Animating Building Textures...

[Lidge Farkley]

Does any one know how to animate the building textures for Tribes?

In particular, how do they animate the panels in the different bases which  change their screen appearances, certain lights blinking, and bases changeing their decals based on which team controls a switch.

Any and all help is very appreciated.

Thank you.

[Nitelthrome]

I'm still wanting to figure out how to animate objects (i.e, drawbridge)

I think it has something to do with lights though, since some lights blince in a pattern, and you can change the colors.

[-eViL-]

the movement thing is simple nitel, but you are just too big of a damn noob to figure it out.

anways, back to the original thread question.  over the years i pondered that question as well, and my best guess is that its in the object creation in milkshape or otherwise, or that it is done using a series of skins on the same object just constantly changed and placed on.  i dunno, i can show you some code to do the second way, its not hard, just use like $Panel[%num] = %objId; and use the delete object and newObject functions to keep cycling the objects through.

[UnderGod]

All animations were done in an animation program like eViL stated.

If you were to spend enough time on it, you could do some pritty neat stuff the way eViL mentioned.

[Particle]

You can do object animation by moving its coords.  Such as:  make a draw bridge by having a script which moves that object x number of times (your frames so to speak), mainly playing with the angle and repositioning it to make it seem like the base isn't moving.

[Nitelthrome]

the movement thing is simple nitel, but you are just too big of a damn noob to figure it out.

Yea, that must be it.

[UnderGod]

Part, thats exactly what eViL said =)

[Lidge Farkley]

So, when the skin on the front emblem of the brodside base changes due to the control hierarchy being changed through a player from the other team claiming the objective, that is achieved by a Milkshape type program or through the new/delete scripting method?

I am just covering the bases with all of the questions.

My reasoning, is that large buildings that people make tend to have wondows in them, which causes a major fps drop (due the interior and exterior of the buildings being rendered) so if we were to put closed off window-skinned window glass in the holes where these large objects woudl normally be letting in outside light, then we could also animate the floor or wall tiles to reflect the daylight shining or glimmering through.  

This would allow for large buildings with the simulated effect of light shining in to them through windows.

Lets face it, looking out of a building that tall in trpg doesn't get you much in the way of game play importance, and this would enhance the inside of the buildings and the simulated lighting effects.

Of course, it'll be argued that trpg is past due for an update like this, but since people keep posting new buildings they made, we should probably not justy leave them by the wayside.  Besides, I am still interested in making structures, and the more variability we can have then the more options I would have for designing a structure either for tribes one or for tribes v.

Peace, and thank you for all of your help.

[UnderGod]

The building itself doesn't have the logo on it. If you were to just spawn a building, it wouldn't have anything on it.

WHen it is assigned to a team, it paints the team's logo on it. From what I understand, when the texture was made, it was made to be skinned in a certain spot.. And the team logo is just a "skin" It has nothing to do with the model itself. Of course, I could be wrong. I however,  do know for a fact that it doesn't just create a new object to replace the other one when that happens. If it did, you could tell during gameplay.

[-eViL-]

actually oz, it does matter what model.  the actual team skins pertain to a certain width and heighth so you can't just slap any old skin to it.  but yes, the actual model has nothing on it for colors and what not, it may have the markers on it for where to put certain skins...  i dunno, i never got to deep into this stuff, but i guess i may have to.. give me til after this week and sure... i hate exams!!!

[Lidge Farkley]

The building itself doesn't have the logo on it. If you were to just spawn a building, it wouldn't have anything on it.

Yeah... I know it doesn't, which is why I asked for a little clarification.  Thank you for the following;

WHen it is assigned to a team, it paints the team's logo on it. From what I understand, when the texture was made, it was made to be skinned in a certain spot.. And the team logo is just a "skin" It has nothing to do with the model itself. Of course, I could be wrong. I however,  do know for a fact that it doesn't just create a new object to replace the other one when that happens. If it did, you could tell during gameplay.

I agree about the game play part, as I have seen maps that change objects like that during game eplay, and have become stuck in floors because of such things. :-D

Also, I kind of thougt your idea with the "delegated to skin a particular part" made good sense, but I just could not figure out how they caused it to change based on the team hierarchy in the map editor.  (I understand that the team which controls the base switch will control the building, but I cannot seem to figure how it would change the decal/skin on the front part.  I am guessing that it's in a .mis some place... but I don't really know where to look, and all I know of tribes scripting I figured out myself [with no c know how at all] so I can easily say that I am pretty sure I would be lost as to the exactness of finding and using such a thing)

i dunno, i never got to deep into this stuff, but i guess i may have to.. give me til after this week and sure...

Excellent!  :-D  If we can crack this egg, it may open up a whole new era in texture manipulation to aid in simple effects with out rendering entire objects.  Water flowing, for example, could be done with the decal changing method, if we figure it out, in addition to the building window issue being some what solved (short of just putting balconies and s curves on all of the "window" areas to keep the insides seperate from the outside in rendering.)

Thank you both again for all of your reasoning and aid in this matter.
I look forward to the future of this experiment. :-)

**btw, goodluck with your exams!  I know thay're a pain some times... arg!

[UnderGod]

As eViL stated, it is probably in the creation of the file that tells it to paint the logo on that spot..

[Silvanoshei]

Water flowing, for example, could be done with the decal changing method, if we figure it out, in addition to the building window issue being some what solved (short of just putting balconies and s curves on all of the "window" areas to keep the insides seperate from the outside in rendering.)

OVER RENDER'D!!

My FPS hurts...

[-eViL-]

Lidge, the decal changing is done via tribes.exe.  When something involving a team change happens, it runs the action through and sets the decals to accomplish the change correctly, which is why if you really watch, there is a millisecond lag time between the decals changing on a base due to a team ownership change.  the actual function can probably be found if you know assembly.  but for the most part, you can also do misc. things via scripts.vol scripts like the logo changing and what not.

Edit:
i have never personally worked in milkshake much, or any other application of that type for that matter, and was wondering if there is a way to set a marker on the object which can control a set object... ie - you set marker #9714 to control area [x1,y1] - [x2,y2] and make it so a function like refresh9714(%data) can be used to update it or something along these lines.... just an idea....

[Lidge Farkley]

Water flowing, for example, could be done with the decal changing method, if we figure it out, in addition to the building window issue being some what solved (short of just putting balconies and s curves on all of the "window" areas to keep the insides seperate from the outside in rendering.)

OVER RENDER'D!!

My FPS hurts...

SPam! !?

The purpose of this would be to elliminate the over-rendering that people do when they make a new object... and I think I explained that. :-p

Evil;
So you're saying that there is no real way to make the textures of a dis file change unless that specific part of a specific dis was allready defined to change with in the tibes.exe?  (I am probably misunderstanding)

Also... I considered that we could use a program like milkshape to fill in the inner layer of a floor or wall that has a visible "glimmer" effect, BUT, I am not sure how this may slow down the people entering a room with these effects.

I suppose I will need to get milkshape going and try it out... though I have no idea where to start!  hah.

Well, thank you again for all the help.