Some questions (and bugs)

[diedir]

First of all, Happy new year to all people there !
Thanks for your great engine !
Sorry for my english...
i have recently played again with Skyline and was gladly surprised by the change of this version (1.02) !
my post will be decomposed in two parts: bugs and questions/requests.
I don't know if this is the good topic to post to, feel free to move it if not.

first part : bugs (or anomalies)

1) Changing the camera mode from "Custom" to "Orbit" and runnig the scene make app crash.(see skyline.log joined)

2) I was disapointed to not see my last micro-script loaded after a sudden crash of the editor,
it was in place a previous saved script in place even if i saved the script before the crash,
obliged me to rewrite the missing new parts...annoying.
So when the auto-saving is made perhaps save the micro-scripts too, please.

3) played a bit with quart.slerp function too with an entity (box) with physics body on purpose rotating on 45° on one axis
but despite my trials this function is acting weirdly and not smooth at all.
Perhaps i am not using the function as intented.
here is my code :

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rot = newType.vec4(entity.getWorldOrientation(obj));
   W,X,Y,Z = quat.slerp(0.1,rot.w,rot.x,rot.y,rot.z,rot.w,rot.x,rot.y,rot.z +45.0,1);
   entity.setRotation(obj,X,Y,Z);

for the record: the rot.z value at rest : 0.0087...
on action: -2.7970...
i'm missing something here...

4) trying to setOrientation of the body put the world upside-down because my cube disapear in the ground instead of flying to the sky.
perhaps a bad code from my part though.

All in all, it was all problem i got so far and the remaining part of editor is very fun and easy to practice.
talking easy way, here is the

part two : questions / requests

1) could it be possible to have access by code at camera properties, like "camera.mode" "camera.custom properties" "camera.offset" etc..?

2) your api documentation is great, thank you for that. Will it be completed (examples and some functions not described) in the next future ?

3) Third Person player will be implemented soon ? or is it another way to make it work easily ?

That's all for the moment thank you for reading and continue the good work, by the way you said you will at work on monday the 6th ?...
hope it was this year... on monday the 7th !

[epsilonion]

Sorry to hear about the issues, this one is best left to the devs.

if I am right in thinking that the properties panel is accessable to lua (https://api.aurasoft-skyline.co.uk/classaction.html)

a camera is a entity in the scene so in theory:

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actionID = action.getActionID(entityID,"Camera");
 -- to get the camera header in the properties panel

id = action.getActionParam(entity.getEntityIDFromTag("camera"), 1, "enabled");
 -- to Get the action property value already set

action.setActionParam(entity.getEntityIDFromTag("cube_1"), 1, "enabled", "1"); 
 -- would be used to set the camera enabled or disabled.


I hope you see where I am going with this (havent used it in a long long while myself)..

basically every header of a dropdown in the properties panel is the action and every selectable or adjustable value is a parameter

Example:
Add a camera to scene
the Entity Base, Translation, Visability and camera is an action
Options under the action is a parameter, such as under the camera action Camera Mode is a parameter.

I get told I dont explain things well so I hope I did ok here lol...

Missing script after crash

was it in C:\Aurasoft UK\Skyline Game Engine\Bin\Data\_Backup
I ask this because sometimes it will get backed up on crash to this location (or where every you installed to).

API Update
The API gets updated from time to time usually when a new feature comes out but I agree it needs another run on it.

3RD Person Controller
I think I remember reading on discord that the 3rd person controller was working, dont know if it went any further than this my memory is shocking.. (dont quote me on this lol)..

I do know that the dev's are giving skyline a face lift and it looks amazing with the new skin etc apart from that I have no idea of any other updates in the near future or what they have planned for the coming month..
I also know Christmas and new year was awesome this year lol..

[SolarPortal]

Hey diedri, long time

I shall respond in a couple hours, currently a bit busy lol

[SolarPortal]

ok, got some time

1) thanks for the heads up, i did forget about this one
Would you be able to add it to the support site if its not already there https://support.aurasoft-skyline.co.uk and it wont be forgotten then when i next take a look at it..

2) yes, as epsilonion mentioned, we save backups of a script into the Data/_Backup folder which does save a bit of time from having to rewrite code. Instead of writing from the crash, it is written from the last microscript save even if you didnt save the scene.

3) ok, i think i see your problem. You are using code to set the rotation of the entity instead of the physics mesh. Remember when an entity has a rigidbody, the entity mesh is moved by the physics. So if you want to rotate a physics object, then you have to use the physics.functions() instead.
The only time editing an entities rotation or position is possible is when its a character controller as those capsules do not rotate and the move commands are based of the entities rotation.

for the record: the rot.z value at rest : 0.0087...
on action: -2.7970...
i'm missing something here...

Is this a spawned entity at runtime through preset as there is an error related to this: https://support.aurasoft-skyline.co.uk/index.php?do=details&task_id=86&order=lastedit&sort=desc

4) I would suspect as much.. perhaps a Y value inverted.

Requests
============

1) could it be possible to have access by code at camera properties, like "camera.mode" "camera.custom properties" "camera.offset" etc..?

You have the camera.library() functions that you can use to access camera.
and if you do need to edit the main properties. then using the action.setActionParam() command should work.
Note that it is an advanced feature; so this means if you change something at runtime, it is always best to reset the property on stop if you have any post game playing issues in the editor like its keeping the property values or something.
I am not sure, but i think this is fixed in the next version.

2) your api documentation is great, thank you for that. Will it be completed (examples and some functions not described) in the next future ?

Thank you yes, we are planning best how to do the documentation and an api upgrade will also be coming this year.
Plus, if you are not sure, then feel free to post here

3) Third Person player will be implemented soon ? or is it another way to make it work easily ?
Its quite easy and doable to setup on your own, but Starfire has been working her hind off creating a kickass TP player.
The only problem is that we noticed our characters have a certain judder so we have already discussed and that is my next job to get that smooth AAA feeling from them.

by the way you said you will at work on monday the 6th ?...

haha, i even looked at the calendar lol Oh well! But yes, this year and we are back to work now with a more efficient work ethic to stop us burning out!

Also, great to have you back and happy new year!

[diedir]

Thank you so much Epsilonion and SolarPortal for your prompt answers.
yes i'm glad to be back here and toying with Skyline.

@Epsilonion
your explanations for action and action.Param are great and clear i know what to seek now, thank you !
thanks for data _backup script
@SolarPortal
i can't post to support as i am using the free version, for now
good to know for script _backup will save me some time !
you are surely right, i might use the physics.functions with the rigidbody , i will try asap.
Great for Third Person player news !

please to stay where you are welcome !

[SolarPortal]

Great

A bit of info for the support site: The site i linked to is free as its more of a bugtracker and feature request system.... totally free What your thinking of is the live 1-1 tech support.

[diedir]

Hi there !
So i tried and found that:

Coding rotation:
the quat.rotation worked with a float (like 0.1) to get the 10° angle needed
here is my working code :

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rot = newType.vec4(physics.getRotation(bid));
   W,X,Y,Z = quat.slerp(0.1,rot.w,rot.x,rot.y,rot.z,rot.w,rot.x,rot.y,rot.z + 0.1,1);
   physics.setRotation(bid,W,X,Y,Z);

i thought that i needed to add 10 but instead it was 0.1, perhaps the documentation need to be clarified about that.

Camera:
Now i need to access to the camera properties (Position Offset of the custom properties)
as it is not an action.Param but just a property, i'm only able to retrieve the "Name" (though i knew it because i put it in !)
or the "Tag" but no way to retrieve the Vec3 "Position Offset"
I need to access these properties too !
I tried with no success to modify the "camera.mode" from "Custom" to "Fixed" not working too.

Beside the access to bug tracker ticketing is not working for me:
i registred with success, but can't log in : (aproximate translation:) "the user was not found in this installation of flyspray" message i got.
but no matter on this.

Please tell me the best way to modify the camera settings on the fly.
Thank you

[SolarPortal]

ok, well since camera is an entity it means you can also use the standard entity.functions.

so getting position of the camera would be entity.getPosition() or entity.setPosition() etc...
But looking at the entity the "position offset" is a custom part of the camera entity section hence my confusion there for a moment

i see what you mean... there is no way of accessing this data yet("Position Offset") and will have to add it for the next release.
May i ask what you are trying to achieve with the custom camera? Would simply attaching the camera to the entity suffice?

Changing camera mode by using the command below should work.

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camera.setCameraMode("Fixed");

If you want a true custom camera, then set the camera to fixed and then move the camera manually in lua using setposition, setrotation etc... then you have total control what your camera does.

The custom section of the camera entity was made to give a quick game style camera that did not need accessed. so we never added commands to control that part of the camera. But we can try to add commands to make this possible.

p.s. when it comes to physics... it is most of the time better to use forces or torque to rotate something since it will register with the physics engine better and keep collision consistent. When you manually edit the position of a physics entity, the collisions may not occur... useful for things like teleporting an object somewhere, but no good with movement.

Edit: Checked the support site users and it appears your account is not visible. Will look into this at a later date lol

[diedir]

Thank you SolarPortal,

i think you are right with the camera, i need to handle it from start and setpositiion as i wish, i will try that to have full control.
will try too, to apply force or torque with the bodypart because i need it to react physically.

i'll get you my results.
Once more Thank you and
Keep Skyline great !