Is there a way to make a unit spin in data? I want to make a cute little special effect. Not totally important. Just wondering if it can be done smoothly somehow.
Yeah spent months trying to perfect a system that allows exact control of motion. Was inspired by the terratron easter egg and disappointed by the ingame one so thought I would make my own composite units.
Wasted alot of time trying to use the Attachment Set Rotation From events but could not stop them ripping attachment points off the models. After seeing Kueken321's box I was inspired and thought of this method but had a problem with the puppet actor precessing around the string (beam) actor so took a while to perfect it. Infact about 2 weeks ago the previous version had a 30 sec feature on the terraining thursday.
The windmill was just an attempt to show off this method using a simple 2D joint that is automatic to inspire some terrainers to consider the method. This system could allow for more refined movements for abilities and weapons but I firstly need to overcome a final problem. I need to try and find a data way to tell if a unit is turning left or right. Otherwise it will be limited to hovering/flying units or attachments onto existing models with legs.
This is actually the first time I see the windmill ;) Great work.
I saw this method during the test phases. It indeed is a nice method for fully controlled rotation; however very much work for very simple movement. Simulating real and good-looking animations would require an enormous amount of work.
If you use a simple rotating model and attach the wings, you get the same result, probably even a little more smooth, in maybe 20% of the time.
Well, not that you would not know that ;)
I'd like to see some complete animation simulations, but I doubt, they would be really viable. Most of it would either look crude, or be too much work, I think :(
Oh btw: Timers and Blend Durations are not 100% synchronous (at least it seems to me that way), for the windmill it looks more smooth, if the timers run out about 20% faster than the blend times.
Well if you look at the pivot of rotation as a circle and the sticks as tangents to that circle you find the corners have to move alot further to achieve the same increment in angle. If you really wanted smoother rotation you would subdivide the sticks into a more circle like fixture around the axis of rotation.
As for taking ages to make animations look good, have you ever considered how many man hours go into making the blizzard models?
I know having attached the blades to a mothership could have gotten them to spin as well but that was not the aim of the excercise because the mothership cannot easily suddenly reverse direction from stopping at a random point. If you noticed all the models I used lacked good attachment points and decent animations of their own but I managed to piece them together to make an ok doodad.
Ok it took many hours longer than I expected because of the precession but now that I know how to fix that making this would be infinitely faster.
Besides making the animations for the stuff would be no harder than making an animated 3D clip for an artist. Also it would be no more clunky than animations from some old games when they first went 3D.
Well, I have no experience with 3d modelling programs, but I assume, similar stuff can be made much more efficient and precise with 3ds max, than in the data editor ;)
Still, good to know, that we could do all that stuff using ingame assets as well :D
Quote:
Well if you look at the pivot of rotation as a circle and the sticks as tangents to that circle you find the corners have to move alot further to achieve the same increment in angle
You are correct, of course. Shame on me for not thinking about that a little more ;) The massive differences should have made me wonder.
Still, I experienced discrepancies of timers and blend times on other occasions, as well (not that huge, though).
Also for animating units and more precise stuff you would not use actor timers but create persistent effects to link the movements in to the action being performed.
The hardest part will be making a skeleton with the basic animations. After that it will be alot easier for people to attach their desired visuals onto it and fine tune the movements.
Is there a way to make a unit spin in data? I want to make a cute little special effect. Not totally important. Just wondering if it can be done smoothly somehow.
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ModeratorsYup. There is a SOp (Smooth Rotation) that can make model facing changes look smooth. There is the Set Facing actor event.
If you really want control over the rotation do like this demo map.
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
I usually don't make random posts, but applause DrSuperEvil.. That is very creative. Good stuff.
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ModeratorsYeah spent months trying to perfect a system that allows exact control of motion. Was inspired by the terratron easter egg and disappointed by the ingame one so thought I would make my own composite units.
Wasted alot of time trying to use the Attachment Set Rotation From events but could not stop them ripping attachment points off the models. After seeing Kueken321's box I was inspired and thought of this method but had a problem with the puppet actor precessing around the string (beam) actor so took a while to perfect it. Infact about 2 weeks ago the previous version had a 30 sec feature on the terraining thursday.
The windmill was just an attempt to show off this method using a simple 2D joint that is automatic to inspire some terrainers to consider the method. This system could allow for more refined movements for abilities and weapons but I firstly need to overcome a final problem. I need to try and find a data way to tell if a unit is turning left or right. Otherwise it will be limited to hovering/flying units or attachments onto existing models with legs.
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
This is actually the first time I see the windmill ;) Great work.
I saw this method during the test phases. It indeed is a nice method for fully controlled rotation; however very much work for very simple movement. Simulating real and good-looking animations would require an enormous amount of work.
If you use a simple rotating model and attach the wings, you get the same result, probably even a little more smooth, in maybe 20% of the time.
Well, not that you would not know that ;)
I'd like to see some complete animation simulations, but I doubt, they would be really viable. Most of it would either look crude, or be too much work, I think :(
Oh btw: Timers and Blend Durations are not 100% synchronous (at least it seems to me that way), for the windmill it looks more smooth, if the timers run out about 20% faster than the blend times.
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ModeratorsWell if you look at the pivot of rotation as a circle and the sticks as tangents to that circle you find the corners have to move alot further to achieve the same increment in angle. If you really wanted smoother rotation you would subdivide the sticks into a more circle like fixture around the axis of rotation.
As for taking ages to make animations look good, have you ever considered how many man hours go into making the blizzard models?
I know having attached the blades to a mothership could have gotten them to spin as well but that was not the aim of the excercise because the mothership cannot easily suddenly reverse direction from stopping at a random point. If you noticed all the models I used lacked good attachment points and decent animations of their own but I managed to piece them together to make an ok doodad.
Ok it took many hours longer than I expected because of the precession but now that I know how to fix that making this would be infinitely faster.
Besides making the animations for the stuff would be no harder than making an animated 3D clip for an artist. Also it would be no more clunky than animations from some old games when they first went 3D.
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
Well, I have no experience with 3d modelling programs, but I assume, similar stuff can be made much more efficient and precise with 3ds max, than in the data editor ;)
Still, good to know, that we could do all that stuff using ingame assets as well :D
You are correct, of course. Shame on me for not thinking about that a little more ;) The massive differences should have made me wonder.
Still, I experienced discrepancies of timers and blend times on other occasions, as well (not that huge, though).
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ModeratorsAlso for animating units and more precise stuff you would not use actor timers but create persistent effects to link the movements in to the action being performed.
The hardest part will be making a skeleton with the basic animations. After that it will be alot easier for people to attach their desired visuals onto it and fine tune the movements.
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg