Can't bind wood beams together!

Intamin

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Sorry to ask such a basic question for your elevated minds...but: I'm trying to create a wooden tower with an explosive barrel on top.

First of all, should I use a brush to make the wood beams or something else?

I used brushes already and made the entire tower. I used constraints to bind the boards together, but those don't work at all--the thing just falls apart and breaks into a million pieces.

So, in other words, I'd appreciate it if anyone could tell me how to bind wood beams together and what to make them out of. Thanks a WHOLE lot!
 
I'd guess that you're using func_physbox for the beams. You have to make something physically holding the beams from falling... Because, what you're saying, doesn't sound like something that typical brushes tend to do (as brushes can be suspended in midair and not fall).
 
How come brushes don't fall when you make stuff in CS:S?
 
they need to have func_physbox tied to them
 
Huh! Well thanks a lot. I'll try that out. I have tried func_physbox before but I'll focus on that a little more now. I'll post back results if I have any problems. (I'm sure you just can't wait!)

EDIT: By the way, I was wanting the make it so that you could shooot out the individual boards and still have the tower stand until a major support was broken. That's mainly why I used individual brushes for each board. Think this is the way to go?
 
Sry to double post but I tried the func_physbox again and it seems like, as far as I know, Rebel10 is correct and I have to have something physically holding them together. It there another material or tool I could use to do this? How did Valve get their wood to behave like that?

Perhaps a link or something would be greatly appreciated--I've scoured the net looking for a tut on this stuff but have yet to find one.
 
Have you tried parenting the wood together? It's a lot of work, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fall apart then.

And the wood you see break in CSS is modeled - no way you could do anything that complex in Hammer.
 
Ahhh... Thanks for the quick reply. Well, what your saying is Valve modelled the wood gibs that appear in HL2 in XSI or something similar then imported them and used them as gibs? There must be a way to retrieve them or something--why wouldn't they put them in as models that we could use? Oh well.

And yes, I began to try the parenting thing, but that might take some time. I figured out a way to hold up the main supports by using a brush not tied to an entity. So I'll just have to parent all the objects together. There must be an easier way!

EDIT: Actually, the reason I stopped is because you can parent one beam to both supports, so the whole thing would still fall apart--it would just be in two gigantic pieces, melded together with various beams on each half.

Isn't anyone else in the world trying to do something remotely similar to what I am?!
 
Hmm... now that I think of it, you could probably just parent them all to the main/biggest brush. Remember, you don't have to have the entities touch to have them parented.

So, when the thing is damaged/broken, you can just have it drop all attached objects (or something similar).

I don't quite understand your edit. :O
 
Heh--To be expected, the edit is kind of vague.

What I was tyring to say is that I tried parenting the objects together, but b/c it only allows one object to be parented to one other object, I can't keep the tower together because the cross beams need to be parented to both main beams on each side, not just one. If they were parented to just one, the cross beam and parent support would indeed be attached, but the cross beam would only be attached to one main support--not both, like I need it to be. You see what I'm saying now?

Basically, every brush would be parented to a main support, it's just, b/c I can't make two parents, the crossbeam would either fall apart with one support or the other--depending upon who it is parented with.

Overall, I need to be able to parent the crossbeams to both sides--both main supports--not just one, or the whole thing will still fall apart, it will just be in two main pieces, as the cross beams will be attached to one side or the other.

Kinda get what I'm saying now? :)

What do you mean by parent them to the biggest brush? Even if the brushes aren't touching, they can still be parented? If so, I do believe that would solve all my problems...

Thanks for all the help so far Viper, I appreciate it.
 
Hmm... I sort of understand.

You are incorrect. You can have multiple objects have the same parent, just like you can have multiple entities with the same name. Yes, they can be parented without touching.

At least the last time I checked you could... :|
 
Well, to tell you the truth, I knew that multiple objects could have the same parent--but what I need is a way to make one objects have multiple parents--the inverse of what you said, actually, unless you were trying to say that and said it wrong! Who knows!

Anyway, I wanted one object to have more than one parent b/c if you shoot out one of the parent supports, the crossbeam will still be stuck to the other parent until all parents are shot out, then the cross beam falls. That's exactly what I'm trying to accomplish, actually.

Thanks for the input so far!
 
Are you trying to make the whole tower physically simulated? An easy way would to set the beams holding the tower up as "func_breakable" then the platform or w/e is on top of that with "func_physbox".
 
Yeah, ericms, I want the whole tower physically simulated--exactly like the little towers the combine were standing on in the canals and the same simulation as when you are climbing the cliff to get to Nova Prospekt and have to knock out those two poles to drop the little wooden bridge. That's basically all i'm trying to accomplish.

I'll try that out. But should the pieces making up the tower be linked or connected (entity-wise) to the top board/platform?

EDIT: Here is a link for exactly what I want to create:

Clicky!
 
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