Connection tags

[Bryan Thatcher]

I'm sifting through the ConnectionWalker example and I'm having trobuble figuring out the tags. In my test I have a main spline loop, and two splines connected between the same 2 control points on the main spline. For simplicity i'm only intrested in going one direction. I've used your example script and interface to get started. So when the walker is on the main spline, it only needs to match tag, I can add that tag to the walker from the GUI, all set there. But while it's on a secondary spline, the walker needs to meet two tag requirments. But actually I always want the walker to go back to the main spline. The tags i'm adding through the GUI are main, first and second. My questions:

-  I add the spline name, 00_main-track, to the Additional Tags of the walker, but thay are not visible at runtime, are they hidden or gone? 
- Why do I need to add the main spline name 00_main-track to the last CP of spline first and second splines. I dont ever want it to choose thoes? Does it need a tag to leave the spline also?

This is hard to follow/explain. Can you provide me some basic rules/guidlines for tags. 

- Always include XXX for the walker to...
- Only include XXX if you want the walker to...
- Never include XXX and the walker will always....

Thanks for your time!




 

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BTW, is there a spell checker on this forum that I'm not seeing?

[Jake]

Hi Bryan,

I agree that the tag-based connection system is complicated, that's why a new system is in the pipeline.

To make your example work, use the following settings:

First: Set Tag for the two connections belonging to the first spline to "First"
Second: Set Tag for the two connections beloning to the second spline to "Second"
ConnectionWalker: set MinTagMatches to 1 (default) and leave Additional Tags empty. Then, to use the first or second spline, set Additional Tags to "First" or "Second".

Best regards,
Jake

[Bryan Thatcher]

No luck, but I think I know why. After posting my original question, I re-read through your documentation. The directions say "...first select a CP at the end of one spline, then any CP of another spline..." (paraphrasing). Following thoes directions I am only able to make one connection. When I try to connect the 2nd spline, it removes the first connection.  I am able to connect a 2nd spline to that same connection by selecting the 2nd CP of the first connection and then the end CP of a 3rd spline. But then the tags are unpredictable, which was where I was at when I asked the question. At this point the connectior in the inspector of the main spline look like this...

* First.CPx --> Main.CPx
* Main.CPx --> Second.CPx

Now here is where things get weird. If I connect a 4th spline to the same connection in the same way as I just described. It works and the inspector for the connection on the main spline looks like this...

* First.CPx --> Main.CPx
* Second.CPx --> Main.CPx
* Third.CPx --> Main.CPx

It reorginizes them in the order they would have been if I was able to connect them all the way the directions indicated (End.CP --> Any.CP). I have not tested if the tags work, I need to take a break. I may have lost intrest in this already, except I've commited to a project counting on this system working. How close are you to this new system? Do the tests i've done give you any indication of what might be wrong with making that second connection? Please advise, thanks.


 

[Jake]

The order in which you select the CP's shouldn't matter. If you can connect them (i.e. the toolbar option is available), everything should go well, at least it does when I build the scenario your screenshot shows. I'll post my project tomorrow (it's on my dev machine).

There's no ETA for the new system yet. It needs a lot of polishing, but in the long run it will succeed the current system in every way. Basically it organizes a network map on top of the splines, you define the flow between paths, give paths a cost (for pathfinding) and so on...

[Bryan Thatcher]

I eventually figured this out. One of my problems was a typo, it was giving me different results, shocker. And I see why you are including the name of the spline/track to the CP. The currect track name is added to the tracker, thats the 'pass' switch no matter what. The 2 tag requirment adds the tag of the spline/track you want to switch too. The Rev suffex in your example added a lot of complexity. Thank you for your help.

Working with this a little, I can see why you are re-working it. A great feature for the new design would be a strong wildcard boolian system. 

- !=
- contains
- !contains
- or
- and
- x butNot y
 

[Jake]

The new system won't rely on Tags any more, but you will have full control over the behaviour using Callbacks and/or Flow Map setup in the editor.