Flying Crows

[Tutorial]

category
General Half-Life 2/Effects

description
Remember the crow effect from Ravenholm? Looks spooky and is very easy to implement, read how.

keywords
crow, crows, flying, npc_crow, ravenholm, bird, birds.

For this tutorial I will tell u you how to make a crow fly around using path_corners.

1. Create a map, big enough for our crow to fly in. then in the map create an npc_crow, make it pretty high above the floor so it looks like its really flying.

2. Select the npc_crow and go to its object properties. Go to flags and check the "efficient" flag

3. Ok, now we made a crow, now we need to tell it where to fly. To do this, create four (or as many as you want) path_corner entities around the map. Make it the same height as the crow. Put the path_corners in a circle, so the crow flies in a circle. Name the first path_corner "path_corner1", make the second one "path_corner2", and so on.

4. Now, go to path_corner1 entity and open it properties. For next stop target put path_corner2. Go to path_corner2 and for next stop target put path_corner3, and so on. Make sure there is a yellow thin line connecting them.

5. Put the npc_crow wherever you want in the map. Open its properties and for first stop target put "path_corner1"

So, that’s it. When you spawn in the map the crow will fly to path_corner1, then that path_corner will tell the crow to fly to path_corner2, and so on. You can also configure the crows properties like its speed, for the way you want it.

Spas12

[Google [Bot]]

Hell, it works for me.

Nice tutorial, shotty.

[TheMiede]

Is there a way to make it look like seagulls?

[smeerkat]

can we put these crows (or any other bird) in a cs:s map?

[Spas12]

i really dont no. never tried it with CS:S. if u wana make it look like seagulls i think theres a seagull model somewhere, judst use that


EDIT: yes there is a pigeon model, its not in any folder tho, scroll down until u see a bunch of npc models and its in there somewhere

[Freaky_KiLLer]

Lol i thought this would be uber-hard when i read the title....now it seems so easy

[matty19908]

i found an easier way, rather than making um all and then naming um, name the first one path_corner1 and then just copy um (shift+click) and it connects them automatically, its quicker.

matt

[acountddd]

is there a way to make them die while they're flying? because i want to make it look like the metropolice are hunting them, because their aim is crap.

[Lt. Naota]

If you know anything about AI coding, you could actually have one of the police shoot the crow in real time. The crow itself is an NPC with preset health, so I assume it will die when shot...

[Spas12]

make a I/O for the bird to die, sch as:

OnPass
(Birdname)
Die

in seconds of: (whatever u want)

[cloudwalker897]

Can't you use an ai_relationship entity and set the target as the name of your crow, the subject to npc_metrocop, the disposition to Hate and the priority to 10 or around that?

[ZenMunky]

Yeah, but then if the metrocop misses the shot he'll run for cover.. from a crow !!! will look a little odd...

[stoopdapoop]

Can you have it walk, then fly after a certain corner, then land, playing all the corresponding animations?

[jacc0s]

why not just clone the path_corners (with the shift key) it will auto connect them to each other and gives them name as _2 _3 _4
ofcourse name the first one

[nub]

CS:S? No, the only NPCs that work in CS:S are hostages. For some reason i dont know, i dont think that the crow or seagull or whatever bird you want will spawn in-game. But, if you would like to try, go into hammer but make sure it is using the hl2 game configuration and add the things you need in order for it to work. Then just go into cs:s configuration and compile. The npc may be indentified as occluded with a guy sticking his thumb up but it still spawns when you play the map. (well it works when adding a moniter hooked up to a camera when i did this process).

If you want to make a really successful and un-bugged map, you should either make a single player map for hl2 or a deathmatch level. CS:S maps are too bugged. You cant even make a hanging object!!! That is the best thing about the source engine too.