Notes on Building Geometry

Tutorial for Battle for Middle-earth BFME

GothmogtheOrc

Category:	Code
Level:	Intermediate
Created:	Sunday July 19, 2009 - 21:12
Updated:	Tuesday July 21, 2009 - 13:28
Views:	4754
Summary:	A brief explanation of certain features of building geometry

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Exceptions to the rule:
Anything that units can walk on will NOT use the above code. So any new walls you make that your units can walk on will not follow the above rule. If a building has the KindOf: WALK_ON_TOP_OF_WALL then it will ignore the geometry code. Instead it will base the geometry on the walkable plane(s) that you made on the model and referenced in the code with the line

Code

WallBoundsMesh = P1

. Usually this plane is 2d and has the export settings of Normal, Hide. So it is exactly like it sounds, a hidden 2d plane that the code tells the game to allow units to walk on. Fine and dandy, but what about the part of my wall that isn't walkable and shouldn't be walked through by units on the ground? Well there are two ways to solve that problem.

The first is to make your 2d walkable plane extend over/onto/above/etc your non-walkable wall part (so in my morgul walls, this was the Jut that extends outside the castle from the wall). This means that your units can walk on/above/etc said piece... maybe that works for you maybe that doesn't. It worked fine for me and is the least likely to cause any problems.

The second solution is to make additional walkable wall planes and place them at different heights than the main plane so that your units that are walking along the wall won't be able to reach these other planes and the units on the ground won't walk through your wall extensions. This has the possible problem of trapping a unit on a plane that it cannot get off of. While I have not seen this happen and expect it would be a very rare occurrence, it is possible if it was dropped there by a Nazgul or was flying through the air after a troll hit it but didn't die when it landed, etc. It is a possibility and a risk that you take doing it this way.

Next page: Elevators and build animations.

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Comments

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GothmogtheOrc (Team Chamber Member) - Tuesday July 21, 2009 - 13:26

Well I went ahead and redid the last page, should be much more helpful for the basics of geometry now.

Rob38 (Team Chamber Member) - Monday July 20, 2009 - 19:39

You should probably explain the differences between GeometryMajorRadius, GeometryMinorRadius, and GeometryHeight. ;)

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