GREETZ hax fans! Let's make things spin right round like a record baby.

This entity hack is actually pretty easy, it lets you make a rotating object in stock /id1/ quake, but is somewhat limited in what you can do. What we are going to do is make some non-solid, non-interactive rotating objects. Good for things like a ceiling fan that you will never interact with and just spins forever. I've actually used it before in my sm170 speedmap quite awhile ago, but it seems went unnoticed (negke hadn't heard of this method when I told him about it last night).

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Ok, so first off, you need to make a func_wall fan object at the origin of the world. Make it's center at (0, 0, 0) in the world, this defines where it will rotate around. You'll need this entity's modelindex, so it may be best to make sure it's the first object in your .map file. As explained by some other hacks in this thread, the modelindex is a number given by Quake to each model in a level and lets us instance those models to other entities. The command 'edicts' in Quakespasm/Fitz/etc will help you find this number on entities in your level.

Now, where ever you want to have a rotating fan, place an info_notnull with the following properties:
"classname" "info_notnull"
"avelocity" "0 256 0"
"movetype" "8"
"model" "*1"
"modelindex" "2"

That's it! Obviously, use the modelindex of the func_wall fan you made. avelocity is the part that makes it spin, is the same thing that makes weapon items spin. Here we are spinning around the Y axis at 256 somethingspeed, this is good for a ceiling fan but you'll want to experiment with what is right for you! You can use negative values if you want to spin in the opposite direction.

Another key aspect is the movetype key being set to 8, this means MOVETYPE_NOCLIP in .qc, which is a movetype that allows objects to be rotated with avelocity.

Example .map and .bsp Enjoy! 

Thanks! We need fans in these hot, hellish environments! 

Really Cool! 

You better believe I'm gonna abuse that hack. 

I just fiddled around with the rotation thing and you can totally have multiple objects, as long as they do not necessarily need to be shadowed. Even if you need 2 shadowed objects you can still do it with a bit of a caveat.

The source func_wall does not need to be at 0 0 0.

If it will only rotate on the z axis (world, which is y for the object, why is this shit mixed up, btw?) you can move it up and down on the world axis ( and if we want rotation on another axis of course that would work too, just move on the according axis) so that it does not overlap with another object there that needs to be lit.

Now you only need to move the info_notnull up or down counter the direction you moved the func_wall. For this to work the properly the info_notnull still has to be inside the world and ideally visible from all the points to the player where it would be would it not be shifted around. If that happens the object might disappear. That in itself could be used for some weird effects too though.

I was wondering if it might be possible somehow to give the info_notnull or the func_wall some kind of offset modifier so that the info_notnull can actually be at where the object should appear, without being shifted if the origin is not 0 0 0. 

is it possible to use it in conjunction with a func train to make a moving spinning blade trap thing? 

 

the rotation values are odd because I'm pretty sure it's using Pitch, Yaw, and Roll, so rotation around the Z ends up as the second value. 

Yeah, I think that is right. 

I just made a clock in my map using this method. I noticed that the further away from 0 0 0 your func walls are the bigger the arc they travel in.

Also, there are other movetypes that also work, some that rotate as the object falls to the ground. Could be interesting to play with on a low gravity map.

Some more ideas for this, moon / sun / planets orbiting your map. A scale model of the solar system. Gears, or clockwork in maps. A fully sick car with spinning wheels. A spinning leek... I'm sure there are more. 

Here's a "hack"... in the id maps!

I was zooming around e1m4 when I noticed a funny looking block with an Ogre walking into it... Using sock's mod with path's visualized to show what is up:

http://scampie.net/etc/ogrepath_wait.jpg

Turns out, that block is a func_door on top of the first path_corner in a sequence the Ogre is trying to walk to... so it can never reach it and ends up sitting there forever!...

Until a trigger lowers the block out of the way. The Ogre can continue to walk out the door and eventually gets placed into a path_corner loop on the dock over the water. The end result is like a scripted sequence of triggering the ogre to walk out of the door on demand!

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It's odd because it's very unlikely a player will ever notice this happen, the ogre walks so slow and the trigger that lowers the block is right at the edge of the water... In all honesty, if this were me, I would've just teleported that Ogre onto the dock when the player was out of view. But what id did here was make a basic scripted sequence with their primitive tools that only a few % of people might notice... But you might just hear the door open, and see the ogre lazily walk out and it makes the world so much more alive. It's wonderful :D 

and the way monster teleporting works in vanilla is only slightly less of a goofy "hack" really. 

yeah, and mods as early as zerstorer 'unhacked' it and added progs functionality to just trigger a monster to make it appear.

id may have just never bothered developing anything better than teleport boxes because that's what they had in Doom. You built a long tiny tunnel to propagate sound into a room full of monsters to get them angry, then tagged a door in the room to open and reveal a teleport linedef and then just hope all the monsters eventually crossed it as they wandered angrily around said room. id probably thought having the 3rd dimension on their side to make monsters fall directly into the teleport brush was high technology. 

Has it really been more than 3 months since the last hack? Well, good things come to those who wait.

https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/high-fps-texture-animations/

Today's hack offers a trick to upgrade the 5 fps animated textures into 10 fps animated textures instead. This should benefit maps with waterfalls and lava flows a great deal... 

Im not sure I know this one, can someone explain it or point to a resource that explains it? 

My intro to map hacks post uses info_notnull and mentions why we like it so much

https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/triggered-explosions/ 

Thanks for posting this Preach! It will be interesting to look into at some point. Your waterfalls are already at a pretty high fps so I take it this wouldn't' do much/anything for them correct? 

abutton1, bbutton1, cbutton1....mind blown!

Whoa! func_wall.use changes texture...mind blown again!

Double wammy there Preach. 

Thanks for posting this Preach! It will be interesting to look into at some point. Your waterfalls are already at a pretty high fps so I take it this wouldn't' do much/anything for them correct?

This trick is really for animations on BSP object, things made out of brushes. My waterfalls are in .mdl format so they aren't applicable to this trick. However, I think this will be great for making waterfalls in places where my model can't be used, e.g. in vanilla maps or spots where the waterfall has to be made to fit. 

Ah okay I was figuring that was the case. Always excited to get a new map hack from you. I already have numerous ones from the past implemented in my current project! 

Nice one! 

In theory you could go higher framerate and double it again for the framerate hack. just need to add another 2 layers of meshes switching at .25 and .75 seconds delay. I think I will have to give this a go at one point as well :) 

Neat trick I found. If you place a trigger push with a velocity of 100 right in front of a teleport the player won't be able to use it (if its angles are right, you could always suck the player in for a neat trap!). If you then place a trigger_monsterjump a hair bit in front of it and give it the same forward velocity of 100 but an up velocity of only 1, it will negate the push and let the monster teleport. You could reinforce the concept by putting a func_illusionary in front of it with a unique teleport texture. If you want to make the teleport useable later such as after a fight, you can killtarget the trigger_push and the func_illusionary. 

Sort of a neat trick as opposed to TE_TELEPORT effect at either side of the ent being teleported is if your engine has a .alpha field you could "fade" him out while non solid, hijack his think to be the fade function until hes perfectly transparent, then transport him, and fade him in using the same function in reverse. If done with the right timing it could look pretty good, and you could throw in a EF_BRIGHTFIELD at the end for maybe the last few frames while transporting, and the first few while "rematerializing"....

If the engine has EF_ADDITIVE for blending, I think it looks even better. 

info_notnull

targetname movingteleportdest1
target path1wp1
speed 200
avelocity "100 200 300"
solid | 0
movetype | 7
use train_use
nextthink 0.2
think func_train_find


Borrows code from the misc_teleporttrain to create a moving teleport destination that is invisible. Use in combination with a monster teleport box whose targetname is movingteleportdest1. Give a nice path above an area to drop in monster in a randomized locations. Put multiple monsters in the same long teleport box with only one teleport and you can cut down on trigger_teleport requirements, and add randomization.