player possition based skyboxes

[hell]

hey was wonderin if it was possible to code in unreal for one of the versions a slightly more advanced skyzoneinfo system. by that i mean move the skyzone camera in a relative direction of the players movement. if anyone play's valve source games you will see in maps with skyboxes the suroundings move slightly when going through a map. this would be really great and make maps more realistic like.

[PRIMEVAL]

Kinda reminds me of the DOOM games. But I'm not seeing how that would be realistic since I would assume the mountains in the distance would remain stationary... :-?

[hell]

well say you had a mountain pass and you walked from one end to the other the one end would be different that the other cos of the gradual change

[PRIMEVAL]

Ah, ok, that makes sense. But would we notice while we're busy blowing up Skaarj, Brutes, and Titans? But yeah, thinking about it that is a neat idea. I wouldn't know how it would be done, though.

[Chaos13]

The thing is called "Parallax Skybox" actually...

[GreatEmerald]

ZoneInfo attached to a mover? But then it doesn't follow the player.

[Raven]

Here's code (changed U2 ParallaxSkyZoneInfo). Didn't test it in game, but it compiles fine.

Code: Select all

class ParallaxSkyZoneInfo extends SkyZoneInfo;

var() float RelativeMoveScale;
var Pawn Player;
var vector LastPlayerLocation;

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
simulated function Tick( float DeltaTime )
{
      local Pawn iPawn;

      Super.Tick( DeltaTime );

      if( Player == None )
      {
            for( iPawn = Level.PawnList; iPawn != None; iPawn = iPawn.NextPawn )
                  if( PlayerPawn(iPawn) != None && PlayerPawn(iPawn).Player != None )
                        Player = PlayerPawn(iPawn);
            if( Player != None )
                  LastPlayerLocation = Player.Location;
      }
      else
      {
            SetLocation( Location + (Player.Location - LastPlayerLocation) * RelativeMoveScale );
            LastPlayerLocation = Player.Location;
      }
}

defaultproperties
{
      RelativeMoveScale=0.100000
      bStatic=False
}

[Chaos13]

I dont like this code, because its only for SinglePlayer games and obviously wont work in network games.

[GreatEmerald]

The function is at least simulated

[Pravin]

That code could easily work online, by checking the role of the playerpawn being examined before setting the local player var..

Code: Select all

            for( iPawn = Level.PawnList; iPawn != None; iPawn = iPawn.NextPawn )
                  if( PlayerPawn(iPawn) != None && PlayerPawn(iPawn).Player != None && (iPawn.Role=Role_AutonomousProxy||Level.NetMode==NM_StandAlone))
                        Player = PlayerPawn(iPawn);
            if( Player != None )
                  LastPlayerLocation = Player.Location;

That would cover the case of a client - role is autonomous, or a singleplayer game - netmode is standalone. There should probably be prevention of the zone moving out of world bounds and such. This code seems to be largely for example purposes, but would be a great base.

[Chaos13]

You sure simulated function that is not owned by playerpawn will be executed? Also it would be very good to make axis restrictions, warping and "infinite length surface" for perfect parallax All is easy to do ofc (think of setowner)