Subunit help

[Ardis]

Yeah, images.dat. It looks like overlay 2 is responsible for the building fires, or just something building specific because I haven't found any units that use overlay 2.

[Xenon]

I think overlays are also used for stuff like thrusters and the orange burst that appears in front of the Battlecruiser when it fires.

[IskatuMesk]

No, those are pure iscript.

[Ardis]

Excuse my stupid question, but what exactly is contained in the .lo* overlay files, anyway?

[IskatuMesk]

They are used to generate offsets for things like tank turrets (which aren't centered on the units), probably because attaching stuff on iscript offsets wasn't accurate enough to keep it straight at certain angles.

[Durandal-Thoth]

No, those are pure iscript.

Well, the Battlecruiser does have an attack overlay, but I'm fairly sure it's a purely aesthetic thing.

[IskatuMesk]

.... yes? I don't think anyone was saying it was anything other than an overlay.

[Ardis]

So, what you are saying is that they set the position for the subunit?

EDIT: Good news. By setting the Valkyrie's overlay 3 to the Phoenix.lol (the Wraith's Overlay 3) I managed to add a sub-unit to the Valkyrie with no major crashes.

[ShadowFlare]

Do you mean images.dat? I am not sure of the exact function of those overlays, but they are responsible for fire graphics on damaged buildings. They can also cause crashes, because said fire graphics really, REALLY hate animation changes on buildings and will often crash if they are so much as touched the wrong way.

Any crashes on that are simply because the .lo* file does not have as many "frames" as the .grp file has.  If you add at least as many as the .grp file has, then it does not crash.  I figured this out on my own while I was making some mod where the buildings looked like units and could turn to face their target.  While it does not crash, there is still one glitch when giving a flame or blood overlay (with a .lof file) to a building that turns.  SC was not designed to support this, so when such a building turns left, it messes up the settings in the .lof file for which flame overlays are visible and ends up making one show that was not supposed to.

A way to remedy this is to have use a separate images.dat entry with a blank graphic and that is not set to turn and give the flame or blood overlay to that.  Then in the iscript, spawn that image overlay at the beginning.  This way the overlay that shows the flames or blood will not turn, therefore avoiding the glitch.  If you simply want a flame overlay to put over any units or buildings in the same place on all of them when damaged, just a single images.dat entry could be used for all of them.  This also would not require making a .lof file with lots of frames.

[Ardis]

So, how would one be able to edit a .lo* file, anyway? Or is this one of those things that should just stay untouched?

[Durandal-Thoth]

LO*Edit.

Duh.

http://www.starcraft.org/downloads/Cust ... rt/LO?Edit

ShadowFlare- could that be why I'm experiencing problems with a particular unit of mine? I made a reaver and gave it building flags, edited the iscript so that it wouldn't crash or anything, and gave it movement, but whenever it dies it tends to crash. Same thing happens when I have the fire overlay on it.

[Ardis]

Do you mean images.dat? I am not sure of the exact function of those overlays, but they are responsible for fire graphics on damaged buildings. They can also cause crashes, because said fire graphics really, REALLY hate animation changes on buildings and will often crash if they are so much as touched the wrong way.

Any crashes on that are simply because the .lo* file does not have as many "frames" as the .grp file has.  If you add at least as many as the .grp file has, then it does not crash.  I figured this out on my own while I was making some mod where the buildings looked like units and could turn to face their target.  While it does not crash, there is still one glitch when giving a flame or blood overlay (with a .lof file) to a building that turns.  SC was not designed to support this, so when such a building turns left, it messes up the settings in the .lof file for which flame overlays are visible and ends up making one show that was not supposed to.

A way to remedy this is to have use a separate images.dat entry with a blank graphic and that is not set to turn and give the flame or blood overlay to that.  Then in the iscript, spawn that image overlay at the beginning.  This way the overlay that shows the flames or blood will not turn, therefore avoiding the glitch.  If you simply want a flame overlay to put over any units or buildings in the same place on all of them when damaged, just a single images.dat entry could be used for all of them.  This also would not require making a .lof file with lots of frames.

Let me clarify. You're saying that you can make a moving unit burn by doing this?

This would help with one of my other ideas.

My iscripter told me this idea wouldn't work. It was that when the command center took off, it would be able to fly around and turn like a regular flying unit that would be able to turn and attack.

This was his response:
[[It is indeed impossible. There was a mod, an ancient one, which brought a ship-building known as Colossus (DON"T CONFUSE IT WITH THE SC2 PROTOSS UNIT!!!), however, everywhere you clicked, the ship turned on it's production mode, and the exits were blocked if not put on the right direction, and the makers never fixed that bug. No, I think it's better we leave the buildings in one direction. But, heh, that's me.]]

My idea, I'm not sure how Iscripting works exactly and what it controls exactly, but would iscripting be able to order the command center to turn to face the proper direction when it was ordered to land?

[Durandal-Thoth]

Yeah, just have it play a specific frame before landing.

It might look choppy, but I'm sure it could be worse.

[Ardis]

Yeah, just have it play a specific frame before landing.

It might look choppy, but I'm sure it could be worse.

Cool, I'm more focused on making these cool ideas work (and having them work stable) than making it look good.

I already brought it up with my iscripter.