Hypervoxel collisions

[Role]

Hello,

I am fairly new to lightwave (7-8 weeks experience) so please forgive me if this question has been answered in another context.

At present i am trying to make one spaceship fire at another space ship but i want the bullet fired from the first spaceship to collide with the other space ship.

So far I have created an emitter which fires a particle (hypervoxel) when a trigger event initiates the emitter.

But now I’m stuck, are their any tutorials which could help me or any possible theory i could adopt to achieve what I’m trying to do?

I do have a theory but its a bit abstract what I as thinking is, is their some way i could parent a collision event to the emitted particle (hypervoxel) so when it hits the ship a hard or soft fx event is triggered.

I would greatly appreciate any help on this matter as i am tearing my hair out, thank you all in advance

Role

[Dodgy]

If you want it to just collide with the space ship, just apply a Collision dynamic to the ship or a low polygon analogue.

If you want the bullet to damage the ship, add cloth FX to the ship (limiting it to the area the bullet will hit, and the bullet should dent the ship inwards (use some high resistance settings) You might also need to add size to the particles for this to work...

[flydls]

Try these links
http://www.flay.com/LinksDetail.cfm?LinkID=577

www.flay.com/plugs/downloads/f_MissileScene.zip

[Role]

Sorry for the late reply, ive been quite busy with uni assignments and such.

Thank you both for the help i appriciate it alot :thumbsup:


I have one last question which i could also do with some help on.


The collisions i have emitters attached to my ship which is higher in height compared ot my other ship. Now ive been trying all ways to make it so when the emitter fires the partical heads straight towards the other ship and collides with it whilst its moving.

Ive tried using the motion>target setting in the emitter but it doesent seem to be working. The emiited particles just keep going straight and over the top of the other ship.

Is what i am attempting to do actually possible, if so how?

Thanks once again in advance

Role

[Dodgy]

They'll be going towards the pivot of your other ship. Is it in the centre of the other ship?

[Role]

I have a collision fx event attached to my target ship which surface area is quite small, that is in the center of my target ship if thats what you mean?

My emitter is attached to the other ship on tyo one of the ships guns which i have made, but as i say when a particle is emmitted it just heads for the target ship but always gos over the top of it.

[badllarma]

This maybe useful as well
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/dpont/plugins/ParticlePaint.html

[Role]

Ah thank you badllarma, that is plugin is great! :D

Ok I’ve kinda sussed my problem, I needed to reduce the particle velocity for the particle to hit the other ship.

But I have a question about it:

The collision I did was just one of many which I would like to perform on the ships that are moving but throughout the course of my animation / video the ships are going to be at different vertical positions.

Would that mean I would have to make separate emitters / triggers for each vertical height if I wanted to do collisions at each of these vertical positions on the ship, or is their no way I can just lock it so the particle will always hit the other ship or just narrowly pass it by?

Cheers once again and thank you all for all the help so far

Role

[badllarma]

I don't know how this would effect your "collision fx event" but if you are wanting the shots to go all over (and some to hit the ship) why not use your target reference as a null rather than the ship itself.

In which case you just move the null to where you want the shot to go for each shot and when the null is place within one of your target ships (@ a given keyframe) the collision fx on the surface of the ship should do it's stuff. Then on the next shot (if you want it to miss) move the target null out of the ships hull and into space some where.

Each battery of guns could have it's own target null so you could control the where each of them was aiming at each keyframe of fire. Not really up on collision fx myself but I'd do it that way round.
You could also add a master null aim control (or something like) which you could control all the batteries aiming nulls via one main controler with an offset for each one, just my 2p worth any way.

BTW in Star Wars EP III they did it all procedurally to work out what guns fired and what got hit (if you battle is that big) may be worth thinking in that direction as well.

[Role]

Ah k thx ive given it ago but i think ive hit a brick wall, i did what you suggested badllarma but for some reason the emitted particles are still just going straight and no where near to the target, ven though i have set the emitters to target, the target.

Do i need to perfrom calculations so it focuses on the target, if so then i think i have a major prob.

My movie is 1800 frames and it has quite a few polys which i cant reduce, everytime i try to calculate a collision lightwave locks up, now im running lightwave version 8.5 and i have tried just rendering the frames form where the emitter fires the particle to where it collides with the other ship but still no luck :S.

Is there any way i can get round this or am i suffed? :)

[HowardM]

you must always calculate to get correct sims!
when you use Target, it only targets the objects center, not the surface of an object!
what you need is an expression or plugin to use a null as your targeting object, and aim it where you want an emitter to point at...
is that what you want?

btw, use FXBrowser and you can see % of sim done, and you can use CTRL to stop it if it seems locked up.... and not sure exactly what youre doing, maybe post pix/anims, but maybe you dont need that many polys in the scene? its always good to have a trimmed down scene just to calculate the dynamics, which then you save and load into the final scene...;)

[badllarma]

If your having issues with the scene being to poly heavy why not render out the scene then create new objects based only on the pannels that will be hit and comp then together
E.G

Ship_A is 40,000 polys but only gets hit three times render out the full scene then take Ship A into modeler delete all the ploys EXCEPT the areas where it get hits so you now have an object with a few polys here and there maybe a max of 100 polys import that new object "Ship__hitploys.lwo" replace Ship_A with the new object and run your collisonFX on that object then render out and comp the two renders together with the Ship_hitploys.lwo over the other in the comp.
You get the calculation without the render hit then.

Compositing is your friend :D

BTW HowardM IS the man for particleFX type of work advice :thumbsup: :)

[Role]

what you need is an expression or plugin to use a null as your targeting object, and aim it where you want an emitter to point at...
is that what you want?

Yea thats exactally what i require,

oh cheers for telling me about particle fx i had no idea about it, lol


If your having issues with the scene being to poly heavy why not render out the scene then create new objects based only on the pannels that will be hit and comp then together

I could try that but i was wanting to do a few collisions and i dont really have them planned out, it would just be easier for me at this stage if i could get the collisions working quick and easy although nothings ever a quick and easy job with computers lol.

I will bare that in mind next time i model something as i say this is really my first large-ish scale attempt at anything in lightwave.

Oh i think you all deserve to know what im up to seeing as im pestering you all on the forums :):

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/xRolex/untitled1.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/xRolex/untitled2.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/xRolex/untitled3.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/xRolex/untitled4.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/xRolex/untitled5.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/xRolex/untitled6.jpg

[Role]

when you use Target, it only targets the objects center, not the surface of an object!
what you need is an expression or plugin to use a null as your targeting object, and aim it where you want an emitter to point at...

Any idea where i cna get this sort of plugin?


thx once agian

[HowardM]

here ya go try this... :D

[HowardM]

just noticed a strange bug, when you load the scene, the emitter loses the null as the target, so reassign the null as target in the emitter.
strange enough, if you load it and hit FXStart, it will work until you open the emitter...
this happen for you guys?

[Role]

A cheers dude your a star i will let you know how get on :D

[Role]

Ok ive given it a shot, it worked but the problem is when i parented it to my space ship it would only fire forward and would stop following the target (I used the exact follower settings as well) :S.

It works fine when the emitter is not parented. I even went one step further and used the parenter modifier to see if that would suss the problem but the same thing happend again.

So im at another brick wall anyone care to push me over lol?

Cheers everyone so far for the help :thumbsup: you cna tell me to get lost now if you want lol

[HowardM]

I ended up not using the Follower plugin, so dont try that....just make sure you set Target under motion modifier AND in the emitter.
Not sure about the parenting to the ship, will have to test later at home...

[Role]

Yea ive tried what you suggested HowardM but still no luck :S

Its' weird the emitter works absolutely fine not being parented but when the emitter is parented it just gos back to its old ways. :(

[Role]

Any ideas? :stumped:

[HowardM]

yes, i want to build a machine that makes sushi out of grass!
oh...wait... you meant this ;)

dunno what your setup is, but this works fine...