Creating a bottomless pit?

[shippouofdoom]

Alright, so I'm trying to make a map that consists almost entirely of platforms along cliff walls. If you were to fall off these platforms/ledges you'd hit a trigger_hurt and suffer 500 points of fall damage (instant death). My trouble is I don't quite know how achieve the "bottomless pit" effect I'm looking for. I'd like it so it to seem as though you're falling into darkness. Seeing as the cliff faces only go down for so far I'd like to cover the bottoms of those as well as the player ragdoll and the "floor" of the area (which is presently just the bottom of the skybox). I'm new to Source mapping, and mapping as a whole for the most part, so there could very well be some really obvious answer I'm not seeing. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I had though to use fog, but is there anyway to control it so that its only in the bottom of the map? I don't really want to have it over the entire map... A 3D skybox could also work, but would still result in a floating ragdoll (right?)...


Image with measurements in Hammer units:

 

[Freyja]

There's an overlay you can use called blackgradient that you can apply to the walls and stretch the fit them (It doesn't matter how big it is) and then cover the very bottom floor with tools/toolsblack to look like you fall into blackness.

Of course if you want to use a certain colour you could a) make custom overlays, b) use fog. I'm not very good with fog so I couldn't answer that...

 

[shippouofdoom]

Thanks for the help Aly! Now if only I could get overlays to play nice with displacements

I found a very similar thread to mine here:[ame="http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=4950"]Abyss Darkness illusion - TF2Maps.net Forums[/ame] with a different approach I'm also going to try.

 

[grazr]

Indeed that tutorial is a good resource. Fog is an expensive alternative.

I would suggest taking a look at sdk_ctf_2fort that Valve released with the SDK as a recent update, to see how they control fog using multiple env_fog_controller entities and triggers throughout the map (mostly in doorways).

You could trigger a new fade distance and colour that would simulate a bottomless pit for each unique scenario/area, however the distance applies sphericaly around the player rather than in one direction which is an obvious limitation. But if you have no issue making that pit quite deep (and you'll probably need it deeper anyway) you could get away with it, providing the pit is deeper than any horizontal line of sight that you want the player to still be able to see.

 

[martijntje]

oh, a little hint, increase the damage the trigger_hurt does. dead ringer spies will survive

 

[shippouofdoom]

Fog is an expensive alternative.

True, and as it would have to cover the entire bottom of my map, it really wouldn't be feasible. I will have a look around 2fort though to see how VALVe works out its fog controllers.

oh, a little hint, increase the damage the trigger_hurt does. dead ringer spies will survive

Really? They'd be stuck on the bottom, but that isn't really a good thing...

 

[Cameron:D]

Make it 10,000 damage, nothing will chance surviving that (unless ubered, so extend the trigger_hurt to the bottom)

 

[grazr]

oh, a little hint, increase the damage the trigger_hurt does. dead ringer spies will survive

I think 1000 kills an uber? but to be on the safe side as many 9's as you can manage.

Wait, what was that?

IT'S OVER 9,000!!!!!!!!!

:facepalm:

 

[ParanoidDrone]

You need 1250 to kill a Dead Ringer outright, assuming he's not overhealed. IDK what you need to kill an Uber.

 

[fubarFX]

well, pit in hydro is at 9999. pit in lumberyard is at 1000.
so yeah it's up to you really. I think I'd enter 1337 or something just for the lulz

 

[Terr]

I've done portal-esque infinite falling, but I don't know if you can make the teleport brush entity react to ragdolls. I'm sure there's a flag, but like so many of those features I'm not sure whether it'd work in TF2.

If it did work, that would allow you to "replay" their ragdoll's last few feet of falling forever. Since terminal velocity is 3500 u/s, on a hypothetical 30-tick server you'd need ~120 units of fall buffer space plus however tall the player is.

______________

I would set the value to 9999. It pays to be safe, and it makes the intent of the trigger perfectly obvious.

______________

For abrupt fog changes you probably want to have a lot "foglerptime" because otherwise by the time things start getting dark they'll already be dead. Fogblend and two fog colors will let you have black fog below and white HDR-like sky overexposure above.

 

[Fraz]

You could look at cp_Steel and see how they did the pit I'm sure there's a decompiled version kicking about somewhere.

 

[Dr. ROCKZO]

What exactly is it for? a death pit sort of thing?

EDIT: I'm an idiot, I thought Terr's post above mine was the OP.. No wonder I thought he was being vague..

 

[Terr]

When I get home I'll try a quick proof-of-concept at a bottomless pit where your ragdoll falls "forever".

Unless, of course, that would create some kind of bizarre memory leak where the engine refuses to clean up ragdolls that are still moving.

 

[SiniStarR]

When I get home I'll try a quick proof-of-concept at a bottomless pit where your ragdoll falls "forever".

Unless, of course, that would create some kind of bizarre memory leak where the engine refuses to clean up ragdolls that are still moving.

its not worth it, because if you were say to be pushed off and fall, the engine will just do the camera at your killer and then you will start to spectate your team.

The only time you would actually see it is if you were to commit suicide, since it wont change to the killcam , but even then it will eventually switch to team spectate mode.

I had a similar idea with my map.

 

[shippouofdoom]

I tried the method that was quoted by the OP in the other thread, but was disappointed with its results (to to mention it lagged when I fell in )

You could look at cp_Steel and see how they did the pit I'm sure there's a decompiled version kicking about somewhere.

cp_steel uses a func_smokevolume with these settings:

This could be exactly what I'm looking for. Off hand does anyone know how expensive this could be? I need it to cover a large portion of my map (~3500x4000x1000) I could defiantly see this being a huge blow to performance, but with the right settings it could work? I'll mess around with it.

 

[Terr]

Unfortunately, it does not seem possible to have an infinite pit for ragdolls to fall in. Apparently even ticking "Physics objects" and "Pushables" in the teleport flags won't accept ragdolls, they just ignore the teleport area.

So the best you can do is to teleport them to a very very tall shaft, kill them, drop their ragdoll a ways, and have the ragdoll fall behind a black non-solid brush.

SiniStarR: I was working under the assumption most falling deaths would count as suicides, so you'd see your own ragdoll for a ways.