Archive: 19 posts

---

Well first I need to confirm if gravity will increase the speed of objects falling. Specifically dissolve material. I'm pretty sre it does, but if it doesn't then my job will be easier. I'm currently revising all my logic for my turn-based level. Most things worked fine and some had a couple problems or was missing something. The thing I need help with is keeping a falling object going at a constant speed. Since gravity is in affect I need to use a slope for the dissolve to fall down while keeping an unchanging speed. I'm not sure if anyone has researched this before or experienced anything that they can give me useful info to get started. Any advice like what angle to start with or material to use for the slope would be extremely helpful(thinking ice, but that might increase speed because of frictionless surface). Or should I just start at at any point and wing it? Also, any ideas on recording the results besides just judging by the eye? I guess that is the important part.

2009-08-24 10:55:00 Author: Roanoake Posts: 166

---

falling down a slope with fixed speed won't really be possible. Gravity will still accellerate the object as it moves. What you can do it attach a winch to it, with a directional output set to make it extend, and then set the timing and distance to match the speed you want the object to fall. This will control the maximum speed, minimum speed will still be dependent on normal physics (gravity, friction etc.) Or you can just do it with a piston. This assumes the object starts at the top of the slope and slides down in a linear fashion.

2009-08-24 11:00:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

---

I don't have much experiences with winches and pistons. There are sensors on the material moving that activates everything it passes. I need it to restart at the top again as soon as it reaches the bottom. It's not that big of a distance. But, is there a way for it to restart from the beginning without it actiating everything on the way back up and do it almost instantly? This would be a good solution if it can do something like that.

2009-08-24 11:09:00 Author: Roanoake Posts: 166

---

You can emit the whole object/piston/black matter block and adjust the lifetime of the frequency emitted objects such as the thing disappear as soon as the piston road is over. You could add a switch on the object that control the piston in a sense mode, and set the piston as your length is 0 at start. Place a detector for the switch in the level, just next to the place the whole emitted object appear. So the sequence is: object emitted, piston switch activated, piston go from 0 at start until xxxx in lenght then disappear, immediately, a new object is emited and the sequence cycle itself. Hope what i wrote make sens...

2009-08-24 11:47:00 Author: Takelow Posts: 1355

---

I might want to try the slope bieng rubber at a 30 degree angle that would probably keep at a neer constant speed

2009-08-24 11:52:00 Author: robotiod Posts: 2662

---

No matter what material and angle you use you will eventually reach an equilibrium point where your speed is such that the frictive forces == the force of gravity, and you stop accelerating and maintain a constant speed. But you will need to accellerate to the appropriate speed for that to happen. It's probably very fiddley to get that working. If you need to trigger various things in order, then a flipper piston could be the answer. You can either have it continuously moving past the switches, and as it flips it moves to the beginning, without triggering anything in between, or you can fire it off with a one-shot signal, and then you will just run past all of the switches once and then wait for the next one shot signal to come. Depends on exactly what you need to happen.

2009-08-24 12:18:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

---

From what I have gathered of the LBP physics. Every weighted object (including Sackboy) will accelerate constantly in freefall or on a frictionless slope. Additionally, peach floaty seems to accelerate upwards, and pink floaty actually decelerates if moving in the air. The only object I have seen with constant speed is the Plasma Ball. No matter which angle you emit it in, it will keep a constant speed. I would really love to be able to harness that particular quality somehow.

2009-08-24 14:23:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

---

Everything accelerates as it moves down, freefall or slope. I had this same problem in a few of my levels.... what I did was create a rubber conveyor belt and use a rubber sole on the bottom of my objects. Rubber has the most friction so rubber on rubber has the absolute least tendency to slip, so you have to use a conveyor belt or it just won't move at all. (For a good example, check out the emitting Ice Bergs in my level Tundra Trouble, that's exactly how I do it, I use rubber rollers for the slope.) Ohter than that, a stiff piston would do the trick if you could work out the emitting of it proper, but I think you have a little more wiggle room in adjusting frequency with the rollers.

2009-08-24 14:33:00 Author: Foofles Posts: 2278

---

Pistons do slow down before they reach their maximum and minimums, so it's not exactly linear. I would say put it on a cart of sorts which uses rubber wheels with motor bolts. I think that's your best bet for uniformity. The winch idea is just as well most likely though. I haven't tested either, so I can't tell for sure. It also depends partly on the situation, because one might be more appropriate depending on how your level is set up.

2009-08-24 21:28:00 Author: BSprague Posts: 2325

---

I think pistons don't slow down at their extremities when operating as directional or flipper. If they do then I think it's less pronounced. But I can't be certain. This is why I suggested a flipper piston. I hate them for most things but I think for this application they might be the perfect low-thermo solution.

2009-08-24 22:06:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

---

I think I'm going to try using the flipper piston first. It just sounds like it was made for this job. What I'm trying to get it to do is repeat itself during the level at a certain part. Thanks for all the suggestions. I have a lot of backup plans now.

2009-08-24 22:16:00 Author: Roanoake Posts: 166

---

If no one has mentioned this already then another backup plan using the piston method is to emit a piece of dark matter off the map with the object attatched with the piston (make a perminant directional switch on it that moves the piston) and thenas soon as the object gets to the bottom of the slope make it activate a switch that kills a creature brain on the dark matter part so it should delete all of it including the moving object. (Make the object be emitted an infinite amount of times at 0.1 seconds and have infinite lifetime. The downside: players will continuously gain points every time it copletes a cycle so instead you could set the lifetime on the emitter to the exact time it takes for the object to get to the bottom. I hope this makes sense and that I have understood the problem right. Just wanted to add another backup solution. Lol, you always have the most complex of problems I've noticed. EDIT: Just a note: Pistons with a directional switch activating them don't slow down/ speed up.

2009-08-24 22:36:00 Author: S-A-S--G-U-N-R Posts: 1606

---

Actualy that is a fantastic idea. Ditch the brain and just set the emitter lifetime. Then set the emitter frequency to 0.1s. It won't re-emit over the top because of the moving part, so you won't suffer from object overlay. Then when the piston disappears it will spawn a new one from the emitter. Now here's the clever part - if you use an on/off signal to the emitter, if you stop it halfway through a cycle it will complete that cycle and then end. If you switch the on/off back on it will start up again instantly. With the flipper piston the stop will stop it mid cycle and start up again midcycle. Of course, if you don't want the cycle to complete, you can move the magnetic switches away at the same time as switching off.

2009-08-24 22:44:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

---

Sorry if I'm late to the party again, but from what I understand is that you want something to rhythmically occur only once it has been triggered to begin...? I actually had to do something similar when creating something like this the other day for a favor. Try a wheel with a single notch on it. Place keys along the outside of the wheel, with a key switch on the notch. When you want the thing to be "off", just extend a piston to catch the notch on the wheel. When you want it to be "on" retract the piston and the wheel will spin freely. Forgive me if I missed the point, but what rtm described was exactly the first idea I had before the notched wheel idea. I had to use it as a plasma ball firing sequence on a creature, but I only wanted him to shoot when you were near him. I was actually able to embed the notched wheel with keys right into the bad guy, so the whole thing could be emitted...

2009-08-24 22:53:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

---

The downside: players will continuously gain points every time it copletes a cycle so instead you could set the lifetime on the emitter to the exact time it takes for the object to get to the bottom. Besides the gaining points everytime that was a great idea. I'm going to try this just without the brain. Glad you noticed that I ask a lot of difficult questions Then set the emitter frequency to 0.1s. It won't re-emit over the top because of the moving part, so you won't suffer from object overlay. Then when the piston disappears it will spawn a new one from the emitter. Now here's the clever part - if you use an on/off signal to the emitter, if you stop it halfway through a cycle it will complete that cycle and then end. If you switch the on/off back on it will start up again instantly. With the flipper piston the stop will stop it mid cycle and start up again midcycle. Of course, if you don't want the cycle to complete, you can move the magnetic switches away at the same time as switching off. Wow, thanks for going into such detail about the settings. That will help a lot. Try a wheel with a single notch on it. Place keys along the outside of the wheel, with a key switch on the notch. When you want the thing to be "off", just extend a piston to catch the notch on the wheel. When you want it to be "on" retract the piston and the wheel will spin freely. Well this is pretty much the first thing I tried. But, since I'm using multiple outcomes with some that can't be used at times and some added later it became difficult to get the right result. Pretty much only one outcome is selected out of many. This is a design for the enemy AI. After playing around with the wheel for a bit I thought of a way to redesign it at work and I'm trying to create this now.

2009-08-24 23:17:00 Author: Roanoake Posts: 166

---

Ok, glad you are figuring it out, but you don't need to abandon my idea quite yet. Instead, put a key on the wheel, and switches around the outside. Wire the output from each key switch through an AND gate, so you can control which ones are activated and which ones are not. I'm not sure that made total sense. Let me try to explain it better... I will assume you desire stages of the boss battle and will explain accordingly: Have each key-switch on the outside of the wheel be set to directional, and wire it to one half of an AND gate*. This way, each key switch has its own respective AND gate, and none of them effect any other. For stage one, trigger the second half of only a certain set of AND gates. This way, when the key on the wheel triggers the piston, the AND gate logic is satisfied and it will be triggered. For stage two, trigger the second half of a different set of AND gates. Now the AND gates for these will be satisfied once their respective key switches are triggered. Lather, rinse, repeat for subsequent stages. If you want one "stage" to have an action occur twice as often, then wire two inputs through an OR gate before wiring it to the AND gate (that may be confusing). I hope that made sense. If not, I may just whip up an example to show you what I mean. *The AND gates described here require two inputs in order to be triggered (d'uh). If the first input remains "on", then the second input to the AND gate will trigger the switch.

2009-08-24 23:33:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

---

Yeah I know what you mean. It's just not very accurate for what I'm doing though. The boss is all about numbers since it's turn-based and I need some outcomes to be more likely then others. And with the wheel it is harder to control the outcome.

2009-08-24 23:56:00 Author: Roanoake Posts: 166

---

Oh, alright then. No harm done, lol.

2009-08-25 00:00:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

---

Well thanks everyone. If I have any problems with this then I will ask again in this thread. Off to work now.

2009-08-25 00:06:00 Author: Roanoake Posts: 166

Posts: 1077139    Threads: 69970    Members: 9661    Archive-Date: 2019-01-19

Aus dem Archiv wurden alle persönlichen Daten wie Name, Anschrift, Email etc. - aber auch sämtliche Inhalte wie z.B. persönliche Nachrichten - entfernt.
Die Nutzung dieser Webseite erfolgt ohne Speicherung personenbezogener Daten. Es werden keinerlei Cookies, Logs, 3rd-Party-Plugins etc. verwendet.