Archive: 11 posts

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I'm having difficulty synchronizing emitters in my level and I wanted to verify with you folks that I'm approaching it correctly. My goal is to spawn a sequential series of static blocks that form a bridge from left to right. I have 1 emitter for each block. I want each block to spawn 1 second after the previous block. But I've been unable to setup the correctly offset timing. Is this even possible using each emitters' Sync setting? This question leads me to my second topic - I'm afraid I don't completely understand how Sync functions. I *thought* assigning a value to Sync is the equivalent of assigning an ID. So if two moving props share the same Sync value, it will synchronize their movement. My attempt to create the animated bridge make me doubt this is how Sync functions. Thanks in advance for your help!

2010-03-22 21:45:00 Author: Unknown User

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Sync can be tricky - I still struggle with it every once in a while. The good news is it's never really that tough to figure out once you understand it, but it might require a bit of fiddling. I *thought* assigning a value to Sync is the equivalent of assigning an ID. So if two moving props share the same Sync value, it will synchronize their movement.Ah, I see where your problems is. Good guess! But unfortunately not correct. Before I get into specifics, you should understand that everything within a single level in LBP is synchronized against an unseen clock that is running in the background. If you have a piston set to operate on a 10 second cycle, an emitter set to emit something every 10 seconds, and a wobble bolt set to wobble back and forth once every 10 seconds these things will always be in sync with each other no matter what. So, the "sync" setting itself basically just refers to the delay as compared to the unseen background clock I mentioned above. Let's say you have 2 emitters set to emit 1 block each every 10 seconds. At second #1 both emitters emit a block. Seconds #2-#10 nothing happens. Second #1 rolls around and both emitters emit another block. Easy enough right? Ok, so let's say you leave emitter A with 0 sync and you set emitter B to 1.0 sync. At second #1 emitter A emits a block as usual, but B does not. At second #2 emitter B emits a block based on the 1.0 sync setting. Make sense? So, to have your bridge emit the way you want, you'll need each emitter set to one full second of sync larger than the one before it. One more thing: Do you have these emitters hooked up to a switch of any kind? If so, how is that switch set? That may affect the behavior or your emitters as well.

2010-03-22 22:24:00 Author: Taffey Posts: 3187

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Taffey to the rescue! Many thanks for correcting me regarding the Sync behavior. I *thought* that's how it worked (as an timer offset from a "world clock"). I set each emitter with a Sync value larger than the previous emitter. For example, I was spawning a sequence of three platforms (continually looping and not triggered by any sort of switch). Platform #1 had a Sync of 0; Platform #2 had a Sync of 1; and Platform #3 had a Sync of 2. Yet they did not spawn in that sequence. I'll have to go back and double-check my settings...

2010-03-23 00:30:00 Author: Unknown User

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I have absolutely nothing to do with this thread so far, and I have nothing to add. I just wanted to say, "HOT DANG TAFFEY! That answer was awesome!". I was planning to stop by and try to explain, but you left me nothing to say. If you still have issues, just let us know No Good Monkey. And for what it's worth, I still struggle with sync sometimes too :-)

2010-03-23 05:12:00 Author: amazingflyingpoo Posts: 1515

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man, emitters are complicated

2010-03-23 06:15:00 Author: Lilman1101 Posts: 91

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Yeah, I actually think that getting a good grasp on emitters is the main key to beginning to create really good tech in levels, so it is certainly worth the trouble to learn to use them

2010-03-23 06:18:00 Author: amazingflyingpoo Posts: 1515

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Heh, thanks poo! I really should have left the answer to you though. I BOW TO THE MASTER!! I like Monkey's description of the timing as "world clock". That's a much better way to put it than I did.

2010-03-23 06:28:00 Author: Taffey Posts: 3187

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The Good News: I finally have my emitters spawning objects in the correct sequence. Thanks Taffey! The Bad News: I'm still not entirely sure why it didn't work, but I think it had something to do with the Max Emitted At Once value. I sought to spawn one object at each emitter. When it's set to 1, it will spawn the object once and only once. The spawned object appears unaffected by its Frequency and Lifetime settings. If I set Max Emitted to 2, everything works as intended (the objects spawn in sequence, their Lifetimes expire in sequence, then the pattern repeats). If you don't mind, I'd really appreciate any insights as to why this only works with a Max Emitted value of 1 more than I intended... Unless Max Emitted refers to a total number of spawned objects from all emitters? I really appreciate everyone's help. This LBP forum is the best community by a country mile!

2010-03-23 07:10:00 Author: Unknown User

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The 'max emitted at once' setting with emitters is a little weird in LBP PSP and doesn't quite work the same as it does on the PS3 version. I'm not sure exactly why you're having the problem that you are, but I suspect that the game thinks that two are being emitted at once. Regardless, once you get it working the way you want just leave the settings alone and don't ask questions. The "max emitted at once" value really shouldn't be a factor for this particular use of emitters. You'll only ever have one emitted at a time anyway because you're using static objects and they don't fall out of the way or anything. I'd actually be inclined to set the "max emitted at once" value to be a number much larger than you need, say 5 or 10, just to make sure it doesn't screw up at some point. Make sure also that you don't confuse "max emitted at once" with "max emitted". The first is self-explanatory, but the second refers to the total number your emitter will emit before stopping forever - this includes objects emitted in create mode. Most of the time you will want "max emitted" set to infinite.

2010-03-23 17:59:00 Author: Taffey Posts: 3187

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I thought I'd just add that I had a lot of issues with this. How did I get around it? The lazy guys way: Cut out the section!

2010-03-23 21:07:00 Author: Fastbro Posts: 1277

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"The Bad News: I'm still not entirely sure why it didn't work, but I think it had something to do with the Max Emitted At Once value. I sought to spawn one object at each emitter. When it's set to 1, it will spawn the object once and only once. The spawned object appears unaffected by its Frequency and Lifetime settings. If I set Max Emitted to 2, everything works as intended (the objects spawn in sequence, their Lifetimes expire in sequence, then the pattern repeats). If you don't mind, I'd really appreciate any insights as to why this only works with a Max Emitted value of 1 more than I intended..." I have issues like this all the time. Not sure why its happening but to get around the problem I simply pause the game, delete all spawned objects that have emitted, save and go to play mode. It seems to work properly this way. Its like if the emitter spawns the object in create mode that when you go to play mode it doesn't realize it already spawned so it forgets that item and doesn't kill it ever. lol.

2011-09-01 22:49:00 Author: Bitter Sweet Posts: 95

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