marbleman on 10/5/2016 at 21:17
Hi, guys! I started learning DromEd only a week ago and I already have some advanced questions, so to speak. I know, at this point I should probably be asking something like: "Why if I have 2 guards in a level and I change voice for one of them it changes other's voice too?", which I'm still curious by the way :D
But my real questions are:
1. Is it possible for an enemy or an object to cast shadows on an area? Think of it like a reversed wisp that instead of lighting an area dims it.
2. Is it possible to create an enemy which would have no collision (you can walk thorough him and cannot hit him), but that could hit you, like with a sword?
3. Is it possible at some point in a mission to almost totally relight a level from almost darkness to brightly lit? And if so, what would be the best way to do it? As of now I imagine it as many-many OmniLightPoints all activating at once.
Daraan on 10/5/2016 at 22:58
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0. Why if I have 2 guards in a level and I change voice for one of them it changes other's voice too?"
You can change it for the whole Archetype(-1234) so all guards of same type at once or for single concrete guards(+postivenumber). Properties set on the concrete object overwrite the ones set on the archetype.
But my real questions are:
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1. Is it possible for an enemy or an object to cast shadows on an area? Think of it like a reversed wisp that instead of lighting an area dims it.
Well you can have a light source + obj = shadow. But I think you mean more something like negative light, or?
Just as general info there are 3 types of shadow settings: ObjectSystem->Immobile; Renderer->Objcast Shadow and Force static shadow.
What R Soul said.
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2. Is it possible to create an enemy which would have no collision (you can walk thorough him and cannot hit him), but that could hit you, like with a sword?
You could try Physics Collision Type None.
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3. Is it possible at some point in a mission to almost totally relight a level from almost darkness to brightly lit? And if so, what would be the best way to do it? As of now I imagine it as many-many OmniLightPoints all activating at once.
You would have to place a ton of AnimLights.
An easier method that comes to my mind is that you can attach a grey sphere to the player and remove it later -> everything is brighter
R Soul on 11/5/2016 at 00:07
0: What Daraan said. I presume you created two guards, selected the properties of one of them, and expanded the list until you found the Voice property. By doing that, you edited the object hierarchy (negative ID numbers, names in bold). Both guards inherit the same set of properties from the hierarchy. You need to select the object at the top (positive ID) and then go to Add > Speech > Voice....
1: AIs can't cast proper shadows, but there's a Renderer > Shadow property that puts a soft black disk underneath them. Try a value of 70 and experiment with it. It's not great but the Dark Engine wasn't designed to do dynamic shadows. For normal objects, you can use Object System > Immobile. Those shadows don't affect the light gem. For that, you can also use the property Renderer > Runtime Object Shadow, but I think you should only use that when you have to (e.g. only when the player, or other objects, can actually get in to the shadow).
2. Collision Type needs to be [Bounce] so the AI can find the floor. What's needed is Creature > Is Non-Physical, and possibly the metaproperty NoPingBack so mines don't affect the AI.
3. I think AnimLights are much better than a grey sphere, but I have an additional suggestion. Create a RelayTrap and give it a ControlDevice link to each of the AnimLights. This setup will be a lot easier to do with a new archetype (which also requires a custom gamesys) and a custom script (NVRelayTrap) which will prevent you having to set up any links.
marbleman on 11/5/2016 at 11:50
Thank you for explaination about object hierarchy :)
Yes, Daraan, I mean a negative light.
Renderer > Shadow property didn't affect the light gem at all, even when I put its value at 5000 (also, it looks awful).
Renderer > Runtime Object Shadow did affect the light gem. However, there is no value to set there. The only way I could even tell it made a difference is I made the guard have 0 collision and went into him. Since he was on patrol it was really hard to remain dark, but for a brief moment, yes, I was in a perfect shadow. You can kinda see where I'm going with this, I want to design a situation, where there is a brightly lit room and a moving shadow ball (let's just call it that) and you have to stay inside (or under, if it's a size of a fire elemental and floatig) it to walk through undetected. Is there a way to set value for this type of shadow to make it easier to stay in it?
Speaking of fire elementals, I don't even have them in my object hierarchy. That's another thing I'm curious about. I guess I have to load it in, and I wonder how do I use custom objects in general.
I haven't yet experimented with spectral guards, but even if a guard has no collision, yes, I can walk through him, but I can also hit him.
Daraan on 11/5/2016 at 12:38
Quote Posted by marbleman
Speaking of fire elementals, I don't even have them in my object hierarchy. That's another thing I'm curious about. I guess I have to load it in, and I wonder how do I use custom objects in general.
Yes fire elementals are not included. Use the search function I bet you will find something ;)
Do you want to hit the AI or not?
What would happen if the player leaves the shadow?
If you want to to be undetectable by other AI's we could use stims or scripts to make the other AI's blind while you are close to your object.
marbleman on 11/5/2016 at 13:07
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Yes fire elementals are not included. Use the search function I bet you will find something
Do you mean forum search? :)
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Do you want to hit the AI or not?
No, that's the point. The player should have no way to harm the AI, not with a sword, arrows or equipment. But the AI still has to behave like a normal guard, react to the player and attack him. Unfair, I know))
I'd also like AI to be non-physical, so the player could walk through it, but I can already see that it would be easy to cheese such enemy by standing inside it so it cannot hurt you :cheeky:
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What would happen if the player leaves the shadow?
If you want to to be undetectable by other AI's we could use stims or scripts to make the other AI's blind while you are close to your object.
Well, if you leave the shadow you get detected and obliterated :) I'd still like it to affect the light gem, so you could say whether you're in the safe zone.
Daraan on 11/5/2016 at 14:01
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Do you mean forum search? :)
Whatever you want to call it. yes
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No, that's the point. The player should have no way to harm the AI, not with a sword, arrows or equipment
These are done by stims. Like FireStim from an arrow, SlashStim/WeaponStim from a sword...
Only when a Receptron for a specific Stim is set it can have an effect (a lot is possible beside damage). You would need to abort or amplify(multiply) them by 0. You can take Metaproperties->Vulnerabilitys->Resistance as an example.
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I'd also like AI to be non-physical, so the player could walk through it, but I can already see that it would be easy to cheese such enemy by standing inside it so it cannot hurt you.
In the same way you can make the AI a source of a stim with radius so the player can't stay close(to long)
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Well, if you leave the shadow you get detected and obliterated :) I'd still like it to affect the light gem, so you could say whether you're in the safe zone.
I can't see a way to achieve. RuntimeObjShadow+Shadow are the only ways to have a shadow moving but that actual dark spot is very tiny as you experienced. Maybe someone else knows more. Would attaching other object cast more/better shadows?
There were the magic lights in lost city which turned on when a creature is nearby you could reverse that effect by turning specific ones off when your AI is nearby but you would need a) a ton of them b) must be very careful with the radius so each one only brights a smal spot.
Yandros on 11/5/2016 at 16:03
Moving objects which affect the light gem can be given Renderer > Dynamic light property with a negative value.
marbleman on 13/5/2016 at 20:53
Thank you, Yandros!
It does not have any visual effect, but I'll find a way around that.
And thank you, Daraan and R Soul, I definitely learned something from you too :)
Yandros on 14/5/2016 at 01:22
I don't know of any way to have a visual effect, but if you find something let us know!
