point_viewcontrol Created 14 years ago2009-06-03 21:56:38 UTC by Tetsu0

I'm porting one of my test maps (3rd person puzzle map) from HL1 to HL2 trying to leave HL1 behind.
Anyway. I have the point_viewcontrol working nicey-nice, but i want to be able to see and control the player while looking through the camera.
How do i do this?
I've been trying for hours.. The wiki is no help, neither are any of the old Threads on source cameras.
Thanks in advance guys. If i come up with anything in the meantime i'll let you know.

There is no player model in HL2. You need to somehow fake is using models and animation. There was someone who managed to do it, but I forget where I saw it.

damnit. I have to mimic the SDK experiment then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHxdiQHAU-o
Thanks Penguin.

When/ if i figure how to do that. I'll let you know.

There is no player model in HL2.

No proper player model, anyway. It's a low-poly, dark shape.

Well Now my question is. How would you parent something to the player? Is it possible? The only way i can think of this working is if you parent, say, a BARNEY NPC to the player, and have a gui_control (idk if that's the right name) to control the animations and movements while having the player move....

But i also want to interact with objects.

I dont need any weapons, just the use of the E key.

Maybe the Gravity gun.

I'll be at work for another 7 hours. So until then i'll just draw up more floor-plans and puzzles.

The same guy who made that OUIJI test also released a video and VMF on how he did it. It only works with the EP1 engine and HL2 I assume.

You can download a hacked info_start supposedly and I read you can actually smartedit a name in which sometimes works although I would not try it. I tried parenting a ghost to follow the player and that really messed up Source.

In some cases you can parent things to the player by putting !player as the parent target. Won't work on a lot of entities, but give it a shot.

You can also try parenting it through a trigger (OnTrigger > SetParent), targetting either !activator or !caller, these will parent the item/entity to whoever triggered the 'act of parenting', so to speak.

Wow great responses there guys! Thank a bunch!

@Habboi - I'm using the Ep1 Engine and just HL2 so that should work very nicely. I'll have to search for the videos and such, and i refuse to 'hack' anything. I don't feel like dealing with that stuff.

@Strider - Will that work with a NPC? Say if i spawn the player-start and NPC at the same origin with an automatic trigger, will the NPC move as the player moves? I only ask because I cannot try it myself for another few hours.

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Seems everytime i want to try something in source i get hung up on something stupid like this

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Don't do it with an NPC, do it with a prop_dynamic. I believe the guy from SDK-project did it this way and set it up so he simply triggers walking animations on the prop as the player moves.

Best run through his tutorial, I think.

Awesome. Thanks for that link Strider.
Now i was also having some trouble getting the camera to move.
Say i have 2 rooms and 2 path corners.
The camera starts in room one and when the player enters room 2 the camera would move from path_corner 1 to path_corner 2.

I can't get it to do that. I have the viewcontrol set to be on the first path corner, and the path corner's next node is set to path_corner 2.

I've tried multiple ways to get it to move but none work.

Got the prop_dynamic player movement thingy working flawlessly minus one detail.
I can't get the prop to play an attack animation when i click.

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nevermind. i got it. I was making things too complicated. If you just want to play an animation when you click you don't even need a logic_compare. >.<

I know, double post. I don't care.
I've tried probably 5 ways of doing this and nothing i do works.

Heres what i wan't to do:
I have 4 rooms set up in a "U" pattern, and a point viewcontrolset up in the sky to look over the map. I have the 3rd person controls working fine but the camera movement is not working how i want it to...

So when you move from room 1 to room 2, the camera should scroll once you reach room 2. That works. As does the transition from rooms 2 to 3, and rooms 3 to 4. But i can't get the camera transitions to move to the other rooms
say if i walk into room 3 from 2 but change my mind and go back to room 2, i want the camera to follow.

It doesnt do that.

Ive tried doing the following:
-Editing the FGD to include the HL1-style func_train to follow path_corners.
in the door-way between each room i have a trigger_multiple with these outputs: On trigger > box (train) >set next path corner > roomN
That doesnt work
-Using the Hl1 style func train with a logic_case.
each case relates to entering a room from another room and changed the path corner to suit. THAT didnt work
-Changing the func_train to a func_track train.
I can't even get the damn thing to move
-Having the camera itself move
The camera moves once activated and there are no seperate controls to stop or start movement once the camera is on WITHOUT turning it off.

The key here is that the camera is on the whole time.

I've also tried a lot of other combinations but i can't remember them all....
So anyone know how i can work my way around this?

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Figured it out

When i changed the Path_corners over to path_tracks, the first flag was ticked. It was set to disable.
So i fixed that, and then i set the initial velocity and the max velocity of the train to 250. So as soon as the map starts it moves. BUT on each path_track, i have an output saying : on pass > train > toggle. That stops the train movement on the first path_track. I could probably use stop But toggle works flawlessly, and i dont want to fix something that's not broken.
And in order to start the train, toggle also works, but the way i have the triggers set up it's buggy. start forward works fine for that.

the sweet satisfaction of figuring something out for yourself. Almost unmatched.

Now the only problem is i can't have more than 2 rooms linked together. There's no way (that i've found so far) that i can change the next path track value of a track_train
There's only branch path options. In this case i have 2 possible branches.:
Room2 can go to Room3, or go back to Room1.
Room3 can go to Room4, or go back to Room2.
Even if i can get the train moving backwards eliminating the need for a that branch, the other branch would only allow me to have 3 options in a room.
I would like to have 6 to make the map as non-linear as possible.
Choices being:
Move forward, backward, left, right, up, down.
If i can get a good system working i would only need to set the path modifications at the threshold of the room entrance, and i would not have to worry about every single case (player moves from room 5 to 3 then to room 6 and back to 5 then falls to room 15 but takes a ladder to room 9 etc etc)

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Got it to work. But it's very VERY sloppy.
Upon further testing it's too unpredictable to work.
I'll have to tackle this agin tomorrow.