Anyone familiar with D3 fx?

[Springheel]

It's possible to call "fx" (basically particle/light effects) using frame commands in D3. Does anyone have any experience with this at all? I'm specifically wondering how to position the effect. For example, this effect:

 

fx fx/smallfire

{

 

{

delay 0

duration 10

restart 0

light "lights/roundfire", 0.74, 0.58, 0.25, 250

offset 0, 0, 16

//fadeOut 0.25

}

 

 

{

delay 0.2

duration 10

restart 0

rotate 0.1

particle "particles/smallflame.particle"

}

 

{

delay 0

duration 10

restart 0

rotate 0.1

particle "particles/smallflamesmoke.particle"

}

 

{

delay 0.3

duration 10

restart 0

rotate 0.1

particle "particles/smallfireembers.particle"

}

 

 

}

 

What joint does this attach to? It has an offset value, but offset to what?

[Tels]

It's possible to call "fx" (basically particle/light effects) using frame commands in D3. Does anyone have any experience with this at all? I'm specifically wondering how to position the effect. For example, this effect:

 

Sorry, only briefly looked into it, and I was not sure if really need this, because it eemed you could always create such things otherwise (f.i. light+particle+sound is possible).

[Springheel]

you could always create such things otherwise (f.i. light+particle+sound is possible).

 

Is there another way to call lights and particles with frame commands? The attach/destroy code is still too buggy to use at the moment.

[Springheel]

Ok, found some good info on iddevnet.com. It binds to the origin by default, bu it's possible to instead attach the effect to a particular joint with the "bindto" keyword. I'll run some tests.

[Tels]

Is there another way to call lights and particles with frame commands? The attach/destroy code is still too buggy to use at the moment.

 

Ah, ok, calling them from anim frame commands is a very useful thing.

[Serpentine]

Yeah you can attach them to bones or something, its how they do the doom3 misty breath on some of the models. Should be rather handy with the mages I'd imagine

 

Edit : there's actually someone that was asking about this on doom3world today [link]

[Springheel]

Yeah you can attach them to bones or something

 

Doesn't seem to work for me. Doesn't matter which joint I put in the "bindto" spawnarg, the particle always spawns on the origin.

[rebb]

Are you putting the bindto part in the "global" area of the fx declaration, as mentioned on iddevnet ?

[Springheel]

Yep. Here's the test fx I'm using:

 

 

fx fx/tdm_flame2

{

 

bindto "LeftHand"

{

delay 0

duration 5

restart 0

particle "tdm_fire_torch.prt"

offset 0, 0, 0

}

 

}

 

But the flame stays at the character's origin. I tried a few other joints, like "Head" with no change.

[Mortem Desino]

But the flame stays at the character's origin. I tried a few other joints, like "Head" with no change.

 

Try using the arg "bindToJoint". I've never seen entities use the command "BindTo".

[Springheel]

Try using the arg "bindToJoint". I've never seen entities use the command "BindTo".

 

The default D3 fx do use "BindTo". I tried "bindToJoint" to see what would happen; interestingly, it doesn't cause an error, but doesn't seem to have any effect either.

[rebb]

The cinematics.def in Doom3 references skulltrail.fx, maybe it's worth digging around in those files.

[Springheel]

Yep, I've looked at those ones specifically. As far as I can tell, everything seems to be in order, and it works as expected, except that the "bindto" keyword doesn't seem to work. I can't figure out why.

[Tels]

Yep, I've looked at those ones specifically. As far as I can tell, everything seems to be in order, and it works as expected, except that the "bindto" keyword doesn't seem to work. I can't figure out why.

 

I looked into the code, it seems this bit:

 

       if ( nfx->Joint() && *nfx->Joint() ) {
               nfx->BindToJoint( ent, nfx->Joint(), true );
               nfx->SetOrigin( vec3_origin );
       } else {
               nfx->SetOrigin( (useOrigin) ? *useOrigin : ent->GetPhysics()->GetOrigin() );
               nfx->SetAxis( (useAxis) ? *useAxis : ent->GetPhysics()->GetAxis() );
       }

 

If you make me a small testmap, and bounce it my way to nospam-abuse@bloodgate.com, I can see why it never uses the first code path. From the looks at it, I am not even sure how it could enter it. It looks like there is a "args.set("joint") or something missing.

 

Maybe use "joint" as keyword? (Because the "Joint()" routine accesses the member "joint" of the fxEffect, and it might be possible that if you use "joint" in the declaration, it works)

[greebo]

Just saw this thread, I already fixed that in my working copy yesterday.