DRD Team

Ed, in this thread you wrote:

".... things like the blocking that would have been attached to construction machines and the crates they hold... the blocking is now handled by the actors themselves; don't need to be manually added in the maps anymore."

How is this done? Is the blocking handled by the vertices of the model? Does this method extend to every model? Can one model be placed on another model (e.g., a computer monitor on a desk)? Specifically, I'm trying to figure out if I can eliminate the invisible 3D sectors I've been using for the complex shapes of the orbiting islands. Blocking for most of the mechanical actors was done using invisible bridge things, but there were a couple of fork lifts that used invisible 3D sectors for blocking.

Thinking about this, what I propose is the following:

1. I will continue to map for the original Paranoid and Paranoiac game packages, and release these maps separately for those that only want to get the additional maps.
2. These maps can separately be packaged into the ipk3 that is in development, for those that want the entire game with all the myriad high-end updates.

However, if the Team thinks that this will dilute the impact of the ipk3 release, I will reconsider.

Where necessary, I've made the actors spawn a series of invisible 'blockers' (essentially the same idea as Bridge Specials) to handle special collision shapes. In most cases, this was already being done around the actors by the maps, but having the actors do it automatically offers some benefits:

1) The setup is uniform, so all Bulldozers (for example) are guaranteed have the same blocking. I found one or two discrepancies in the original map-based blocking setups, and now we won't have to worry
2) Adding or relocating actors (if you decide to add more Bulldozers in new maps, or move around the ones in existing maps) is as easy as just placing the actor. The mapper doesn't need to meticulously place bridge specials or 3D sectors.
3) If an actor has to move around, like a cargo loader moving out of the way, the blockers can easily be moved with it, without having to adjust the map

I've tried looking for a way to do this for the floating islands (one of many issues I wanted to fix for those damn things, but couldn't...), but due to how they are shaped, a series of rectangular bridge specials wouldn't really cut it.

Thanks for the explanation.

Ed the Bat wrote: ↑Sun Sep 30, 2018 20:11I've tried looking for a way to do this for the floating islands (one of many issues I wanted to fix for those damn things, but couldn't...), but due to how they are shaped, a series of rectangular bridge specials wouldn't really cut it.

Yes, blocking for the orbiting islands was a massive pain to set up. For the new maps I've added more blocking sectors (specifically, for the pointy, bottom part), as the islands in these maps are located in such a way that players can walk/jump below them.