Creating a hanging, swinging body

[letran]

I've read a few different ways of attaching an item to a chain or rope, binding them and adding the pendulum property.

 

Could anyone clarify how I could create a hanging body that just moves in a random way as if blown by the wind.

 

Can you affect rotation parameters as well as x,y ?

 

Thank you

[Moonbo]

Hey Letran,

 

You're going to want to make a "func_pendulum". If you want to see an example in action, open up Tears of St. Lucia in Darkradiant and look at the swinging lights that are set up above the streets.

[demagogue]

Be careful. If you use a ragdoll, then the physics for a ragdoll model hanging on a rope goes crazy very easily, where the body is jerking all over the place when you push the model or the rope moves. But maybe if you freeze the model so it's not ragdoll and just have the whole thing swaying you can get it looking good. Or maybe just if you keep it away from the player so he can't hit it.

[PranQster]

I tried like hell to do this once. I almost made it work by entombing the ragdoll with nodraw_solid brushes. Sometimes the ragdoll stayed stable for a few minutes but it always ended up twitching and out of place. Then comes the problem of the rope no longer properly aligned with the neck. Or, if it is bound to the neck, then the rope moves with the ragdoll and does not stay vertical.

The guy to the right was connected with a func_spring as a test. He bounced all over with that yellow line (spring) connecting him to the gallows.

[letran]

Thank you. I appreciate this may be a difficult one.

 

Would I need to bind the top end of the rope to whatever it was meant to be connected to ?

 

Are there any randomises in DR that could affect the pendulum or swing ?

[Sotha]

I suppose you could use a script that alters the pendulum swing. No idea how, but you could research a bit.

If you have modeling abilities, maybe it is possible to take the AI model and build a new animated static model, where the AI model hangs and swings gently. We have animated trees, leaves swaying. We have a grandfather clock... So it should be doable, right?

[letran]

That sounds like the best option but i think its beyond my capabilities at this stage. I agree though it'd look good to have the head drooping and feet pointing down etc.

 

I think i've been watching too much of Ken Folletts work !

[letran]

OK. I've got the lamp (for testing) swinging and rotating nicely. When i try and attach a ragdoll to it the ragdoll just falls to floor. I'm just using the spawnarg bind.

 

What might be causing this ?

 

thanks,

[PranQster]

I think that's what caused me to entomb the ragdoll with thin nodraw_solid brushes, even little thin ones along the sides to keep the arms from crossing. Plus I put a nodraw block beneath it all, IIRC.

Here's the old prefab I made. It's been a while since I looked at it.

Hanged Men Prefab

[PranQster]

OK. I've got the lamp (for testing) swinging and rotating nicely. When i try and attach a ragdoll to it the ragdoll just falls to floor. I'm just using the spawnarg bind.

 

What might be causing this ?

 

thanks,

 

Another thing that made a difference was the order of attachment. For instance (I don't remember exactly), first attach rope to gallows, then ragdoll to rope. Instead of ragdoll to rope followed by rope to gallows.

One scenario ended up with the ragdoll pulling the entire gallows down to the ground with him.