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:	4752
Summary:	A brief explanation of certain features of building geometry

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Wall Elevators and build up animations:

Two potential problems to watch out for when creating build up animations for a new building that has walkable planes.

Mistake number one: having the animation bones for the elevator move during the build up. Don't do this! You want the bones to stay exactly where they will be on the idle and normal models. If they don't and you have them animating up from the ground along with the model then you run the risk of trapping units. I don't have a good way to describe what happens but basically if a unit is standing on the wall as it is being built and tries to use the elevator and is next to the bones or is in the process of using the elevator when the model finishes building up, it will become unelectable and will run in place for the rest of the game. Very annoying bug. Fortunately the solution is simple: when creating the build up animations, keep the bones where they are on the idle or normal model; don't animate the bones.

Mistake number two: similar to the first one, don't animate the walkable planes. Like the bones they are hidden from the player so no one will ever know if the plane is at the right height when building up or not. And if you try to animate the walkable plane(s) and a unit happens to get on, bad things happen :p You will again find your units trapped in the model and unable to get out when it finishes building.

Next page: tidbits of info and final notes.

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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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