attack range show

[xintell]

would like to request an effect where it shows the range

it should show attack range and skill range


I don't know if its possible but if it is and you can't do it pls link a tutorial on how

thanks in advance

[Anitarf]

Do you need this to show constantly, just when the unit is selected, or only when the player uses an ability?

I can think of two approaches to actually displaying the range, one is to create special effects in a circle around the unit, the other would be to use only a single custom model with something like the selection circle texture. The latter might look cooler, but requires custom art.

[xintell]

well I was looking for the first one you said when the unit is selected ^^ you can only see your own attack range after all

[Anitarf]

You need to create the special effects for all players or the game will desync, but you can give the special effect different model paths for different players so that way you can make them invisible for everyone except the owner.

You'd need to detect whenever a player selects a unit and, if it is a unit belonging to the player, display its range. To display the range, create a bunch of effects in a circle around the selected unit and store them in an array so you can clean them up later when a new unit is selected. Use trigonometric functions (Cos, Sin) to make the circle. You will need to use dummy units with attached effects if you want this to work for moving units, in which case you'll need a fast periodic trigger to move the range indicators along with the unit.

[xintell]

hard but also sounds fun :P I'm still new to this so it's hard without a tutorial but maybe I will be able to figure it out when I get use to this :D thanks a lot for the information

[Fledermaus]

Do you use jass, GUI, or vJass?

[xintell]

well I am still trying what will suit me best ^^ i'm just a beginner here but I have a great background in programming :)

so now I have a range ring mdx any idea how to use it?

[Anitarf]

Originally Posted by xintell

so now I have a range ring mdx any idea how to use it?

I don't know, I am not familiar with the model. Where did you get it? There might be additional instructions there; otherwise, you'll need to experiment a bit.

[xintell]

range ring mdx can be scaled for the range i need and I want it to show the range of my skill as well before activating them for example when you press [F] for fireblast then the cast range will show for fire blast to know if you can reach it or not

well my ring range mdx file can be used to attach to a dummy and that dummy is attached to my model but since I will be attaching a dummy to my model then is it possible to make that dummy have a toggle ability? for example my skill set are Q, W, E, R then the dummy skill connected to my model have the same skill set but it is a toggle skill that if activated will disable the default skill which is basic attack range and change into the activated skill, after 3 sec's the ability will revert into the normal attack range.

[Anitarf]

Originally Posted by xintell

range ring mdx can be scaled for the range i need and I want it to show the range of my skill as well before activating them for example when you press [F] for fireblast then the cast range will show for fire blast to know if you can reach it or not

What you describe is not easy to achieve. We have no way to detect when players press the hotkey of a targeted ability.

You'd need to instead use a no-target ability with the same hotkey (ideally it should be an ability that doesn't interrupt orders like berserk), then once a unit casts that ability detect that, remove the ability, add the actual targeted ability and press its hotkey. At this point, you could show the range of the ability. After a small delay which allows the targetting cursor to come up, you'd also need to add a second no-target ability to the unit and start forcing its hotkey on a periodic timer; this is needed to allow you to detect when a player aborts the spell targeting, so you can once again remove the range indicator and ability and add the first no-target ability again.

If the player does not abort the spell targetting but instead orders to cast the spell, things get even more complicated as you can't remove the targeted ability immediately but must wait for it to be cast, or for another order being issued to the ordered unit. If the spell is cast, then removing and later readding the first no-target ability is actually the wrong thing to do since that doesn't preserve its cooldown, you'd need to use a different method of disabling it first and only remove and readd it if the targetting/casting was aborted.

You'd need to do this for every targeted spell and if a unit has more than one or two such spells then you'd run out of instant-cast no-target abilities anyway.

I'd instead recommend displaying spell ranges all the time the unit is selected.

[xintell]

oh yeah i forgot about those no target ability thanks for pointing that out but if showing the ranges will have an effect for players like delays then I won't put it :( but at least I know now it's not entirely possible :D I'll try to do this