Viewing Thread: Object Movement And Fitting Into Tight Spots

IMYSC2000T Joined: 17 October 2004 Posts: 237

30 October 2004 08:28 (UK time) I'm sure everyone else has noticed this as well, but it's extremely easy to get stuck in between two closely-placed objects, and often times it's too hard to move through single-unit width passageways and a lot of mouse jerking combined with mad key-pushing is required to free the player or object under control. That's one of the things that made the movements quirky in Meteor 1 and the problem is still there in Meteor 2. Unless this is intentionally the intended behaviour, perhaps it could be changed so that the physical radius of objects such as the player or any vehicles under the player character's control could more easily fit through tighter spots and narrow passageways. You need to login to create posts in this thread.

Dave Man Joined: 19 October 2003 Posts: 374

30 October 2004 20:01 (UK time) I found this out too but I know what it's caused by, when an moving object moves and changes direction, its bounding box changes with the changing of the sprite. Therefore if you move into a tight spot and the moving object changes direction, it will get you and itself stuck. THe only way out of this is to aviod these situations are just shoot whoever you got stuck on. You need to login to create posts in this thread.

IMYSC2000T Joined: 17 October 2004 Posts: 237

31 October 2004 01:36 (UK time) Yes I thought about that too, but unfortunately part of the problem is that not everything is shootable. I think the best way to fix this would be to have a smaller, global physical boundary radius for the character or vehicle (or whatever), regardless of which animation sprite is active. Edited: 31 October 2004 01:37 You need to login to create posts in this thread.

fuzinavl  Official Sponsor Joined: 06 October 2004 Posts: 287

31 October 2004 02:19 (UK time) Perhaps movement & turning in 2 seperate steps with seperate collision detections. Turning rate would have to be capped so that we don't do right angles or 180's with the mouse in 1 fisiks frame. Edited: 31 October 2004 03:18 You need to login to create posts in this thread.

IMYSC2000T Joined: 17 October 2004 Posts: 237

31 October 2004 05:05 (UK time) I don't know if collision detection is even part of the problem. But directional changes and movement towards the new direction should indeed be seperate steps, if they are not already. Also, I think acceleration support for mouse movement would be the best middle-ground between capping the turning rate and leaving it as it is now, so that one wouldn't have to be restricted to one speed, seeing as to how different turning rates would serve different, case-specific purposes. Of course the acceleration support could be an option, as with almost everything else I suggest, just so people who don't like the idea don't rip my head off! ;P Edited: 31 October 2004 05:06 You need to login to create posts in this thread.

James Bunting Joined: 17 September 2003 Posts: 1308

31 October 2004 11:24 (UK time) The fix for this is simple... At the moment an objects collision detection box changes size on rotation making things get stuck real easy. I will make the box the same size (a nominal value) and position regardless of the object's angle. This should help a bunch. You need to login to create posts in this thread.

fuzinavl  Official Sponsor Joined: 06 October 2004 Posts: 287

31 October 2004 16:00 (UK time) What do you mean by acceleration support for mouse movement? Turning or traveling? Is there a game I can try which features it? You need to login to create posts in this thread.

IMYSC2000T Joined: 17 October 2004 Posts: 237

31 October 2004 18:53 (UK time) James: Sounds good. I'll wait to test out the improvement! fuzinavl: I mean for travelling. As far as I know the player can't use the mouse for travelling, and even if the mouse COULD be used for travelling, it would be a cheat to have acceleration support! Now, I can't think of any games off the top of my head that have acceleration support for mouse movement, but I guess it would kind'a be the same as the "smooth mouse movement" support in Half-Life that takes the average movement rate of the mouse over the last second or two and apply the averae movement rate automatically, making it somewhat smoother (although opinions on this matter may vary). For acceleration, the mouse will move at a set speed if you move the mouse at a constant rate, but if you suddenly start moving the mouse twice as fast, the acceleration will think you're fratically trying to get to the other side of the screen (or whatever-else you're trying to do) and it will detect the sudden change in the speed and apply a 4x speed instead (I'm not sure about the exact rate of acceleration it would apply) and thus the mouse will have accelerated movement. I don't think it would be too difficult for people to get used to this, because they would know that for a normal speed they can just move the mouse at a constant rate, and to speed it up by a whole lot they can apply a bit of faster, more accelerated movement. I'm not sure if you have advanced mouse features in Windows, but there is a feature for some mice (or mouses!) that accelerates the mouse movement in that manner that I described (look under the mouse options in the Control Panel in Windows) and that's pretty much what I'm talking about. Of course, again, this would be an option if people are against it. You need to login to create posts in this thread.

fuzinavl  Official Sponsor Joined: 06 October 2004 Posts: 287

01 November 2004 06:24 (UK time) ok (I was thrown off by "middle-ground" You need to login to create posts in this thread.

IMYSC2000T Joined: 17 October 2004 Posts: 237

01 November 2004 10:15 (UK time) Oh, hehe! Sorry, sometimes when I'm typing like mad trying to get all my ideas down before I forget them, I forget to convert what I mean to a more understandable format so that everyone will understand what I'm trying to convey and I guess middle-ground is part of my brain's internal OS language that I didn't bother explain or clarify. My apologies! You need to login to create posts in this thread.

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