EDIT SEPT.30, 2009: COMPLETED AND UPLOADED TO GCS
IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111ONEONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCZg1Row-xc
A strange, old chainsaw which never seems to need fuel but does consume a large quantity of spare parts in order to remain functioning. (this is because there's no way to stop the engine noise or vibration animation when out of "ammo" other than using "weaponisammo", which I hate- though it is an option if you prefer)
There are alternate idle and move animation included which do not include the engine vibration for developers who either don't like the shaking, want to script the vibration independently or who can code the chainsaw to run out of fuel.
Tip: The "ammo" entity is sort of high poly (around 600 tris) so don't go placing a bunch of them around your level. Instead, be creative and use random toolboxes or other tools/junk items and script them to give ammo to the player; you'll likely get better performance and it will make more sense to the player.
Uploading to GCS in a few minutes!
BIG THANKS TO BOND1 AND NICKYDUDE
For allowing me to butcher their sounds. The release version sounds a little better than in the vid but there's only so much I can achieve in FPSC. In stock FPSC the idle sound, etc will play but isn't as smooth and there is a noticeable seam after "shooting" because of the fire sound getting clipped. There is also an additional revving "layer" at the start of an attack which only mod users will hear.
Also, thanks to
Seth Black,
Wazoo117 and others who lent technical advice. Very helpful!
I won't be releasing any color variations for this one, so I encourage sharing of re-textures and texture modifications for this weapon.
E
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I have a chainsaw weapon for FPSC in progress. However, I'm not really sure of the best way to pull this off for FPSC. Right now, I have the basic idle and move animations along with a rough automatic fire sequence though the animated chain is giving me a bit of trouble (The chain jumps off the guide when animations switch). The bulk of the texture work is also complete. It is based off an old 60s era chainsaw. I wanted something with the ripcord and fuel cap on top as well as metal construction so that I could have it rusty and looking suitable for horror genre projects.
Input and solution proposals needed:
Should it be the sort of affair where the player just holds down the mouse button and it sort of bobbles around pointing foreward (automatic fire) or should it have slashing style attacks (semi-automatic/ one click per attack)?
And what about reloading? Should it need the fuel replaced or could it just sort of stall out and the ripcord is pulled a couple of times to get it going again?
The biggest problem I am predicting is in regards to the audio FX. I think we can mostly agree that a large portion of the awesomeness factor of a chainsaw comes from the sound. However, the way audio is hard coded in FPSC is fairly terrible for this kind of weapon. Especially in the official version because of the restriction on the number of sounds. In Ply's Mod or similar, I can use extra sound slots to make an idle sound loop which gets triggered on certian animation frames in idle or move states which could keep some ambient engine noise going then have a different sound for 'shooting' when the throttle is opened up. It might be a little buggy though in actual gameplay but I think it would be possible but the downside is that in official FPSC, the effect would be lost alltogether. One idea I had was to have a script assigned to an environmental object which causes the engine idle sound to play when the weapon is equipped but I think only Ply's Mod can differentiate between which weapon the player is using and even then I'm not 100% sure if I can make it detect if the chainsaw is simply equipped only if it is in use. Regardless, that doesn't solve the problem with it working correctly in unmodded FPSC so I suppose it's a moot point.
Lastly, I don't have any chainsaw sounds to use. Does anybody have some legally clean sounds which they would be willing to donate or trade for?
edit: Thank You bond1 and Kurotatsu! I should bee good on this aspect now.
Anyhow, please post comments on how you, the developers, would like a chainsaw to function and please provide links to videos if you are going to say. "Make it like game X,Y or Z". I need to gauge the feasibility for success on this before I invest any more time into development.
Adit to add:
I really appreciate the direction being given here!
The way Seth Black has broken things down has been particularly helpful. I could use more suggestions presented in the same manner. I want the design of this to be as community-driven as possible. So please, even if you have posted previously, do not be shy about posting again...
What I am looking for are recommendations based on the following states:
1. RETRIEVE:
What should happen when the chainsaw is equipped?
Should the motor be started at this point?
2. IDLE/MOVE:
Should the engine be idling or off?
3. ATTACKING:
If already idle the throttle should open and it does
what?
Should the engine be started each time followed by sustained use until the button is released or the engine stalls/ammo is depleted (think minigun...it could give the impression of a hard starting motor if the button is tapped and not held down)?
4. OTHER?
Please, keep in mind that in unmodded FPSC, I am dealing with VERY strict SFX restrictions (my analysis of the sound system follows):
SFX HARDCODING NOTES:
sound1 = fire
sound2 =
sound3 = dryfire
sound4 = putaway
(sound5+ is unsupported in the official version of FPSC)
Sounds in these slots are (IMO) wrongfully hard-coded to play
independently of soundframe specification. This is why with many
weapons you hear the cocking sound when hiding the weapon with
Num. Key "0" or when switching weapons instead of the correct
putaway sound.
The method in which sound 1 is triggered to play results in sfx
truncation if using start fire/end fire commands in gunspec.txt
for semi-automatic weapons.
If the player has no extra ammo in inventory, sound 3 will
automatically play when the "R" key is pressed.
This is goofy if the weapon is "reloadqty = 0" (unlimited ammo).
Sound 3 will also be triggered if reloadqty > 0 and ammo = 0.
Sound2 is not hardcoded to any function (AFIK) and is free to be
used as the designer wants (YAY!) This sound slot is ideal for
using with semi-auto/melee weapons to get unmolested sounds
triggered on an exact keyframe in lieu of some screwey hard-
coding.
I can understand if removal of these hard-coded restrictions would
mean breaking some legacy assets somewhere (or is a means of idiot-
proofing) and therefore can not be done...
However, FPSC should recognize more sounds (say up to 10 sounds or
whatever modifying the array will allow) so that designers have
more latitude and control with weapon sound design. Most if not
all of the source modifications allow for more than four sounds
and have also increased the number of valid soundframes.
These restrictions are made worse because of various sound cut-off bugs with the fire sound being assigned to the #1 slot. This leaves me with one usable SFX slot (#2) which is generally reserved for the reload sound.
