Scripting Question

[dietbob196045]

Thanks in advance

First off I do not get pleasure from writing scripts so I avoid them at all cost

regardless I am faced with a scripting requirement and since I have not written one with multiple actions I wanted to be sure it could be done before wasting my time

Sooooo  I am asking any scripting guru's advice

Here is what I am looking to do   Turn on a light   simple right?

Players-  a dwemer crank, a dwemer turbine, a dwemer header, a sound generator, a relief valve, a steam activator and of course the light

simple enough
1)  turn the crank,
     what we want to happen  
   a) the turbine starts
   b) the sound generator starts (for the headers)
   c) a short burst of steam releases from the relief valve
   d) the light turns on

opinions/suggestions are much anticipated

Enjoy
Dietbob

[Wolf undefined]

I have no idea which objects you're using for the generator, so this just starts playing a 3 banner's flapping animation.  Are you using default assets or have you created your own assets and animations?

Code: Select all

begin db_LightCrank

float timer
short start

if ( MenuMode == 1 )
       return
endif

if ( OnActivate == 1)
       if ( start == 0 )
               PlaySound "Dwemer Door Open" ; this is just the dwemer crank noise
               set start to 1
       endif
       return
endif

if ( start == 0 )
       return
endif

if ( timer < 6)
       if ( timer > 1 )
               if ( start == 1 )
                       Set start to 2
               endif
       endif
       Rotate X 45 ;rotates crank
       banner1_ID->PlayGroup, Idle2 ; animate1st banner
endif

if ( timer > 12 )
       if ( start == 2 )
               Set start to 3
       endif
       banner2_ID->PlayGroup, Idle2 ; animate 2nd banner
endif

if ( timer > 18 )
       set start to 0
       set timer to 0
       banner3_ID->PlayGroup, Idle2 ; animate 3rd banner
endif

set timer to ( timer + GetSecondsPassed )
;increment timer if script is active

end db_LightCrank

I know its not exactly what you were looking for, but I'm not sure about the specifics of what you're doing so it should be enough to get you started.  Obviously you can play with timer as needed.  Make sure whatever objects are going to be directed to have references persist checked.

[dietbob196045]

Will get me in the right direction  Thanks

Making a Power Plant - steam is collected from the lava cave via collectors and piped through the cave to a compression unit, the internal mechanics of the compression chamber converts the steam power to electricity which then lights the city   technology at it's Morrowind finest - that's the non-technical explanation
The Nirn folk don't need to know the science involved, just to have lights without the wind blowing it out is enough

I am using vanilla assets (renamed)  the generator - is the Activator = furn_dwrv_dynamo, using the misc_dwemer artifact00 as the relief valves, the sound is sound power hum and the steam is volcano steam which I scaled down to give it a more realistic look.

Player enters cave and turns the crank, to the left you can see the dynamo (idle) (after crank turn) the dynamo starts and the power hum begins, a few seconds later the relief valve spurts a burst of steam. when the player leaves the cave the exterior lamps will be lit
The burst of steam is something I wanted to have continue, basically the system is now operating so each time the player enters the cave, we should see a burst of steam from the relief valve, of course it would be a different script for that to happen ( a more realistic effect I think ) but not necessary

I shall continue............

Thank you mucho

Enjoy
Dietbob

[Wolf undefined]

You're going to need to add different animation sets to the generator because right now there's only one state (on) that it can be.   I'm not entirely sure how animations work with .nifs.
You can turn on/off the sound without issue but it will still have steam coming out of the generator at all times.

The sound should be easy enough to figure out, as should placing the steam bits.  I'm not sure if you can set up the steam as a burst but if you can't you could simply move the steam continuously down until it goes through the floor and then disable it which should achieve a kind of fading effect.

[Drakkmore]

Animations are a pain in the arse. You will need two meshes, one the crank which would be animated to turn when activated (I believe that the cranks for the Domes over the doors on the outside of two ruins Dwemer Ruins are already animated, so there is not an issue, and if the generators are already animated then they should not be an issue either, unless you want them to vibrate as well while the generators are running. So all you would need to do is set the crank up as an activator, as well as the generator, but do not make the generator activatible(?), just make it an activator so it can run the animation. When the crank is activated then have the script start the generator's animations, if the crank is set to the "off" position script stops the animation.

Really the only thing that needs to be activatible (?) should be the crank, You could name the crank "Generator" and leave the generator with out a name so that you wouldn't be able to activate it, only the crank.

Those are the thoughts of a mesh making modder who has dabbled in simple animations.

EDIT: also when you activate the crank you are going to have to have a function in the script to disable all of the lights that are off, and enable a whole bunch of lights that are on, and vise-versa for when the generator is off.

[Wolf undefined]

<snip>

The cranks aren't animated.  Because all they do is rotate around their pivot, they just use the rotate command which was included in my sample code.  

But yea, the generator will need to be 'animated'.  Not really animated, but you'll need to set up animation sets

[Drakkmore]

Not at all Wolf you'll just need to stop the animation, and start the animation. I mean really that is all it is. Just activate the crank to play the animation, and activate the crank a second time to stop the animation.

[dietbob196045]

now this is getting into serious    lol

yes the crank has a rotate script already applied
and if my mind hasn't left me yet, I am pretty sure I can make a "static"  generator and it would be automatically replaced with the active generator via script
crank off=  static,  crank on = active ... Me thinks that how it works, the change from one to the other should be instantaneous ( FPS optional ) - Yes?

The lights are simple  it is only one type of light effected, just several of them, which makes no difference

Same with the steam or in this case I think crank off = no steam crank on=steam (but only a short burst)

Were doing a lot of cranking here,  a bit weird....

Good Info... and MUCH appreciated

Enjoy
Dietbob

[Drakkmore]

I'm fairly certain that you wouldn't need use two generators. Just about every single mesh in Morrowind that has an animation has an idle set in the animation keys, all you'd need to do is switch between the animation, and the idle set. The idle set should not have any animation playing. I will look at the generator in Blender later on tonight, and see. If it does not have an idle set one can be made easily enough.

EDIT:
Having looked at Bethesda's mesh in Blender I've discovered that they didn't bother putting any idles in there at all. I could fix that for you, but it might take me a while to do so. Also it would make me into a not nice person for a while as Bethesda's vanilla meshes are terrible things not at all put together well, and sloppy all around.
Having said that yeah it might just be easier to have the script switch between a static one, and the activator with the running animation.


*heads off to kick Bethsoft mesh makers in the head*

[dietbob196045]

Well  I messed around with it a bit and I can tell you this,  removing the Controller Branch of the Animation node will keep everything from spinning,
However the steam effect doesn't seem to want to go away
Even completely removing the Effects Branch for the Emitter doesn't completely remove the "Visual" appearance of the steam (or as Beth call's it Blizzard01)
removing the Effect causes the "steam" to be idle  but it is still visible...........  try harder Bob !!!!

I tried a few different versions in game, none of them worked as intended, at least no CTD and everything else works,  I will need to think on this some more.

Enjoy
Dietbob

[Wolf undefined]

now this is getting into serious    lol

yes the crank has a rotate script already applied
and if my mind hasn't left me yet, I am pretty sure I can make a "static"  generator and it would be automatically replaced with the active generator via script
crank off=  static,  crank on = active ... Me thinks that how it works, the change from one to the other should be instantaneous ( FPS optional ) - Yes?

The lights are simple  it is only one type of light effected, just several of them, which makes no difference

Same with the steam or in this case I think crank off = no steam crank on=steam (but only a short burst)

Were doing a lot of cranking here,  a bit weird....

Good Info... and MUCH appreciated

Enjoy
Dietbob

Ah yes.  In Oblivion and Skyrim you couldn't use an enable/disable trick because enabling objects blurs into existance instead of being instant.  So yea if you had the two on top of one another and disabled the static mesh and enabled the animated mesh then the player shouldn't notice (especially if the crank makes you face a different direction).

I can't help you with nifskope b/c .nif files annoy me and I still have no idea how to mess with them.

[dietbob196045]

Exactly

It's ok... your helping in other ways and it is greatly appreciated, I do not like the nif's either....not annoyed yet, but I'm getting their,  I have hopes I will finger it out soon enough

Then writing the script.... and testing until it works correctly   that will be annoying


Enjoy
Dietbob

[dietbob196045]

Success

For now, we have a static, no movement, no emitting, no sound, no missing parts  ....   dwvr_dynamo
All good in game.... at least that is done, now to find out what happens to it when I add the scripting
I will put together a short post on what I did to get this effect so if anyone else ever decides to remove the effects from an activator they will have something to go off of
besides,  I will forget and then have to go through it all over again

As a side note, it should be known that even once you remove all the animation and create a new Static Mesh when the new mesh is reloaded into nifskope the animation will re-attach itself and must be removed all over again, I'm sure their is a way to fix that as well but I'm not going to mess with it for now

Enjoy
Dietbob

[dietbob196045]

Back on to the scripting

I have a light script   turns lights off during day, turns them on at night    works great,  I am going to swap that and have them on during the day and off at night

(It's for interior lighting)  (Sunlight in particular)

Now the catch...which what I am hoping for help with

I would like the light to change as the hours change... not necessarily every hour but as it gets closer to night, the "sun" light will being to decrease until it's
just off and of course in the opposite direction as we approach full daylight

So example

at hour XXX the light comes on 25%, the a few hours later 50% then a few more hours 100%,  then ...... a few hours later 50%, then 25% then off   etc etc

I know what I want, just not sure how to modify the script

Help

Enjoy
Dietbob

[DonnerGott]

You would probably need 4 different lights set up. One casting zero, then 25%, 50% and 100% light distance. Your script would have to swap the lights at certain intervals. Also, a script-disabled light may still cast light on objects/NPCs, but not the ground.

[dietbob196045]

You would probably need 4 different lights set up. One casting zero, then 25%, 50% and 100% light distance. Your script would have to swap the lights at certain intervals. Also, a script-disabled light may still cast light on objects/NPCs, but not the ground.

I was hoping to avoid doing that, but I'll give it a whirl and see how it works

Enjoy
Dietbob

[DonnerGott]

Yeah, I went through both MWSFD and WM Script Library and didn't find anything related to changing light radius by scripting.

I think even WindowsGlow just uses Enable/Disable Nif swapping scripts.

[dietbob196045]

Yeah I looked too

I thought of another option though.... I'm gonna play around

Thanks for taking a look into it

Enjoy
Dietbob

[dietbob196045]

Howdy

Typical of me, stuff I think should be easy never is:    This script has a sound attached to it, as is the sound plays when the player picks up the object,  I want it to play when the spell is cast,

Any suggestions

Thanks
Enjoy
Dietbob


begin curseother

short doOnce

if ( doOnce == 0 )
    if ( Player->GetItemCount "common_ring_curse" == 1 )
         Player->AddSpell, "curse other"
         PlaySound, "fearscream"
         set doOnce to 1
    endif
endif

end curseother

[HeyYou]

That script will play the sound/add the curse if the player has the ring in his inventory.... Could put a script directly on the ring, and use an "onequipped' test instead.

Been a while since I did any scripting for morrowind though.

[dietbob196045]

The script is on the ring.
The script adds the spell to the players spell menu, and the player can use it anytime, the issue is that though the sound works it only works when the ring is first picked up
I will try onequipped. It should solve the issue, I just didn't think of that one  ... sometimes the obvious eludes me

Thanks

Enjoy
Dietbob

[dietbob196045]

That option was a definite no, my game blew up   lol
Some strange buzzing sounds when I equipped the ring,  no worries,  I think if I add some variation of cast spell I might could get it  ???

Can only try

Enjoy
Dietbob

[HeyYou]

That's weird......

[dietbob196045]

That's weird......

Twas very wierd   regardless I am going to play with different things to try to get it to work, in the meanwhile I will release the Mod without the scream effect, it's still good  

Enjoy
Dietbob