[haloboy100]

Is it possible to create something, such as a warp affect, in front of the player a set distance,  regardless of his position? I'm creating a little mission and I want to generate a warp affect in front of the player regardless of where he is, just in front of him. I don't want it to follow his orientation around, just be generated in front of him at a certain moment. I'm looking at the get-object-x/y/z SEXP, but I'm not entirely sure how it works...any suggestions?

I suppose I could use the AI to control his ship and then generate something in front of the player using a static coordinates, but I was hoping for a dynamic coordinate that solely depended on the direction he is facing so that I could put the affect in front of his face.

[The E]

I'm pretty certain you need to do some scripting for that. There are functions in there that allow you to draw models.

[haloboy100]

I'm aware of that, but I can't seem to find a way to draw a model in front of the player ship regardless of his orientation or position.

For example, an argument that returns the coordinates of a position X amount of meters away from and in front of the player's ship.

[The E]

I don't know this for sure, but I believe this would be something like
-Get the player's ship position
-Get the player's current orientation (This would be expressed as a vector, I believe)
-Generate the coordinates where you would draw the effect by taking the players' coordinates, adding the vector and a distance.

[haloboy100]

How would you get the orientation? Realize that my knowledge i confined strictly to FRED, as I know nothing about table hacking or anything like that.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Right now I don't think it's possible.  I believe there is a mantis report open on the problem.  Basically there are optional arguments that should allow you to do it but they don't return the correct values. 

I have thought of one way to do it but it would involve editing both the .pof and the table for the ship.  Basically put a special point in front of the model, make it an untargetable subsystem, and then use get object position x y and z of the dummy subsystem. 

[haloboy100]

Hmm. That seems possible, though I'll stick with using A.I. control for now.

Thanks anyways.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Well if you are using AI control it doesn't even need to be a static point.  All you have to do is get the ship turned so it is aligned with the Z axis.  Then you can use the get-object x y and z and just add a value to z.  You can achieve this with a waypoint way off on the Z axis and doing a waypoint goal.   

[haloboy100]

Well, if I'm using A.I. control, I may as well go all the way by directing the player to move to a static spawn anyway, right?

It would make a decent excuse as an autopilot.

[Mobius]

What about a cutscene working in tandem with relative coordinates?

[haloboy100]

Well I'm trying to make it work dynamically in real time, so that the player can trigger it via an event no matter where he is.

[Mobius]

Yeah? What I said doesn't imply that you can't get the effect you want.

[haloboy100]

Well, I could use what I want to do to make a cutscene, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for.

Though, I'm not sure I know what you're talking about...you're saying using a cutscene to get what I want?

[Mobius]

Yeah, a cutscene with camera settings that make use of relative positions.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I doubt you can do the cutscene either.  The problem is relative coordinates don't work correctly.  See http://scp.indiegames.us/mantis/view.php?id=1923

If they did his effect would be simple. 

[Mobius]

I remember them working fine the last time I checked...

[haloboy100]

What are the get-object x/y/z SEXPs supposed to do anyway? I know they get the coordinates of an object in a certain axis, but what do the relative arguments do?

[General Battuta]

Modify those coordinates, I believe?

I've used them to make torpedoes come flying in from off-screen during a cinematic. Create the torpedoes at relative coordinates to the target.

[haloboy100]

so the arguments add or subtract to the coordinates the SEXP returns?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

The problem is that while the relative values will be returned the functions do not take into account the direction the ship is facing so they are basically useless.  True relative position would align the Z axis with the direction the ship is facing.