E2 wirelink; add wirelinks to ANY entity, not just wire entities.

[DataSchmuck]

I would find it useful to be able to click a prop (or other non-wired entity) with the wirelink tool, and it would add a wirelink to that entity.

The main function of this would be to get the ENTITY of an object without using the entity marker.

I ask this because if I have 50 random props/entities that I want to affect, I need 50 entity markers. I'm just trying to reduce my entity count per contraption.

Is this possible without rewriting the entire tool?

[chinoto]

Have you tried entity discovery yet? I doubt wirelinks would work on props and many members will probably bitch (kinda like with code...) at you to use what is already available.

[emspike]

This wouldn't be a wirelink, but it is an excellent idea. The only problem is that the prop would be turned into a non-prop entity, and may lag more. I suggest one of 2 things:

1) A sort of Multi-Wirelink, just like there is a multi-joystick in the Joystick Addon.

2) Being able to link entity inputs directly to entities.

EDIT: After chinoto's post, I would like to add that #2 would lag less than the find functions. Which are broken at the moment.

[DataSchmuck]

The only problem is that the prop would be turned into a non-prop entity, and may lag more.

That's what I was afraid of.

Have you tried entity discovery yet?

The find functions are AWESOME for finding groups of entities that share a similar class, owner, model, etc, but not for finding SPECIFIC entities. Like if I have 20 of the exact same prop, but I only wanted to target 5 specific ones. With emspike's idea #2, I could just link those 5 directly to entity inputs on my expression.

[chinoto]

Alright I just thought you might somehow be unaware of entity discovery. I do like emspike's shitty idea (#2 ) though it would make entity markers redundant, and I'm not sure it would work in the first place. Just in case, could constraint functions help?

[TomyLobo]

This wouldn't be a wirelink, but it is an excellent idea. The only problem is that the prop would be turned into a non-prop entity, and may lag more. I suggest one of 2 things:

1) A sort of Multi-Wirelink, just like there is a multi-joystick in the Joystick Addon.

could you express that in other terms?

2) Being able to link entity inputs directly to entities.

that is a good idea, and probably possible as well.
a problem might be ambiguities:
do you want to connect to an entity output on the entity or to the entity itself?

EDIT: After chinoto's post, I would like to add that #2 would lag less than the find functions. Which are broken at the moment.

how exactly are they broken? do you use the latest SVN revision?
they were indeed broken from 1203 to 1207, but they're fixed now.

[DataSchmuck]

do you want to connect to an entity output on the entity or to the entity itself?

I would like to connect to the entity itself, but it would be hard to do regular wiring to wire entities. So I guess adding an entity output on the entitiy would be better.

[TomyLobo]

adding entity outputs to non-wire ents = messy
i'll just make it trigger the input with the ent. it's much simpler and much more stable, though it probably wont dupe well, so you should store the entity internally

[Jimlad]

You want to make 50 inputs on your E2?! This sounds like a problem where there has to be a better solution than the one you're asking for. Specifically, what are you trying to do?

[DataSchmuck]

I was using 50 as an extreme example. In reality it would be more like 5 or 10.