Playable Fallout Mech

[imu333]

Hello!

 

the mech mesh has some missing faces, especially around the head, so I'm better off exporting the enclave armor from the fallout bsa.

 

Should the torso damage be so bad that it's hole though the mech as said above, or just a chunk off?

 

EDIT: Also, any specific reason why the beta requires Deserters Fortress installed?

 

EDIT 2: Looks like the vanilla enclave armor is supposed to have a hole in the helmet mesh... :tongue:

Edited January 11, 2015 by imu333

[devinpatterson]

imu333

 

will the mech parts be split into multiple nif files (right arm, damaged right arm etc)?

Well an interesting aspect of the mech, and one that increases it's playability, is upgrades. They'll give the player goals to shoot for. Another aspect that ties into that question is immersion. I'd like the mech to feel more like a mech than a scaled up suit of armor. So having embedded weapons helps to reinforce that impression. I see a few ways of implementing embedded weapons.

 

#1 is niVis nodes. Essentially all visible weapons (and alternate/damaged body parts) are on the model but only some are visible, triggered by their niVis nodes (depending on what we need). It's a pretty organized system, although the model size could be potentially huge (poly's and textures) because we have so many parts and pieces. I believe that even though they don't show in game, all of it is still rendered by the engine. And of course this has the advantage of being able to be swapped "on the fly".

 

#2 is setBipedModelPathEX (and for some items setModelPathEX) to change the mech. But this function is fairly sparsely documented, with almost no examples to go off of. But essentially a whole new model would have to be made for every change in weapon or body part. The number of models would be multiplied exponentially by each combination of weapons/body parts. For instance 3 different model tweaks means 7 different models. This one could also be tweaked at any time.

 

#3 is a much simpler method in the regard that it doesn't use an obscure funtion or niVis controllers, and it's simply only allowing changes to the model via an upgrade bay. You'd still have a huge number of models to make, just like #2 above though.

 

imu333

Should the hand cannon replace the hand, or just be like an addon?

For hand cannons they can just be armor addons with an invisible weapon (just used so you have a projectile node, and possibly a sighting node), but they can also be full fledged weapons, simply rigged to cover teh hand (and the hand mesh itself can also be deleted if it's in danger of poking through). So there's a few ways to do it, mostly determined by the size and placement of visual effect your trying to get with the "weapon". For instance a bulbous hand cannon that covers the whole forearm and hand is probably better as a weapon. A railgun that is mounted on the back of the upper arm, but extends the length of the arm is better as a armor addon (rigged to teh arm), with an invisible weapon to place the projectile node at teh very tip.

[devinpatterson]

Hello!

Hi Imu333

 

Should the torso damage be so bad that it's hole though the mech as said above, or just a chunk off?

Actually both, as different levels of damage. A large hole being the most sever by far.

 

EDIT: Also, any specific reason why the beta requires Deserters Fortress installed?

It doesn't, you'v inadvertently added it when you loaded up the beta, and/or used assets from taht mod.

[devinpatterson]

One point I do need to bring up though is in regard to permissions. I'd like to release the mech mod as a modders resource after it's finished, so all work on the mod has to be open permissions. I think a lot of people will enjoy integrating them (mechs) into their work, and building story lines and quests around them. In addition some of the items in this mod I'll be recycling back into some of my other mods.

So long story short you have to be OK with open permissions on this project. I touched a little bit on this on a previous post (#183), but I think it's important to expand a bit on it, and make sure both you guys (Imu333 & Irswat) understand, as I wouldn't want to waste your time (I know I have little enough of it).

[irswat]

i think im guilty of making it dependent upon deserters fortress. Not sure how that happened.

[irswat]

thats how I view most of my work on the net. Actually id love to fine tune a couple of the functions from the mech script for use with NVSE. NVSE was lacking functions for specific ammo and weapon type checking. I had to write up a script for custom damages based on weapon type. Something I'm proud of :-) Point is, I love giving my work away for free.

p.s. Im getting excited about this again.

 

p.p.s. we need a HUD developer

 

p.p.p.s. itd be cool if we had a quest scripter on board to make this interesting.

Edited January 11, 2015 by irswat

[irswat]

a thought: it would be cool to add shader effects. like smoke coming out of a hole in the chassis, a short circuiting effect, or smoke + explosions to hide the swap out when the armor gets damaged. Devp I noticed you mention you had some experience with shader scripting and was wondering if you'd impart some knowledge on me.

[devinpatterson]

i think im guilty of making it dependent upon deserters fortress. Not sure how that happened.

 

It's easy to do. For instance lets say you have a cell from another mod (that you'v also loaded, inadvertently) in this case deserters fortress, and you move a tin can a fraction of an inch, while you have the mech esp as active. When you load it (mech) up next you'll see it as a dependancy. You can DL the original again or just clean it with FNVedit.

 

 

thats how I view most of my work on the net.

That's good, it's that spirit of altruism that fuels the nexus community.

 

Actually id love to fine tune a couple of the functions from the mech script for use with NVSE. NVSE was lacking functions for specific ammo and weapon type checking. I had to write up a script for custom damages based on weapon type. Something I'm proud of :-)

You may want to get hold of Ian Patterson if you think it's a function you'd like to be included in future versions of NVSE. He's adding new ones now and then, and he's seems pretty responsive to users.

 

p.p.p.s. itd be cool if we had a quest scripter on board to make this interesting.

I can do quest scripts and their associated dialog, result scripts etc.

[imu333]

 

 

#1 is niVis nodes. Essentially all visible weapons (and alternate/damaged body parts) are on the model but only some are visible, triggered by their niVis nodes (depending on what we need). It's a pretty organized system, although the model size could be potentially huge (poly's and textures) because we have so many parts and pieces. I believe that even though they don't show in game, all of it is still rendered by the engine. And of course this has the advantage of being able to be swapped "on the fly".

 

Number 1 sounds like the most practical, as long as the useless rendering could be avoided.

 

is there any way to disable an objects renderer? I have little to no experience with GECK scripting, so bare with me ;) though I have some programming experience.

 

If option 2 or 3 is the way to go, would it be possible to have every part as a separate nif file, rigged. Then just equip those parts to the mech skeleton.

[devinpatterson]

a thought: it would be cool to add shader effects. like smoke coming out of a hole in the chassis, a short circuiting effect, or smoke + explosions to hide the swap out when the armor gets damaged. Devp I noticed you mention you had some experience with shader scripting and was wondering if you'd impart some knowledge on me.

Yep, when I mentioned the special effects "smoke, fire, electrical arcs etc)" a few posts back, they would be done through nifskope. They'r not really shaders in teh way that I think of shaders (color, hue, contrast) that are applied in the geck. I tend to think of those more as teh spotter perk, holograms etc. Here is an example of a smoke node taken from a missile and applied to a weapon (ignore the fact that it's a bottle, I was just working on two different mods at teh same time);

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAoX5H8PO7o

 

 

 

And of course there's the fire effect on the ghost of she from honest hearts. And electrical arcs you see on a lot of items from tesla armor to malfunctioning equipment. I was discussing a bit about it in this thread (smoke grenades) just recently.