Flame thrower dos/windows

[lgb3d]

Other than rockets and grenades, have you ever wanted another form of player projectile. Perhaps short range something along the lines of a flamethrower?

In this tutorial I will demonstrate a relatively convincing flamethrower.

This is based on theory, my recent testing has demonstrated it is possible.

youtu.be/sEFAL1ScEW0

You see how the flame travels forward, when not aimed accurately completely misses the guards .. but with a straight shot I caught three of them on fire . As well I burned a line through a herd of guards..

This is technically not a projectile this is an illusion but as you seen in the video it comes off pretty clean.

This concept came to mind after seeing the fire extinguisher, I believe the game's title was terminal terror.

The remnants of this inventory item are hidden in the rocket launcher fld txt, with some mild tweaking.. i think its possible..

Ideally I want to make this short range maybe "600-800 units" and not have the Flames travel as far, and I want to script it so it Loops rapidly when you're holding the trigger like machine gun..

Since I have discovered how to make the weapons rise to action, it's just as easy to make them drop away. So I'm imagining there will be a flamethrower graphic when you pull the trigger that graphic will demonstrate it's about to burst and it starts falling back toward the player out of visibility when the flames travel forward. When the player releases the fire button the graphic of the flamethrower will rise back up into view Center screen.

I'm not quite there yet things aren't polished.. when I do have it I'm going to post directions here as well as a cheat sheet text which can be copied and pasted..

[lgb3d]

It's coming along

youtube.com/shorts/oP5x1OYRo04?feature=share

... I'm experiencing a few irritating hiccups.

First.. I cannot edit the "***fat.vga" file without creating a weird scenario where when you pick up or switch to the weapon the gameplay screen will Flash a few times

Second.. I discovered with the Dos GCS whenever I edit modify or make a new WAV file, it will not work in gameplay.

I'm sure me or someone else will figure out these two minor Details as neither caused the game to crash or any serious problem but it's like missing a single heartbeat..



Weapon graphic demonstrates burst


A fraction of a second later a separate graphic starts traveling like an optical illusion forward


Within that Split Second the weapon is gone in the video you will recognize how quick this happens it really appears that flame is traveling out away from the gun


A split second later the guard ignites



Another part in that video that The Casual viewer would miss.. my ammunition gets down to the number two, and I fire a burst out away from anyone, notice the flame doesn't travel very far. Like a gas can getting low not much pressure to throw that flame.

At any and every opportunity I put a branch for no ammo. So no matter where it is in the animation the animation will halt when there is no animation and jump back to the frame of the player pulling the trigger and the blue flash of an igniter.. but no flames.

Another thing I've been experimenting with is the -6 and -7 triggers.. I'm yet to come to a conclusion..

I find if I have my animation set up a specific way that -6 forces me to double tap.. before animation will advance..

But -7 is single action..

I do have a few Graphics of a small flame dancing at the tip of the gun.

So I want to try to get it where the player has to ignite the gun and the flame will sit there dancing waiting for him to hit the trigger again at which time it will deal damage to the enemies..

But so far experimenting with this that falls in conflict of the branch when no ammo.

I have a theory in concept of a weapon with dual triggers, although there's only one fire key, if I grind on it hard enough I might be able to figure out how to make this work. If I can figure it out it might result in the ability to have a weapon that can shoot like a gun or launch a grenade. Just a thought but this flamethrower is definitely the first experiment in these type commands ..





.......

This could be it but I'm not satisfied, as this was inspired by something I seen in terminal terror..

The fire extinguisher and the fire extinguisher alone is the only thing that could stop the fire animation.

Looking at the FLD file for the fire extinguisher the first two frames are really interesting, the delay time as well as it wanting to skip to frame 3 when skipping to frame 2 is where it needs to and does land.

Something I've learned messing with these FLD files, when Pie in the Sky demonstrates what should be an illegal delay time we need to pay attention they're showing us a trick.

Suggest a minor hypothesis. The fire animation in that game was not Branch when shot, it was waiting for the player to be close and then waiting for a universal register..

So in the fire extinguisher that odd illegal delay time is 515...?

A magic number with the GCS is perpetually 256, and oddly enough all we get is 256 Universal registers..

so the 515 followed by a 3... ummm I can't make any sense of it, as I'm a bald man I'm going to wind up losing my whole beard until I figure out what exact Universal register that combination of numbers is triggering and why a number three skips to frame to when the delay of 515 is found in zero, as all of these skip to always excludes the frame it's on Counting from one not from zero.

Sorry thanks to myself I'm not figuring this out in reverse without something to compare it to if I had the original FLD file for that fire I would be able to decode what's going on here

The version of Dos gcs i downloaded somebody did us a favor back in 2013.. came with various libraries, one that appears to be from terminal terror and another one that suggested is the animations and it has quite a few of the FLD animation files..

Fire1.fld jumped out at me.. but when I go to explore it all it says is Branch if the players close and damage the player, there's nothing that stops the fire removes the fire no Universal registers nothing.. so I don't see any way that that specific FLD relates to ever having experience with the firework extinguisher weapon..

.......

If I can decode and figure out how the fire extinguisher worked in that game to extinguish a fire..

Then we would be able to use that in Reverse to control the outcome of animated objects..

If you use Branch when shot with an animation it doesn't matter if you kick it shoot it or blow it up with an explosion it goes to the same place a shot is a shot..

But what if the weapon FLD file could Implement a universal register value.

Then if I have an animation of a cardboard box,

I kick it it gets a dent

I shoot it bullet holes appear

I goo it it becomes a puddle of goo..

I hit it with an explosion little pieces of cardboard left on the ground.

But if I use a flamethrower it would catch on fire..

I couldn't catch it on fire kicking it now could I?

Thanks for bearing with me on this I thought I had something but it's definitely going to take a little more research before I'm there. I definitely think this is a worthwhile experiment. As well it would be a quick experiment if I had the original FLD file from that game ugh...

Sweet lady GCS shrouded in mystery

[lgb3d]

Making progress..

Today Chris posted a link to download some documentation for gcsp. The GCS advertised and marketed for C programmers..

The Nugget of gold I found in this documentation was good descriptions and explanations that assist with overall animation, but just as much and more so apply to understanding weapon scripting through text documents.

In weapon scripting there's a specific column for frame delay time.. they did their best in the machine gun text to give a simplistic overview of how to modify these documents, and they probably did a few kids favors by not going too deep into detail in that text document.. but this gcsp documentation I read today made sense of those bizarre numbers..

I had already experimented quite a bit with numbers trying to thank logically and made some discoveries as we all can tell from my prolific posting on this forum, but this documentation really cleared up some of my misconceptions and allowed me to go about my mission surgically.

I will finish up this thread soon, I'm the type of guy who keeps too many fires burning, I just need to pick a day and say I'm going to sit down and finish the flamethrower yet the concept involved in achieving this almost demands another thread.

.......

The flamethrower concept works perfect when combating 4th scripted enemies..

But as described above I wanted to take it a step further motivated by what I seen with the fire extinguisher in terminal terror..

That aspect would be having unique animated objects that would react differently to different weapons. I don't need to repeat myself I already wrote all this above..

So recent discoveries have proven this is very possible, and although I have not finished the flamethrower the following two videos are going to demonstrate how close to complete this is.

I'm including the explosive barrels video because it's somewhat relevant as it's utilizing some of this technique, but it's sending it back in Reverse compared to the way I imagined applying this.. but on the other hand although it's Reverse of what I desired for the flamethrower, it was a much-needed GCS gameplay ability that was missed overlooked or not employed.

In this video I have an animated object "Explosive Barrel" that sends off an invisible blast that does not result in enemies receiving a normal death but a gib death.. so this is an example of an animated object in the game sending off a specific register that triggers another animation to a case specific outcome..
youtube.com/shorts/6saJVL4xb-s?feature=share

Imagine to yourself that Barrel did not just explode, exploding to what it did first but it left a puddle of flammable fluid on the ground that ignited. Sure all the enemies who were present at the explosion became pieces on the ground, but then that looping animation of the flame could catch anybody who wandered by too close on fire, or perhaps even nearby wood objects.. I hope you see where I'm going with this it applies to the flamethrower concept.. it's as much an animated object as the weapons the player uses... just in reverse

Next example is closer to the desired unique weapon interaction with animated objects..

The enemies you see in this video are FLD animations with no frame position, they have one objective to stand and shoot at the player.. when strategically placed they can guard a doorway or whatnot and once the player is within a predetermined radius (I typically base this radius on level layout) within line of sight they open fire. they are fairly aggressive and impossible to pass, if the player gets too close they trigger Universal register 127 with a unique value that is sent to GCS menu for a death sequence.. but that's not what I'm demonstrating here. Just explaining this animation's role and why animations need to have various reactions to different forms of weapons.. I have them set where they receive a lot of damage before they die using "add value to register" so until the value is enough to push them into their death sequence there is no getting by them. With that setup you could waste a lot of grenades or Rockets, and even if you did so it would only reward you with the normal death sequence. If the player was trapped and had to get past one of these guys I would want the player to have the option of taking him out with one shot from a rocket or grenade, and this evening that became possible as you will see in this video..
youtube.com/shorts/V_JHu4507j0?feature=share

Although it's off thread topic here's another clip of what happens when you get too close to one of these boogers.. just so you understand why I want to give the player an option other than wasting ammunition and being able to utilize explosive one shot kill with an animated FLD enemy.
youtube.com/shorts/bQDuEut6OAk?feature=share

And yes I noticed when register 127 is called his image is of him just standing there, I have fixed that so that when the player dies what he sees is the enemies Barrel blazing as that's what the GCS menu animation demonstrates occurred..

I'll get back to it soon and finish this thread... but now I definitely know I'm very much closer to making a thread on weapon scripting as I've been Gathering a lot of information doing a lot of experiments as is very visible by my prolific posting in this forum.. and now this gcsp documentation filling in so many blanks ;p

Thank you for reading and I really look forward to someone other than me utilizing the GCS I can't wait to see what others create.

[lgb3d]

This is a little better visual demonstration of a video from my last post. The FLD enemies unique reaction to different weapons..

I modified their final normal death Loop to wait for the universal registered triggered by the explosion, if not present they skip a frame that would Branch if shot.

So when they're dead on the ground I can't kick them I can't shoot them, but I can still blow them up.

youtube.com/shorts/2nFn_dWjvAc?feature=share

[lgb3d]

Okay I need to admit defeat on this one.

My concept of being able to trigger Universal registers with a weapon itself does not work. Therefore I'm not going to be able to kick a cardboard box shoot it catch it on fire and blow it up..

So I believe I've taken this flamethrower concept as far as I can.

I did gain much experience and knowledge through this experiment, which I can share in a separate thread about weapon scripting.

Although I do feel I'm taking a loss on my grand scheme for the flamethrower, I have discovered with the basic dos or Windows GCS it is possible to effect animated objects by shot or blast damage at minimum three ways.

......

The only way through weapons I discovered I am able to trigger Universal registers, is through the fluid files that are triggered by projectile weapons.

Example a rocket a grenade or a gas grenade. All of which insert at a fixed location a animation of the explosion or whatnot.

It's my belief with gcsp this would work, and perhaps that is how they got that fire extinguisher to work in terminal terror.

There might be something I'm missing somebody else might be able to figure it out but right now that's the conclusion I'm coming to.

..........

On another note, as I am using grenades or rockets for Gib explosion, and tear or gas grenades for fire explosions. I will be able to shoot explode or set fire to animated objects. Shooting is self-explanatory explode only happens with a rocket or a grenade and fire only occurs with a gas or tear grenade.

....

One of the hangups. The stock GCS does not give any access to alter projectiles.. if that was possible, I could control what FLD the projectile triggered and brought into the world as well make an invisible projectile without losing the rocket grenade or gas grenade.

Another interesting part I've noticed before but not been able to resolve, stock GCS comes with 3 explosion flds. The normal explosion the gas explosion and the tear gas. A "-3" is what triggers a grenade to be thrown..

The weapons text comes with a hand grenade and a gas grenade, there is no difference between the two of them but for some reason one throws an explosion the other throws gas. The engine must be set to recognize the VGA for the hand grenade inventory as any other time you place a grenade it places handle number 3609 which is the gas grenade.. believe me I spent time trying to figure this out somebody might be able to but for me it is what it is.

"-9" launches a rocket.. but no matter how many different weapons you place it on it always results in the explosion FLD. Although in the weapon def and Pickups text both list a rocket for tear gas..?

That does not mean we cannot use the weapon attribute elsewhere, as I have.. but we are limited to 2 forms of explosion from projectiles. Rockets are always explosion and for some reason the hand grenade is the only grenade explosion any other form of grenade results in gas.

...

In the end I'm satisfied with it, it's not a long range weapon. The guards I am making as animated objects you cannot get close to, and have to strategically take out they almost demand long range projectile weapons.. so in that sense I can still gib my animations and Catch Fire to them.

Although it's not 100% what I desired I am proud of it it came out pretty nice.

When the player picks it up it raises into view the player pulls the trigger once and it ignites and a flame dances at the tip pulls the trigger again and it sends off a burst of Fire, hold the trigger and it will just empty the fuel tank... run out of gas and when you attempt to ignite it you'll get this hopeful little there's a flame there no no there's no gas.

youtu.be/eYy2Fcc3SXo

Next post on this thread I will detail the script and how its script works

[lgb3d]

; FLAME THROWER im pretty satisfied with this..
; was GOOGUN FLUID
2 2011 0 0 30 0 1 0 52 -1 ;0 gun low coming up
2 2011 0 0 25 0 1 0 52 -1 ;1 gun a little higher
2 2011 0 0 20 0 1 0 52 -1 ;2 gun a little higher, first 3 only when pickup
2 2011 0 0 14 0 1 0 52 -1 ;3 gun at ready
2 2011 -6 0 14 0 256 3 52 -1 ;4 -6 press fire to advance, 256 loop back to 3
2 2016 0 0 12 0 5888 51 52 -1 ;5 spark graphic 5888 play sound 51
2 2014 0 0 13 0 1 10 52 -1 ;6 flame dancing
2 2015 -7 0 13 0 256 6 52 -1 ;7 -7 press fire to advance, 256 loop back to 6
2 2015 -1 0 13 0 1 8 52 -1 ;8 -1 first shot 8=skip 8 frames if no ammo
2 2014 0 0 15 0 5889 51 52 -1 ;9 5889 play sound 51
2 2013 0 0 18 0 1 0 52 -1 ;10 flame swell at barrel
2 2090 -1 0 10 0 1 5 45 -8 ;11 -1 fire 5=skip 5 frames if no ammo
2 2091 -1 0 5 0 1 4 50 8 ;12 -1 fire 4=skip 4 frames if no ammo
2 2092 -1 0 0 0 1 3 75 -10 ;13 -1 fire 3=skip 3 frames if no ammo
2 2090 -1 0 -10 0 1 2 100 10 ;14 -1 fire 2=skip 2 frames if no ammo
2 2091 -8 0 -25 0 1 7 150 -5 ;15 -8 branch if holding trigger to frame 7
2 2000 0 0 14 0 256 3 52 -1 ;16 if not holding trigger return to start
2 2016 0 0 20 0 1 0 52 -1 ;17 no ammo spark graphic
2 2011 0 0 14 0 256 3 52 -1 ;18 no ammo 256 branch to frame 3


notice the 5th 9th and 10th columns on frames 11 -15 .. these frames use the handle number for a fire type graphic, the last two columns are the distance from player 9th column, and the left right of center, "negative and positive numbers" 10th column "where they are drawn" on the screen. In the 5th column the greater a positive number is lower, the greater a negative number is higher, so that is how the flame appears to be rising from off screen until you can see the bottom of the graphic. These number demonstrate the flame is moving upwards forward and swaying left and right.

you will notice column 5 used throughout this animation, the first three frames are only occur when player picks up or switches to this weapon.. and you see the weapon rise in to view.. when the player pulls the trigger the gun drops a little lower.. jerks when the spark flame ect..

Again the flame is an optical illusion, and dose not actually travel away from the player. Since this is a short range weapon, The optical illusion is enough to be convincing, the flame is not far ahead of you, so it makes since when enemies at a greater distance are not effected by the weapon.

multiple -1 result in using more than 1 unit of ammo when you press the trigger.. so every time you press the trigger this weapon uses 5 ammo units "-1x5" you will notice in the video i modified the weapon vga to have a % sign after the # of ammo, so it appears its working on % of a fuel tank.. the multiple -1 work to better demonstrate there is a flame in front of the player.. if there was only 1 -1 pulling the trigger would only hit who was in front of you at that instant. having multiple on multiple frames means damage is dealt to anyone in front of player when that frame aka fire sequence is concurring. So you can see in videos i can catch a whole crowd by pulling the trigger once and spinning to ether side.

more or less that is how this one works. notice i put notes after ";" to explain what is occurring and what input numbers are doing what.
...............

If anyone has question feel free to ask.

this topic pushed me further in to the weapon animation topic, and I will discuss other discoveries "pretty cool stuff" on another thread. Including some answers to confusion I had about how the original fire extinguisher txt read.. That actually provides a pretty cool trick.

[lgb3d]

Any frustration or hair I lost through the learning curve on this topic.. this video should demonstrate it was worth it..

My flamethrower in all its dos gcs glory

Enjoy

youtu.be/FY3G-MwihjA