Mover Class Reference: by BlackSway

Last Updated 2 April, 2002

I would first like to point out that this reference is aimed directly at level designers, and is not intended as a guide to the UnrealScript behind these objects. However to learn more about these objects I did frequently delve behind the scenes. So if you wish to converse about the script then feel free to e:mail me or catchg

First a bit of jargon:

• Actor: any object within the game, including brushes, triggers, weapons and players
• Pawn: any moving creature, including monsters, players and bots
• Player: just real-life players
• ScriptedPawn: basically just monsters
• Touch or Bump: means this mover is triggered by a pawn running into its collision cylinder (formed from the collision radius and collicion height)
• Event: some movers use the Event field to trigger another event
• Tag: the name of the move

          TC: triggered by pawn contact

          TG: triggered by another trigger

This is the basic mover from which all other movers are descendants. This means that if you understand this actor then you only need to understand the differences between this and other movers. Therefore this bit is going to be long.. ;-) (p.s. the first bit here is available in 20 other tutorials and covered in more detail with pictures, so if this isn’t much help to you I suggest you try reading some of them before continuing).

To create a mover:

• Create your mover with textures etc.
• Copy to active brush (the red one) by either intersecting a number of other brushes, or right-clicking on a brush and choosing Copy polygons to brush.
• The click on the Add Mover button (as someone said, it looks like a marshmallow with arms).
• To select a different type of mover (explained below) you must select it in the class browser before pressing the Add Mover button.
• You should now have a purple brush. This is your mover.
• n.b. make sure you reset the scaling on any brushes you use (or transform permanently) else players will fall through your mover.

The mover has the following states:

TriggerOpenTimed

When triggered the mover will move through its keyframes until it reaches the last one, stay open as long as the StayOpenTime variable and then return the the first keyframe.

TriggerToggle

When first triggered the mover will open. When it is next triggered the mover will close

TriggerControl

While the mover is being triggered (i.e. an actor is within the collision radius of a trigger) the mover will be opening. As soon as the actor moves from within the trigger radius, the mover is un-triggered and will close again.

TriggerPound

This opens and then closes repeatedly while the player is triggering it. The time between opening and closing is actually specified by the OtherTime property and StayOpenTime is the time between closing and opening again.

BumpOpenTimed

When bumped it opens, waits as long as the StayOpenTime parameter and then closes again.

Also the BumpEvent is triggered, and if the bumpee was a player then it will fire the PlayerBumpEvent as well.

If bTriggeredOnlyOnce is true then the mover will stay open after being bumped.

BumpButton

A bump button will open when bumped.

Also the BumpEvent is triggered, and if the bumpee was a player then it will fire the PlayerBumpEvent as well.

If it triggers another mover then it will stay open until that mover has closed (or in the case of a triggercontrol until it has swapped state). Infact whatever it triggers it will then usually wait until they have finished what they where doing.

If bTriggeredOnlyOnce is true then the mover will stay open after being bumped.

What a mover has finished opening it will trigger the event specified by its Event property. When it starts closing it will untrigger this event. (N.B. with the exception of the TriggerPound state which does not trigger this event).

MoverEncroachType:

describes what happens when something (like you) gets in the way of the mover moving. The default is Return. The others are Crush, Stop and Ignore. Return returns the mover the the previous keyframe. Stop stops it, never to go again. Ignore simply keeps it going. Crush means it makes small up down movements until you get out of the way.

EncroachDamage:

amount of damage done when a pawn is hit by a moving mover (whatever above is set to).

MoverGlideType:

whether the mover moves with a slow acceleration or moves linerly.

BumpType:

what classes can bump trigger the mover. Can be either player, pawn or any.

KeyNum:

current keyframe the mover is at, and the one it starts at in the game

NumKeys:

total number of keyframes the mover has

WorldRayTraceKey:

raytrace the world as if the mover is at this keyframe (used for lighting)

BrushRayTraceKey:

raytrace the brush as if it was at this keyframe (used for lighting)

MoveTime:

time taken for the mover to mover from one keyframe to the next

StayOpenTime:

amount of time between the open and closed states (apart from the TriggerPound type where it is the time between each Open and Close cycle)

OtherTime:

amount of time between the open and closed states for a TriggerPound mover

DelayTime:

pause once triggered or bumped before opening.

bTriggeredOnceOnly:

go dormant after first trigger

bSlave:

true if this mover is a slave to another mover. All movers with the same Tag are grouped together and follow the exact movements of the only one without bSlave as true, relative to their own base keyframe.

ReturnGroup:

default to the same as Tag. All members of this group ‘encroach’ together for return and stop types of encroach. If one member of the group is encroached then they should all act as if they have just been encroached. There seems to be a bug in the return type where the group doesn’t react the first time. This can mean that the other members end up out of sync with the leader. (I can’t explain it very well but here is a sample map TUT-Movers-ReturnGroupBug.zip)

bUseTriggered:

is triggered if a player tries to ‘grab’ the mover (the ‘G’ key in Unreal, never used it myself).

bDamageTriggered:

whether taking damage triggers this mover.

DamageThreshold:

amount of damage to take before it is triggered.

bDynamicLightMover:

If true then the lighting of the mover changes as it moves through the level. Obviously a bit of a memory hog though!

PlayerBumpEvent:

optional event when a player bumps the mover (BumpButton and BumpOpenTimed only)

BumpEvent:

optional event when any valid ‘bumper’ bumps the mover (BumpButton and BumpOpenTimed only)

OpeningSound:

plays when mover starts opening

OpenedSound:

plays when mover finished opening

ClosingSound:

plays when mover starts closing

ClosedSound:

plays when mover finished closing

MoveAmbientSound:

Optional sound to play when moving

N.B. don’t make the mistake of setting a looping sound in any of the first four sound slots, as they will keep playing forever!

I shall paste the comments from the code here and then explain the parameters:

// A mover which keeps opening as long as the instigator stays within

// the trigger's radius.  If the instigator steps out, the mover will

// stay in it's current position for WaitUnAssertTime time, and then

// close all the way back to the beginning.  If the bTriggerOnceOnly

// variable is true, once it reaches the last keyframe, it will

// stay there forever if bOnceOnlyStopOpen is true, or it will go back

// to the first frame (after waiting for StayOpenTime) and stay there

// forever if bOnceOnlyStopOpen is false.  If bTriggerOnceOnly is

// false, when it reaches the last keyframe, after it waits for

// StayOpenTime, it will return to the first keyframe, and the

// entire process will be repeatable.

// Note: When the last keyframe is reached, Event will be called. M.

You must use the new AssertTriggerOpenTimed initial state for this to be of use.

However if normal states (such as TriggerOpenTimed) were used then the OpenTimes and CloseTimes arrays would still be used.

Identical to a normal mover but with one extra parameter, AttachTag. All actors with a Tag the same as this AttachTag will move as if they where standing on the mover. I would like to say that I have had problems keeping everything in sync when the mover is encroached but apart from that it works fine.

Useful for attaching lights to the give good effects.

N.B. You must set the following properties in the Advanced section of whatever it is you want to follow the mover:

bMovable=True

bStatic=False

bNoDelete=False

No additional parameters.

See ElevatorTrigger for details on how to trigger it.

Allows the mover to be gradually triggered, i.e. the first trigger opens it so far, the next trigger opens it a bit more and so on, until the final keyfraem is reached.

This is the first state GradualTriggerOpenTimed. The other two

OpenTimes[6]:

MoveTime for the 6 opening moves

CloseTimes[6]:

MoveTime for the 6 closing moves

Tags[6]:

tags which will trigger each stage, initial trigger in Tags[0]

Events[6]:

events to be triggered when each open is completed

No additional parameters

RotateRate:

Roll, Pitch and Yaw rate of the rotate. Will me dependant on the Tick rate of the game so reliable roate speeds are not possible.