Camera settup in the character.ini

[Veleran]

I use angleup = 82 for the isometric camera-top down view.
And,i need to have a different camera.ini for each player that his height varies much.
If the camera distance matches a player height of 58 inches,
for another player with height 78 inches,the camera is looks far from the ground because the second player is much taller.

So i need a smaller camera distance for the tall player.
I would like to set in the character.ini,which camera each player will use.

[Veleran]

I know i have asked some features lately,but i ve got another one.
I need an entry for szcorpse actor file,in the ePawn,
because i want to replace a dying pawn with a (low-poly)corpse actor after the pawn dies and the script stops-i mean after the remove = true.

I searched the script commands and there s no command i can use for this.
I cant use another pawn as a corpse and position it to the destroyed pawn,because i use few hundred pawns.

And i cant use an actor spray or a projectile because thay have a lifetime,and sooner or later they will dissapear.

[Jay]

Would a script command that ends the script work for you too? I am currently working on some script commands and if i have time for it i will add it as i think it could indeed be very helpful.

I may also add a script command that can change the actor (which can then have its own LOD actors) of a pawn if figure out how to do this...

[Juutis]

Why not use the SetLODDistance() command?
For example, the actual pawn would be the LOD1 actor and it could have a lower poly version LOD2. LOD3 would be the 'corpse'.
When the pawn then dies, you would use the command above to change the LOD1 and LOD2 distances to 0. That would disable the first two LODs and the 'corpse' would be rendered.

[Jay]

I finished the ScriptCommand EndScript() for both Low and High Level. It stops execution of the script. No animation will be played on the dead body.

[Juutis]

Allright! Awesome!

[Veleran]

You re right juutis-but i already had thought of it,and cant use it because i wanted to use an entirely different actor-just a scull with a few bones as a corpse.
So as the bone fades,it would be be replaced by the bones actor.

I wanted to ask something-i know there is this command
SaveActor(char *ActorName );

Save the pawn’s actor to savedactors\ActorName

I had tought to use this command in the begining of a script for boss pawns,so they can flee when they take much damage and use SetEventState to "_Orc_boss_escape",and also add the same boss pawn in all levels in case they have ecaped the previous level.
I have nt used this command yet,and i dont know how they script will use the saved state of the boss pawn in the next level after the escape-it will propably automaticaly "load" the saved actor.
Dont know if it loads the same state of the pawn for all saved games-etc.

Since there is a SaveActor,would a "LoadActor" command help-or it would not do for the corpse i want?

P.S.

I want the bones actor to appear just before the dying pawn fades completely.
So the corpse actor would be propably loaded by a command in the pawn script,and not through a standard corpse spwan time from an entry in the ePawn,as i previously said.

[Juutis]

You re right juutis-but i already had thought of it,and cant use it because i wanted to use an entirely different actor-just a scull with a few bones as a corpse.
So as the bone fades,it would be be replaced by the bones actor.

Actually, that's the whole idea behind the LOD system. Replacing an actor with another actor. So, the actor that replaces the other doesn't have to be similar to the other at all.
For example, you could make three actors, a box, a ball and a cylinder. Then you could make a pawn with the 'box actor', and with the LOD system you could change its actor to the ball or the cylinder.

You could make the dead pawn (body) fade out, and when its alpha hits 0, you could swap the actor and set the alpha to 255.

[Veleran]

Ok-i will try it.I hope it does nt matter to anything if the skeleton is different(i wont animate the corpse)-i mean just two bones.

[fps]

I think that it would be worth while to have some sort of system built into rf that allowed for the spawning of predefined objects through the use of parameter driven and easily triggered commands.

[Jay]

lol that's funny because this system is the next on my programming todo list. It's right under this bug i mentioned in the programming section.

I am planning to make an ini file that lets you define the objects. Then they are added into the world with a script command called AddDynamicEntity(). But i cannot promise anything because i still have to sort that bug out FIRST. That's why i didn't say this - i don't want to let anyone down.

[Veleran]

I thought the AddExplosion command using an actorspray effect for this death explosion that will spray the corpse withtout spinning rotations and speed and have infinite total life like say -1.

[Veleran]

Looks like the SetLodDistance is better for most cases where you want the corpse to match the shape and final pose of the dead pawn.
I was trying to describe the old classic corpse like in gauntlet where the dead monsters turn into skull and crossbones.
The AddExplosion or even AttachAccessory can also be used to the root bone or the skull and crossbones corpses if you want to optimize bone numbers the skeletons held on the cpu.

The explosion and attachment actors can have just 2 bones instead the whole biped a monster might have.
The detail to get care in that case is to first play an upright final animation to the dead pawn even if it is PawnRender = false , to get the attachment correctly because the final die animation of the pawn might be laying down across the floor and you most possibly would not want he skull actor would not be n that pose/