quick question: what are the linkages of all of these moves and why is it required to not be MUI?
I'm a super noob when it comes to making abilities in SC2, though I was capable of just about anything in WC3... And, though I am confident I could likely manipulate things the way I'd like through triggers, I want to learn the Data module.
If you can better explain the linkages of this ability, I'd be deeply grateful. Thanks again for sticking with this post.
The ability itself is perfectly MUI, it is just one ability, linked to a search, linked to a damage effect. Nothing more. Some settings were made to set the location of the search to the source point instead of the target point and to limit the angle. Pretty straight forward.
Whats not MUI is the cursor effect. This one is quite tricky. There is no way for an actor created by the cursor event of an ability to reference the source unit, so I use a tool available for actors called global references. They do basically work like global variables for triggers, however much more limited. You cannot really set those references for individual actors (at least data-only), so you have 1 reference per actor type. Multiple actors of the same type using the same reference will break the cursor effect.
So I set the unit to a global reference, then when targeting the ability, an invisible actor follows the mouse cursor, which is set to reference 2. Then I create the beam models at reference 1 pointing to reference 2, adjust their rotation slightly and thats it.
The links between the references and actors are located in the Target - fields for the actor messages in the events and in the Hosting - fields of the actors.
@Kueken531: Go
solution: http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/development/artist-tavern/requests/54013-request-cone-cursor-splat/#p6