Aum48

ive tried a few things a while back on a melee combat. Best i found was just totaly ignore trying to utalize an actual collision system aspect.

Instead just useing a simple vec_dist for a min distance check and if attacking entity is facing in a particular arc angle to the target an attack can be made ( animation )

then just fall back on a mechanical RPG system to calculate a % chance to hit based on character level, stats and modifiers vs target level, stats, armor. doing the check 'to-hit; once per animation cycle then will solve the major problems

Believe it or not I did do something simliar to that for a turn based system I was tweaking around with, but in my case the attacker was always pointed the correct way and I knew ahead of time which enemy I was attacking.

Great.I am going to download it now

Another idea would be to check the position of a few key vertices on the sword; if you have set a few key vertices on the enemy model as well, you could even create damage depending on the body part that was injured. A few simple vec_dist instructions would do the job.

Hello George,
I have been seeking to implement the mesh deformation from AUM 8 and whilst it works to a certain degree, there are some areas I would like to see clarifed.
For instance;
The deformation as shown in the AUM8 article works only on a terrain size you have demonstrated on.
Any variations in terrain size will return random results (it either will deform or wont, it will deform away from impact point etc.)
I have kept within the scope of the formulae like inputing the correct vertices count per terrain and played with the other number variables but cant get an acurate deformation at point of impact so I keep to the size your test terrain is.
Secondly, it seems that deformation is a visual effect only as I cannot get my player to enter into the cratered areas at all, it justs rides up over a ghost (or the original terrain)surface.
Have tried both c_move and ent_move, no differrence.

I am seeking to build a clone type "Scorched Earth" game and would really like some help on this one.

My question is, can you give another project example of terrain/model deformation article for A6 pleas,e seeking to resolve the above issues?.
Thanks.

*Edit
Discovered that by using 'normal' (vec_to_angle(my.pan, normal);) the ghost prob dissapears but cannot yet implement it correctly. All knids of crazy things happen to the position of the player or it wont initialise etc...
Also, because of event_impact, any object impacting will cause an empty pointer "Empty pointer in create_crate: vec_set(hit_coords,pocket.pos)"
I can get rid of the empty pointer by placing an if statement for the
existence or the projectile but any impact will cause a deformation to occur.
Have tried event_detect but no workable solutions yet.

Hi Nemisis,

The problems that you are experiencing look like a minor bug in your code; the code from Aum8 should work ok for any terrain. Well, I was planning to write an article that deals with terrain deformation in the near future so now I've got another reason to do that.

I'll see you.
George.

nemisis 2 things im not sure if your checking or not but will have impact on mesh deformation.

be sure the terrain has the 'high pressision' checked in med on your terrain ( it should by defualt)

also right after you deform the mesh, you need to run
ent_fixnormals(entity,frame) on the mesh for properly collision after the deformation. it's a slow instruction because ti has to run through every polyface of the mesh and recaclualte the nomrals. so you need to give it a couple frames to make sure it's been completed

Thanks George and Grimbar,
Will keep plugging away at it.
Grimbar, got a quick reply on how to implement 'fixnormals'?
Everything else is within parameters, no variations there.
If you guys like and or have the time, I could PM you's a link to the level.
Cheers.

OK George, looks you you were right again.
I did a 68x68 terrain and paid attention to filling in the right value for the var and it works perfectly every time now.
Thanks for pointing it out.

Just wanted to point out the solution for those of you that might be interested: "Maybe you have forgotten to change vertex_dist[1090] to a new value?". This is what I've asked Nemisis in an email.

ent_fixnormal is easy to use. just after you deform the mesh you call the function and you just plug in a pointer to that terrain and the frame number ( which for most terrains unles animated is usualy frame1)

looking at georges AUM 8 code I would place it in the deform function
Code:

---

function deform(vertex_number)
{
	vec_for_mesh(temp, terrain1, vertex_number);
	vec_scale (temp, 0.7); 
	vec_to_mesh (temp, terrain1, vertex_number);
        ent_fixnormals(my,my.frame);
}

---

it but should solve most NORMAL problems with the terrain

Thanks grimbar, jumpman mentioned something about a hullupdate function so am researching that if I can find it.
Cheers again and will try the fix you gave as I cant intergrate the 'normal'fix I mentioned previously.

seems like c_updatehull an updated version for use with the poly collision system

application of both seems identical. so depending on how your moving your entitys (c_move or ent_move) I'd give both a try.

And out of them all, its the one that works for me .
My opponant drops as its land is shot out from underneath...coooool!!!