[Potato Uno]

I see AcceptEntityOutput and HookEntityOutput on the SM API, but I don't see something like AcceptEntityOutput or HookEntityInput.

The HookEntityInput isn't too important, but what I would want to do is be able to force an entity to emit an output. In particular, in TF2, I want to trigger the trigger_capture_area's OnCapTeam* entity outputs without the control point being captured.

I found this function, CBaseEntity::FireNamedOutput and managed to find the function signature in windows. However, I have no idea what this variant_t parameter is, and passing in 0 caused a server crash (...which might not be too surprising).

So my question is, what do I pass into that variant_t parameter (which I assume is a C++ object generated when we use SetVariant* in sourcepawn?), or if there is another way, how do I trigger the entity output? Is this something that I would need a C++ extension to do and can't do with sourcepawn alone? (which would suck but it is what it is)

This is the test plugin if anyone is curious.

Spoiler

PHP Code:


public void OnPluginStart()
{
    RegConsoleCmd("sm_test", Test);    
    
    Handle hConfig = LoadGameConfigFile("mvm_test");
    if (hConfig == INVALID_HANDLE)
        SetFailState("Could not find gamedata file mvm_test.txt."); 
    
    StartPrepSDKCall(SDKCall_Entity);
    PrepSDKCall_SetFromConf(hConfig, SDKConf_Signature, "CBaseEntity::FireNamedOutput");
    PrepSDKCall_AddParameter(SDKType_String, SDKPass_ByValue);
    PrepSDKCall_AddParameter(SDKType_PlainOldData, SDKPass_Plain);
    PrepSDKCall_AddParameter(SDKType_CBaseEntity, SDKPass_Pointer);
    PrepSDKCall_AddParameter(SDKType_CBaseEntity, SDKPass_Pointer);
    PrepSDKCall_AddParameter(SDKType_Float, SDKPass_Plain);
    FireNamedOutput = EndPrepSDKCall();
    if (FireNamedOutput == INVALID_HANDLE)
        SetFailState("Could not initialize call to CBaseEntity::FireNamedOutput. You need new gamedata.");    


    CloseHandle(hConfig);
}

public Action Test(int iClient, int nArgs)
{
    int iEnt = -1;
    char Name[64];
    while ((iEnt = FindEntityByClassname(iEnt, "trigger_capture_area")) != -1)
    {
        GetEntPropString(iEnt, Prop_Data, "m_iName", Name, sizeof(Name));
        if (!StrEqual(Name, "cap_a"))    // testing this on cp_steel's point A
            continue;
            
        ReplyToCommand(iClient, Name);        
        SDKCall(FireNamedOutput, iEnt, "OnCapTeam2", 0, iEnt, iEnt, 0.05);
    }

    return Plugin_Handled;
} 


[psychonic]

Originally Posted by Potato Uno However, I have no idea what this variant_t parameter is, and passing in 0 caused a server crash (...which might not be too surprising).

The issue is less of passing 0, but more that it's a 20(?)-byte object and you're passing 4.

I don't think that there's currently a good way to call FireOutput from SM. If you want to file a bug, we could look at something for that, or you could do it in an extension.