I can answer some, not all of your questions. Someone else should reply
aswell unless they're all sleeping or eating, or firing off emails to
Mike and the other VALVe guys.
1) C_BaseEntity can be used on its own (As a client-side only entity
object), so if you derive an entity from that without a server-side
partner, it will just be clientside.
Only variables in its network table will be synchronised, so you could
have a clientside property that you set yourself, etc.
2) The engine will create the entity server-side (And then propagate it
to clients). The reason we have 2 entities usually for weapons and
players, is so that they can be predicted (I.e. on a weapon playing the
fire animation before the server gets it)
3) What do you want to know? Mostly everything in the game is an entity,
take a look at all the triggers (triggers.cpp ?) for some more juicy code
:P
3a) Also CLogicalEntity you can inherit from. No, apart from that you
might be re-inventing the wheel if you write some code that another
entity already has that you can inherit from (I.e. a button entity or a
trigger)
3b) You can move a CBaseEntity entity. CBaseAnimating, i believe, is
used for things like prop_dynamic where the model is walk-throughable,
no physics involved)
3c) CPointEntity is the entity that has no world model, physics, or
interaction. Things like spawn points for maps, the plus side being you
dont have to make a new cpp+h file for every spawn point entity :P
4) You dont have a four, just i like numbers in order :P
5) I dont deal with particles, someone else will respond :)
6) Entities will get destructed / removed / deleted dynamically when
they get destroyed (I believe). The RPG is an example, the rocket when
it blows up gets deleted from the entity list. (Which is why you also
keep pointers on things, so that you can get to them again, especially
entities that dont blow up.... -- gEntList is the entity list)
Hope that helps :P A more advanced / experienced coder should also
respond :D
Marine
Josh Rehm wrote:
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Hello everyone.
<snip>
1) This is related to the client/server architecture of the engine. I
realize that a networked entity class should have a CBaseEntity derived
class on the server and a C_BaseEntity derived class on the client, each
with the correctly configured network table. From what I understand,
any
code related to the chosen model displayed (if any), movement of the
entity,
interactions with other entities (including players), Inputs, Outputs,
etc,
are all controlled by the CBaseEntity on the server. In summary,
anything
that may need to be broadcast to all clients to keep them synchronized.
The
C_BaseEntity is responsible for handling any client side events related
to
changes in the server entity. Is this correct? Other than displayed
effects, where it doesn't matter if its synchronized with the other
clients
(rendering of particle effects for example), what other things the
C_BaseEntity is responsible for?
2) Related to my previous question, I've noticed that even if I don't
network a CBaseEntity derived class on the server, it appears on the
client
(i.e it's drawn, can be interacted with, etc). This seems to imply that
there is a lot of behind the scenes work being done to handle these
entities
in a general sense. As such, by not using DECLARE_SERVERCLASS, a
generic
client side entity object is managing this server entity on the client
side
and using the DECLARE_SERVERCLASS() macro is just a means of overriding
(or
extending) that behavior. Is this correct?
3) These questions are related to the Entity classes provided by the
SDK. I
understand how to do the things I've been shown from the Valve
Development
Community through their tutorials, but there is no detailed information
related to what more can be done with the base classes. So far I've
made
guesses based on what I've seen in the SDK.
3.a) CBaseEntity: It seems I would inherit directly from this class for
a
Logical Entity. Aside from developing a whole new type of entity, are
there
any other reasons for inheriting this class directly?
3.b) CBaseAnimating: From what I can tell, this class is used when I
need to
display and move a model. Is that correct? Are there other uses for
CBaseAnimating?
3.c) CPointEntity: I haven't used this yet, but from the SDK it appears
as
if its used for something like a particle effect. What is the purpose
of
this entity class?
5) When it comes to attaching particle effects to entities, I'm
completely
lost. I know little pieces of things here and there, but not enough to
form
a solid understanding of how to use particle effects. I can even create
a
server/client entity and have it emit some effect, but I can't figure
out
how to use an existing effect (i.e evn_sparks). For example, let's say
I
created an entity that can be given a velocity, a duration, and assumes
it
will be sliding along the flat ground. I decide that for "coolness" I
want
my box to emit sparks from the bottom it slid. Since there is already a
particle effect that emits sparks (env_sparks), I figure I should be
able to
just use that.
5.a) Can I use env_sparks, or do I have to create a new effect?
5.b) If I can use it, where can I find information about how to do so?
I
can't seem to find any resource and nor can I find any information in
the
Source SDK itself.
5.c) If I can't use it, could the effect be created as an entity
(CPointEntity?), using CSimpleEmitter and CSimpleParticle, that can be
made
to follow any other entity? Is this a reasonable approach and if so,
how
would I go about making the entity follow another?
5.d) Is there a summary somewhere that can clear all this up for me?
6) My last question is related to the dynamic creation and destruction
of
entities. I assume weapon_rpg.h/.cpp would be a good example of this.
I'm
trying to figure out how to spawn a new entity programatically, and then
destroy it when it is no longer needed (so it doesn't sit around,
invisible,
using up resources). Is the weapon_rpg.h/.cpp a good place to see this
behavior? Are there any pointers anyone can give for this?
Thanks in advance,
- Josh Rehm
--
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