I used to really enjoy trapping people in the pressure chamber, then watching them run about like crazy before exploding in a shower of gibs. My question was that, since this effect was only used in UT99 (even though the pressure map was also in UT2004), how would I go about adding this effect to my own map in UDK, using Kismet?

What do I need to do to implement that effect? I've dabbled with tools that do a similar, almost identical thing in 3DS Max, but I dont think it would register as changes in an animation in UDK. I also need it to be able to affect ANY of my characters. If they have to be set up first in a certain way, just let me know.

How difficult do you think it would be to achieve this? If you could give me some good pointers or advice to help me through this, I'd be really grateful!

Thanks

Max has nothing to do with damage, gameplay and etc values, unless you mean death animations?

IIRC, there is something called 'damage zone' volume, you should set that up, to a small value and have it deal damage over time to the players, I think it also has an offset timer, so that when the player enters the zone, they don't start receiving damage immediately.

Can you post a video of what you're trying to create?

He means this:

Unreal Tournament Trap: The Pressure Chamber ...

Basically what Ace said, just use kismet to close the door and enable the damage volume. I'm not sure if you can force gibs though?

You can force gibs by specifying the damage type, I believe.

Thanks, but the main effect I wanted to achieve was the "decompression" animation. In Max, you can get an almost identical effect by using the "Shell Modifier", but I doubt this would be applicable in a game engine, so I've got no idea how it might be achieved otherwise.

Its hard to see in the video, but before a character explodes, they get decompressed (like the hyperbaric chamber scene in that James Bond film where a guys head inflates then pops all over the window LOL, or better yet the "serum syringe" scenes in Blade 1). I'd LOVE to make a gun that does that to people! You only get one bullet, but if it hits, its a definite kill!

Anybody know how to do something like this? In other words, its changing the shape of a mesh, using an animation. A completely different example would be morphing a cube into a sphere, or making a prism appear to "melt". The verts of the mesh are moved to new positions, or gradually moved over a series of keyframes, to resemble a different shape or different proportions. No verts need to be added or removed as part of the animations (I dont even know if thats possible).

In UDK/UE3, You can do it with morph targets.

You could also pull it off using DX11 tesselation.

If only we could access vertex data in DX9 mode... this'd be a trivial op.

I suppose you could also make a material that offsets verticies along local Z axis by the amount of some value you pass to it via script/kismet?

Originally Posted by JamesWild

You could also pull it off using DX11 tesselation.

If only we could access vertex data in DX9 mode... this'd be a trivial op.

Who says you need DX 11 for vertex transformations? :P
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WorldPositionOffset.html

I've never got that to work outside DX11 mode, it's always greyed out.

You need to use Vertex information for DX9 or keep it real simple, anything that might have color or non-math information (like texture for example) will break/not work.

In DX11, your options are more open, hence why you might be able to get it working in the first place.

Also, the effect looks like a simple Push modifier, but I'm not sure how you can accomplish that since last I checked Offset breaks around hardened UV's seams, so optimized models will be a hassle. I suggest instead using a Morph and manually tie it to your Kismet to your Damage Volume.

Originally Posted by JamesWild

If only we could access vertex data in DX9 mode... this'd be a trivial op.

You can already. Take a look at the foliage map; most of the foliage is static mesh with a vertex shader. A vert shader is an option, but I don't know how well it would work or how consistently. Morph target animation is pretty easy and will generate consistent results.