Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: herkie423 on May 11, 2017, 02:04:32 am

Title: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 11, 2017, 02:04:32 am
We all know the convetional way for ships to jump in: The Subspace Vortex. Is it possible to have a different way like the Startrek Warp Effect? I will very much appreciate it if somebody teach me the mechanics of it. Just show me the way. :)
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: niffiwan on May 11, 2017, 05:10:31 am
There's the $Warpin Type: (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Ships.tbl#.24Warpin_Type:) ships.tbl setting which has a few alternative options, although none strictly match the Star Trek effect, Hyperspace might be close.

Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: JSRNerdo on May 11, 2017, 06:05:18 am
A galactica warpin with the apropriate sound and effect should do, see diaspora for examples
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: Trivial Psychic on May 11, 2017, 06:48:26 am
How about having an insanely high warpin-warpout speed and then place them on the FRED grid at extreme distance for arrival?
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 11, 2017, 12:47:42 pm
Perfect for my Romulan ships. I'll do a combination of parameters. Warp in type, sound, and warp in speed. That should be close. Thanks for the help, guys. :) :yes:
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: whitearrow on May 11, 2017, 01:02:35 pm
How about having an insanely high warpin-warpout speed and then place them on the FRED grid at extreme distance for arrival?

I think you would have the same side effect that was shown in the warp-out scene of the final battle in Rogue One, i.e. the Resistance transport crashing against the star destroyer that had just arrived. Basically you cannot warp-out/in if your vector is pointing/going through another object...
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: 0rph3u5 on May 11, 2017, 01:58:55 pm
Perfect for my Romulan ships.

Romulan ships don't warp in, they decloak (even the drone ship in ST: Enterprise never warped in looking like itself). It is one of the Star Trek-franchise staples (until the Kelvin-timeline came along) to clearly distinguish them and reinforce the concept that they are the sneaky (and in TNG) plotting people.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: Trivial Psychic on May 11, 2017, 11:03:24 pm
How about having an insanely high warpin-warpout speed and then place them on the FRED grid at extreme distance for arrival?

I think you would have the same side effect that was shown in the warp-out scene of the final battle in Rogue One, i.e. the Resistance transport crashing against the star destroyer that had just arrived. Basically you cannot warp-out/in if your vector is pointing/going through another object...
It'll just require some mission scripting to ensure that nothing is in the way for an arriving or departing ship.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: xenocartographer on May 12, 2017, 07:23:53 am
I've tried that before and I have to say it's harder than it sounds. You'll want to do it in Lua, because raytracing via SEXP sounds painful.

You'd think you can just carefully pick arrival/departure vectors, but the AI has a fetish for colliding with things - and you have very little control of where the player ship is. It can be done, but you're basically giving up the ability to use shock-jumps.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 15, 2017, 11:55:01 pm
Perfect for my Romulan ships.

Romulan ships don't warp in, they decloak (even the drone ship in ST: Enterprise never warped in looking like itself). It is one of the Star Trek-franchise staples (until the Kelvin-timeline came along) to clearly distinguish them and reinforce the concept that they are the sneaky (and in TNG) plotting people.

No, they do not warp in. I only call them "Romulans" because I used romulan models, the Valdore. In my sequel, in the world of "The Aftermath," I call them Arcturians. Absolutely no reference to Startrek. Any names of ship or characters or tech used in the mod are purely a homage. :)
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 16, 2017, 12:01:16 am
I've tried that before and I have to say it's harder than it sounds. You'll want to do it in Lua, because raytracing via SEXP sounds painful.

You'd think you can just carefully pick arrival/departure vectors, but the AI has a fetish for colliding with things - and you have very little control of where the player ship is. It can be done, but you're basically giving up the ability to use shock-jumps.

Yeah, I am well aware of that. It will be a daunting task pulling that off. But I like that kind of task. It will take a lot of testing and experimenting. I love torturing my brain. :)
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 22, 2017, 07:29:16 pm
I was able to get this working perfectly. Warp in and warp out. But... I have a problem with sound. I place the "$Warpin Sound Start" and its "End" counterpart with a filename entry as it says in the Wiki. The sound file is stored in the "sounds" folder. But there is no sound. I need to do more testing.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: JSRNerdo on May 22, 2017, 07:43:31 pm
Did you table in your sound in sounds.tbl or a mod-sounds.tbm
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 22, 2017, 11:59:33 pm
So it's not a filename. I thought it was a direct read like "play from file" SEXP. This is relatively easy. Thanks, JSR.

Oh one more thing, I deliberately placed an Orion destroyer right in their warp out and warp in path and see what happens. When the ships did their hyperspace animation, they pass through! He he. I find it hilarious. Great care must be done in mission design.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 23, 2017, 02:22:19 am
Well, I thought it was easy. It should be straight forward but it is actually complicated or rather confusing to me.

I made a "*-snd.tbm" file (I also have a "sounds.tbl file)

--------------------------------------
#Game Sounds Start

$Name: HyperIN
    +Filename: NBeamDown
    +Preload: no
    +Volume: 0.9
    +3D Sound:
        +Attenuation start: 1000
        +Attenuation end: 4000

$Name: SonicBOOM
    +Filename: MassD
    +Preload: no
    +Volume: 0.9
    +3D Sound:
        +Attenuation start: 1000
        +Attenuation end: 4000

$Name: HyperOUT
    +Filename: NBeamUP
    +Preload: no
    +Volume: 0.9
    +3D Sound:
        +Attenuation start: 1000
        +Attenuation end: 4000



#Game Sounds End
----------------------------------------

The sounds used here are also indexed in my "sounds.tbl" which are temporary, only for testing. I used the beam rev up and rev down, and the mass driver sound effect for sonic boom. I will creat new ones if I am successful with this.

The warp entry in my "ships.tbl" for the asset is as follows:

-----------------------------------------
$Warpin Type:   Hyperspace
$Warpin Start Sound: HyperIN
$Warpin End Sound: SonicBOOM
$Warpin Time: 5.0
$Warpin Decel Exp: 10
$Warpout Type: Hyperspace
$Warpout Start Sound: HyperOUT
$Warpout End Sound: SonicBOOM
$Warpout Time: 5.0
$Warpout Accel Exp: 10
------------------------------------------

Visually, I get this working as I want it to but no sounds. Initially, I followed the syntax mentioned in Wiki (string, filename) for the "$Warpin Start Sound" and "$Warpin End Sound" parameters and the matching Warp out sound parameters using the actual filenames with .ogg extensions. No sound. Then I took out the extensions. No dice. I change the entries using their index numbers defined in my Sounds.tbl. Nothing. Now, JSR adviced me to make a "-snd.tbm" which I did. Still nothing. I change the entries again using the name as defined by the "$Name" parameter in my TBM file. No cigar...I adjusted the attenuation entries to their possible maximum (the values for my massive explosion sounds) because I suspected that origin of the hyperspace effect might be the key here. When the ship warps out and goes off to a far far distance, I still see it in my radar then it disappears. So the effect origin must be some 100k kilometers. We cannot hear the effect.

My possible solution for this is to disable the 3D sound parameter and treat it as a HUD sound. I can do that in the Sounds.tbl file but I'm not sure how to do it in a "-snd.tbm" file. More research needed....

If I can not pull this off,... Well, there is always a FRED workaround and it's messy considering there will be around 20 of them warping in... and warping out.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 23, 2017, 02:57:00 pm
"$Warpin Type: Hyperspace" doesn't play sound effects.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: xenocartographer on May 23, 2017, 03:19:34 pm
Quote
If I can not pull this off,... Well, there is always a FRED workaround and it's messy considering there will be around 20 of them warping in... and warping out.

I'd need to do some research, but there's probably scripted solution.
Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 27, 2017, 08:43:50 pm
"$Warpin Type: Hyperspace" doesn't play sound effects.

Yeah. Just as I have suspected. Thanks for the info, Admiral.

Title: Re: Looking For A New Way To Warp In
Post by: herkie423 on May 27, 2017, 08:47:02 pm
Quote
If I can not pull this off,... Well, there is always a FRED workaround and it's messy considering there will be around 20 of them warping in... and warping out.

I'd need to do some research, but there's probably scripted solution.

Thanks, Xeno. A script is the solution.