Page 1 of 1

What about a tilted ladder?

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:25 pm
by Moiety Jean
Hi everyone! I've been on another hiatus from lurking here, since it's been a busy month, but I'm ready to jump back in and figure out what I was doing with my age before my break. So I'm looking at a multi-level section I've modeled, and I'm thinking about a ladder to get from one level to the next. Thing is, without some major (and undesired) modifications, I'll need a tilted ladder to get the avatar up. We're talking a noticeable tilt here.
I'm betting the animation for ladder-climbing is stuck vertical, but I'm curious.. I used to see people doing fun things in Until Uru with tilting the avatars by degrees and having them jump and appear to "swim" along the ground. Hypothetically, what would it take to tilt the climbing animation forward so that an avatar can climb a ladder that's tilted forward by, say, 20 degrees off vertical? Or even just as much as a typical folding ladder is tilted? Maybe it would look a little awkward to have the avatar suddenly lean forward with its toes penetrating the floor before it begins to climb, but it would open up a lot more possibility for ladder design.
(Man, I wish there was a rope climb animation. :D )

Re: What about a tilted ladder?

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:22 pm
by Grogyan
I had a look at this as a possibility for my shell, and yes it is very easy to have a tilted ladder, just tilt the ladder climbing regions, the biggest problem comes from restoring the avatar to the perpendicular when they have reached the end of the climb , effectively exiting the ladder region, there are two ways you can do this
1. Use python to make it so that when that particular set of regions is exited you are returned to the perpendicular, this I can't help you with as I am very new to python coding
2. It is theoretically possible to use responder modifiers on the ladder region with AlcScript, though Nadnerb or Lontahv or one of the devs will have to guide you how to do that

Alternatively attempt to try and code in to the plugin a "Ladder Exit" region, this would be in effect the same as the "Lift Exit" used in Unreal Tournament

Re: What about a tilted ladder?

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:01 pm
by Moiety Jean
Thank you, Grogyan! I'm nowhere near ready to begin to learn the scripting portions of building my age, and am starting with the bones... just doing the modeling itself. But it's really good to know what I will and won't be able to do when it comes time to learn to "make the bones run."
To clarify, do you think I could end up with a presentable, dignified age to share with others (meaning my avatar visitors don't end up forced into awkward-looking, goofy situations) by cleverly hacking a tilted ladder? Would you do it? :P

(btw, I think some of your typing on item 1 got lost)

Re: What about a tilted ladder?

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:18 pm
by Grogyan
fixed the lost words, me just typing away when a download had finished

well without someway to restore that perpendicular it would look very goofy, heck for the fun of it, turn your climbing region upside down ie rotate it 180 degrees.

if you're game enough, you could have a go at reading the plugin code to see how you could make a restore region possible