Teleporting entities

Often you want to teleport one or more entities to a specific place and orientation.

Method 1 - Traditional Scripting Approach

In Doom3 and likewise TDM, this is straightforward: set the origin and angles of the object inside a script and it will appear where it should. For instance, to teleport the player to, say, a rug called $new_place:

$player1.setOrigin($new_place.getOrigin()); // Does not affect the orientation

Similarly, if you care about the orientation, there are general setAngles() and getAngles() functions you can use. Or the player-specific setViewAngles:

 vector east = '0 0 0'; // face east along the X axis in DR. Other directions: north = '0 90 0' (along the Y axis), west = '0 180 0', south = '0 270 0'.
 $player1.setViewAngles(east);

Suppose you want to teleport an AI, and have it then begin a path. Create a path_waitfortrigger in your map as the start of that path, and target it from your AI. Then, your script might look like this:

 $myAI.setOrigin($new_place.getOrigin()); // teleport to near the path_waitfortrigger
 sys.trigger($myAI); // proceed on from the waitfortrigger

TIP: If you need an invisible placemarker in your map as a teleport target, the Method 2 teleport entity discussed next is also ideal for that... an "off label" use.

Method 2 - Using atdm:teleport

To make positioning easier and possible without writing scripts, a new atdm:teleport entity has been added.

Basic Example

• Create the atdm:teleport entity -> Create Entity -> darkmod -> Targets -> atdm:teleport
• Move it to the position and orient it the way that the teleported entity/entities should appear
• Link the atdm:teleport to any entities you want to be teleported (Select it, select another entity, then press CTRL + K)
• Create a trigger and link it to the atdm:teleport. Once the trigger activates atdm:teleport, the teleport will happen.

Note: Triggers have a lot of useful spawnargs that can insert delays, make it trigger only once etc.

Screenshot

Teleporting multiple entities

To teleport more than one entity, you can target them all from the same teleport entity. The targets will be teleported in the order of the target spawnargs, e.g. "target0" first, "target1" second and so on.

However, this would also mean that all targets get teleported to the same location and are thus stuck inside each other.

To fix this, you can use the following spawnargs on each to be teleported entity:

1. teleport_offset: Specifies an offset relative to the atdm:teleport entity
2. teleport_random_offset: Specifies the magnitude of an random offset that will be added to the final location

=

Example:

"teleport_offset" "-32 0 0"        // 32 units to the left
"teleport_random_offset" "5 5 0"   // -2.5 .. 2.5 units in X and Y direction from that 

Delays

The atdm:teleport entity has two spawnargs that influence the time that the teleport happens:

1. delay - the initial delay in seconds before the first teleport happens
2. wait - the delay between each subsequent teleport

Example:

"delay" "1"
"wait" "0.5"

would wait 1 second before the first teleport, and then teleport the second entity 0.5 seconds later (after 1.5 seconds from triggering), the third 0.5 seconds later (so after 2 seconds after triggering) and so on.

Method 3 - Using info_player_teleport

As its name indicates, this alternate method, by Stumpy, is just for teleporting the player, not other entities. You create an info_player_teleport entity in your map (NOT an atdm:teleport NOR the func_teleport). The easiest way to find this is to click on the DR Entity Viewer left pane, then type "info_player_teleport"

Example

Suppose at game start, you want to have the player's start position seem to differ by difficulty level. Simply start the player in a black room (probably any dark plain area will do), wait a moment for worldspawn to subside, then teleport.

• Create an info_player_teleport entity, and move it to the first place where you want the player for difficulty Easy.
• Rotate it the way you want the player to face.
• Give it diff_1_nospawn 1 and diff_2_nospawn 1, so it only appears on Easy.
• Clone it for Hard and change above to diff_0_nospawn 1 and diff_2_nospawn 1.
• Clone it for Expert and change above to diff_0_nospawn 1 and diff_1_nospawn 1.
• Create a delay mechanism, and give it the three teleports as targets. Example mechanisms:
  • Target a trigger_relay with brief delay from worldspawn
  • Create a door (anywhere it can't be seen in the game), and give it auto_open_time 0.01