Help requested: Trying to make a scissor gate

[Bikerdude]

Obsttorte and I are trying to create a scissor gate for an elevator I am building, and I thought it can't hurt to ask for help.

 

The issue making each part move, but have them anchored to each other. One way would be to have the verticle part as sliders and the diagonal the same but with custome rotations and slide values - the issue with that is if the prefab is then rotated all the values wont apply and would have to be tweaed - which would be a right PITA.

 

So what I think we what ideally is -

• each diagonal part to be a proper moving entity with two achor points
• each vertical part be a sliding entity

 

scissor_gate.pfb.txt

 

[peter_spy]

It's just my opinion, but setting up such complicated mechanism isn't worth those two seconds during which player will say, 'oh, cool', and move on. I'd make it simple: two pieces, one static (probably with some of this geometry on alpha) and one horizontally sliding behind it.

[Bikerdude]

Heh I hear what your saying, but I have done just that in almost every map I have made. I do it as much for me as I do for the player.

[rich_is_bored]

If the gate was a texture you could stretch and squish it to achieve the intended effect.

[HMart]

That is indeed a very complex setup, i can see some ways this can be done:

 

1 - use bones, for the joints and animate it, very complex imo.

 

2 - also very complex, still use bones but instead of animating it, for example on blender, make it a articulated figure on the idtech 4 AF editor, don't know how stable is the physics engine for this, but one time i did made a dynamic door, ala Penumbra, unfortunately was unable to find a way to make part of the model static, so everything moved around.

 

3 - make it a static object, use more than one gate to achieve a more or less desirable effect, like for example one gate goes down and two (or one) go side to side that crossing makes for a nice effect, and if i'm remembering correctly that is how it was done in Outlast and The evil within games.

 

That texture idea from rich_is_bored could work but wouldn't it cause extreme texture deformation from the squishing effect?

 

btw You could also script it like id did with the crane mini game but man what a script that would be.

Edited June 15, 2017 by HMart

[grayman]

Your design won't work.

 

To change it into a working design, the horizontal rows of yellow circles at the top and bottom would also need to slide up and down. The angled pieces can't be fixed to the vertical pieces at those points, otherwise the gate won't close.

[Bikerdude]

I did wonder if those points were fixed, you cant tell from any number of images shown on the web that those points are in fact slots -

 

well spotted!

Edited June 15, 2017 by Bikerdude

[Bikerdude]

Well young Obsttorte has come through with the goods!, would have a fulling working scissor gate

 

I just nee to find some open, move and close sounds.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Bikerdude

[Obsttorte]

So what I think we what ideally is -

• each diagonal part to be a proper moving entity with two achor points

 

As I've just read it. We don't have such entities. idTech for only supports one constraint/anchor/bind or however you want to call it for normal ingame entities. I think you can have more complex setups on md5 meshes, although it is not really recommended (due to mathematical issues that will occour under such circumstances ... well, not really issues, it just makes the math more ... um ... fun )

[Bikerdude]

well, not really issues, it just makes the math more ... um ... fun )

[NeonsStyle]

I would say the easiest way to do this would be to make just one part of it. An upright, and a two x diagonals. Get it work, then you're there,

and you can just clone and bind them.,

 

The Sound Factory on youtube has gobs of free sound effects. Free to use in your projects.

Edited June 16, 2017 by NeonsStyle

[NeonsStyle]

It's just my opinion, but setting up such complicated mechanism isn't worth those two seconds during which player will say, 'oh, cool', and move on. I'd make it simple: two pieces, one static (probably with some of this geometry on alpha) and one horizontally sliding behind it.

 

It is ALWAYS worth it. Not because of the player, but because you learned something, you created something new for the community. There are so many

benefits to doing something.

[peter_spy]

That really depends on the case.

 

I'm not far into animation, but AFAIK, doing this properly would require bones, springs and such. It's not like you can jump in, quickly make it, and move to the next task. You'd need to have some background in animation for games, understand the workflow etc. If you do, and it's just something you can get to by extrapolating what you know and doing some research, then sure. But if not, then no, it's not worth the effort. Not yet. And if this is completely unknown territory to you, making someone do it won't help you much, as skipping your 101 in any discipline never truly does. I don't know how Biker's animation knowledge holds up, so it's really only up to him to decide.

[Obsttorte]

 

I'm not far into animation, but AFAIK, doing this properly would require bones, springs and such. It's not like you can jump in, quickly make it, and move to the next task.

Nope. There is no animation required. Took me 15 minutes to get it to work.

[HMart]

Nope. There is no animation required. Took me 15 minutes to get it to work.

 

How? And video or it didn't happen. ;P

Edited June 17, 2017 by HMart

[Obsttorte]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJdgWoXJICg

 

The vertical bars are atdm:mover_door_sliding, the diagonal parts are atdm:mover_door entities. The latter ones are bound to the first ones. They get targeted by the button. It's a very rough approach and only intented as a poc. I'm currently improving the setup (easen it for the mapper to use it), which takes more then 15 minutes

[grayman]

Nice work, Obs.

[Bikerdude]

We are having issue getting this working, while has another final stab at getting it working I thoguht I pose a question.

 

Is it possible to created and animated version the scissor-gate instead@? I ask because the way we have stm is by creating a custom move entity with a shed load of attachments - and its that amount thats causing Obs issues.

[Obsttorte]

The amount is not the problem

[grayman]

It looks like it was working in the video.

[Obsttorte]

It is working. See the betamapper thread for details (my last post there sums it up pretty much).

[NeonsStyle]

Just needs a good sound to match it.