WoW Taxi-planes and theroies on how they work. Messing with the Zepplin and boats

[Catch-22]

one should be able to sit on one in the graveyard, wait, and suddenly be transported when the boat instance "loads" into the current continent...

That's exactly what happens, haha. I'm uploading the videos right now but it will take about 30 minutes, and it's 5 am so I'm probably going to go to bed now, and I'll put the links up when I wake up in a couple of hours. I'm not sure how it works if other people are on the boat because I haven't been doing this stuff at times when people play on the server (for obvious reasons). I think what would happen is everyone will be teleported to where they were on the boat at the previous continent, so it will just look like I sort of appeared on the boat with the rest of everyone, maybe even in the middle of another player if they happen to stand right where I am. Might look a bit suspicious, but oh well

On a side note, I've been messing with MyWoWStudio, and I've noticed that when it reads taxi nodes it incorrectly references coordinates, switch the x and y values (that is to say, values listed in the x column are actually y coordinates, and vice-versa) Might prevent some confusion for anyone who wants to play around with DBC's.

Edit: Okay, well... Turns out I didn't end up going to bed like I planned and now the vids are finished uploading. This first one is of the Eastern Kingdoms, you can see a Zeppelin and a Human boat, unfortunately we don't get much action. This second video I'm pretty happy with, I managed to get the Zeppelin, Human Ship AND a Darnassian Ship, and you can see how they're stacked. At the end of the video, you can see the two ships disappear and presumably go to where they're supposed to be on the map. Now I'm off to bed! I plan on making one more vid which is pretty interesting, I just really can't do it now because I have to go do stuff tomorrow, which is pretty much now, seeings I've been up most of the night.

[SomeWhiteGuy]

A couple questions Catch....
What version of WoW are you using?
Are you using US (American) - WoW Live servers?
And,,, where'd you get that levitation hack!?

On a side note, I went back to the same spot you went to.... and waited for like 5 minouts..., nothing. I dunno why.

Can anyone else see anything other than a single boat? I never see the Zepplin, nor the Darnassian Ship ;_;

is it just me?

[original~GANK~staz]

if u watch vids on going to gm island you'll see them spawn to those under the world zeps, thats where they go when the screens loading

[Catch-22]

I'd also like to add, when you're on the "boat plane" you will go through anything that's not on the boat plane. When you're on the "regular plane" you'll go through anything on the boat plane. This means, if you manage to levitate where a boat will travel through, the boat won't push you out of the way, it just goes through you (or try extending the jetty etc.).

[KanKan]

This is just something I noticed while flying on a private server. Boats not only test X and Y cords to see if your on them but also Z. If one were to levitate upwards they would travel with the boat until they reached the highest part of the boat, in which case the boat would move and they wouldn't.

[Rflet]

Hmm as I was on the boat I decided to mount, you know how thiers like little spots wich you can mount? well you can't mount on a boat, so does that mean I wasnt on the boat plane? if so how come I didnt fall through when it moved? Also I was dismonted when it started moving. but I could still mount on the other side. The fact I can mount when its stationary tells me either they check if you can mount on the boat by

1. Making a lay-over invisible texture sort of thing, where when in contact you are dismounted wich is the same way houses etc may work. and they didn't quite cover it all. So your still on the boat plane, but not on the invis-dismount-texture. (but then why did I dismount)

2. when in collision with boat. But then that means I wasn't on the boat (I was but it didnt see me as being on) but still on the boat plane.

Im thinking the first one. But then again I'm not as smart as you people :P You tell me.

[97036]

You forgot to remove then ventrilo info from GMOTD in your screen

[SomeWhiteGuy]

This is just something I noticed while flying on a private server. Boats not only test X and Y cords to see if your on them but also Z. If one were to levitate upwards they would travel with the boat until they reached the highest part of the boat, in which case the boat would move and they wouldn't.

O.O wow, that's odd. Does it do that when you model swap the boat out for something else as well? If it does then it probably really is watched server side. If the height you go up to changes (to the height of the new object from swapping), then it must be a client thing...
Hm.....

Hmm as I was on the boat I decided to mount, you know how thiers like little spots wich you can mount? well you can't mount on a boat, so does that mean I wasnt on the boat plane?

I think you are bound to the boat plane as soon as you step on it, and remain so untill you are unbound by whatever event it is (lol, still dunno what unbinds you).

So basically, if you jump mounted, you stay ith the boat because you are still bound. Just because you jumped on another object dosnt mean your unbound, heck, in those videos I made, I jumped in the WATER and was still bound....

Anyways, as for why you can mount, I can tell you from doing allot of map-editing that it has nothing todo with the boat-plane - it has to do with the 3D object loaded by WoW. All 3D objects and doodads have flags which indicate certain attributes. These flags are stored client side, so you should be able to "force"-mount if you knew how to edit the WoW data files correctly. I can see why jumping on the box lets you mount without editing though... The boat is a WMO object, which supports the indoor/outdoor flags. The box you jump on is a "Doodad" (.m2/.mdx file), which I believe uses a different flag system.

When the WMO (boat) is instanced, it calls/imports other doodads (.m2 files), and places them where they should be. But seeing as they are actually separate files they don't have the same flags as the actual boat itself, and thus is not considered to be "outdoors" when standing on them.

[Catch-22]

Picture it kind of like an invisible boundary on the boat/zeppelin, determined by the WMO object. When you swap the WMO out and replace it, that new WMO has no invisible boundary, and therefore WoW can not tell if you are out of these boundaries. To initiate the "boat plane" effect, all you need to do is come in contact with the WMO, to deactivate the "boat plane" effect, you have to leave the boundaries. This is my theory. It explains why you can jump when on a boat, this is because the boundaries are, like you said, not until you go above a certain point of the boat (past the mast on boats, not sure where it is on zeppelins).

[Rflet]

Thanks for clearing that up fro me, gjkgkgfhj,I think I have seen these flags before? are they visible in MWS? Hmm if they are not I know I have seen their some where... just cant think of where. And with that theory Catch-22, If I read it correctly that means that when the boat is slowing down to the dock, you should be able to jump from the dock to the boat, and when you cross the boundry from the dock to the boat, you should NOT move with the boat. However, then you should be able to jump FROM the boat onto the dock (when its pulling in) and still move with the boat. Now as I jump from the boat into the water/on the dock early, almost everytime, I am 99.99 recuring % sure that you DO move with the boat from jumping of for a little bit, then your jump is just a straight forward motion (not moving on the boat-plane). And im prety sure If I recall correctly, that when I jump from the dock to the boat, I dont move on the boat plane until in contact (unless my mind is playing tricks on me and I'm just thinking that because I want to lol). But yeh I'm pretty sure what I said is correct.

Now as to what KanKan said, why would they check the Z height if your not supposed to be higher than what you can be? Blizzard dont blend textures In spots that are not visible without hacks/walljumping, so why would they check if your above the Z height of the object or the boat heigh (we still dont know), If your not supposed to be up their? Maybe It is watched server side and when you are one the boat-plane or in the boundry's but above the Z height then the server is alerted? BUT if they the Z height is the height of a different model that means it is client side, as gjkgkgfhj said. But then whats the purpose of checking it client side? maybe again its a trigger, Above the Z-heigh and the server is alerted. IDK, just tossing out ideas here.

[skillz noodles]

how did you do the WSG thing. i realy wanna know

[Rflet]

bump
ety
bump

[Sahdrani]

This needs a sticky, badly. If we figure out how this works, imagine what the possibilities would be. Okay, I personally can't think of anything that this could be useful for, but you might! /beg for sticky

Sahdrani