How is Epic creating asteroid fields?

I think the real "Center of the Universe" is the director and not the actor (player)
The package iDirector deals with the different views and camera settings. To do this so called "Dolly" sims are used. You have to tell "Mr. Camera man" which dolly is to be used to take the shot, Where the dolly is to be positioned, what the camera on that dolly has to focus on, and which camera settings are to be used.

You can place a dolly sim instantanously anywhere you want it during a specific view (F2 or F3). Even across a whole system with a simple Sim.PlaceRelativeTo pog command. (faster than light and with no friction in space )
In other words, the dolly is actually moved to the location of the object it is viewing. Therefore I think it is the 'presence' of the iDirector entity and not the player ship that triggers animation (or in this case dynamic creation of other scene based effects). That would explain why (or how) the animation of an object doesn't really 'happen' until it is viewed

Example: The Sfoil animation on the X-wing: from a given players perspective the animation on a 150 km distant X-wing, doesn't occur until he (the player) views it via (2x)F3. Even though the Sfoils may have been actuated several minutes before he "looked".

The same effect happens, however on your own ship too!
When you press the keybind to open the Sfoils, the weapons will be unlocked and you will slow down. If you then, several seconds (or minutes) later, press F3 you will see the Sfoils start to open! You can even interupt the animation sequence be switching the camera away from the scene.

My guess is: as SC viewed the asteroid field, flux started creating more of the field based on the presence there. Then, when the view was suddenly changed to the players hud perspective (which is created via a dolly thats attached to the player ship) the field was placed at the active iDirector presence, because the dolly it originally targeted was no longer there (or had been re-attached to the player ship).

The Fields themselves probably need to be created dynamically due to the precision issue. As Steve once noted, precision dimenishes greatly with distance and stuff can collide if you place it millions of Km away (and end up being just a jumbled up mess)













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I don't think it's possible for me to do what I said I did. I was just playing with the sandbox utility and when the friendly waypoint is created, it's created in an asteroid field. Just by coincidence I happened to switch to F2 while flying to the waypoint; at the waypoint view, there was no asteroid field. I kept switching back and forth and the asteroids weren't created until my ship got into range, then all of a sudden switch, and there they were. So either what I said I did isn't possible, or if I did do it, something really got screwed up. Either way, it seems field creation is based on the players actual location. This should be easy to verify, just go to a place that has a target in a field. Target the object from out of creation range and see if the field shows up when you F2 to target view.

*edit*
Ok, I just loaded up and tried it out. From the Effrit I targeted the Junkyard, F2 switched, and the entire Junkyard area was completely empty. Hit the LDS and stayed in the Junkyard F2 view. Very interesting. As my ship closed with the target area, first the station popped into existence, then after another few seconds of travel the debris field got created. Now here's the really interesting part; as my ship moved through space but I watched from a stationary viewpoint, I could actually see the debris field being created around my ship! Meaning, as my ship closed with my viewing location, I watched as the debris closest to my ship popped into existence, and then popped out of existence as my ship continued moving and new bits of debris were created in front of it! So I could watch as the bits of debris from the field were dynamically created and destroyed as my ship passed their locations. Interesting, huh?

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It probably depends on distance and many other variables. I didn't really expect it to be repeatable. It also probably depends if the trigger to create the field is a pog function or part of a .lws scene based function (.map file)

None the less, we still have the delayed animation effects (X-Wing Sfoils) though. The animation doesn't happen unless you're looking, even though the Avatar switch has been set previously. That is repeatable!

The player hud view is actually an iDirector call:
iDirector.SetFocus (player); which entails a specific field_of_view. So maybe animation isn't done except when it is in a given field of view. It can't be distance to the player ship alone, because you can't get much closer to the Sfoils than when you're in the ship itself

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Oh no, my problem is plenty repeatable. In fact, it wouldn't stop repeating itself. I did it like ten times in a row because it was driving me nuts. But I think I threw away that map a long time ago, that's why I don't have good info now. But I definitely remember I was using an external camera, although now I think it might have been the F3 camera. And I don't think I targeted the asteroid field, I think I simply showed up in-game and was using the F3 cam to look at my ship or something.

Btw - the map file has nothing to do with Lightwave. There is an associated lightwave file for scene illumination, but it doesn't get involved with the map file at all (which is actually annoying, it means working on and coordinating two custom environment files rather than just one). Just to let you know .

I also can't think why field creation would have any association with animation. But who knows. That's definitely your department.

*edit*
Ok, I still have the map if anybody wants to try it out. Just enter the map, target the asteroid field in the navmap, press F3 three times, and you'll suddenly be sitting in the middle of an asteroid field without having budged an inch. Although it wouldn't matter, fly anywhere you want on the map. Just press F3 three times, and there's an asteroid field around you.

It doesn't even matter what mods you have or haven't got running. And if fact, I even tried it with the dense field mod, and guess what, it made a dense asteroid field.

If anyone wants to try it just let me know, I'll email you the whole shebang, including source code and csv file.

Oh, and GrandpaTrout, I didn't get your email. Would you mind resending? Thanks .

That's the second email from someone in this forum that I didn't get !, I wonder what's going on.

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Originally posted by Second Chance

That's definitely your department.

One of these day I'm gonna learn to keep my big mouth shut

I would be interested in the map and the source you mentioned though [8D]
Out of purely scientific interest to research the "Dynamic Field Theory for Galactic Animation and Associated Geography "


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Email sent to MajorTom,

Email received from GrandpaTrout.

Thanks .

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
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