Okay guys, here's the deal: I've got a hole that is spawning Antlions (like in Episode 1) and a room full of physical objects. I've put a trigger_multiple over the hole and I have set the things to trigger it as "physics objects" and "pushables". Now the "via this input" option is set to "toggle". And the "target entity" is the Antlion spawner. However, there is a problem: the physics objects dissapear the second they touch the space where the Antlions crawl out of. Anyone can help me on this? It is driving me nuts

Flynn said:
Okay guys, here's the deal: I've got a hole that is spawning Antlions (like in Episode 1) and a room full of physical objects. I've put a trigger_multiple over the hole and I have set the things to trigger it as "physics objects" and "pushables". Now the "via this input" option is set to "toggle". And the "target entity" is the Antlion spawner. However, there is a problem: the physics objects dissapear the second they touch the space where the Antlions crawl out of. Anyone can help me on this? It is driving me nuts

I think when they spawn they are making the physical objects literally DISSAPPEAR!!! I was expecting the physics objects to plug the Antlion hole, but no!!!

So what if you test an entity setup where pushables and physics objects trigger something else, like a door for example? Does the same thing still happen then?

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Nope-even without the trigger_multiple when I put a prop_physics so it covers the npc_template_maker the physics object disappears when more Antlions come barging in.

No, I meant triggering something else than the npc maker. Using the trigger to open or close a door for example, without any antlions spawning entities. Does it still give trouble then or does it happen specifically with the npc maker?

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

No iit's not the trigger making the physics objects disappear-it's when the Antlions come barging through the ground that makes the physics object disappear. I've tried using all different shapes and sizes of phys objects but they all promptly disappear. Here's the .vmf: Test.Vmf.Zip by Bigupload.Com

Here, try this.

Bytheway, the ground you were testing on, was it a displacement map? There's a bug with HL2 where physics objects fall through dismaps. This can be solved by adding the -novirtualmesh command line parameter to the bsp process. You know, just in case. :smile:

A little explanation for my setup: I don't know if using a npc_template_maker gives different result than using a npc_antlion_template_maker, but it felt as a more appropriate entity to me. :smile:
The trigger_multiple disables the antlion spawner when a physics object touches it, and enables it when all physics objects have stopped touching it. This is more reliable than using a toggle message: if two objects were placed there, the spawner would then be active again. Now, it only gets reactivated when all objects are removed.
And since I felt a simple book or bicycle shouldn't be enough to plug the hole, I added a filter entity that checks for entity names: only objects with the name large_thing are taken into account by the trigger_multiple now. So, only that propane canister will stop the antlions. If I had left out the filter, the antlion ragdolls would have stopped the spawner too. Though a classname filter would've sufficed to stop that too I think. I assume this is how they did it in Ep1 too, by giving all those car wrecks the same name.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

This is all well and good Captain P, and I think that you and me both have almost solved the problem. I've modified the test map in a way that is closer to the setup that I am going to be using the scenario in (removed displacements) and it seems to work okay sometimes. However, when I remove one of the physics objects with the grav gun they disappear into thin virtual air! I just can't get my head round what is happening. I would be very grateful if you could again have a look at the .vmf for me and see if you can spot anything that I may have missed. Also, try actually blocking the hole in-game and then you'll see what I mean when you remove the physics object that is blocking the hole, it simply disappears :S Here's the .vmf: Test.Vmf.Zip by Bigupload.Com

Okay, panick over. I have made this work somehow. What I did was make only one third of the npc_antlion_template_maker above ground. The rest was stuck in the floor. Now it seems that the physics objects no longer disappear! They block the hole just as they should. Here's the .vmf file: Test.Vmf.Zip by Bigupload.Com

I'll take a look at it when I'm at home, good to hear you solved it. :smile:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Hmm, I see. I tested a bit and it only happens when a new antlion spawns that the object disappears, which leads me to believe that the maker entity removes physics objects that are in the way of the new antlion, or perhaps the newly spawned antlion does so when he unburrows.
I guess my setup didn't have this problem because there was more room between the spawn place and the first trigger point, e.g. my trigger brush was higher.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

The best way to find out the right way to do this would be to decompile the two maps this effect appears in (ep1_c17_00 and ep1_c17_00a) and take a look at Valve's setup.

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