Home    LittleBigPlanet 1 - PSP - Tearaway -Run Sackboy Run    LittleBigPlanet 1    [LBP1] Help! [Archive]
#1

Laser tracking

Archive: 15 posts

I've hit a snag with one of my ideas, I've been tinkering away in my workshop creative random parts for my level when I realised something I wanted to do wouldnt be as easy as I thought.

Basically I want a laser to follow a player across a room, to show what I mean Ive drawn this work of art:

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/184/idea1nn5.th.png (http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=idea1nn5.png)

Pretty isnt it?

Basically I want the laser to rotate as the sackboy moves across the room, so its always focused on him - the timing and things I can work on later but what I really need is a way to make that rotate depending on what position your in. So if you at the right side of the room its facing down and if your at the left side its facing left and all points in between.

Any ideas?

cheers		2009-02-07 17:05:00

Author:
Mrgenji
Posts: 803

I can't see your picture.

I also don't trust imageshack. You should use photobucket.com it's better.

.		2009-02-07 17:07:00

Author:
RangerZero
Posts: 3901

I fixed it now, lol a lot of people say you cant trust Photobucket either - but the real reason was I couldnt be bothered to log into my photobucket account just to upload this2009-02-07 17:11:00

Author:
Mrgenji
Posts: 803

oh well, looks like I can see the picture now. :/


.		2009-02-07 17:19:00

Author:
RangerZero
Posts: 3901

I could make a modified version of my SPS so instead of having the thing follow you it would rotate a laser till its on you.2009-02-07 17:29:00

Author:
Trap_T
Posts: 431

Hmmm....this is a bit of a difficult problem to beat.
I can think of a couple of solutions;
Solution 1
Have lots of lasers, joined together and attach each one a sensor switch, which should all be pretty close together with small trigger areas. Then, a different laser will turn on for each "position" your sackboy is in.
Pros:
It will pretty much follow the sackboy so a laser is always facing him.
Cons:
It will take a lot of your thermometer up
The lasers may not look like "one"

Solution 2:
Force the player to move forwards at all times (either with a conyeror belt or perhaps with something behind them [invisible dark matter?] pushing them forwards), then place the laser on a wobble bolt so that it will follow the player.
Pros:
It's the same laser the whole time.
Cons:
The player may outspeed it.

That's all I can think of right now, but I'll check back later if I come up with more ideas.		2009-02-07 17:30:00

Author:
Coxy224
Posts: 2645

how do you mean trap? so it would rotate untill it sees you then stop? beacuse that would be even better than the original plan!

I'd be honored to include something created by your mechanical mind anyway		2009-02-07 17:45:00

Author:
Mrgenji
Posts: 803

how do you mean trap? so it would rotate untill it sees you then stop? beacuse that would be even better than the original plan!

I'd be honored to include something created by your mechanical mind anyway

Have you played my SPS level? It'd be similar to that except it would only need to track horizontal movement and there wouldnt be a big red cross following you, just a laser.		2009-02-07 17:49:00

Author:
Trap_T
Posts: 431

It was the first thing I thought of looking at when I hit this problem

I saw the video, but the level was locked - I couldnt think of the way to apply the mechanics to it.		2009-02-07 18:02:00

Author:
Mrgenji
Posts: 803

It was the first thing I thought of looking at when I hit this problem

I saw the video, but the level was locked - I couldnt think of the way to apply the mechanics to it.

the level isn't locked o-o is it?

I re-published it and it has the laser tracking thing in there now.		2009-02-07 18:08:00

Author:
Trap_T
Posts: 431

I can ask Felaneouscat how he made his tracking system.

He built some a hunter-seeker MGS-style turret that pretty much does exactly what you want, without any "extra" gear like the SPS. I think his system works something like triangluation using sensor switches set to Speed.

Not entirely sure though. I'll try to get back to you on this.		2009-02-07 18:43:00

Author:
Thegide
Posts: 1465

OK I have an I dea that may work which is where you set a small machine type monster under that walkway in a little cout out area
Add A brain
Set it to follow
So then that should have 2 wheels and just follow that person by way of the cut out area
And then attach a glass bar that can slide above and below the car and attach a laser to that
So finally it should have the monster/car thing following the player and by way of the glass bar the laser tracks it to		2009-02-07 19:47:00

Author:
Sakboy
Posts: 103

For uploading the picture, use tinypic. It's free, no accounts, never breaks down etc.2009-02-08 10:57:00

Author:
InsanityV2
Posts: 30

I'd advise Rainfires advice but if you are specifically wanting it to rotate then heres a solution for you.
It's pretty awkward and might not work/will take a lot of trial and error, but it's not too difficult getting the foundations down, perfect will be the hard part.

Make a chunk out of the bottom and put a little bot in there with wheels like Rainfire said.
Make two glass blocks the height of the chunk and plop them in either side of the bot.
Attach pistons attaching the glass blocks to the far left and right walls of the chunk taken out (they should go to the start and end of the "laser following section"
Make a laser in the top corner on a circle that's on a wobble bolt.
This is very important: Set the strength of the pistons so they are low enough for them to be pushed by the bot, but also strong enough for it to follow behind when it is pushing the other direction.
The piston's max length should be the length of the chunk out and minimum should be about 1.
Put a green magnetic key (with wire) on the right piston glass block and a blue one on the left block.
Now make a 3-way-switch winch switch.
This is a 3-way-switch with a winch attatched to each end of the sponge and to a wall perpendicular to the base of the switch (make a little box for it)
Attach the green magnetic key to the RIGHT winch and the blue mag key to the LEFT side. Connect the 3-way-switch to the wobble bolt and set it to DIRECTIONAL.
This means that when the green mag key is activated, the 3-way-switch will be pulled left - making the laser turn right, and when the blue is activated the left winch will pull it making it go left (if you want it to do the opposite simply turn it to inverted.
Now test it till it works.
Set the centre point of the laser (when the bot is in the middle) to the middle of the section (just a bit right of in your picture)

Ok, now comes the trial and error part.
Get some green magnetic key activators (the ones without wires) and set them along the top of the chunk the bot is in, but RIGHT of the glass block when the bot is in the central position.
Set the proximity of the green mag key to just activate the switch when it reaches it. Set them with a few gaps between them (the more you have, and the stricter you are with the proximity, the less jerky it will be.)
Do the same with the blue on the other side.
Make the proximity so that it is VERY difficult to stand in a position that keeps one of the wire switches active (it is designed for people running passed, if people find a spot and stand there, it could well keep turning and bug.) [you will probably be find a way of fixing this, maybe something to do with permanent switches]

Now make adjustments until the laser moves how you want it to!

Sorry, this might be a complete waste of time, because I can't fully visualise it to explain it well, but I hope it works if you try it 		2009-02-08 11:52:00

Author:
Pinchanzee
Posts: 805

Ok, I managed to create a laser tracking device with no need for any creatures!

It uses the 90 degree sensor switches (it only detects the sackperson if it stand somewhere inside a 90 degree angle of the switch) that have been found on strykers and mgs turrets (another thing that Mm uses but haven't given to us) to locate the sackboy.
Basically i took two of the 90 degree switches and placed them on a laser turret so that they wont detect you if you stand right in front of the turret, i wired them to a winched three way switch set to direction to control the movement of the turret and then Voila! The best self aiming turret out there ! (it may need some tweaking, like shortening the lasers, moving the sensor switches closer to eachother for higher accuracy, some slight adjustments to the angle of the switches or to the speed of the wobble / motor bolts.)

I also made a level showcasing and giving both away for anyone to use, just search @marklin88 and you'll find my levels. Feel free to make your own version of the device or tweak mine (you can edit sharable objects like you want, right?)

Hope this helped!		2009-02-08 17:24:00

Author:
Marklin80
Posts: 458


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

Datenschutz
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.