movers in mp maps

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Slowdev

L1: Registered
Feb 6, 2011
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Hey, I was wondering if there's a technical reason why you don't see movers in many tf2 maps. Would it be possible to make something similar to the mp level in Uncharted 3 where there are platforms moving relative to each other, or would there be latency / replication issues with Source?
 
T

The Asylum

To make a moving platform, you'll need at least two path_track entities and a func_tracktrain. The rest is easy to figure out.
 

Slowdev

L1: Registered
Feb 6, 2011
14
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Yeah I know how to do that, I'm just wondering if it works alright in multiplayer, because I haven't seen it done in any running multiplayer maps.
 

Seba

DR. BIG FUCKER, PHD
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Jun 9, 2009
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Moving platforms are easy, but having more than one or two in a map would be incredibly gimmicky.

EDIT: yes it works fine in MP (just don't go off making maps centered around elevators).
 
T

The Asylum

achievement_idle_funbox_b3 uses floating platforms, there's a tiny issue with staying on the platforms, but most of the time it does it's job well.

Nucleus also has moving platforms, when the control point unlocks and the bridges extend towards the point.

And of course, there's always MARIO_KART and it's many bastard children to derive inspiration from
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
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Nov 2, 2007
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Since nobody seems to be quite answering the question...

You can make moving objects, however there are two reasons you don't see them in TF2.
Firstly, Source networking is poor when it comes to players standing on moving things. Prediction and interpolation become jittery and it looks ugly and can be disorienting to the player (particularly with up/down motion). This gets worse as the speed increases, so a very slow moving platform wouldn't have much issue.
Second, TF2 environments are "dead" in nearly every case. There is nothing active or moving to draw the players eye. Something moving is something that poses a hazard. The only exception to this is distant background stuff like chimney smoke or the train in Thunder Mountain.
 

REEJ

L420: High Member
Aug 26, 2010
437
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long story short, "physics is simplified in multiplayer"
players standing on quickly moving stuff will look 'warpy' or simply glitchy
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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For the sake of beating a dead horse with a stick, what Seba and Booj said.

Moving platforms are gimmicky and hard to explain with narrative within TF2; it is possible, but hard to pull off well. Only recently has the elevator concept been introduced into maps like pl_thundermountain and pl_hightower. It's a concept people really wanted to see but a concept that was difficult to pull off in any aesthetic sense because of the reasons Booj has already mentioned. Moving platforms behave strangely with players and you'll probably have noticed this if you've ever ridden the payload at full speed on official payload maps, you tend to jitter and get graphical display tears; sometimes even appearing to fall into the cart and back out again.
 

Wander

L3: Member
Sep 16, 2010
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Also worth noting is that not all moving entities allow demomen to put stickies on them or engineers to build on them
Even when engineers can build on them, the buildings often dont move along with the entity, but stay behind floating in the air instead
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
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Also worth noting is that not all moving entities allow demomen to put stickies on them or engineers to build on them
Even when engineers can build on them, the buildings often dont move along with the entity, but stay behind floating in the air instead

It's notable that steel's bridges cannot have stickies on them, but the prop railings can.