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[G][Data] Changing The Xel'Naga Watchtower Model

Forum Index > SC2 Maps & Custom Games
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1 2 Next All
eTcetRa
Profile Joined November 2010
Australia822 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-17 14:09:33
August 17 2011 13:56 GMT
#1
[image loading]

Introduction
Good day team liquid mapping community! Today, i feel, is a good day to give something back to the community, so I have created this guide to changing certain properties of the xel'naga watchtower. This guide will give you the knowledge to change the model, size, and colour of the xel'naga watchtower using the data editor. I hope this guide will be helpful to some.

The map this guide is used on is called oZz Flamestrike, and is published on SEA, if anyone is interested in checking out the model in-game, or the map in general.

First off, lets take a look at this Xel'Naga Watchtower we are so used to seeing in almost every map.
+ Show Spoiler [Clicky for image] +
[image loading]
See now that cocky little bastard knows he reigns supreme.



Opening the Data Editor
First off, lets open up the Data Editor. To do that, either click on the Data Editor button on the top menu, or press F7:
[image loading]


Using the Data Editor
Once you are in the data editor scroll across to the Units Tab and use the Search Function to find Xel'Naga Tower:

[image loading]


When you click on Xel'Naga Tower, the data editor will bring up the properties of that unit (below the search function). These properties include: Abilities, Actors, Footprints, Models, Movers, Sounds, and Validators. The property which we want to deal with is Actors, specifically the Xel'Naga Tower (Unnamed) actor.

[image loading]



Clicking on this actor will bring up a menu to the right, where you will find many options. We want to use the Art Tab first. You will see the option, Model, which is the one we want to change. This will bring up a list of models that can be used, I will be using Xel'Naga Obeliskfor this guide, since that is what I will be using in my map.

[image loading]



So now we have done the basic model change we will make it so the model changes again when the tower has been activated. To do this we must switch over to the Events Tab (instead of the Art Tab), where a large list of events are shown.

We need to scroll down and find these ones:

[image loading]


So then we want to take the AnimBracketStart Work under Abil.TowerCapture.SourceStart and change the Msg Type to Model Swap. Then choose the Xel'Naga Obelisk & chose Variation 2.

Then change AnimBracketStop Work under Abil.TowerCapture.SourceStop and change the Msg Type to Model Swap. Then choose the Xel'Naga Obelisk & chose Variation 1.

So the settings would look like this:
[image loading]

And the result would be this:
[image loading]


That's it for the guide for now, I'll update it tomorrow, showing everyone how to use the Events Tab to alter the size and colour of the new tower, to achieve this:
+ Show Spoiler +
[image loading]




I'll also make this guide a lot easier to read over the course of this week.
Retired Mapmaker™
FlopTurnReaver
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Switzerland1980 Posts
August 17 2011 14:15 GMT
#2
Nice guide, I'm sure many people have waited for this and we won't be seeing a lot of standart XWT's anymore from here on^^
Check out @MapOfTheMonth on Twitter and under http://bit.ly/motmorg
Ragoo
Profile Joined March 2010
Germany2773 Posts
August 17 2011 16:45 GMT
#3
Fuck yeah! I have waited for this so long. Today I was thinking about figuring it out by myself and then create a bunch of custom models for the community, but I guess everyone can do it by himself now , so thx so much <3
Member of TPW mapmaking team/// twitter.com/Ragoo_ /// "goody represents border between explainable reason and supernatural" Cloud
NASAmoose
Profile Joined May 2011
United States231 Posts
August 17 2011 20:19 GMT
#4
Awesome, thanks so much :D
lefix
Profile Joined February 2011
Germany1082 Posts
August 17 2011 20:21 GMT
#5
looking forward to part 2
Map of the Month | The Planetary Workshop | SC2Melee.net
Gl!tch
Profile Joined December 2010
United States573 Posts
August 18 2011 02:14 GMT
#6
<3 tytytytytyty. Will be using this for all maps now :D
“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” ― Banksy
sashamunguia
Profile Joined February 2011
Mexico423 Posts
August 18 2011 02:26 GMT
#7
nice post, good to see some creativity on the towers, i was getting kinda bored of them
"only the need for meaning changes how you feel about what you see" "he who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life" "being a Rebel is as stupid as to be completely Obedient"
eTcetRa
Profile Joined November 2010
Australia822 Posts
August 18 2011 06:49 GMT
#8
Thanks everyone. If anyone has any feedback, or advice to make it easier to read. I'll update it with scaling and coloring at some point I just need to get my adobe products working again - what i payed for it *shifty eyes*
Retired Mapmaker™
Icetoad
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada262 Posts
August 18 2011 15:11 GMT
#9
Wow!! nice guide, I will certainly try it on my new maps, was getting tired of the same old tower that looks a lot out of place.
This guide should be certainly be put in the [Reference] Mapmaking Links Compilation >
Great post Holiver.
Map Maker of Nimbus
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
August 18 2011 15:22 GMT
#10
oh... I thought about asking this once or twice already... Great guide
Jackbo
Profile Joined December 2010
Korea (South)102 Posts
August 20 2011 02:58 GMT
#11
Hey, I tried this out and I'm fairly certain I did everything as instructed. The tower looks fine initially (in the closed position) and once I go near it with a unit, it opens up like you showed. However, when I retreat from it, and the tower is meant to deactivate, it does not close completely and return to its original closed form.

From then on, it does change when it gets activated, but it changes between different variations of "open". Is this working as intended?

Another thing I was wondering about is whether there's a way to make it so that flying units pass over the tower, instead of through it. The obelisk model is very tall, and as a result, it looks like flying units go through it, which is not an issue with the original xel'naga tower.
Gl!tch
Profile Joined December 2010
United States573 Posts
August 20 2011 03:09 GMT
#12
Another thing I was wondering about is whether there's a way to make it so that flying units pass over the tower, instead of through it. The obelisk model is very tall, and as a result, it looks like flying units go through it, which is not an issue with the original xel'naga tower.

I've encountered this as well ( on my current map project theres a tower that only accepts air units to control it ).

My solution was just to put a no fly zone right on it.
“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” ― Banksy
eTcetRa
Profile Joined November 2010
Australia822 Posts
August 20 2011 12:53 GMT
#13
Yes, I would have used the no-fly zone myself

As far as the open-close animations. I've had this issue myself, and I think its a bug. It sometimes it works on my map, sometimes it does not. Will let ya know if I find a permanent fix
Retired Mapmaker™
Icetoad
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada262 Posts
August 24 2011 03:44 GMT
#14
Yeah just did your guide and it is the same problem as Jackbo stated.
It doesn't return to normal.
Map Maker of Nimbus
Johanaz
Profile Joined September 2010
Denmark363 Posts
August 25 2011 08:51 GMT
#15
Same problem as Jackbo. Model doesn´t return!
With regards to flying units, I figured out how to scale the model down to 60% size, which eliminates that issue.

I wanna use that obelisk in my new map, I hope u figure it out soon.
TPW Map Maker - theplanetaryworkshop.com
funcmode
Profile Joined June 2010
Australia720 Posts
August 25 2011 20:03 GMT
#16


Sorry to be such a tease!
@funcmode - TPW Mapmaking Team - theplanetaryworkshop.com
eTcetRa
Profile Joined November 2010
Australia822 Posts
August 28 2011 09:24 GMT
#17
Very nice Funcmode, pulled it of very well and with animations. I am jealous!
Retired Mapmaker™
funcmode
Profile Joined June 2010
Australia720 Posts
August 28 2011 13:14 GMT
#18
Thanks Holiver, glad you like it

If people are interested about how you can do this I'll try and give a brief explanation (bit short on time right now).

Basically, most doodads lack enough animations to be used effectively as watchtowers, and animations simply don't exist when using your method (model swapping). I'm fairly sure the problem people are encountering (the model not swapping back) is fixable but in my opinion model swapping still isn't ideal.

If you use a doodad with enough animations, the process is quite easy. Just changing the model in the data editor should work straight away. Try swapping the watchtower to the zhakul'das library I used on TPW Artifice. It should activate and deactivate and animate accordingly. The problem I encountered there however was that the animations were the opposite of what I wanted, so I had to rewrite the animation events in the unit data to get it to work how I wanted.

The real problem here however, is there are literally only about 3 doodads in the multiplayer dependencies with enough animations to work properly as a watchtower (the library I mentioned earlier, the protoss obelisk used in GSL's Xel'Naga Fortress and another I can't remember right now). So, the whole custom watchtower thing might get quite stale quite quick if you want animations et cetera. Even raiding the campaign dependencies turned out to be less fruitful than I'd hoped.

I'll keep investigating to see if I can come up with something further.
@funcmode - TPW Mapmaking Team - theplanetaryworkshop.com
Ragoo
Profile Joined March 2010
Germany2773 Posts
August 28 2011 14:30 GMT
#19
You could probably change the watchtower model to something else and then add a trigger that a light doodad or fire doodad appears/is made visible when it's activated.
Don't know how "smooth" the activation will look but it's a possibility I guess.
Member of TPW mapmaking team/// twitter.com/Ragoo_ /// "goody represents border between explainable reason and supernatural" Cloud
Gl!tch
Profile Joined December 2010
United States573 Posts
August 28 2011 14:37 GMT
#20
My custom watchtower on the map im making activates a fire on top of a pillar (which is realy a fire on top of a small area of high ground, which is concealed by a column)

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=257394

I have made it look a bit better by colouring the column and darkening the surrounding area since then.
“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” ― Banksy
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