   
  droptofloor no more - by dan proietti [dannyp@wpi.edu]


  The QuakeLab - http://www.in2nett.com/stevefu/QuakeLab


  SYNOPSIS:   have you been victimized by the infamous droptofloor
              function in quakec?  if so, this demo .map will
              show you how to very simply make objects float in
              the air at any height above the ground.  this particular
              map is particularly excessive in it's particulars =),
              but my intention was not only to demonstrate how to
              control this phenomenon, but also to give some examples
              as to it's usefulness....

  ENTITIES:   func_wall, trigger_once, and whatever entities you
              want to float in the air.  that's it.
              
  WHAT TO DO: make a func_wall [a good size might be 64x64x16].
              put the entity in question where you want it to
              float.  then put the func_wall directly underneath
              it, so that the bounding box of the entity is
              centered.  give the func_wall a "targetname" of
              something easy to remember [i.e. "tmp1"].  repeat
              until all the entities you want floating are in
              place [making sure that all the func_wall's have
              the _same_ "targetname"].  next, locate your first
              info_player_* [where * is start for a single play
              level, deathmatch for a dmatch level].  make a
              trigger_once brush model and place it completely
              over the bounding box of the player start.  edit
              the trigger_once and put whatever you named your
              func_walls in both the "target" and "killtarget"
              fields.  also, make the "delay" "0" and the "sounds"
              "0".  whalla.  when quake spawns the world,
              it will droptofloor() all the entities onto the
              func walls...when the first player is spawned,
              the func_walls will disappear because they are
              killtargetted by the trigger_once.  this happens
              fast enough so that quakec never knew what hit
              it and does not execute another droptofloor().
              an alternative method is to use a very fast door
              ["speed" > 800 should do it].
   
  NOTES:      i got a bit carried away building this so it
              is much bigger than it needs to be.  hopefully
              though it will give you a good idea of the
              flexibility of being able to do this sort of
              thing.
              also, i stumbled upon something else i didn't
              know while making this .map.  check out how
              i made the teleporter texture appear in the
              lava if you've ever had trouble doing that
              sort of thing.  the key is changing the bottom
              face of the lava to the teleport texture...
              this is probably old news, just thought i'd
              mention it.


  THANKS:     to Doug Frei <doug13@postoffice.ptd.net> for if
              it was not for his WarZone.bsp i wouldn't have
              thought to do this.  i was sort of baffled when
              i saw this lightning gun just floating in the air
              over a lava trap...  'hmm...' i thought, and saw
              that in the .bsp, the doors over the trap had a
              speed of 1000.  after fooling around a bit with
              this concept, i found a more elegant way to do this,
              using killtargetted func_wall's, and thus droptofloor
              no more was bourne.  excuse the lame rhyme.




