Is there a fast/easy way to duplicate abilities without making all of these copy's for actor and sounds? I don't like Junk data and I don't know how to make them call on the original actor/sound.
Duplicate all effects and then go to original actors ->events+ field ->see how they were activated through original effects and copy those methods to work with your duplicated effects.
For example some sound actors are created by something like this "Effect.XXX.Start ->Create" so you'd want to add "Effect.XXXCopy.Start->Create"
But please note that some actors can't be refit to be created by multiple effects. They usually token fields on the bottom (one example is action actors). Also since data is all about organization, naming and clarity of how your links work I've taken a habit to duplicate everything that I might ever want to change (to keep originals intact) It's useful :>
Slight correction: Tokens are entirely cosmetic, they can be used for easier re-assignment of links but are in no way relevant for the funtionality of an actor. I think Unit actors actually are the only ones where the one link restriction remains anyway as they have a ton of events. Even then you can reuse the same actor for sufficiently similar morphs.
Actors that truly are limited to a single link include things like Range actors which draw the range from a specific data object, and reusing Action actors with effect-specific Attach Methods won't work out well either. Things like Model actors are fully reuseable though.
I fully agree on the clarity thing though, unless you have something like 10 different "levels" of the same ability or a full TD "race" that can set enemies on fire by default (meaning a dozen fire effects of increasing strength), reusing actors generally only leads to massive confusion if you lay off the map for a while.
The reason I asked is because I have a probe and changed the buildings that it summons but there is no warp in art/actor/morph whatever and I want to put it in there. I noticed it was missing a construction actor but when I duplicated it I could not find/set the original actor and I know at some point I need to go through and delete most of the junk data copy's. Should I just rename that and see if it works?
Construction is a seperate subject in its own right, and doesn't work like the stuff people usually refer to as "abilities".
I don't know the Protoss setup, but for Terrans there's a standalone Progress actor linked to the Build ability, of which I have no idea what its purpose is. Then each structure creates its own actors completely seperate from that through a UnitConstruction event in the Unit actor itself. This creates a Model type actor called "StructureName"Build, which is the scaffolding that constitutes most of the animation. This Model actor then creates anotherProgress actor called TerranConstructionAttached, which is shared across all structures. Using existing "StructureName"Build actors for custom structures works just fine, although they obviously share the visual scale with the original structure.
Type "construction" or "build", maybe "buildmodel" in the search bar and check what pops up for Protoss.
Edit: Okay, took a quick look at the Protoss version: They use the same general setup, with a Model actor called ProtossBuildingBirth (and variants) which creates a Progress actor called ProtossConstructionAttached, as well as a standalone Progress actor called ProtossConstruction which is tied to the Build ability. The main difference is that most structures share the same Model actor, and said actor creates itself rather than being created by the Unit actor of each individual structure. This is because the main "warp in" animation isn't scaled to the exact size of every individual structure.
As for copying/adding stuff: I think adding the custom Build ability to the standalone construction actor and adding creation events to the correct BuildingBirth variant is all that's needed, provided you don't need custom model sizes, tint colors or other graphical modifications. Keep in mind that the last part of the build animation, where the structure materialises top-down, is part of the main Unit model and unique to Protoss models. Any models lacking this animation will simply cause the structure to be completely invisible for the last 5 seconds of the construction, and you'll have to bridge that with improvised Model actors or something.
Awesome thanks I'm going to bookmark this thread for later so I can refer to it. The build time is only 2 seconds. I just wanted to see if I could get the construction model into the process to make it look cleaner. Right now now having a place holder while it's build it's kinda ugly.
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Is there a fast/easy way to duplicate abilities without making all of these copy's for actor and sounds? I don't like Junk data and I don't know how to make them call on the original actor/sound.
@Reaperguyver: Go
Duplicate all effects and then go to original actors ->events+ field ->see how they were activated through original effects and copy those methods to work with your duplicated effects.
For example some sound actors are created by something like this "Effect.XXX.Start ->Create" so you'd want to add "Effect.XXXCopy.Start->Create"
But please note that some actors can't be refit to be created by multiple effects. They usually token fields on the bottom (one example is action actors). Also since data is all about organization, naming and clarity of how your links work I've taken a habit to duplicate everything that I might ever want to change (to keep originals intact) It's useful :>
@DuckyTheDuck: Go
Slight correction: Tokens are entirely cosmetic, they can be used for easier re-assignment of links but are in no way relevant for the funtionality of an actor. I think Unit actors actually are the only ones where the one link restriction remains anyway as they have a ton of events. Even then you can reuse the same actor for sufficiently similar morphs.
Actors that truly are limited to a single link include things like Range actors which draw the range from a specific data object, and reusing Action actors with effect-specific Attach Methods won't work out well either. Things like Model actors are fully reuseable though.
I fully agree on the clarity thing though, unless you have something like 10 different "levels" of the same ability or a full TD "race" that can set enemies on fire by default (meaning a dozen fire effects of increasing strength), reusing actors generally only leads to massive confusion if you lay off the map for a while.
The reason I asked is because I have a probe and changed the buildings that it summons but there is no warp in art/actor/morph whatever and I want to put it in there. I noticed it was missing a construction actor but when I duplicated it I could not find/set the original actor and I know at some point I need to go through and delete most of the junk data copy's. Should I just rename that and see if it works?
Also thank you this has been helpful so far.
Construction is a seperate subject in its own right, and doesn't work like the stuff people usually refer to as "abilities".
I don't know the Protoss setup, but for Terrans there's a standalone Progress actor linked to the Build ability, of which I have no idea what its purpose is. Then each structure creates its own actors completely seperate from that through a UnitConstruction event in the Unit actor itself. This creates a Model type actor called "StructureName"Build, which is the scaffolding that constitutes most of the animation. This Model actor then creates another Progress actor called TerranConstructionAttached, which is shared across all structures. Using existing "StructureName"Build actors for custom structures works just fine, although they obviously share the visual scale with the original structure.
Type "construction" or "build", maybe "buildmodel" in the search bar and check what pops up for Protoss.
Edit: Okay, took a quick look at the Protoss version: They use the same general setup, with a Model actor called ProtossBuildingBirth (and variants) which creates a Progress actor called ProtossConstructionAttached, as well as a standalone Progress actor called ProtossConstruction which is tied to the Build ability. The main difference is that most structures share the same Model actor, and said actor creates itself rather than being created by the Unit actor of each individual structure. This is because the main "warp in" animation isn't scaled to the exact size of every individual structure.
As for copying/adding stuff: I think adding the custom Build ability to the standalone construction actor and adding creation events to the correct BuildingBirth variant is all that's needed, provided you don't need custom model sizes, tint colors or other graphical modifications. Keep in mind that the last part of the build animation, where the structure materialises top-down, is part of the main Unit model and unique to Protoss models. Any models lacking this animation will simply cause the structure to be completely invisible for the last 5 seconds of the construction, and you'll have to bridge that with improvised Model actors or something.
@Photoloss: Go
Awesome thanks I'm going to bookmark this thread for later so I can refer to it. The build time is only 2 seconds. I just wanted to see if I could get the construction model into the process to make it look cleaner. Right now now having a place holder while it's build it's kinda ugly.