Displacement Entities

shiftey · Post by **shiftey** » Sat May 09, 2009 6:44 am

So I have looked around and it appears that displacements can in no way be tied to an entity.

Maybe somebody has an alternate solution to my problem.

In HL2, many headcrab canisters appeared throughout the game in giant ditches created with displacements. I'm trying to recreate these craters but make it so they don't appear until after a canister crashes. However, due to the fact that displacements can't be turned on/off or created/destroyed, I'm not able to accomplish this.

Does anybody have a viable solution besides cutting a func_brush up into a million little cubes?

Steam · Post by **Shana** » Sat May 09, 2009 6:46 am

Making it a model maybe.

Mr. Someguy · Post by **Mr. Someguy** » Sat May 09, 2009 6:57 am

Can't you just make the displacement always there, then have a breakable brush over it, then have that brush break when the canister lands?

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Sun May 10, 2009 3:55 am

Model would be best.

Or (the func_brush idea dosen't have to be a million pieces), make your crater, bring up a flat square brush like you'd have water on displacements, pehaps with a bit of vertex editing for a simple bump or two. And have it as a func_breakable (not func_brush)and choose some appropriate gibs. concrete is normally good for rubble.

Its the best solution if you dont want to make a model. you can rotate your bumped brush around so it dosen't always look the same and make 2-3 variants.

Mr. Someguy · Post by **Mr. Someguy** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:16 am

fug4life wrote:Or (the func_brush idea dosen't have to be a million pieces), make your crater, bring up a flat square brush like you'd have water on displacements, pehaps with a bit of vertex editing for a simple bump or two. And have it as a func_breakable (not func_brush)and choose some appropriate gibs. concrete is normally good for rubble.

Exactly what I said, just worded better.

shiftey · Post by **shiftey** » Sun May 10, 2009 6:16 am

I guess making a model is the best option, although it's a bit of extra work. At least texturing it will be simple, being how that is always the hardest part of making a model.

Blues · Post by **Blues** » Mon May 11, 2009 3:11 pm

There is a point entity that can transform displacements. i don't remember the name though.

so you could just put a displacement under the ground displacement, set the entity to pull it up and activate it when the canister crashes.

KON_Air · Post by **KON_Air** » Mon May 11, 2009 3:38 pm

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... rrainmorph

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Mon May 11, 2009 4:08 pm

Well, I never....

Something new I've learn't today.

Blues · Post by **Blues** » Mon May 11, 2009 4:13 pm

The entity's called env_terrainmorph. It seems to be bugged though and doesn't affect the physics of the displacement it's exerting its force on.
So you could just turn that displacement non-solid from the beginning, to use a little less collision data in your map.

Edit: oh, lol, hadn't noticed your post before, KON_Air

KON_Air · Post by **KON_Air** » Mon May 11, 2009 5:30 pm

Actually the hull update is irrevelant, player wouldn't be able to notice that and crabs already hop out of the canister plus canister has its own collision.