@Vexal
I know it's not rendering what's not visible, but what I was getting at was if it checks objects behind the wall for rendering. Not sure of the exact terminology, but since SC2 isn't specifically designed for a non-topdown view, I can't see why they would try to optimize this.
It sounds like I'm going to have to create my own LoD system for SC2... this could be difficult.
It's not just for doodads either, I'd need to be able to display lower poly versions of UNITS as well. I'm thinking I'll have to have the system work to where there's no real interaction between units except through triggers affecting an invisible unit that the art follows around.
Time to get into specifics: How can I have... for example... player 1 see a high poly model because it's close, but player 2, being further way, sees a different, must lower detailed model? I assume I'll have to use separate units to achieve this.... or OH OH Is there a way to do this with actor events in the data editor??? Like I'm thinking it'll function like an upgraded unit (ie zergling vs zergling with wings... same unit, different model), and I can just use actor messages to toggle between detail levels. Does this sound feasible?
For the aiming, I may just scrap that and take the emphasis off of combat, and more on the player interactions with each other. There will still be combat, but it'll be where accuracy doesn't matter much like melee weapons or flamethrowers or shotguns.
...but I have some concerns I want addressed first.
After learning of autodesk giving free 3-year licenses of it's most popular products to students (including 3dsmax!) I have decided to do a custom-content heavy map for starcraft 2. I want to make a "the thing" map (obviously it won't be called that, I'll have to change the name, and some of the themes).
I want it to have fairly decent graphics, so I'll be making tiles for the interior to be constructed out of similar to how Amnesia: The Dark Descent works. (video here ).
Question #1: How speedily can Starcraft II draw things in a first person viewpoint? For instance, If I'm staring straight at a wall, is it smart enough to not render the hundreds of things on the other side of the wall. If not, is there a way I can cheat this system to make it work better for this particular need?
Question #2: I want it to have fairly decent graphics, BUT being an RTS game, I'm sure it isn't optimized for different LoDs of models (Level of Detail). Is there a way to get this functionality into the game? For instance, an object far away will render with a much less-detailed mesh than an object up close. I'm thinking I'll probably create 4 different LoDs for each object. I'm thinking I can get this to work through triggers if there's a way to show/hide objects for ONLY a certain player (and ideally, not having any net traffic for this as it's purely graphics related, not gameplay related). I'm wondering though if there's a better solution possible with the data editor...
Question #3: Luckily, this game won't hinge too much on the need for super responsive controls (which I KNOW Starcraft II is not well suited for). BUT! At the same time, I'm wondering how far can I push this? Accurate aiming. Does Starcraft II have the capabilities required to do hit tests on a model (ie from the center of another player's screen, is the bullet hitting the model, or just missing it and hitting the wall behind it?) It's not THAT big of a deal if I have to just use a sphere to act as the collision detector, I'd just love to have it be more accurate with hit detection.
Question #4: Is there a file size limit for Starcraft II maps? I'm not sure how crazy I'll go with details, but I want to know ahead of time if I need to be strategic about where the effort goes.
Thank you all for your patience, and I look forward to your answers.
Crap... well I need to look at what I did in warcraft 3 then... because it didn't lag in that one, but it does here... though it's doing a bit more here...
Basically, It's a TD where the player has to make a path leading from one point to the next, BUT this path can have dead ends. The critters running along the path don't know how to get to the end, so rather than running through the whole thing, they simply turn a random direction (or keep heading straight) at each junction, doubling back only when they reach a dead end. What I'm doing is letting the player draw out the pavement (it's a 15x10 grid of 2x2 panels) then they click a button which "solidifies" the pavement, which prevents further changes and adds one "unit enters region" event to a trigger for every single pavement square.
I do have a few function calls in the big trigger though... would it speed things up if I simply did everything in that one trigger rather than try to use calls to my own custom functions? I made them just for ease of coding... but now it seems I need to do whatever is fastest.
Also, is there a distinct advantage to using global variables instead of local variables? It's mostly just ints, but there's an array in there somewhere (a tiny one). Would it make a difference to use global variables and just zero them out in the first few lines of code in the trigger, or is it just as fast to re-declare new variables every time the trigger is run?
A TON of events on one trigger, or a ton of triggers with one event each? Or something in between?
The way I have my map working now is there is one trigger, and "unit enters region" events are added to it during the game... it's a bit slow as it can get up to at least 160 events. And I'm just 1 player testing it now... when there's 12 players in the game playing for real... WWWWHHHHEEEEEWWWWW....
I made one a while back for warcraft 3. Never got around to polishing it because wc3 sucks... and maybe I'd make a ridiculously well-made map IF ONLY SOMEBODY WOULD MAKE AN EXPORTER FOR BLENDER!!!!
Hi, I'm trying to make a custom building (a 1x1 structure), and whenever I'm placing the building, it let's me place anywhere, but when I try to build say... a sensor tower (with an SCV as opposed to my custom builder unit) building is prevented right where I want it to be prevented. My question is: why does it allow me to place a building where it doesn't let me place a sensor tower?
The custom building has the same placement footprint as the sensor tower (Footprint 1x1)... what else could cause this?
I LOVED the pest invasion for Warcraft 3! I couldn't ever get the AI to work though... (it said something about there being AI but it was a secret and you had to figure it out yourself... :( )
It's flat already... PERFECTLY flat. The doodad is either shifting down through the terrain, or it's getting deleted. Either way, it's disappearing, and I can't have that... the doodads are kind of important.
I was afraid you'd say that... Well I can't do much of anything with the footprint editor, it's not working right for me. It doesn't save changes and it doesn't load footprints right either. Every time you load up a footprint, the "pathing" part of it is always blank.
EDIT: Well it seems the changes DO save, they just don't ever load properly. Thanks for your help Builder_Bob!
I'm talking about building placement in game. And you can build because your builder is a flying unit.
It has to be a dynamic solution, ie no painting the pathing in the editor.
More specific question: What flags in a pathing blocker keep units from walking on the blocker? I've placed some 2x2 pathing blockers, but they don't block unit movement (???).
EDIT: To clarify, I'm trying to make it so critters can walk on one area of the ground, but not the other, and the builder cannot build where the critters are walking, but CAN build where they cannot. And again, this needs to be a dynamic solution (I can use a 2x2 grid of pathing blockers)
EDIT2: And the builder can walk anywhere, but that's not really an issue here.
Is there a way to make a 2x2 pathing blocker that blocks unit movement, but not building placement? I know, a bit of a weird request, but it's for a rather strange TD/TW map.
0
@Vexal I know it's not rendering what's not visible, but what I was getting at was if it checks objects behind the wall for rendering. Not sure of the exact terminology, but since SC2 isn't specifically designed for a non-topdown view, I can't see why they would try to optimize this.
It sounds like I'm going to have to create my own LoD system for SC2... this could be difficult.
It's not just for doodads either, I'd need to be able to display lower poly versions of UNITS as well. I'm thinking I'll have to have the system work to where there's no real interaction between units except through triggers affecting an invisible unit that the art follows around.
Time to get into specifics: How can I have... for example... player 1 see a high poly model because it's close, but player 2, being further way, sees a different, must lower detailed model? I assume I'll have to use separate units to achieve this.... or OH OH Is there a way to do this with actor events in the data editor??? Like I'm thinking it'll function like an upgraded unit (ie zergling vs zergling with wings... same unit, different model), and I can just use actor messages to toggle between detail levels. Does this sound feasible?
For the aiming, I may just scrap that and take the emphasis off of combat, and more on the player interactions with each other. There will still be combat, but it'll be where accuracy doesn't matter much like melee weapons or flamethrowers or shotguns.
Whew this is going to be a bit of work!
0
...but I have some concerns I want addressed first.
After learning of autodesk giving free 3-year licenses of it's most popular products to students (including 3dsmax!) I have decided to do a custom-content heavy map for starcraft 2. I want to make a "the thing" map (obviously it won't be called that, I'll have to change the name, and some of the themes).
I want it to have fairly decent graphics, so I'll be making tiles for the interior to be constructed out of similar to how Amnesia: The Dark Descent works. (video here ).
Question #1: How speedily can Starcraft II draw things in a first person viewpoint? For instance, If I'm staring straight at a wall, is it smart enough to not render the hundreds of things on the other side of the wall. If not, is there a way I can cheat this system to make it work better for this particular need?
Question #2: I want it to have fairly decent graphics, BUT being an RTS game, I'm sure it isn't optimized for different LoDs of models (Level of Detail). Is there a way to get this functionality into the game? For instance, an object far away will render with a much less-detailed mesh than an object up close. I'm thinking I'll probably create 4 different LoDs for each object. I'm thinking I can get this to work through triggers if there's a way to show/hide objects for ONLY a certain player (and ideally, not having any net traffic for this as it's purely graphics related, not gameplay related). I'm wondering though if there's a better solution possible with the data editor...
Question #3: Luckily, this game won't hinge too much on the need for super responsive controls (which I KNOW Starcraft II is not well suited for). BUT! At the same time, I'm wondering how far can I push this? Accurate aiming. Does Starcraft II have the capabilities required to do hit tests on a model (ie from the center of another player's screen, is the bullet hitting the model, or just missing it and hitting the wall behind it?) It's not THAT big of a deal if I have to just use a sphere to act as the collision detector, I'd just love to have it be more accurate with hit detection.
Question #4: Is there a file size limit for Starcraft II maps? I'm not sure how crazy I'll go with details, but I want to know ahead of time if I need to be strategic about where the effort goes.
Thank you all for your patience, and I look forward to your answers.
0
Crap... well I need to look at what I did in warcraft 3 then... because it didn't lag in that one, but it does here... though it's doing a bit more here...
Basically, It's a TD where the player has to make a path leading from one point to the next, BUT this path can have dead ends. The critters running along the path don't know how to get to the end, so rather than running through the whole thing, they simply turn a random direction (or keep heading straight) at each junction, doubling back only when they reach a dead end. What I'm doing is letting the player draw out the pavement (it's a 15x10 grid of 2x2 panels) then they click a button which "solidifies" the pavement, which prevents further changes and adds one "unit enters region" event to a trigger for every single pavement square.
I do have a few function calls in the big trigger though... would it speed things up if I simply did everything in that one trigger rather than try to use calls to my own custom functions? I made them just for ease of coding... but now it seems I need to do whatever is fastest.
Also, is there a distinct advantage to using global variables instead of local variables? It's mostly just ints, but there's an array in there somewhere (a tiny one). Would it make a difference to use global variables and just zero them out in the first few lines of code in the trigger, or is it just as fast to re-declare new variables every time the trigger is run?
0
A TON of events on one trigger, or a ton of triggers with one event each? Or something in between?
The way I have my map working now is there is one trigger, and "unit enters region" events are added to it during the game... it's a bit slow as it can get up to at least 160 events. And I'm just 1 player testing it now... when there's 12 players in the game playing for real... WWWWHHHHEEEEEWWWWW....
0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/
OH and also:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905372/ (prequel! Can't wait for this one!)
I made one a while back for warcraft 3. Never got around to polishing it because wc3 sucks... and maybe I'd make a ridiculously well-made map IF ONLY SOMEBODY WOULD MAKE AN EXPORTER FOR BLENDER!!!!
0
Oh you're kidding me! It seems to work if I have "Unused (Land 07)" and "Unused (Land 09)" checked... what kind of arbitrary BS is this????
At least it's working now...
0
Hi, I'm trying to make a custom building (a 1x1 structure), and whenever I'm placing the building, it let's me place anywhere, but when I try to build say... a sensor tower (with an SCV as opposed to my custom builder unit) building is prevented right where I want it to be prevented. My question is: why does it allow me to place a building where it doesn't let me place a sensor tower?
The custom building has the same placement footprint as the sensor tower (Footprint 1x1)... what else could cause this?
0
I really hope you meant "Warcraft III" modder...
I LOVED the pest invasion for Warcraft 3! I couldn't ever get the AI to work though... (it said something about there being AI but it was a secret and you had to figure it out yourself... :( )
0
Huh... I thought I had removed all of those flatten events, but I'll take another look.
0
It's flat already... PERFECTLY flat. The doodad is either shifting down through the terrain, or it's getting deleted. Either way, it's disappearing, and I can't have that... the doodads are kind of important.
0
Do you know what it's called?
0
How do I make it so a building doesn't delete the doodads around it when construction starts?
0
I was afraid you'd say that... Well I can't do much of anything with the footprint editor, it's not working right for me. It doesn't save changes and it doesn't load footprints right either. Every time you load up a footprint, the "pathing" part of it is always blank.
EDIT: Well it seems the changes DO save, they just don't ever load properly. Thanks for your help Builder_Bob!
0
I'm talking about building placement in game. And you can build because your builder is a flying unit.
It has to be a dynamic solution, ie no painting the pathing in the editor.
More specific question: What flags in a pathing blocker keep units from walking on the blocker? I've placed some 2x2 pathing blockers, but they don't block unit movement (???).
EDIT: To clarify, I'm trying to make it so critters can walk on one area of the ground, but not the other, and the builder cannot build where the critters are walking, but CAN build where they cannot. And again, this needs to be a dynamic solution (I can use a 2x2 grid of pathing blockers)
EDIT2: And the builder can walk anywhere, but that's not really an issue here.
0
Is there a way to make a 2x2 pathing blocker that blocks unit movement, but not building placement? I know, a bit of a weird request, but it's for a rather strange TD/TW map.