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Topics - Gen. Hothauser

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 15
1
Gallery / 3D Printed Blockhead Model
« on: July 22, 2017, 04:45:35 PM »
So I bought a 3d printer recently, and ran out of things that I needed to print for personal and work-related projects, so I decided to print a blockhead model. I used electrical wiring to span the gaps. I heated the wire with a soldering iron to poke holes in the plastic, then shoddily hot-glued the wires in. The little guy stands about 2" high.

If I reprint it, I'll add in wire-mounting holes and make the shoulders move.



[edit]

Oh jeez, I'm so rusty at forum'ing that I put this topic in GD instead of gallery. oops

2
Gallery / Brick Catenaries
« on: March 11, 2017, 01:14:19 AM »
While visiting Sylvanor's newest city project, I happened across the cable car vehicle that the server has. This made me want to make some realistic-looking cable car cables. Being Sylvanor's server, basically all the bricks and events are default. So no ropes mod. So, I decided to create a process by which I could make brick-based cables. My thought process then went to power cables and yeah, I got carried away there.

I looked up the equations required to convert my cable car/power line tower to mathematical parameters for a catenary (rope shape), applied a ceiling function to quantize the curve's y-dimension into plate-heights, and visually approximated the x-length of each step. This got me fantastic results, as can be seen in the pictures below. Currently, this process is terribly lengthy and involves Matlab, Desmos, and me placing the bricks. I'm considering reducing the number of required steps and making it into either a web-based template-generator or something that can be used in game.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Pics:







3
Suggestions & Requests / Anyone have the old Scope Addon
« on: December 30, 2015, 01:32:33 AM »
Anyone got it?  Client_Scope?  I reset my computer recently and lost a folder of old addons I keep around.  I need it again.

Original topic can be found here: http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=158006.0

RTB Archives don't got it.  Can't find other requests pointing to the topic.

4
General Discussion / Community-Designed Pokemon-Style RPG
« on: December 20, 2015, 02:17:44 AM »
I'm thinking of revitalizing my VCE-based RPGs with a pokemon-like RPG.  Further, I've decided to use the forum polling system to build the map up.  I've begun with a terrain image ripped from a Kerbal Space Program online map thing that I painted over to form elemental regions, as can be seen below.


This map will be updated so you can see what it looks like.

So, go ahead and vote now on the starting town!

It can be assumed that the white squares represent the location and size of the towns.  The votes will be tallied every day and the map updated as soon as possible.



While the map is being developed, I'll be working on the RPG and battle systems.  I'm planning on using the lock camera mod to maintain that pokemon-like angle (a future vote can change this).  Also, I'm thinking (not entirely because it would be a lot of work) of making playertypes for each "pokemon" so it isn't a chat-based, purely mathematical game.  I will reconsider once if the process of making them isn't too time-consuming.  Using these playertypes, I should be able to create an interesting battle system where the trainers take control of the pokemon (using the remote control mod) and they can fight.

Also, should this be an extension of pokemon, in blockland form, or just come up with something new to call it?



Design Progress:

First Town:

5
Off Topic / Apply for citizenship in the new nation of Liberland!
« on: June 23, 2015, 04:51:51 AM »
Found out a micronation recently declared independence.  This micronation is called the Free Republic of Liberland.  Its basic rights and laws are founded on libertarianism - or the "political philosophy that upholds liberty as its principal objective" (wikipedia).  You can sign up to be a citizen like I did, and assuming that it will last long enough for your citizenship application to be accept, you can be a accepted as a citizen of the tiny nation.

Some other facts:

- They (we, hopefully soon) have their (our) own website
- It's larger than the Vatican City and Monaco at 7 square kilometers
- The land that Liberland is on was previously not claimed by any country (it lies between Serbia and Croatia)
- The current population is 0, although the founder and president was arrested when he attempted to enter his small nation
- The nation has already been invaded by Croatian police on the 18th of June to arrest an activist that crossed the Croatian boarder into Liberland.  The activist, Ulrik Grøssel Haagensen, plans to take Croatia to court for the invasion.

Sign up for citizenship today!

6
I've made some bricks, specifically plates.  They have the ramp texture on top because they are supposed to be road bricks.  When I change the paint color of any of these bricks, the sides disappear momentarily.  Also, the ghost brick for any of these bricks has as invisible side.  The side that disappears / is invisible in the ghost brick is whichever side the player is closest to.  However, when repainting the brick, the side that disappears is the side that the player is closest to as long as the player is on the right half of the side, otherwise the next side clockwise disappears.  This is not normal for bricks.  I originally made the first brick in Blender, then went through the BLB to see how it works, fixed stuff, adjusted stuff, and copied that BLB to create the other bricks (lengths change from 8x, to 16x, 32x, and 64x).

Also, now it seems faces disappear oddly when bricks are placed next to this brick.  This brick had dimension 8x14x1.  When I place a 1x8 plate along one of the 8x brick sides, the 14x brick side clockwise from the 8x side disappears.  This is the same for any side I try.  Where did I go wrong?

I've supplied the BLB below.  If anyone could help me out or point me toward a thread discussing this issue (I couldn't find anything by searching after experiencing this issue, though I thought I saw a topic earlier discussing this issue).


Both of these issue were fixed by rotating the contents of the side quads, i.e. I cut the info in the north quad, and put it in the east quad, cut the info in the east quad and put it in the south quad, etc.



But I'm still wondering about this:

Does anyone know what the solitary "1" is there for in the fourth line?
And is it necessary to have the COVERAGE section, because I've gone through several BLBs for reference, and some don't have it.  Without the COVERAGE section, does the brick just default to some configuration?

Code: [Select]
8 14 1
SPECIALBRICK

1

0 0 0
8 14 1
COVERAGE: //TBNESW
1 : 999
1 : 112
1 : 8
1 : 14
1 : 8
1 : 14
----------------top quads:
1

TEX:RAMP
POSITION:
-4 -7 0.5
-4 7 0.5
4 7 0.5
4 -7 0.5
UV COORDS:
4 -7
4 7
-4 7
-4 -7
NORMALS:
0 0 1
0 0 1
0 0 1
0 0 1
----------------bottom quads:
5

TEX:BOTTOMLOOP
POSITION:
3.5 -6.5 -0.5
3.5 6.5 -0.5
-3.5 6.5 -0.5
-3.5 -6.5 -0.5
UV COORDS:
0 0
0 13
7 13
7 0
NORMALS:
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1

TEX:BOTTOMEDGE
POSITION:
-4 7 -0.5
-3.5 6.5 -0.5
3.5 6.5 -0.5
4 7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
-0.5 0
0 0.5
7 0.5
7.5 0
NORMALS:
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1

TEX:BOTTOMEDGE
POSITION:
-4 -7 -0.5
-3.5 -6.5 -0.5
-3.5 6.5 -0.5
-4 7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
-0.5 0
0 0.5
13 0.5
13.5 0
NORMALS:
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1

TEX:BOTTOMEDGE
POSITION:
4 -7 -0.5
3.5 -6.5 -0.5
-3.5 -6.5 -0.5
-4 -7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
-0.5 0
0 0.5
7 0.5
7.5 0
NORMALS:
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1

TEX:BOTTOMEDGE
POSITION:
4 7 -0.5
3.5 6.5 -0.5
3.5 -6.5 -0.5
4 -7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
-0.5 0
0 0.5
13 0.5
13.5 0
NORMALS:
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
0 0 -1
----------------north quads:
1

TEX:SIDE
POSITION:
4 -7 -0.5
4 -7 0.5
4 7 0.5
4 7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
0.02 1.105
0.02 -0.105
0.98 -0.105
0.98 1.105
NORMALS:
1 0 0
1 0 0
1 0 0
1 0 0
----------------east quads:
1

TEX:SIDE
POSITION:
-4 -7 -0.5
-4 -7 0.5
4 -7 0.5
4 -7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
0.02 1.105
0.02 -0.105
0.98 -0.105
0.98 1.105
NORMALS:
0 -1 0
0 -1 0
0 -1 0
0 -1 0
----------------south quads:
1

TEX:SIDE
POSITION:
-4 7 -0.5
-4 7 0.5
-4 -7 0.5
-4 -7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
0.02 1.105
0.02 -0.105
0.98 -0.105
0.98 1.105
NORMALS:
-1 0 0
-1 0 0
-1 0 0
-1 0 0
----------------west quads:
1

TEX:SIDE
POSITION:
4 7 -0.5
4 7 0.5
-4 7 0.5
-4 7 -0.5
UV COORDS:
0.02 1.105
0.02 -0.105
0.98 -0.105
0.98 1.105
NORMALS:
0 1 0
0 1 0
0 1 0
0 1 0
----------------omni quads:
0

7
Modification Help / New Road Bricks Concept [ALIVE]
« on: June 01, 2015, 12:05:27 AM »
Hey all.  I've enjoyed the new road packs that have come out over the past couple years. They look really nice, are a perfect size, and serve many functions. But, all of them are incompatible with each other, and all of the packs have major limitations. I'm here to end those limitations. I've devised a new method for creating large, functional roads that look good and don't add on a lot to the brick count (it will be more than the other road packs, but not terribly).

This pack utilizes separate bricks for every line and road surface.  This way, any combination of white, yellow, dashed, or solid could be used with one-another. You can even have green, blue, red, or whatever color line you want!



Basic Pack:

Description:

This pack contains simple, universally required flat road pieces.  Bricks include all sizes for the surfaces, from 8x8 up to 64x64 and all permutations in between.  The pack also has straight lines and 90° turn lines.  Lines come in dashed and solid variations.  The lines also come in 1x and 2x types - by this I mean that a 1x line brick will fit entirely inside a 1x plate and is used primarily for double lines in the center of the road, whereas the 2x line brick overlaps two studs and is used for the lines between lanes.

Pictures:







Intersection Pack:

Description:

This pack contains lines that make intersections possible.  They include solid lines shorter than 8x, curves lines with smaller radii than turns in the basic pack, arrows, thicker lines for the T-zone/the line that stops cars before intersections, crosswalk lines, and others I haven't thought of yet.

Pictures:

None yet



Miscellaneous Pack:

Description:

Assorted lines and such that don't fit anywhere but are absolutely necessary to complete a road system.  So far, only merge/lane reduction lines are in it.

Pictures:

Coming Soon



Bricks Planned for Later:

- Intersection bricks
  - Crosswalks
  - Lines
- >64x radius curves
- Off ramps (flat)
- Shoulders
- Filler for where curves leave open areas
- Elevation changes/sloped straights (with attempts to make it compatible with terrain bricks)
- Canted/superelevated curves
- Merges
- Lane Reductions
- Sidewalks
- Curbs
- Diagonals
  - Partial curves
  - Diagonal blanks
- Square-completing road pieces

8
I am requesting an output event that, when trigger, forces all chat message updates to no longer display, similar to what happens when you Page Up and scroll to a previous line in the chat, and it just sits there without hopping up to any new chat messages.  The player can then Page Down to scroll back to the most recent messages.  In addition, for fluidity, it would be good to have an event that automatically does this for the player.

9
Modification Help / Feet support for Support_HandsonVehicle?
« on: December 30, 2014, 08:01:28 PM »
Would it be possible to add foot placement support in vehicles for Support_HandsonVehicle?  If so, can I do it, or do I need to contact the creator to get him/her to do it?

10
Modification Help / Animation 'steering' for other dimensions of control?
« on: December 28, 2014, 12:37:34 AM »
Normally, when animating a ground vehicle model, Torque 3d uses 'steering' as the name of the noncyclic animation that plays when steering left or right.  As far as I could find, there are no additional steering names for steering dimensions for air vehicles (which utilize pitch and roll, as well as the normal yaw that cars use).  Is it possible to create an animation such as 'steering' that relates directly with the motion of the mouse/whatever is used to roll or pitch, or do these already exist and I was just unable to find them?

[edit]

Let me elucidate:

Is it possible to convert longitudinal and latitudinal movement of the mouse into a non-cyclic animation, such as happens for mouse steering in a car?

11
Modification Help / Modifying vehicleData fields on a key press in-game
« on: December 24, 2014, 12:56:32 AM »
I would like to add flaps to an airplane.  Flaps are surfaces on the trailing edge of airplane wings that hinge down to increase drag and decrease the stall speed.  I saw that there are the fields "drag", "lift", and "stallSpeed" in the WheeledVehicleData of Strato's A10 (and other vehicles.  I used the A10 for research because it has a similar flaps system).  To do this, I would like to modify the "drag", "stallspeed", and possibly "lift" values by pressing and holding the light key (or triggering it via interactive vehicles).

The A10 has pseudo-flaps that are used to slow the vehicle down, for landings or more accurate shooting.  The system used in the A10 script scales the vehicle speed, slowing the vehicle down (as far as I can tell).  This is a similar effect that I would like to have occur, but not quite what I want.  The function that contains the flaps is referenced below.

Code: [Select]
function A10Vehicle::onTrigger(%this,%obj,%trigNum,%val)
{

//echo(%trigNum SPC %val);

if(%val)
{
%obj.setVelocity(vectorScale(%obj.getVelocity(),0.99));
%obj.playthread(1,flapopen);
%obj.brake=true;
}
else
{
%obj.unmountimage(0);
%obj.playthread(1,flapclose);
%obj.brake=false;
}

}

In the past and in my recent research, I have read threads discussing the issue I am having, but I could never get a concise answer.  From what I have read, it would require work-arounds or buggy scripting, thus rendering it impossible.

Is this true, or is there some way?  Is the system that the A10 uses the most logical system?  One reference (second listed below) I found discussed toggling two datablocks to change the type of vehicle it is, which could be implemented to suit my needs, if logical.  Any suggestions for other ways to do this would be much appreciated.



References:
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=239593.0 (topic discussing a similar issue)
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=149521.0 (possible work-around)
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~stewart/GPGT/Appendix%20A%20-%20Quick%20References.pdf (torquescript reference)

12
Help / 1x12 brick does not show a temp brick nor plant correctly
« on: July 21, 2014, 10:26:17 PM »
I have all default add-ons except for five of my own vehicles and two of my own bricks.  The 1x12 brick is the only brick with this issue.  The two bricks I made are nothing like the 1x12, and have no way to mix up identification for the game.  This is the first time I have noticed this problem, and I have had the two self-made bricks enabled for a month.  The 1x12 brick can be selected from the brick menu and put into the brick inventory.  I can select it in the brick inventory.  When I go to place the brick, there is no temp brick where there usually is.  When I place the brick, there is audible indication but no visual indication that it has been placed.  There is collision, but it acts as though it is only a half a plate high, and the direction that the invisible 1x12 brick faces is perpendicular to the direction that the 1x10 and 1x16 bricks face when place.  Has anyone had this issue before?  Is this an issue with my vehicles or bricks?  This isn't important for my server because I rarely build on it anymore, but I am worried that it is an issue with my vehicles, because I don't want others' servers to be messed up.

13
I was playing with my friend (Master King Deaddude) in his non-dedicated, non-LAN server when he suddenly crashed (the message he got was WheeledVehicle::unpackUpdate()) ).  The server remained on for several minutes until he tried getting onto his dedicated server (different server than the one I was on).  This crashed his blockland and the server I was in (the non-dedicated server).  But, before he crashed, I somehow managed to duplicate and plant 20 vehicles, which all successfully spawned.  There were two other vehicles that other people had and were driving around in on the server.  I was gunna take a picture of that, but my friend reset vehicles to fix the problem.  I then attempted it again, and managed to get 40+ duplicated vehicles successfully spawned (plus the other two that people were driving around in).  Right after I did this was when my friend tried joining his dedicated server.  But, as I was in the middle of crash lag, I took a picture of what was in my field of view.



I got 36 vehicles captured in this shot.  Unfortunately, Master started blockland again after crashing the second time, so no console log from him.  But, I do have mine, in case that helps.

Also, possibly related to this issue:  His server has had some odd issues with events.  One door in particular that I made (which utilizes a simple VCE BL_ID restriction) does not open after being loaded from the save file.  Also, I had made a clock tower with the typical simple events, and the events would not activate the correct Named Brick (I have four digits, 2 for hours, 2 for minutes.  When the Ones minute digit was supposed to be activated, the Tens minute digit was).  Stuff like that.  His friend told him that some Custom Vehicle Support'd vehicles could be the issue for the message he got.

14
Modification Help / More Purposes for Interactive Vehicle Support?
« on: July 11, 2014, 10:10:19 PM »
So my friend has recently begun implementing Interactive Vehicle Support into his car, and that has spawned a few ideas in my head.  Would it be possible to, using the system that IVS uses, do something like define a zone around a button on the dash that, when triggered, pulls up the /stereo GUI from the stereo mod (assuming the client has that mod)?  At the bottom of this page detailing how to add IVS to any vehicle, it mentions that there is a limit of 4 animations playing at once.  Other than that, there seems like there are no restrictions for how many zones can be included on the vehicle.  If anything is possible, I would like to take a swing at it, and would turn my best Lego vehicle into an extremely interactive vehicle.

Here are some things I would like to add to a car, tell me if they are possible:

-/stereo mod GUI pulled up when a button on the center dash is pressed
-Horn sound when the horn on the steering wheel is hit
-Gear shift that, upon exceeding specific speeds, increases the max speed on every interaction
-Handbrake that toggles drift mode

Some less practical but possibly still possible ideas:
-Button that ejects (dismounts) the driver and anyone sitting shotgun, then blows up the vehicle
-Button that momentarily changes the emitter coming out of the exhaust pipe and increases speed

Another idea that just popped into my head that I would definitely not attempt, but am just interested in knowing if it seemed possible, is to include an array of buttons on the dash that can be linked to events on the spawn brick.  Each button would trigger a corresponding input event.

So what do you guys think?  Are any of these possible?  Is this even worth while trying to do?  Got any other ideas how IVS could be used?

15
Modification Help / Vehicle tilts and falls over when turning
« on: July 08, 2014, 10:18:43 AM »
I am having this issue with my Lego vehicles and the only fix I could find is to reduce the max speed, which worked well for the Small Car because it doesn't need to go fast.  But, I have vehicles that need to go fast and stay upright.  Any suggestions on how to keep the vehicles upright?

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