SC2Mapster

Quote from Tinnenmannetje: Go

We're currently writing an indepth tutorial on how we made our capture system. Here are the basics:

-We copied the pylon power radius actor and model (requires changing texture paths in the model file with an hex editor) -Since sc2 has problems with big projector textures we had to cut it into 5 pieces, 4 actors for each corner and one for the center glow. Siteoperator actors were used to change the offset and rotation -Use send message to actor in the trigger editor to change the colour of the actors.

Actor - Send message (Set Tint Color (Color((Current player Player color))) with HDR 4.0 over 0.0 seconds) to actor ("z_areaIndicationBL" actor from the scope (Actor scope for Flag))

The minimap tiles were made by placing a dialog window over the minimap and adding images where each flag is. The colour changes each time a player caps a flag.

I got sent here from http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/triggers/11710-creating-3d-ui-elements-lines-on-terrain-color-fills/#p18 Can anyone elaborate on this? I can't seem to even find this "pylon power radius" actor/model/doodad/decal. I'm pretty new to the editor and tend to get tunnel vision when I look at the data UI, but even so it seems like my searching should've brought SOMETHING up. I must be way off.

@FvFingerhoff: Go

YES. This is definitely what I'm looking for. Sounds like it's a little complicated, but hopefully I can hack through it. THANK YOU.

EDIT: Brick-walled immediately. I can't figure out where the "pylon power radius" is, or what it is for that matter. Seems like searching for each of those keywords in the actor section of data would bring something up. It's very frustrating being so close to what I need and not being able to use it. ;_;

I can't help thinking someone knows how to do this. That being the case... bump?

@BumpInTheNight: Go

Wow, I hadn't explored much of the site. That's really quite fleshed out. I'd be really interested to see how you actually accomplished the bouncing lasers and so forth.

My intended game is something similar, but it would be based on an old 3DO / PSX game, Return Fire. It's 1v1 capture-the-flag with 4 distinct vehicle types, and I can see it translating well into a Starcraft 2 map/mod. I'm very new to the editor, and decidedly unfamiliar with anything outside triggers (because that's all I used in StarEdit), so I'm collecting information for the "hacks" and deep-down modifications required for this control scheme among other things.

You may have happened across my first post here http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/triggers/11710-creating-3d-ui-elements-lines-on-terrain-color-fills/#p14 which has led to some interesting information but not the answer I was hoping for. That thread represents the roadblock to one of my other ideas. There's a third idea for a poker defense that actually has you bet at a table that I want to put together, too.

At any rate, it seems your module's source would hand me a good 20% of the Return Fire-inspired game on a silver platter, for which I would be greatly indebted to you.

...We are WAY off topic at this point.

Incidentally, I noticed the main difference about halfway through the video when Bump was rapidly changing from left to right directions. Seems the one on the right (triggers) worked differently there. Triggers Stalker moved mostly to the left and Data Stalker moved back and forth appropriately. This could be the result of lots of different things, but my guess is that, as someone mentioned before, the triggers are run less often. So while Triggers Stalker still moved both left and right, it actually did both in one "trigger pass" and so the movement to the right didn't matter.

Anyway, it's sort of a moot point because you'd have to be entering commands at just the right rate to see what we saw there, but it does seem like the data version is a little better in that demonstration

Also, BumpInTheNight, can you give us the source for your earlier video's map with the laser-shooting stalker? That has several things in it that I want to implement, such as the click-shooting.

Thanks for that. I had noticed other maps using it although I hadn't found it myself. That will undoubtedly be useful for other portions of the game. Obviously it won't serve the main purpose I need here, but I don't think you were implying that. Thanks!

Also, forgive the bump, but I'm still holding out hope that someone has a magic bullet for me.

Wait a minute, by floating text do you mean like the "+10" some TDs use for showing mineral income from kills and the like? That's not terrain forming so I don't think it'll serve my purpose.

I'm hoping you mean something else, though. Anyone? =(

Quote from OneSoga: Go

Can't you use floating text images?

Wait, what? I tried searching for this but I'm afraid my ignorance has got the better of me. What are you talking about? Can someone toss a link my way?

Could I accomplish this in Blender (not that I've used it much)? Terrain-matching is a must, so if that only comes from decals, then I suppose I need it to handle that. Can it take a PNG or some other GIMP-creatable format that supports transparency?

Thanks for the help, by the way. Maybe we're getting somewhere. I'd like to think this is useful information for the general mapping populace.

Bump? I was hoping someone would tell me either "Yeah, that can be done. I did it like [this]" or "There's no such functionality in the editor. A custom doodad is your best bet" or something.

I mean that if I'm placing, for instance, a flat doodad-like unit (which is what I need) on a ramp it'll start cutting into the terrain unless I make each unit extremely small and place a very large number of them.

I know the game can handle thousands of units without too much trouble. My decal-based grid is proof (I have an option to turn it on and off and it is indeed pretty much instantaneous), but I could really be pushing the limits with what I need to do. My grid consists of about 800 decals right now, and that's a complete line for each one. If I were to make each line 10 units (that's very conservative, that's already 8000. I don't need to be increasing my resource requirements by orders of magnitude if I can avoid it.

Anyway, what I WANT is pretty much what already exists in the editor. When you create a region it makes a semi-transparent blue rectangle and places it on the terrain. I just want to do that via triggers in the game.

Thanks for the reply.

I'd thought of doing something like this, but it would mean adding literally thousands of units only to move or destroy them quite regularly. As the unit I use gets larger, I also lose a lot of precision on ramps and the like, and it starts to look bad.

I couldn't find your map using the editor's search, but I'm assuming I know what you mean, and I'm not sure it works for me in this situation....

I'm wanting to basically draw lines and filled opaque or semi-transparent rectangles on the surface of my map's terrain. I don't know if it's built-in or if an inventive mapper has made it happen already.

For lines I abused the Decal Protoss doodad, but that has limited uses, and since I'm completely ignorant as to how to use the model editor thing, I can't even so much as change the color.

Is this possible? Seems like custom doodads might be the way to go, but the rectangles and lines would need to hug the contour of the terrain, and I'm not sure what limitations that causes. Also, if there's a more brute-force method, I'm more a programmer than an artist, so that's preferable.

For the record, I did search for this. There's a sweet thread about drawing lines, but it's drawing lines on-screen using dialogs, and I need them in the environment unless I'm going to query the user's resolution, camera position, and do some very not-fun math to translate it.

EDIT: It's probably obvious, but just to clarify, this would need to be done dynamically, which is why I put it in triggers.