Gate animation (stands)

[Neuromancer222]

I'm used to get gate models with a stand animation that opens it and other stand animation that closes it, but there are no animations that just keep it quiet. Initially, i thought it was the modeller that forgot or something of the like, but there are many gates that i see like that! When i try to put the gate in the game, hoping that it will just appear with some stand animation, that keeps it quiet, the gate passes the entire time opening and restarting the animation. Is there any trick to hold the gate that i don't know? Without taking out the stand hit animation, if possible.

 

[Bribe]

Are you using a destructible gate?

Are you placing it in triggers or physically placing it in the world editor?

If you place a destructible gate in the world editor it will be closed by default and will not open until the doors are smashed or it's opened in a trigger.

 

[Neuromancer222]

I'm placing the gates physically, but this is not my point. My problem lies in imported gates (maybe i forgot to mention that), that do not have animations to stand quiet, and not opening and closing all the time. Many, if not all, of the imported gates that i have found do not have such animation. Do they just don't need because of some trick in triggers or alike?

EDIT: Ok, i kind of solved the problem of having a gate that does not move (even if i do not know how, but the imported gate is not moving by it's own anymore). But i have another problem. Always that an unit hits the gate, the gate plays the stand - close animation. Is there an way to stop it? The gate i'm trying to use it's the palisade - gate from the ultimate terraining map (one that is available to download in the Void's tutorial of natural environment, in tutorial's section).

 

[Bribe]

Is the imported model identified as a Destructible, or is it identified as a Unit?

If Unit, you'll want to add a trigger that says (under Animations) "Play unit's stand animation"
If Destructible, you'll want to add a trigger that says (under Destructibles - Open/Close) "Close Gate"

 

[Neuromancer222]

It's a destructible that i will use. I tried to use the trigger to close the gate, as you suggested, but that didn't work. In every hit, the gate still plays the close animation, which is very annoying.
Ah, my Edit from my second post of this thread came after your post, Bribe, sorry for that.

 

[Bribe]

Sounds like the model file is bugged. Try loading the model into a blank map and see if you get the same weirdness.

 

[Neuromancer222]

I guess it's not bugged, Bribe, the same happened with all my imported gates that did not had a Stand animation that just kept the gate quiet. I tried as you suggested, the same happened. Well, after some tries, here are my conclusions:

- Here are the animations of the imported gate, i will compare them to the normal gate in World Editor:

Normal gate:
Stand -> the gate just keep quiet.
Stand Alternate -> the gate keep quiet, but opened.
Stand Hit -> the gate trembles a little, as if hit.
Death -> the gate falls.

Imported gate:
Stand -> the gate actually closes, with a smooth animation and all.
Stand Alternate -> the gate opens, with smooth animation.
Stand Hit -> the gate trembles a little, as the standard gate.
Death -> the gate falls.

- Ok, here is my conclusion:
At the start of the game, the normal gate just plays the stand animation and pauses. The imported gate do the same, but with the difference that the stand animation implies in closing animation and, only after that, it pauses. That would explain why i see the imported gate closing right at the beginning of the game.
When hit, the normal gate plays the Stand Hit animation, after that plays the Stand animation and then pauses. The imported gate, when hit, plays the Stand Hit animation, as the normal one, then plays the Stand animation, and only after that it pauses. That is would be to explain that both gates might be running in the same mechanism, but with different results, given their animation structure.

- I came to possible solutions, but i don't know how to execute them, here they are:

> Rip off the Stand (and the Alternate one) animation. I don't need them, since that my gates won't be closing and opening the entire time. All i need is that they tremble when hit and falls when destroyed. They actually will only close once, not anymore, but that can be easily solved. I have found two ways to do all that:
-> I could rip them through a modeller program, but i need permission and i don't know an way of doing it.
-> I could make that the animations are executed in a really fast pace, so that their opening and closing won't be noticed by the players when the gate is hit, but that may be causing some lag, so it's not the ideal.

> Well, i could just stay with the World Editor normal gate, instead of trying this imported one, but that would cause some contrast between the walls and the gate. However, it's quite the possible choice.

So, this is my situation that i brought with all the detail i could show. Any ideas? I don't want to use the last solution...but will use if necessary, since it's the most attractive solution.

 

[Bribe]

Wow, I can see why that would have serious problems. The model file is missing the right stand-animation. It only has the stand-close animation which execues because that's the only animation the game knows how to play. If it were instant like the actual W.E. gates' "open" function then this problem wouldn't even exist... I don't know of a way to work around this except to just make the gate invulnerable and then trigger a "switch" to open the gate so that it still plays that nice "open" animation when you want it to. About that closing animation you see in the beginning of the map, try putting the start camera at a different location from the gate.

 

[Neuromancer222]

Hmmmm, this idea might come in handy, Bribe, but not now. If i find an way to get the gate to be hit with no animation problems, which in this case means to have almost no animation, including the Stand Hit, i will use it. But, for now, i will be using the WE's normal gate. Until there, any suggestion will be useful not only for me, but for people that import such gates (i have seen this too often while surfing here in the Hive). Maybe these imported gates aren't supposed to be used like the way i want to, being hit all the time, and were built just for cinematics, for example.