[Model] AoE damage warning indicators

[Zwiebelchen]

I'm looking for three different animated models that can be used in boss battles to warn players about incoming AoE damage from a boss.

What I'm looking for is:
- a circle shaped warning
- a cone shaped warning (maybe with an adjustable angle through anims like in dummy.mdx?)
- a line shaped warning (possibly with adjustable width through anims like in dummy.mdx?)

This could be extremely useful resources and as far as I see, there is nothing like that in the models section so far.

There are circle warning indicators based of the flame strike warning indicator. But that's about it. We need more shapes!

 

[Paulus]

Like this idea!!

 

[Kino]

How are you (if at all) intending to scale these effects (sizewise?)
Also, do they need to be animated?

 

[Zwiebelchen]

How are you (if at all) intending to scale these effects (sizewise?)

Also, do they need to be animated?

- I intend to use dummy units for turning, coloring and rescaling, so the size doesn't matter
- However, the cone angle of the cone marker can more or less only be changed by animating it. So maybe have a set of different stand animations, which represent 15 degrees, 30 degrees, 45 degrees, etc.
- Same goes for the width of the line-shaped marker ... the combination of scaling the dummy unit and selecting the animation would allow for all possible shapes
- It would be cool if there was some kind of animation to it. Maybe a pulsating effect in terms of transparency or particles moving forward (to visualize a move direction).
examples of how it could look like:

 

[Kino]

- It would be cool if there was some kind of animation to it. Maybe a pulsating effect in terms of transparency or particles moving forward (to visualize a move direction).
examples of how it could look like:

I currently have a model lying around that would work as a "circle targeting" variant.
It has an animation in which the "interior" indicator grows overtime (hence marking a ticking down) and despawns when the indicators finally overlap.
Are you looking for that functionality as well?

EDIT: added screenshot

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I currently have a model lying around that would work as a "circle targeting" variant.
It has an animation in which the "interior" indicator grows overtime (hence marking a ticking down) and despawns when the indicators finally overlap.
Are you looking for that functionality as well?

Great idea! If you could apply the same thing to a cone and line (rectangular) model, that would be awesome (also, it needs to be a little bit brighter imho).

If the animation is exactly 1000 frames long (1 sec); this would allow to use SetUnitTimeScale(u, 1/duration) to adjust the duration of the effect.

Also, Maybe the birth of the effect should have some kind of flashing or something, so that you will instantly notice it popping up.

 

[Kino]

If the animation is exactly 1000 frames long (1 sec); this would allow to use SetUnitTimeScale(u, 1/duration) to adjust the duration of the effect.

As it stands it is already the case.
Ill attach the model and have you check it out.
See if it suits your requirements.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

As it stands it is already the case.
Ill attach the model and have you check it out.
See if it suits your requirements.

That's actually a pretty cool model.

But it would be better if during the first 100-200 frames the outer ring would grow aswell (from the center), so that the model doesn't just appear suddenly.

 

[Kino]

But it would be better if during the first 100-200 frames the outer ring would grow aswell (from the center), so that the model doesn't just appear suddenly.

Can do, however do note that as you scale the animations, that bit will slow down as well.

For the line and cone indicator, do the textures need to be plain as well?

 

[Veritas 117]

I think I saw someone use a 'runes' model for a line indicator once
Doodads\BlackCitadel\Props\RuneArt\RuneArt0.mdl

I have also used a slightly modified command aura model as an indicator. I set it as a unit so I could change it's color from yellow to red and change it's size to indicate when time would expire.

I like Kino's model a lot, I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for the line and cone indicators too. I think there are a lot of people that would like this sort of thing.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Can do, however do note that as you scale the animations, that bit will slow down as well.

That's no problem. I can always delay the SetUnitTimeScale() command by 200ms to avoid this issue.

For the line and cone indicator, do the textures need to be plain as well?

It would be cool if the indicators look consistent to the circular version.

 

[Kino]

That's no problem. I can always delay the SetUnitTimeScale() command by 200ms to avoid this issue.

How about a brief intense flash of the outer ring for 200ms? It would avoid having the extra code.

It would be cool if the indicators look consistent to the circular version.

That's the easy part.
The reason why I chose the circle o power texture was because it could be recoloured easily.
If you have no need for the indicators to be recolour-able, then there are better/more distinct textures.

 

[gorillabull]

some games have managed to make this more realistic by using things like dust and fire which appears on the ground before an aoe but i guess it depends on what youre going for

 

[Zwiebelchen]

How about a brief intense flash of the outer ring for 200ms? It would avoid having the extra code.

This would be possible too, but depends on how it looks.

The reason why I chose the circle o power texture was because it could be recoloured easily.
If you have no need for the indicators to be recolour-able, then there are better/more distinct textures.

I would prefer the models to be recolorable by using SetUnitVertexColor. So yeah, white textures are ideal.

I would be fine having to import a small texture for this aswell.

some games have managed to make this more realistic by using things like dust and fire which appears on the ground before an aoe but i guess it depends on what youre going for

This is not an option in a lot of cases. For example, how do you indicate an incoming breath-type spell or a jump spell?

Sure, you have the unit facing as an indicator for the general direction it's aiming at, but a more visual feedback is always good, especially when there's lots of action and spell effects going on at the same time.