Ridable 3D floors

[GooberMan]

This will go up on /idgames sometime soon, but for now use this link on my Google Drive.

As mentioned in these threads, I've iterated some more on my ridable floor demos. This current iteration, the third one, focuses less on using polyobjects for visualisation and introduces the concept of a "visual rider" for the floor setup. In English, it will keep a 3D model in sync with the polyobject. This results in basically a free-form moving platform.

I'm sticking this in the resources forum since it seems every other month someone is coming up with ideas on how to do ridable 3D platforms and not doing it quite as well as this effect manages. I uploaded the original demos over two years ago, so clearly there's a visibility problem. Sure, once ReX releases Paranoiac that'll solve the visibility problem, but this thread isn't such a bad thing anyway.

Currently limitations for this iteration is that there's only one "visible rider", only players can hop on and off, and rotation of polyobjects is not supported. Making any arbitrary thing work on the platform instead of just players is pretty much a trivial task (I've left a TODO note in the appropriate place on what needs doing); more than one visible rider will be solved when it supports more than just players; but rotation of polyobjects needs a bit more thought on my part as I'll need to apply rotational velocity to all riders. That is a fun one to try and do purely with ACS.

[The Zombie Killer]

Now this is pretty damn awesome. I did notice that the 3d model jumps around a bit when the polyobject changes direction though. Nice work regardless though

[ReX]

Now this is pretty damn awesome. I did notice that the 3d model jumps around a bit when the polyobject changes direction though. Nice work regardless though

Agreed on the "pretty damn awesome" part.

I too noticed that the 3D model seems to shudder when turning (this is in the second version, not the current one being discussed).

[EDIT: Specifically, when riding the moving/revolving rock, if the player turns to face a direction that is perpendicular to the movement of the rock, then the rock texturing starts "vibrating" (for want of a better word). Re-orient yourself with the rock's direction of motion, and the problem goes away.]

On a related note, DO NOT use the "freeze" command in the console, as this will stop the model (or lines that form the platform) from moving but the polyobject will continue to move while the rest of the game is frozen. (Again, I'm referring to the second version.)

This current iteration, the third one, focuses less on using polyobjects for visualisation and introduces the concept of a "visual rider" for the floor setup. In English, it will keep a 3D model in sync with the polyobject. This results in basically a free-form moving platform.

From a practical standpoint, is this a better iteration than the previous one? I realize that this does not support rotating polyobjects, but for a single-player game what advantages does this version offer?

[TheBadHustlex]

I think you have made my idea for my final levels possible. I just gotta figure out how to properly work with them, then everything's good.
Thanks for providing them!

[GooberMan]

From a practical standpoint, is this a better iteration than the previous one? I realize that this does not support rotating polyobjects, but for a single-player game what advantages does this version offer?

The scripts are cleaner, but functionally the only real difference is the visuals.

(This version is effectively what I gave you for Paranoiac but packaged up for general use)

[ReX]

The scripts are cleaner, but functionally the only real difference is the visuals.

(This version is effectively what I gave you for Paranoiac but packaged up for general use)

OK, thanks. I was wondering if there was something even better in your third version that I could plagiarize.