Dummy or Special Effect ?

[Noobsmoke]

What's better to use ? a special effect or an dummy (unit)
Exemple : War Stomp effect

 

[Ceday]

??Use a special effect if it gives you all you need.

 

[Noobsmoke]

??Use a special effect if it gives you all you need.

Talking about efficiency

 

[Ceday]

Yeah me too.

 

[mckill2009]

depends, if only effects, then special effects, if manipulation, then a dummy is wayyyy better...

 

[TheWhiteWolf]

If your effect will appear and disappear in the same place, then it is way easier to use Special Effect triggers. If you want to move your special effect and play different animations, it is better to use a dummy. Anyway, make sure you destroy special effect, or the game could start lagging after a while.

 

[defskull]

Using SFX would be more efficient, why ?

As you create new units, more memory will be stored inside the game itself (unless you have recycling unit system, that's different)

Also, SFX can be cleared its leak, but unit ?
You can't delete dead/removed units
It stays in the memory of the game until the game ends

So, it is better to use SFX (in terms of efficiency.)

 

[Bribe]

Special effects leave as much of an uncleanable leak as units do
if not more. I recommend testing your RAM consumption on task
manager you'll see what I mean. Special effects + projectiles
end up leaking more than simply removing units over time.

 

[defskull]

Best way you recycle units.

 

[Bribe]

For projectile systems recycling units is ugly, think about an
arrow shot the dummy unit will have the wrong facing angle
for the first moments.

I have been thinking about building a projectile recycling
system that indexes by facing angle and effect art, I will try
to actually stop being lazy and work on it.

 

[mckill2009]

the dummy unit will have the wrong facing angle

a simple GetUnitFacing(caster) will fix that ...

 

[Bribe]

No it won't, the dummy unit could be facing up to 180 degrees different
and it will take time to adjust.

 

[Bannar]

a simple GetUnitFacing(caster) will fix that ...

Enter your WE and check that even with facing speed set to 3 (in object editor) to change the facing degree up to 180 unit will require about 0.4 sec time.
Time that unit needs can be calculated with loop that checks periodicaly unit's facing.

 

[Bribe]

Turn speed of 3 is the same as 1, IIRC.

That's why I suggest doing dummy recycling considering facing angle,
accuracy to the nearest 45 degrees is good enough IMO because the
turn time won't be so noticable at such a closeness.

 

[mckill2009]

I tested and even set the turn rate to 0.1 and use an arrow model "Abilities\Weapons\Banditmissile\Banditmissile.mdl" and "Abilities\Weapons\GuardTowerMissile\GuardTowerMissile.mdl" and use this...

local unit u = CreateUnit(GetTriggerPlayer(), 'hpea', GetUnitX(GetTriggerUnit()), GetUnitY(GetTriggerUnit()), GetUnitFacing(GetTriggerUnit()))

well, the dummy arrow unit still faces the facing of the caster...

 

[Bribe]

Obviously if you create a new unit it will have perfect facing angle,
but we are not talking about creating new units we are talking about
dummy recycling.

 

[Bannar]

I tested and even set the turn rate to 0.1 and use an arrow model "Abilities\Weapons\Banditmissile\Banditmissile.mdl" and "Abilities\Weapons\GuardTowerMissile\GuardTowerMissile.mdl" and use this...

local unit u = CreateUnit(GetTriggerPlayer(), 'hpea', GetUnitX(GetTriggerUnit()), GetUnitY(GetTriggerUnit()), GetUnitFacing(GetTriggerUnit()))

well, the dummy arrow unit still faces the facing of the caster...

Now test this refering to dummy that already exists with 0.1 turn rate ^^. From what I've tested it's about 0.7 - 0.8 with such low value.

 

[defskull]

Create New Unit + Facing Angle = works perfectly

Recycling Unit (that unit is used constantly on the map (it means that the unit already has its initial facing angle (it is first hidden, if you want to use it, unhide it (with its initial facing angle exist) and use it))) + Facing Angle = Delay

But I still think you can change the hidden unit's angle before you unhide it (but I still think you can see the delay, no?)

 

[Bribe]

The problem is with a projectile are you going to hide the
projectile for the first 1 second to wait for it to finish its
turn rate, and then launch it?

An arrow doing a half second 180 degree turn looks really
awkward, trust me