"Behavior" term is not only used in the editor, but also is a name of a group of special model features in Art Tools. It's been a while since I used it, but I remember that we need to define "look at" behavior in Art Tools, which simply gives a special interface to a bone of the model. This interface can then be used by "look at" trigger action in the editor so the bone will be rotated in a specified direction.
You mentioned some related effect, so it may be the improvement Delphinium mentioned. Would be nice if they made it work through pure data. When I worked on my last map I was an extreme data purist, but I had no choice but to use triggers for that look at thing, and it was the only trigger in the map, that has anything to do with unit attacks.
"Look at" behavior has been there since much earlier than LotV, I used it to implement a full spherical turret a couple of years ago. But it was so buggy, man, I never witnessed anything that much buggy, and decided to never touch that shit again, even though it looked cool in game, when a huge robot aims his gun down to kill a little zergling and then raises it up to aim flying units.
Oh, they covered joints based ragdolls in the tutorial? Crap, didn't know that, and had to go the trial and error way to learn how to make those death body parts not fall aside from each other.
But practically I adore ragdolls, but not even as biological deaths, but rather as mech units deaths. It's cool to see tank threads or helicopter fans physically realistically get separated from the model, fly away, fall to the ground and randomly dangle here and there.
@CybrosX: Go
physics for death model is called ragdoll I believe, it is in the official tutorials from blizzard, from the ArtTools
Actually, official tutorial only covered a situation where separate pieces of models fall apart independently. Ragdoll mechanics appeared since HotS, they use additional kind of connections between physics bodies named "joints", haven't seen them mentioned in the tutorial.
I'd try composite material with two materials, opaque over the glowing one. They should have equal parameters and noisy alpha channel animations. But the opaque one should have lower alpha cut threshold. So it will cover less than the glowing material underneath it occupies at any given moment, so it will look like glowing edges.
It's not a very clean solution, edges will have different widths, but it should work. Actually there's 8 layers at composite material, so the same approach can make decaying look multilayerish.
Yes, that inversion was a nightmare indeed, but it doesn't seem to happen in the models I created in Art Tools, somehow it managed to handle mirroring right. But it was still an issue for the models that have been created in m3 exporter, turned to m3, and then reimported back to Art Tools. It also happened for the models that has been created in blender. So, there's definitely something in the model that has to be cleaned. It is not purely Art Tools problem, I struggled with it when tried to import some models to unity, so maybe try to google it.
Just ask. Delphinium and I know alot and ready to help. All Art Tools objects are trivial for practical use. I'm sure you've already understood how to use those ribbons. Have you?
Best wishes from the moon base!
Z.
@DrSuperEvil: Go
"Behavior" term is not only used in the editor, but also is a name of a group of special model features in Art Tools. It's been a while since I used it, but I remember that we need to define "look at" behavior in Art Tools, which simply gives a special interface to a bone of the model. This interface can then be used by "look at" trigger action in the editor so the bone will be rotated in a specified direction.
You mentioned some related effect, so it may be the improvement Delphinium mentioned. Would be nice if they made it work through pure data. When I worked on my last map I was an extreme data purist, but I had no choice but to use triggers for that look at thing, and it was the only trigger in the map, that has anything to do with unit attacks.
@Delphinium1987: Go
"Look at" behavior has been there since much earlier than LotV, I used it to implement a full spherical turret a couple of years ago. But it was so buggy, man, I never witnessed anything that much buggy, and decided to never touch that shit again, even though it looked cool in game, when a huge robot aims his gun down to kill a little zergling and then raises it up to aim flying units.
yea!
GO TURTLE!
@GnaReffotsirk: Go
Oh, they covered joints based ragdolls in the tutorial? Crap, didn't know that, and had to go the trial and error way to learn how to make those death body parts not fall aside from each other.
But practically I adore ragdolls, but not even as biological deaths, but rather as mech units deaths. It's cool to see tank threads or helicopter fans physically realistically get separated from the model, fly away, fall to the ground and randomly dangle here and there.
Actually, official tutorial only covered a situation where separate pieces of models fall apart independently. Ragdoll mechanics appeared since HotS, they use additional kind of connections between physics bodies named "joints", haven't seen them mentioned in the tutorial.
@TaylorMouse: Go
I'd try composite material with two materials, opaque over the glowing one. They should have equal parameters and noisy alpha channel animations. But the opaque one should have lower alpha cut threshold. So it will cover less than the glowing material underneath it occupies at any given moment, so it will look like glowing edges.
It's not a very clean solution, edges will have different widths, but it should work. Actually there's 8 layers at composite material, so the same approach can make decaying look multilayerish.
@Delphinium1987: Go
I think DrSuperEvil means the 20-80 rule. Setting a an actor up for it is like spending 20% time to have 80% result, which is a good alternative.
Though, I'd prefer actors to be able to affect UV offsets of the textures for additional animation.
Oh yeah, lovely water. Perfect implementation.
Great water, dude!
How much time did you spend to create that death animation? It looks very thorough. And what about the model itself, did you create it as well?
@GnaReffotsirk: Go
Yes, that inversion was a nightmare indeed, but it doesn't seem to happen in the models I created in Art Tools, somehow it managed to handle mirroring right. But it was still an issue for the models that have been created in m3 exporter, turned to m3, and then reimported back to Art Tools. It also happened for the models that has been created in blender. So, there's definitely something in the model that has to be cleaned. It is not purely Art Tools problem, I struggled with it when tried to import some models to unity, so maybe try to google it.
@GnaReffotsirk: Go
Yes, there's a problem with normal map being applied inverted on the mirrored half of the model. There was a cure for this, but I forgot what is it.
Maybe try to remove the mirrored part and perform the mirror again. Or maybe there's modifier that fixes it.
And for the ribbon, I'd recommend to play with each parameter of the object, but read the descriptions first in the Art Tools documentation.
One possible solution for the ribbon being shown only on charge is to animate it. It could disappear on the animations you don't need it to be.
For example, you can set alpha multiplier to zero to hide the ribbon.
@GnaReffotsirk: Go
Just ask. Delphinium and I know alot and ready to help. All Art Tools objects are trivial for practical use. I'm sure you've already understood how to use those ribbons. Have you?
I'd like to express admiration, this is a high quality work.