Twisted DIRT Forums

Hey all!

   As some of you know...I've been working on a Custom Object Backwards Falling Start Gate. I posted some pics here in the Objects threads and somebody suggested that I make it animated. Turns out that Extreme actually beat me to it...but never released it yet. Well...he sent me his object to check out and probably sent the wrong version..the animation was too quick and repetitive and I still liked my design..and wanted to keep trying. So I finally got it working!

If you'd like to download it go here http://www.vmx-racing.com/VMXobjects.htm

You will need Dillo Too (obviously). The zip has another zip named Animations inside of it...those files go in your Usermodels/Animated folder...the others go in your Usermodels folder as normal with any object.

To make this work right you'll need to place another animated object (of your choice) FIRST...then place this object. The reason for that is that the first animated object will be RIDE-THRU...and that wouldn't make this object very usefull, even though it would still LOOK cool! lol

Here's a pic for you to check out-


For those of you who would like to reskin it...I would suggest that you DON'T reskin the base (which is the skin for the square steel tube frame) but if you do...look closely at it...I've made bars on it...ONLY the top bar is used by the object. So anything you put beneath that will NOT appear on the object. As for the panels (with the Fox head logos on them)...you can do anything you want to with those. Should be no problem running graphics or text right up near the edge of the skins. For the purpose of elaborating...the file called MXStartGate.tga is the base skin...and the other two tga's are the skins for the panels...it should be clear when you look in the zip.

Hope you guys enjoy...be sure to drop a line over at the VMX forums or email me when you use it. I'd like to see how it works for you.

NOW you've got to time your starts! If you jump the gate you'll likely crash. Online racing with this object will prove to be what it should be....ALL ABOUT THE HOLESHOT BABY!!! Yahooo!!!

Man I LOve you Paul!!  I want to cry (lol) will be testing real soon, btw, will it work if say I add an animated Blimp, then the start gate?

Oh ya it sure will!

You can add ANY animated object...just has to be animated, then the start gate. For SX guys who don't want planes or blimps flying into their indoor arenas...you can place the first animation OUTSIDE of the stadium. So it really shouldn't be a problem for them either. I talked with Alex (SKYmx99) earlier and he was thinking about using it on his contest track...but he didn't want a plane flying inside of his stadium...well...unless I missed something...his preview pic shows an open-top stadium....LOL so I don't see that as being a problem for him! As a matter of fact...reskinning a blimp and using THAT would be really cool and should help add to the realism as well.

Oh ya...much appreciated Dave...but lets just keep it platonic shall we? LMAO 

Oh by the way....here's a Tissue! 

 

You could just add the 30 second guy, if he is added he is always the first animation. Great job Paul ..


Laurie

Question about the animated gate, I noticed it goes down, but then back up in less than 1 second, can I make it go down and stay down?  also its very difficult to place perfectly in dillo too, can I add it to the prj in dillo, then apm it, then animate it in dillo too?  or does it have to be installed in dillo too after the start man animation?

You gotta install it with D2...won't work if done in Dillo 1, and yes you have to check the 30 second man...I think that Laurie is saying that you don't have to install it first...so long as you check the 30 second man, he will be considered the first animation. No way to control the animation time. I would have to re-animate it and it will always repeat..so there's no way to keep it down. But if you place it correctly the time it stays down won't be an issue. It might take some trial and error..but it's doable...I've done it and I've heard from several others already that have it working in their beta projects. So far as I know it hasn't been included in anything released yet.

Quote from: VMX_ElDiablo on August 04, 2004, 11:17:09 PM
You gotta install it with D2...won't work if done in Dillo 1, and yes you have to check the 30 second man...I think that Laurie is saying that you don't have to install it first...so long as you check the 30 second man, he will be considered the first animation. No way to control the animation time. I would have to re-animate it and it will always repeat..so there's no way to keep it down. But if you place it correctly the time it stays down won't be an issue. It might take some trial and error..but it's doable...I've done it and I've heard from several others already that have it working in their beta projects. So far as I know it hasn't been included in anything released yet.

"So far as I know it hasn't been included in anything released yet."

but it should be!

To make the animation loop only once you need to edit the MCF file which is part of the animation file set. At the bottom there should be a line that says 'Looping=TRUE' you will need to change that to 'Looping=FALSE' and it should drop and stay down.

This is probably something that Paul should add to the MCF in the zip file, but it is easy enough to do with notepad.

Laurie

So do to this, I use notepad, open the mentioned above file and change as you mentioned? then save, and try again in dillo too?

This is the content in the mcf file...

[General info]
NumberOfMotions=1
ContentDirectory=
SLTFile=MXstartGATE.slt
VUTfilename=MXStartGate.vut
[MOTION 1]
NAME=MXStartGate
VUE=MXStartGate.mot
FPS=15
FrameCount=101
Looping=yes

Change looping to =no  ??

Change looping to no.

Sik, I'm using it in my track. Is it possible to delay it a few more seconds? That would be sik.

No there is no way for you to adjust the delay...I think it's almost too long! You want to extend it?

By the way Laurie...I'm not getting it to work changing the animation file...would you mind downloading it and editing it. I noticed (as Blue did) that it doesn't in fact say Looping=True...it says Looping=Yes. I tried changing it to No and True and neither one is making any difference. I've tried just editing it, opening D2 and packing AND editing it, Opening D2 and deleting the original gate a replacing it...no matter what I do it still repeats the animation. I looked at the animation done by Extreme (the one he sent me) and it repeats too. Looking at his MCF file...it says Looping=False...still repeats. Am I missing something here?

hmm, it's been a while since i worked on this with Extreme, i did manage to get it to play only once and stop i'll check it out and get back to you.

Ok this is what i have in the animation by Extreme, i mod'd to stop the looping as i said before:

[General info]
NumberOfMotions=1
ContentDirectory=
SLTFile=TD_Startgates.slt
VUTfilename=StartGate3.vut
[MOTION 1]
NAME=StartGate3
VUE=StartGate3.mot
FPS=30
FrameCount=10
Looping=FALSE

I seem to remember that playing with the frame count made a difference to how well it worked, but exactly what i can't remember.

I'll d/l yours Paul and see what i get. D2 always shows animations looping even if you set them to not loop in the MCF, you'll need to test it ingame to see if it is working properly.

Also to adjust the hold time you should be able to do this by playing with the FPS value higher FPS means shorter animation, but i think this is where i experienced some strange effects.

Laurie

Ok i d/l your gate Paul and i am getting it looping too no matter what i try, so maybe you need to play with the frame count/fps settings until it works, that's what i did to get Extreme's gate to work. Sorry i can't offer more help but i just don't have any ideas right now, what we need is someone from Rainbow to help us out but that's not going to happen anytime soon..


Laurie

Great job paul, looks realy nice. im not at the point of addining objects to my track at the mo. so with out going and trying it how longh is the wait time before the gate drops?

Ian.

it seems to be about 15 seconds roughly...I never really paid that much attention. I have noticed that on certain tracks you might need to roll up to the line after the 30 second guy dissapears or you start getting counted out! lol

But the point is...it works! YEHAW! lol 

ok ive been running it on my beta today and its realy cool apart from one thing.... can it stay on the ground a bit longer?  soon as it drops  i go but its comming back up and sumtimes it catches the bike.  can the down period be set for longer?

ive also been playing with adrews gate and it stays down alot longer.

apart from that its a real cool thing.

Ian.

Updated the gate today...redid the animation. Now it drops a bit faster (before the 5 count so you don't have to move forward anymore) and stays down quite a bit longer. Hopefully this will solve the problem of people not moving forward and taking the 5 count and actually getting the holeshot because they get placed on the other side of the gate before it drops... anyway... I've been asked a few times about this..so I just redid it so everyone would be happy.