Map Prop Hitbox Shenanigans

Discussion in 'Mapping' started by Sneaky, May 16, 2009.

  1. Sneaky

    Sneaky Member

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    I just empied a clip into an engineer on mvalley only to watch the bullets explode on the invisible hitbox of the giant middle rock, whose visible model is about one METER inside the hitbox on the east side. Same thing happens on tropic vendetta with the rocks placed all over, they have hitboxes extending beyond the visible model.
    It happens on other maps too on occasion and it royally screws over whoever is hiding behind the map prop since it's nearly impossible to determine when you're hitting an invisible wall and when youre just shooting past it without wasting rounds to find out and give away your position.

    I don't know if these maps are still being worked on, but if they are it would be great if the props were tweaked a bit, I'd rather have the hitbox be smaller than the model than the reverse.
     
  2. -Mayama-

    -Mayama- MANLY MAN BITCH

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    ask modeller not mappers
     
  3. Sneaky

    Sneaky Member

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    I figured mappers and modellers are closely collaborating on what goes into the maps and would both frequent this forum.
    It's the mappers that put the models in the maps at least, since I don't model nor map I wouldn't know where to start other than here.
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2009
  4. Caelo

    Caelo Member

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  5. -Mayama-

    -Mayama- MANLY MAN BITCH

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    Well if that would be true we would have nice generic rock and foilage props.
     
  6. Jessiah

    Jessiah Member

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    Someone is making a 3 million (!) poly rock, be patient :p
     
  7. John Shandy`

    John Shandy` Member

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    Yea, Sneaky. There is somewhat of a lack in custom content (namely models) for Empires. We just don't have such a sizable content development team dedicated to Empires, like mods such as PVKII & others do. The current rock models in emp_tropicvendetta suffer from much the same problem you described on emp_mvalley, but even worse. Unfortunately, without getting a hold of the original modeler of those rocks, fixing/updating them is out of the question (decompiling, editing, and recompiling is much easier said than done, according to most of the modelers I've talked to around the forums and IRC). We were very fortunate to get a custom shark model developed for emp_tropicvendetta.

    Empires would greatly benefit from more modelers and texture artists, but those are kind of few and far in between now-days. Some of the most successful mods are those with the most active custom content contributions though.

    Sometimes we can seek third party models from some websites, and on a few occasions I've found some project founders/leaders of other Source mods to be very, very generous, such as the founder of Pirates, Vikings, and Knights II who essentially gave me permission to use whatever content I choose of theirs, so long as I credit the PVKII team with the creation of such content, and so long as I packrat such custom content into my .bsp files for release so that other people will still need to seek his written permission to use PVKII content. It all depends on what mod project you visit, who you ask, what you ask for, and the demeanor in which you do all of those. It also helps to obtain some of a mod's content in advance, use it to create an example, screenshot the example, and show the example to whomever you're asking. If they see that they like the way you're wanting to put their content to use, you'll likely get a great response. I'm pretty sure that is what helped me reach some agreements with various Source projects. If they see something they like that involves their content, they're unlikely to give you "no" for an answer.

    Trust though, that most all of the Empires mappers (whether devs or non-) are doing their best to acquire and implement custom content, and all of us would jump at more custom content like sharks would jump at a chum line.
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2009
  8. Demented

    Demented Member

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    A lot of Empires models have abominable collision models.

    It's probably better just to not use those models in maps, since the modellers have all left the building.
     
  9. PwnedYoAss

    PwnedYoAss Member

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    Sneaky, what you're asking for is hours of repetitive, annoying, disfiguring work that no modeler will do willingly unless paid. You do get that right?!
     
  10. Demented

    Demented Member

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    I smell some exaggeration. *sniff sniff* Oh where might it be...
     
  11. PwnedYoAss

    PwnedYoAss Member

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    Exaggeration? Ok, I maybe throwing it off a little bit, but here's how I would have to go and fix all those fucking collisions. I'd have to get a hold of the model, possibly mess with the IDST value in it so I can decompile it, then hope the SMD import doesn't crash, and from there I make another collision model, export it and recompile... for each model
     
  12. Demented

    Demented Member

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    Or you could restrain yourself to only the models you've created and have the source for, and expect the other modellers to do the same.

    Editing every model in Empires is far and above the call of duty. If someone were to complain about some feature in a large number of maps, I strongly doubt any mapper would be willing to volunteer to decompile every map and fix the issue. Heck, even if it were a single map... (There's also the issue of etiquette regarding editing other people's stuff that mappers have to deal with.)

    If the modeller for a model is no longer present, well then, just forget about it.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2009

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