Triggers, an explaination out there somewhere?

[void]

Well, playing around with buttons, triggers etc.
So I add a Collision Trigger like a button and "Add Discrete Action", Settings...

Receiver Atom, ok, simple, the person
Receiver, ok, part of the person
Receiver Target, ok, what to do... somehow.

How on earth can anybody know what's behind the Receiver Target entries? What's a "detach control", what's virtually everything? How can I learn what entry leads to what outcome? I want to add or remove a piece of cloth with a button press f.e. No way of figuring that out with some reason or logic like "hide cloth" or "show cloth"...

Where is a cookbook like "if you want to do this the correct comman is that!"?

Such a nice program, such almost non existing manual and a wiki which touches only the surface.

 

[Absolutely]

You need to know the outcome first. What are you tying to do? There are video tutorials on Triggers on youtube and here. Trigger can do pretty much anything you want.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vam+triggers

Give me an example of what your goal is, and I'll try to explain what little I know.

 

[atani]

Most Receiver Targets have a name that you can match to the atom checkbox/items. Probably best to start with a UIButton than a CollisionTrigger if you're new at this.

 

[MacGruber]

There is a tutorial on triggers in the list here:

Guides - MacGruber's Video Tutorials

This page will gather my hopefully growing collection of video tutorials about various VaM topics. "Pay after watching, IF you liked it!" Producing quality video tutorials consumes a LOT of time. Just producing 10min of video takes about 6-8...

hub.virtamate.com

It explains the different types of triggers with some examples. However, I don't think there is documentation on what each one does. Trial & Error is always a solid approach, though....or just asking people, explaining what you like to achieve. Well, that and looking at other peoples scenes and tearing them apart to see what makes them tick.


(You may also have a look at the LogicBricks tutorials further down, also because it has more examples )

 

[void]

You need to know the outcome first. What are you tying to do? There are video tutorials on Triggers on youtube and here.
Give me an example of what your goal is, and I'll try to explain what little I know.

Well, I watched the handful of vids on Youtube, however they explain the basics I understand. The problem is to decipher the cryptic expressions or to "encipher" my wish into the VAM expressions.
Example, basic G2F with MeshedVR Shorts and Tank Top. I add a button and want the Shorts and Top to get removed upon click. Receiver Atom: Person, Receiver: and there the nonsense starts: There is ShortsMaterial and SweetShortsItemControl, SweetShortsPreset and so on. Shorts vs SweetShorts. While in this case with just 2 extra entities it's easy to figure out I just don't want to imagine how this problem develops with 20 entities / units / assets. So I choose SweetShortsItemControl (as under "Control" you usually find the "remove" button). Now under "Receiver Target"... there is no entry like "hide", "remove" or similar. They offer me to store the item, change springs etc. Other "Receivers" yield the same unsatisfying results.

How to just get this damn girl naked upon button press (reminds me of my teenage years - minus the button!)?! While I think I understand the logic I don't understand the correct command for that.

So... after biting in my keyboard or alternatively throwing my VR headset through the very real window I figured it out... Person -> geometry -> toggle: Shorts

Well, that and looking at other peoples scenes and tearing them apart to see what makes them tick.

Yes, I went that way, too, but it's very challenging to find a scene with the right complexity. I wished for a command explaination, at least for the most simple ideas, not multi-dependant "(if then) else³ or [only if]" and everything out of a logic-wizards cauldron. I didn't dare to mess with LogicBricks yet, but as you mentioned the extra examples I might risk a peek into.

Thanks to all of you!

 

[atani]

For clothes, geometry shows you all clothes you have, whether they're currently used or not. For clothing you're currently using, typing the name will give entries and the tabs it would give options for. Example: "shorts"Sim gives you options for the Sim tab of those shorts, "shorts"Material for the colours (useful for alpha - hiding), etc. They all follow more or less the same pattern, it's not nonsense.
I've been using the above for ages and only recently did I find out about geometry, useful for toggling items, but the above gives you a lot of control if you're looking to more than toggling.

 

[void]

Ok, using the Alpha channel makes sense, even though that it's not "removing" the item but making it looking through which is more of a work around for me with the same outcome, yes. Yet a very powerful tool.

The "nonsense" refered to the the double naming "Sweet Shorts" = "Shorts" for the identical cloth to add to the confusion.

 

[atani]

Starting with items with a alpha -1 (transparent) over toggling with geometry has some advantages. One is the pre-load, for example with cum clothing items, so that you don't get the annoying loading panel at crucial points in a animation. Other categories like itemSIM allows you to undress clothing opposed to just making it go away. There's plenty of reasons to choose one way over another or vice-versa.

As for the naming, well, up to the creator here really. I don't know about that specific item why it has 2 names, but most make it easy enough to know which is which.

 

[MacGruber]

How to just get this damn girl naked upon button press

For changing clothing I recommend using clothing presets. In your case, a clothing preset that doesn't have clothes.
Obviously you have to create that preset first.

Note that loading a preset may require some loading time, which looks somewhat ugly in VaM as the game locks up for a few seconds. (Although an empty clothing preset probably won't). Anyway, via LogicBricks you can cover that with a nice fade to black. Here is an example that loads entire subscenes, but it should work the same with presets of any kind.

 

[Aminator]

It would be really helpful for me if there was some sort of list of somewhat common actions and then a corresponding formula. It doesn't have to be too detailed. Just so I know what trigger and which settings and maybe a quick note about setup.
At least so I know what trigger I should be focusing on.

Finding an example to follow is difficult and a lot of videos aren't in English or have no dialog at all.
I've watched long videos only to find it doesn't cover what I'm trying to do.
Looking at other people's work can help but often the scenes are so complex I don't know what elements are related to that particular action and what aren't.

For me the triggers and options are really cryptic. The ones I think will do the job based on the names often won't.

 

[MacGruber]

It would be really helpful for me if there was some sort of list of somewhat common actions

I don't think there is such a thing.

 

[atani]

It would be really helpful for me if there was some sort of list of somewhat common actions and then a corresponding formula. It doesn't have to be too detailed. Just so I know what trigger and which settings and maybe a quick note about setup.
At least so I know what trigger I should be focusing on.

Finding an example to follow is difficult and a lot of videos aren't in English or have no dialog at all.
I've watched long videos only to find it doesn't cover what I'm trying to do.
Looking at other people's work can help but often the scenes are so complex I don't know what elements are related to that particular action and what aren't.

For me the triggers and options are really cryptic. The ones I think will do the job based on the names often won't.

As MacGruber said, there's no list because there's no such thing as common actions in general. How would you go making this list without a exhaustive analysis of the countless existing scenes?

Anyway, perhaps you could share some of the triggers you want to make and we could help you figure those out?

 

[Aminator]

I mean like this. It doesn't have to be just about triggers I guess. Even if the actions were posted and people could post the method they use. So long as it's all in one place and gives a general idea.
I don't know if it would help others.


How to

1. Turn sim on for clothing at a point.
Add trigger. Select person, select piece of clothing(sim), select "sim", check turn sim on.
Extra info:
-add same trigger at frame 1 but uncheck. Will turn off again when replaying.
-add similar triggers for distance, gravity, friction etc.

 

[SPQR]

1. Turn sim on for clothing at a point.

for the default scene:
pick in Receiver Atom the Person that has the clothing
in Receiver look for the clothing, you can use the search functionality, search for "skirt". pick HeatUpSkirtSim
then in Receiver Target you have the options for that receiver. They're intuitive, idk why documentation would be needed for them. Just pick simEnabled. (it controls if the sim is enabled or not)

when you trigger it with the checkbox, it will turn sim on, without it will turn it off, just like it says

-add similar triggers for distance, gravity, friction etc.

for distance you pick distanceScale in the dropdown
for gravity you pick gravityMultiplier in the dropdown
for friction you pick friction in the dropdown

The problem is to decipher the cryptic expressions

 

[atani]

If you need a example you can try some of my scenes who have nice descriptions on the atoms, triggers, etc.

 

[void]

Thank you all so far. I try to play around with this. I just wondered that's not that easy like "Cloth on / off" - ok, "SimEnabled" is the command to choose I learned so far.

Next step is "extracting" and understanding animations in pre-made scenes .