Mover (UT)

UT :: Actor (UT) >> Brush >> Mover (Package: Engine)

(see Mover for the UT2003 version of this class)

In UT Movers are brushes that move. They are not part of the BSP, but look as if they are to the player. Use them to create doors, elevators and other parts of dynamic level geometry. This page describes the class in detail. Some other pages of interest are:

Terminology: A mover is said to "open" when it moves from key 0 to the last defined key (NumKeys-1 for the technically-minded). Movement in the opposite direction is called "closing". Some subclasses of mover have the ability to open partially.

Properties

Mover Group

bool bDamageTriggered: Triggered by taking damage
bool bDynamicLightMover: This is false by default. Setting this to true will cause the mover to change the way it is lit as it moves. This is very useful when a mover is going between areas with different brightnesses or colors of light. Note that BrushRayTraceKey is unused if the mover is dynamically lit.
The process isn't perfect by any means, and often has dirty shadows and flickering between different lightings on the brush. However, it does eliminate the annoying black patches on the undersides of lifts and the sides of doors. In addition this takes quite a bit more CPU power than normal. Use this only in areas where it is needed to make the mover look decent and processing power can be spared.
byte BrushRaytraceKey (const): This should be set to the number of a key. When the map's lighting is rebuilt, the polys of the mover will always be lit as if it is in this position.
bool bSlave: This mover is a slave. It will follow another mover. See Compound Movers.
bool bTriggerOnceOnly: Go dormant after first trigger. Note that this doesn't work for all states (see Mover States below).
name BumpEvent: The name of an event to fire when any something bumps this mover.
EBumpType BumpType: Determines what sort of things are counted as bumping this mover. Other things that bump it will be ignored.
bool bUseTriggered: This mover will be triggered by player grab.
float DamageThreshold: Minimum damage to trigger. Works with bDamageTriggered.
float DelayTime: Delay before starting to open.
int EncroachDamage: How much to damage encroached actors.
byte KeyNum: The number of the key that the mover is curently set to. Using the Brush Context Menu → Mover → Key command is the same as changing this value. See Keyframe for more on this.
EMoverEncroachType MoverEncroachType: Tells the mover what to do when it hits an actor while trying to move. For example, when a lift returns to the low position and hits a player's head. (see EMoverEncroachType enum below)
EMoverGlideType MoverGlideType: How the mover moves from one position to another. (see EMoverGlideType enum below)
float MoveTime: Time to spend moving between keyframes.
byte NumKeys (const): This is the number of different positions (known as keys) that the mover has. The maximum possible value seems to be 64.
float OtherTime: TriggerPound stay-open time.
name PlayerBumpEvent: Optional event to cause when the player bumps the mover.
name ReturnGroup: if none, same as tag
float StayOpenTime: How long to remain open before closing.
byte WorldRaytraceKey (const): Set this to the number of the key you want the mover to affect the world at. Basically, whatever you set this to is where the mover will block light. A neat trick you can do with this property is to set it to an unused key which you have positioned somewhere outside your map. That way the mover will not cast a shadow at all. This can alleviate the annoying problem of black patches underneath movers.

MoverSounds Group

The properties in this section set the sounds played by the mover as it travels.

Sound ClosedSound: When finish closing.
Sound ClosingSound: When start closing.
Sound MoveAmbientSound: Optional ambient sound when moving.
Sound OpenedSound: When finished opening.
Sound OpeningSound: When start opening.

The sounds in UT packages like DoorsMod are designed with this system in mind, and are usually found in sets of 3, eg "md2start", "md2loop", "md2end". Use start sounds with Opening, end sounds with Opened and loop with ambient.

Only MoveAmbientSound is affected by the value of Sounds → SoundVolume. The others play at full volume. (Some scripting would probably fix this for a custom class, since the Mover calls PlaySound, and this has an optional volume parameter.)

UnrealScript-Only Properties

byte PrevKeyNum: Previous keyframe.
Actor (UT) SavedTrigger: Who we were triggered by.
int numTriggerEvents: Number of times triggered (count down to untrigger)
Mover Leader
Mover Follower: For having multiple movers return together. (see Compound Movers)
vector KeyPos[8]
rotator KeyRot[8]
vector BasePos, OldPos, OldPrePivot, SavedPos
rotator BaseRot, OldRot, SavedRot
NavigationPoint (UT) myMarker
Actor (UT) TriggerActor
Actor (UT) TriggerActor2
Pawn (UT) WaitingPawn
bool bOpening, bDelaying, bClientPause
bool bPlayerOnly
Trigger RecommendedTrigger
vector SimOldPos
int SimOldRotPitch, SimOldRotYaw, SimOldRotRoll
vector SimInterpolate
vector RealPosition
rotator RealRotation
int ClientUpdate

Enums

EMoverEncroachType

ME_StopWhenEncroach: Stop when we hit an actor.
ME_ReturnWhenEncroach: Return to previous position when we hit an actor.
ME_CrushWhenEncroach: Crush the poor helpless actor.
ME_IgnoreWhenEncroach: Ignore encroached actors.

EMoverGlideType

MV_MoveByTime: Move linearly.
MV_GlideByTime: Move with smooth acceleration.

EBumpType

BT_PlayerBump: Can only be bumped by player.
BT_PawnBump: Can be bumped by any pawn.
BT_AnyBump: Cany be bumped by any solid actor.

States

The mover states, set in the InitialState property determine:

how the mover is activated
how it behaves once it has been activated

Note that other settings affect activation behavior too:

the BumpType property affects who can activate it
bDamageTriggered .....
bUseTriggered ....

The "OpenTimed" states open the mover (from key 0 to the last key), wait then close and sleep again. Only the states with "Trigger" in the name respond to triggering.

None

The mover will not move through its keys, unless it is a slave.

BumpButton

This is very similar to BumpOpenTimed, but designed to be used for a button which controls another mover which is set to TriggerOpenTimed (a door, for example).

Use the button mover's BumpEvent property to tie it to the door mover's Events → Tag. When the button is bumped, it moves and so does the door. The button is then frozen, and it will only return when the door has successfully closed. This is pretty much just a nice cosmetic touch: the button won't return until it can be used again.

In brief:

The button mover's StayOpenTime is ignored.
If the door is prevented from closing (by a player, say), the button will not return
Once the door mover has finished closing, the button mover is closed.

BumpOpenTimed

The mover reacts to being touched. Set BumpType to determine what counts as touching it. Used for buttons (though see BumpButton for special cases). Can be used for doors, although TriggerControl is better.

StandOpenTimed

The mover reacts when the engine detects a player has stood on it. Used for lifts.

TriggerControl

The mover opens while the trigger is active, and closes when unTriggered – ie if set up with a simple Trigger actor, as soon as the player steps out from the Trigger's radius the mover will start closing again.

Example: the door to the redeemer area in UT's DM-StalwartXL and CTF-Gauntlet. (note to anyone reading this: the Event page needs to explain that events can last for a duration, as in this case – there's an UnTrigger function too when a player steps out of a Trigger actor's radius.)

TriggerOpenTimed

When triggered, the mover opens fully, waits and closes again. For related topics on triggering see the links section below.

TriggerPound

 No idea.... help!!! If I'm reading the code correctly (see question below), this trigger starts opening and closing, and continues as long as its triggered, waiting OtherTime and StayOpenTime at each end. aaaarg...

So an example of this (if I'm right) would be the good old-fashioned crushers in Doom...

For Gods sake, again?

This is for when you shoot the mover;

action=move

begin

if bDamageTriggered=True AND DamageToTrigger (or something)= 1< (just for clearification) AND TriggerType=TT_TriggerPound THEN
 begin start=Move

end:

end:

TriggerToggle

The mover will open when triggered and stop at the open position (the last keyframe). The next time it is triggered, it will close, and so on. Note that bTriggerOnceOnly has no effect in this state.

These might warrant a seperate page, say Mover/States ...

Rotating Movers

Movers that rotate in the process of opening or closing (doors, for instance) don't work well in network games; clients may see those movers rotated in ways that don't match their actual rotation on the server. The following class, presumptuously called FixedMover, fixes that problem. (See Embedding Code for how to use it in your maps.)

class FixedMover extends Mover;


var int RealRotationYaw;
var int RealRotationPitch;
var int RealRotationRoll;


replication {

  reliable if (Role == ROLE_Authority)
    RealRotationYaw, RealRotationPitch, RealRotationRoll;
  }


simulated event Timer() {

  // first problem: rotators not replicated correctly
  if (Role < ROLE_Authority) {
    RealRotation.Yaw   = RealRotationYaw;
    RealRotation.Pitch = RealRotationPitch;
    RealRotation.Roll  = RealRotationRoll;
    }

  // second problem: rotation not taken into account when updating position
  if (RealRotation != Rotation)
    bClientPause = true;

  Super.Timer();
  
  if (Role == ROLE_Authority) {
    RealRotationYaw   = RealRotation.Yaw;
    RealRotationPitch = RealRotation.Pitch;
    RealRotationRoll  = RealRotation.Roll;
    }
  }

Subclasses

Types of Mover is a quick overview of the different classes of mover
AssertMover?
AttachMover
ElevatorMover?
GradualMover
LoopMover?
MixMover
RotatingMover

It's possible to change the class of a mover after it's been created, but it requires Brush Hacking.

Mover Tutorials

Category Class (UT)
Category To Do

Refactor Me - there is a mix of class and tutorial in this page