https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2161138910

When I press Shift + F5 I get a window asking for Scent Target, What do I input in the text box?

How does this work? Because, this could be turned into a great substitute of current AI pathfinding (at least, when following you). If the dino's follow your path, you could path them to avoid obstacles and would reduce the odds fo them hanging up on rocks, trees, walls, etc.

Yeah stumbled onto this and was hoping for the files, than saw the ArkFrame bit and kinda sad faced. Would have loved this for my wargs but making something like this on my own is well past my current skill level.

@Taiine Whoops! Yes that link was no longer valid. I moved the ArkFrame source itself somewhere else because I was basically paying $40 a month for something that wasn't usful as more than an educational resource.

The scent tracking mod itself though was actually just an example mod for how to use arkframe. Making a mod that does something similar is certainly possible without ArkFrame (Though not easy and probably not performant).

The link to the source files appears to be broken. Also shame ArkFrame needs to be used for this, would have loved to add this kind of tracking to my direwargs.

I like this mod, and hope you find success!

arkframe got updated with the aberration assets so this should now work just fine on aberration maps (Although there are still a few aberration creatures that aren't in the devkit as they were added later)

ArkFrame remaps everything, as such it is not compatible with mods that are made without ArkFrame. It probably won't become more common in mod making until after it is closer to being feature complete.

Is this mod touching the dino spawns or the dinos themselves? I was hoping to test this with Survival Plus, but this mod and/or ArkFrame breaks SurPlus functionality, and SurPlus breaks this mods functionality.

The update just now is to sync with changes in the arkframe mod as they were volatile. no content changes were made

Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing I can do for aberration dinos until the devkit update comes out so that I can update ArkFrame with the new assets.

Is it currently possible to use this mod in a partially-working state, or is it fully nonfunctional on Aberration maps until the DevKit update?
This is the best possible method I can imagine mapping / tracking in a map as vertically oriented as Abb, so I'm very excited to play with it.

I am actually afraid of what we will see on an aberration server. I have a feeling we will see the locations of everything burrowed like the nameless and the reapers too D:

@Zen Rowe, thanks for the reply i will have to wait patiently then.
i wanted to add it to my aberration server as i think it can be very useful for players.

@Mor unfortunately it requires the new devkit update so that ArkFrame itself can be updated with the new aberration assets.

Hi, the mod does not work on aberration map. is it possible to make it work? or you need to wait for the devkit update

@Celeritas. already exists. if you look at the keybind menu you should see the key combo for it. Doesn't filter by levels, you can only filter by a single type of dino at a time

Is it possible to have a filter. Like show scent only to a particular Dino, or show scent only to dino with this minimum levels?

that said I DO want to do something different with the particles and such, but right now my priorities lay with ArkFrame itself as it still has several major system in development

The "smells" Should already be different size depending on the dino. Should scale with the size of the dino. Looking at a bronto should make it extremely obvious of whether or not this is occuring properly.
The tracking distance is unfortunately limited by stasis range. Aprox 24K units in UE4 if I remember correctly, nothing I can do about that. Once something is in stasis range it starts producing the scent particles.
Prints would be a bit more complicated, that would require the use of decals instead of particles decals are FAR more taxing on the system unfortunately. The generic particles also allow me to make it forward compatible and mod compatible.
The scents are already color coded by aggressiveness, unfortunately there are only so many colors under the rainbow. HOWEVER there is the explicit tracking where if you put in the name of a dino it will only show the scent trails for that type of creature

This mod could be extremely good! If you made some changes. Some of these changes would have to be the smells have longer distances, easily color identified, and also, different size smells depending on the dino. Also, instead of just smells, you should also add prints. Prints such as trex, to raptor, to compy. Easily identifiable by the dino depending on size.

Maybe you could have footprints instead? Multicolored footprints unique, if not to each dino, easily identifiable by size and class?

While I do intend to come up with something other than the little puff balls, you do have the option of setting tracking to specific creatures (Using the secondary keybind by also holding down shift)

Making it the shape of the creature would be quite a bit more intensive on the client so I don't know if I am going to go that far, but the size of the puffs should change with the size of the creature.

it looks like stegos are farting whyu dont you make it the shape of the dino so you know your tracking a rex one time i was tracking a compy and got confused with a rexes sent and bang i died

the second one. That first one might be a good idea for the future though if I come back to adjust this mod.

Do the scents only become visible once you have crossed paths with it, or is it like "I can see it's going to smell like shit once I cross this river"?

by default it just smells whatever is in range when you toggle tracking on with the keybind
If you use the little menu (SHIFT+Keybind Primary) you can choose specific things

so how does the tracking work do you just smell the nearest or do you get a menu to choose what dino/player you want to track

these popular rebalance mods come in fads. and the QoL mods do the same. it will be a period of transition but generally it will be a question of "What's your flavor? Arkframe Mods, or Vanilla Mods?"

Ah ok. Hope you get good uptake on that then Zen, it'd be awkward if a couple of popular mods didn't update to it and players had to choose between one mod or another :o

ArkFrame does have remapping to provide new functionality for modders to use and to increase compatability between mods. But it is not really compatible with non-arkframe mods

Aw that'd be a shame, the scent tracking coupled with dino characters would fit together perfectly :( Does that mean that no non-frame mods would work with frame, or just the Play as Dino one specifically?

Unfortunately I don't think it will run with play as dino unless the mod developer makes an arkframe version

I gotta try this mod with Play as a Dino sometime >.>

xD I don't know about that, I appreciate the enthusiasm for the project though

This mod and the auction house mod will be the two most significant ARK mods! Great work!

Most important question, how does a level 150 scent trail look like XD Really cool concept, though!

... dangit
I should not respond to messages after like 10 PM xD

@Zen Rowe
ZZ was just copy pasting from the middle of your last comment.

@ZZ what do you mean by "Too much"?
And yeah I was polishing the mod a bit more earlier tonight. adding in a modconfig with the option to turn of postprocessing and work on tracking specific targets, as well as fixing some bugs

This mod isn't so much about what it does as much as it about showing other modders how to use ArkFrame

source code too much though. I do want to work on the tracking effects a bit and clean up the post processing though, so there are some good ideas in there.

@Zen Rowe
Heh thanks, I’m good at ideas but idk programming languages so I can never implement them. ><

@Monsterhart
Those are some good ideas. I'm not sure how many I will implement, this was just suppose to be an example mod for other modders on how to use ArkFrame so I don't want to clutter the source code too much though. I do want to work on the tracking effects a bit and clean up the post processing though, so there are some good ideas in there.

Realism kind of goes a bit out the winodw with this game, but even then the visual distortion was supposed to be a bit of a trade-off. Ability to see in exchange for sense of smell kind of deal.

Part 2

Not that I'm an expert in tracking but from what I can tell you terrestrial and arial creatures would leave no trail over water, and arial creatures would leave a trail on land only; not much in air but perhaps some for smell; and containing gaps which would increase depending on their altitude. Perhaps place the part taken out to make the gaps on the ground in their actual position in air (maybe blurry, lighter, and spread out a bit though), to represent picking up a scent and knowing what direction it possibly came from. As far as I know humans can't track aquatic creatures, so maybe just take it out. If accompanied by an animal good at tracking the figures could get darker and clearer in general, in the case of an aquatic predator joining you perhaps then show the trails of aquatic creatures. I'm not sure if that's possible for you to program, but if you could it would be more realisitc.

Awesome mod! Although like people have said human scent isn't that great for tracking, humans are very good for tracking. The game doesn't account for things like footprints and broken branches, even the sound; while there; isn't ideal. Human tracking skill is a combination of things including scent and your mod could simply be representational for the combination of things.

Because of that and the fact that it seems like it might get difficult to distinguish creatures by their puff of smoke, perhaps instead market it as a tracking mod instead of specifically scent tracking and instead of formless clouds that seem to be colored based on eating habits mayble make the clouds shaped like the creature they belong to and different colors within species too. That way if you're tracking the blue dodo you don't end up tracking the green dodo or even a completely different thing. So in tracking mode it's like focusing in on the details around them and imagining what was there.

You should highlight a bit the dinos you're actually tracking

@Boxing_Boxer No hate :) It's an interesting idea. The mod was actually just supposed to be an example to showcase ArkFrame for other modders. I did have quite a bit of fun making it thoug hso I plan of polishing it further down the road

Yyyyyeeesss.... feed those hungry community members and show what your development tools can do at the same time........

so this mod makes you able to smell other animals like a predator? Probably gonna get hate for this, but I think this would be more realistic if you could only use it on/near tamed predators, it makes sense for their sense of smell to be higher than a humans. A human should still be able to smell, something in a small area (poop, wild animal) but not the exact trail.