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Changing the texture of a surface in-game

For questions and discussion about UnrealEd, UnrealScript, and other aspects of Unreal Engine design.

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User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 06 Jun 2014, 00:09

Let me clarify:

I am trying to have an event that will change the looks of a surface ingame.

I tried with a fixed mover: in AS-Frigate, they achieved this by having a mover with keys 0 and 1 at the same spot, only if you "show polys" at key 0 then key 1 you see the surface texture of the mover changes.
I tried with my own mover and it didn't work. Changing the texture in key 0 or 1 changes the texture for both keys. I tried changing the surface properties in one key but that doesn't work either.
So instead, I go for a very thin mover with a masked texture that is meant to come on top of (slightly floating above) the relevant surface which is meant to have its looks modified "dynamically".

So I tried a similar technique to what Dr Pest did in Sharuk's Crossing: trigger (triggered by player proximity, nothing fancy) with Event X; dispatcher with Tag X, and Outer Event Y (I only need one, delay 0.000); initially hidden mover with the masked texture has Tag Y, MoverTime 0.000 and ignorewhenencroach. Key 1 is obviously just above the relevant surface, the mover has a translucent and unlit surface. In its final position, if floats barely 1 UU above the surface.

It doesn't work :x I repeated each steps several times and it's like my mover doesn't care about the trigger and dispatcher combo. I even tried doing it without the need for triggers: having a similar mover initially on top of the surface (with invisible surface) that had event x, and upon being bumped into by the player or anything else (so it also works for projectiles), it would move out of sight, and the mover with the masked texture has tag x and would thus replace the triggering mover above the surface in question. Normally one can apply this technique to have a button mover open a door without the use of triggers. I can't make it work!!!

I'd be very grateful for any help! :o
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

User avatar ividyon
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 06 Jun 2014, 00:25

It helps to know what platform you're using, since Unreal 227 has an extremely wide range of new features that could help you achieve this.
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User avatar Tarydax
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 06 Jun 2014, 01:08

If I recall correctly, a delay of zero on dispatchers doesn't work that well sometimes, so in order to get things to work, you have to have a delay around .00000001 (or however many zeros the dispatcher will allow along with a one at the very end). I don't know if that would apply to your situation, but when I was working with special events and explosions, I needed to have the delay time be barely above zero or else they wouldn't work.
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User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 06 Jun 2014, 01:10

Oh yeah, I use UT!

also, my movers are set to move only once.

ividyon wrote:It helps to know what platform you're using, since Unreal 227 has an extremely wide range of new features that could help you achieve this.


I really should look into 227 later!!

Teridax wrote:If I recall correctly, a delay of zero on dispatchers doesn't work that well sometimes, so in order to get things to work, you have to have a delay around .00000001 (or however many zeros the dispatcher will allow along with a one at the very end). I don't know if that would apply to your situation, but when I was working with special events and explosions, I needed to have the delay time be barely above zero or else they wouldn't work.


Thanks for the answer Teridax! I am going to try right away! :)
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 06 Jun 2014, 01:44

It won't work :/ arrgh! I even restarted Unrealed 2 just in case, but my dispatcher doesn't link with the mover. yet I could make a text related to the event appear a bit earlier, so I'll keep trying. Maybe I'm throwing my mover too far away... (it's no more than 512 UU away though)
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 06 Jun 2014, 03:34

OK problem solved, as per usual, a very very dumb mistake on my part :D I had forgotten to... set the mover to TriggerOpenTimed :B :oops: turns out that in my situation, a delay of 0 for the dispatcher is no problem at all. It is a very simple thing I was trying to achieve :P now it works, I'm so happy \o/
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

gopostal
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 12 Jun 2014, 01:35

As a follow-up question, did you find any other way to do this besides creation of another surface? I've been after a way to do what you originally wanted to do for a long time. I created a weapon called a scanner for my coop server that lets you see where movers are and lets you control them. My problem is that tracing to the movers doesn't always work when the frame of the mover is embedded into BSP (like a door mover).
Ideally I'd like to make the textures of movers 'stand out' when the scanner is equipped but damned if I can figure out some way to accomplish this in the client's HUD. Anyone have any ideas how they would do it?

User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 12 Jun 2014, 13:36

Hey gopostal, yeah I remember that scanner tool, as you had given me a download link months ago for when I was reporting problems progressing in Zora's The Vulcan map! I tested it and it worked well; but I didn't actually use it on my first playthrough of anything, as I always want to beat a level the "regular" way.

gopostal wrote:As a follow-up question, did you find any other way to do this besides creation of another surface?
Ideally I'd like to make the textures of movers 'stand out' when the scanner is equipped but damned if I can figure out some way to accomplish this in the client's HUD. Anyone have any ideas how they would do it?


Unfortunately the answer is no: yet like I said, in AS-Frigate, they achieved this by having a mover with keys 0 and 1 at the same spot, only if you "show polys" at key 0 then key 1 you see the surface texture of the mover changes. No idea how they did that, I couldn't replicate it. As to making the textures of movers "stand out" in the client's HUD when the scanner is equipped, that's really above my league (I guess it would require quite a bit of coding, and I don't know Uscript).
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

sn260591
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 12 Jun 2014, 17:09


User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 12 Jun 2014, 23:37



Sheesh I can't believe I wasn't aware of that!! This can really come in handy, thanks for the info sn260591 :)
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

Doublez-Down
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 12 Jun 2014, 23:37

Teridax wrote:If I recall correctly, a delay of zero on dispatchers doesn't work that well sometimes, so in order to get things to work, you have to have a delay around .00000001 (or however many zeros the dispatcher will allow along with a one at the very end). I don't know if that would apply to your situation, but when I was working with special events and explosions, I needed to have the delay time be barely above zero or else they wouldn't work.


I think this is actually with the explosions vice the dispatcher. Exploding walls and explosion chains can't have a delay time of zero, but dispatchers should be able to.
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User avatar Mister_Prophet
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 14 Jun 2014, 01:23



^This, if you are using UT to make a map. It is used in AS-OceanFloor and can be studied there.

Though, if the intention is to make a compatible SP level from cross-platform a method with mover sheets might be effective. That's what I'd use. Sheets with a trigger toggle property.

gopostal
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 14 Jun 2014, 03:14

I looked at the code for triggered textures and I don't see any reason why you couldn't import that into Unreal as-is. It just looks like something they added because it worked in a map made for the UT release.

User avatar ividyon
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 14 Jun 2014, 08:24

gopostal wrote:I looked at the code for triggered textures and I don't see any reason why you couldn't import that into Unreal as-is. It just looks like something they added because it worked in a map made for the UT release.

IIRC Unreal had no scripted textures; 227 does, however.
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User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: Changing the texture of a surface in-game

Post Posted: 14 Jun 2014, 11:40

Mister_Prophet wrote:if the intention is to make a compatible SP level from cross-platform a method with mover sheets might be effective. That's what I'd use. Sheets with a trigger toggle property.


That's indeed what I did, as it is the first method that worked for me (I learned about the triggered textures only a bit later). Besides, for what I was trying to achieve visually, triggered textures wouldn't have helped (they're useful for some screen textures essentially). I might use them later though, as I'm not particularly interested in making my level cross-platform.
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

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