PranQsters Crazy Contraptions- bot-buggy, rodent-power, AI spline paths, etc.

[PranQster]

Here it is:

ratwheel02.mp4

 

Sorry it's so choppy. I used qtrecordmydesktop to record it... a pain to get the frame the right size to begin with and it came out choppy, probably due to compositing turned on for GL desktop effects. That saves as an .ogm, ogg vorbis movie. That gets converted to .mp4 with VLC which introduced the choppiness. Then on to avidemux for a resizing and .mp4 xvid re-encoding for small file size.

Edited February 21, 2012 by PranQster

[Baddcog]

haha, awesome!

[Sotha]

OMG! The ingenuity!

 

Howsabout attach that one to some dynamo that powers lights, another brilliant invention by the inventor's guild!

[SiyahParsomen]

that made me laugh loudly

[PranQster]

OMG! The ingenuity!

 

Howsabout attach that one to some dynamo that powers lights, another brilliant invention by the inventor's guild!

That's the plan...

To take it a step further:

 

Make an objective to disable the power source at some large complex with lots of electric lights, elevators, security systems, etc. You work your way through the place with complex traps and secrets... only to find that 1 broadhead to a rat is needed for the objective.

 

[Sotha]

That's the plan...

To take it a step further:

 

Make an objective to disable the power source at some large complex with lots of electric lights, elevators, security systems, etc. You work your way through the place with complex traps and secrets... only to find that 1 broadhead to a rat is needed for the objective.

 

 

Ooh.. I salivate in anticipation.

 

 

Howsabout a possibility to not kill the rat? Just open the hatch and it scurries off and runs away to a hole in the wall...

 

[Springheel]

Lol! Cleaner than steam, quieter than clockwork...switch to Rat Power for all your electric needs!

[Baddcog]

But then you have the mouse and wheel squeaking away the night, which reminds me, I just made an oil can object.

[PranQster]

ROFL at all of this

I like the idea of

freeing the rat

.

[ungoliant]

this is awesome.

[PranQster]

Updated

[PranQster]

New video

[Sotha]

Simply a big bottle of awesome stuffed with crystallized ingenuity.

[PranQster]

Simply a big bottle of awesome stuffed with crystallized ingenuity.

Thank you very much

I'll make a prefab if anyone wants it... not sure it'll make it into my current map in progress.

[Bikerdude]

heheh that was awesome, but might I suggest a bigger wheel (if it was truly rat power they would not be able to turn such a small steep wheel. LOL

[Tels]

heheh that was awesome, but might I suggest a bigger wheel (if it was truly rat power they would not be able to turn such a small steep wheel. LOL

 

You obviously never had rodents as pets The problem isn't that they can't turn it, but that they will turn it at 600 RPM for 5 seconds, then get exhausted or distracted and run away

[PranQster]

LOL, that is true. Further explanation of this rat's endurance would need to be explained in a readable. Perhaps it is the result of a Builder genetics lab and/or fed a special diet (boom-shrooms?).

[Bikerdude]

The problem isn't that they can't turn it, but that they will turn it at 600 RPM for 5 seconds, then get exhausted or distracted and run away

er Hamster, fucking thing would never stop running in his damn wheel... lol

[Baddcog]

rat madrosala,

 

pure insantiy

 

ironically it ends up costing more to give the rat his fix than it does to pay a guard to walk the wheel.

[Bikerdude]

talking of animated animals, we could do with a moving horse, we could then tie one to a grinding wheel or some such like that did back then in RL.

[Nosslak]

Cool inventions! You should call name the thread PranQsters Qrazy Qontraptions instead though.

 

 

Very off-topic but is it not possible to create proper circular models/patches/whatevs in DR? I always find it distracting that carpets and other round models are looking like smoothed boxes. Also that stonetextures normals look wrong to me, it looks like the mortar is raised higher than the stones.

[PranQster]

Yeah, I had seen a post which recommended using a small grid, then moving the corner vertexes for cylinder patches in by 1 grid unit (both horizontal and vertical). The patch ends up looking truer in roundness while in DR, but then it appears more square when rendered in-game.

Thanks for the tip on the name of the thread. I'll mull it over for the time being, but might just use your suggestion. It has a nice ring to it.

[PranQster]

talking of animated animals, we could do with a moving horse, we could then tie one to a grinding wheel or some such like that did back then in RL.

I was considering tinkering with the same idea... a horse-powered mill or something similar.

It would be awesome to use splines to define a path for AI instead of using path_curve and path_turn (with straight paths between). Then an AI could walk in a smooth circle or other pattern instead of making lots of jerky turns. I'm thinking more of the horse walking in a perfect circle while harnessed to a millstone (or Conan the Barbarian), not so much a guard or civilian AI on a path without a pause or break in pattern.

[ungoliant]

Yeah, I had seen a post which recommended using a small grid, then moving the corner vertexes for cylinder patches in by 1 grid unit (both horizontal and vertical). The patch ends up looking truer in roundness while in DR, but then it appears more square when rendered in-game.

 

Actually, your rat-wheel was the inspiration behind a little bit of research that I did recently. Here are the results:

 

I have figured out the math to the perfect DR circle.

 

1. Grab the verts of the 4 corners

2. Open "rotate and scale" tool.

3. Enter value "0.9428" in the 2 corresponding axis of the scale tool, and scale "up" (it scales down really)

4. Perfect circle.

 

edit: if it looks more square in-game, chances are this is a result of d3 dynamically changing the subdivisons of the patch to whatever formula it uses, which can be different than the subdivisons chosen in DR. I've had conflicting subdivision problems as well. Easy fix: use manually set subdivisions on the patch in question, and then the results will always look the same in both DR and in-game.

Edited February 25, 2012 by ungoliant

[PranQster]

I think I just made a little breakthrough (at least for me).

I was thinking about the idea of having a horse follow a circular path, such as when operating a grinding wheel, etc. I said it would be cool to have AI follow a spline instead of regular path_corners. Then the light bulb came on above my head.

I decided to try this with my lanternbot buggy. I made a large spline oval in my map, basically following the same pattern as the current path I had set up with path_corners. I made a func_mover to move along the spline. Then I deleted all but 1 single path_corner (the one the lanternbot is bound to). I bound that path_corner to the func_mover to see if it would follow the spline and then have the lanternbot also follow that path_corner.

It works! The hardest part is adjusting the timing in the script of the func_mover "anchor" so that it doesn't out-pace (or under-pace) the AI, else the AI loses it's path and makes unexpected turns in it's pursuit of the path_corner.

I now have an AI following a spline path while using just 1 path_corner and nothing else.

 

My aas96 file for the lanternbot is only 15k while the aas_rat file for my rat running in place on the wheel is 32k.

Edited February 25, 2012 by PranQster