Zombies are not spwning.

  • Please make sure you are familiar with the forum rules. You can find them here: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?threads/forum-rules.2334636/

Pectabyte.com

FNG / Fresh Meat
Jun 12, 2009
54
2
0
So I have a series of spawning volumes for my zombies but they wont spawn. Some zones are Crawler/Stalker only but I have a very large one that doesn't discriminate. At the wave 1 it says there are 14 monsters but you can run around my map all day and never find one. Yes I have bot pathing in and have rebuild everything. What could be causing this?
 

midashand

FNG / Fresh Meat
May 31, 2009
19
0
0
are you too close to the spawn point? if you touch (or can see, I think) the spawn volume, it becomes disabled.

Make sure the volumes are around multiple corners and make sure that the red origin dot of the volume is near the floor, not on the ceiling or wall.
 

Pectabyte.com

FNG / Fresh Meat
Jun 12, 2009
54
2
0
The spawning areas are all over the map. Many are far out of the reach and view of the players. I copied the vents, with the zombie spawner, from the trader example. All the volumes are snug on the ground yet nothing spawns.

EDTI: Just did an experiment. If I copy the zombie spawning volume from the trader example and don't touch it it will spanw zombies in my map however If I change its size they will not spawn. Why is this?
 
Last edited:

Deek

FNG / Fresh Meat
May 28, 2008
218
12
0
Did you set the volumes to debug? If so, are the cylinders green? If they're red, it's probably because you're pivot point (the little red cross thing in the middle) is too high off the ground, which causes the spawn points to disable.
 

Pectabyte.com

FNG / Fresh Meat
Jun 12, 2009
54
2
0
If I set ZombieVolum>bDebugZombieSpawning to true I don't see anything in game. Thats a good thing right?
 

AnderX2000

FNG / Fresh Meat
May 21, 2009
30
0
0
If I set ZombieVolum>bDebugZombieSpawning to true I don't see anything in game. Thats a good thing right?

No if you set it to true you should see green cylinders where your zombie volume is when running around in your map. You only seem them when playing the map.

Green Cylinders: You will see a cylinder per zed spawn. If you see 6 cylinders then the volume is big enough to spawn 6 zeds.

Red Cylinders: I believe red indicates the volume is not big enough to support spawning any zed.

Nothing: This I think is an indication your pivot point is not in a desirable location. It works best when centered and slightly elevated from the floor. Also do not have any static meshes too close to the volume as I believe I read that can cause problems with spawning.

Hope this helps.
 

Deek

FNG / Fresh Meat
May 28, 2008
218
12
0
Click on the volume. Is the red cross thing inside the volume cube (or whatever shape), or is it floating somewhere outside of it? If the later, that's your issue. When I first started placing spawn volumes, I created one and moved it, accidentally moving the pivot point to a strange place. I then copied and pasted it all over my map. No zeds.

Try creating a fresh volume. When you move it, be careful not to move the pivot point. It's easy to do by accident.
 

Murphy

FNG / Fresh Meat
Nov 22, 2005
7,069
743
0
34
liandri.darkbb.com
You can place the pivot anywhere you wish anytime you want. Select the Volume and then right-click and select place pivot snapped here in any of the three 2d viewports. Most likely it appeared somewhere on a horizontal line parallel to the axis of the viewport you used to do it, going through the point you placed the pivot at. In other words, if you did it in the top-viewport it's in the correct place but at the wrong height. So do the same, on the same line from another 2d viewport.
It should now be where you wanted it to be. Namely near the center of the Volume and near the ground (~48 units high seems to work).
 

AnderX2000

FNG / Fresh Meat
May 21, 2009
30
0
0
You can place the pivot anywhere you wish anytime you want. Select the Volume and then right-click and select place pivot snapped here in any of the three 2d viewports. Most likely it appeared somewhere on a horizontal line parallel to the axis of the viewport you used to do it, going through the point you placed the pivot at. In other words, if you did it in the top-viewport it's in the correct place but at the wrong height. So do the same, on the same line from another 2d viewport.
It should now be where you wanted it to be. Namely near the center of the Volume and near the ground (~48 units high seems to work).

Hmm, I guess did forget to mention how to set the pivot point.. lol

Thankfully Murph has you covered. :p
 

Murphy

FNG / Fresh Meat
Nov 22, 2005
7,069
743
0
34
liandri.darkbb.com
I wouldn't have added it, but I felt Deek didn't know how to do it because of his advice to create new Volumes just so the pivot fits. I didn't mean to be condescending.
 

AnderX2000

FNG / Fresh Meat
May 21, 2009
30
0
0
I wouldn't have added it, but I felt Deek didn't know how to do it because of his advice to create new Volumes just so the pivot fits. I didn't mean to be condescending.

That's not how I meant it at all nor how I took it! Sorry if it came off like that.

I really just did forget to mention how to do it. It's great to have a helpful and knowledgable person like yourself posting on these boards. :)
 

Pectabyte.com

FNG / Fresh Meat
Jun 12, 2009
54
2
0
Hmm. Seem to have fixed it. Two more issues:

I got doors that "stick" and often wont close. These doors also will not weld. Why is this?

How do I make a static mesh or plane brush block projectiles and grenades?
 

Deek

FNG / Fresh Meat
May 28, 2008
218
12
0
I wouldn't have added it, but I felt Deek didn't know how to do it because of his advice to create new Volumes just so the pivot fits. I didn't mean to be condescending.
Thanks for caring, Murphy! That said, I simply suggested creating a new volume to start fresh, to wipe clean any other issues that might be causing the spawn issue with the added benefit of resetting the pivot. No way of knowing what other variables he might have futzed with. Resetting the pivot manually is sound advice if your spawn volume is something other than the default cube brush, requiring additional scaling, etc. and you're certain there's no other underlying problem caused by some random variable.

I try my best to help where I can, but I'm still quite noobish. It is not my intention to give bad advice! If Murphy or one of the other gurus second guesses me, you can bet he's probably on the right side of the discussion. Glad to hear you've got it sorted, Pectabyte.

As for the doors, be sure you set your Key positions (0, 1 and 2) under the Mover section of the right-click menu. If you're not sure what I mean, refer to one of the retail maps and examine a working door. And be certain you've linked the trigger to the door properly with a common tag under Events (Tag "door1" for the door, and Event "door1" for the trigger).
 
Last edited: