Effects & wind rotation

[bpahe]

Hi there!

After having succeeded in compiling edited .asm-files with Dick´s BGLC_9, I thought that my flags where finished. But, ah, no.
I use flags created as effects (from a post here at SD.org, but in the old forum), that easily allows me to animate the flag itself. But since I have not been able to make the effect itself rotate with the wind, unless I want flags that fly away from the pole , I tried to make the entire object (pole + attachpt) rotate with the wind.
But I can´t get it to work. I´ve inserted 2 different flagpoles, as separate BGLs, just like you had to do in FS2002.

What I wish to get help on is either if someone knows how to rotate an effect as the one found below, with the wind,
or
to find out wether the rotate with the wind-"hack" only works on animated (gmax-animations) objects.

The flag that I use has the following code:

[Library Effect] 
Display Name=SDT_Flagga_2 
Lifetime=5 
Version=2.00 
Radius=200 

[Properties] 
Cockpit=1 
VirtualCockpit=1 
Spot=1 
Tower=1 

[Emitter.0] 
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00 
Delay=0.00, 0.00 
Bounce=0.00 
Rate=1.00, 1.00 
X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00 
Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00 
Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00 
Drag=0.00, 0.00 
X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00 
Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00 
Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00 
X Offset=0.00, 0.00 
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00 
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00 
Pitch=0.00, 0.00 
Bank=0.00, 0.00 
Heading=0.00, 0.00 

[Particle.0] 
Lifetime=8.00, 8.00 
Type=19 
X Scale=1.00, 1.00 
Y Scale=1.00, 1.00 
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00 
X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00 
Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00 
Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00 
Drag=0.00, 0.00 
Color Rate=0.50, 0.50 
X Offset=0.00, 0.00 
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00 
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00 
Fade In=0.25, 0.25 
Fade Out=0.75, 0.75 
Rotation=0.00, 0.00 
Shade=1 
Static=1 
Face=0, 0, 0 

[ParticleAttributes.0] 
Blend Mode=1 
Texture=fx_SDT_Flag_Avis.bmp
Bounce=0.00 
Color Start=255, 255, 255, 255 
Color End=255, 255, 255, 0 
Jitter Distance=0.00 
Jitter Time=0.00 
FPS=8.00 
TextureSize=256 
CellSize=64 
CellStart=0 
CellEnd=7 
TempK=107.00 
TempRate=0.00

/hans

 

[nickw]

The rotate with the wind will not work with the effects, they are working in their own FS Space.

The only way I could figure on doing this with an animated flag (mine used tick18) was to create 8 flags, each in a different direction, then show them depending on the wind variable. However, I have not done that yet, but it should be possible.

Also, I am interested in how you did this effect animation. Can you provide a quick tutorial?

Thanks,

 

[arno]

Yes, Nick is correct here. The effect (attachpoint) does not respond to the rotation with the wind. This is because they are in a special section of the RIFF format. It is also not possible to add for example a condition to the effect with the BGLC code.

So you would either have to put the rotation in the effect somehow (must be possible, as smoke also responds to the wind) or create it in the method Nick mentioned.

 

[bpahe]

The effect (attachpoint) does not respond to the rotation with the wind. This is because they are in a special section of the RIFF format. It is also not possible to add for example a condition to the effect with the BGLC code.

Rats! Well, back to the ole´ drawingboard then!

Yes, the smoke moves with the wind, but the problem is that smokes consists of particles coming from an emmiter. The particles themselves do not move "internally" (hm, did anyone understand?). The flag is a particle that emitts but do not move, kind of like a static sprite with an animated texture. I´ve made flags that move with the wind, but then in the form of flags that evolves from the pole, drifts away with the wind and then disappears... quite funny to watch, but not very useful!
I think that for now, I´m going to stick with these static flags, and continue work on them once I´ve released the current, delayed, project.

Nick, as I wrote in the first post, the code is not mine originaly. It was posted in this forum, it might have been by "JoeW", but that´s just a hunch.
But actually it is a quite simple thing.
You see emitter is almost empty, it releases just 1 particle. The SDK clearly states that animated textures are possible, so all that is done here is to specify a particle that fades in & out, has an animated texture that "moves" by 8 fps, where on the bitmap it should start fetching images (this gives a large possibility of variation). Also, the size of the particle (1 m square) is stated, I will change this value to the width of the flag later, also adjusting the offset values.

I´ve worked these values before, but I´ll get on them again: drag, rotation, static. Sorry about not being able to provide more info, but the guy who came up with the idea originally really deserves some credit! :claphands:

/hans

 

[nickw]

Thanks Hans...

Appreciate the info. See my post on the effects / sprites issue here as well. Microsoft know about this, and I would hope to see improvement in the future.

Remember, the attachtool.ms script only got to the developers very very late in the FS9 process. I would expect to see much more use of it in the next release.