As the title explains, the concept of an invisible building is quite awesome, but I don't know how to get one. I've played the new TS map called G3c or something and a few random Korean maps that imply the use of mysterious cloaked buildings and magically cloaked units with no arbiters in sight I would normally try to figure something like this out by myself, but I have no idea where to start so I came here. Thanks in advance peoples of SEN.

This trick is done by disabling and enabling the doodad state of qualifying units. Here's a list:

http://www.staredit.net/starcraft/Set_Doodad_State

To do the trick, just have a trigger that disables the unit, waits, enables the unit, and then orders the unit to move. While this process is happening, generally the player is not allowed to look at the unit or they will crash. Once the procedure is complete, however, you should have a functional, cloaked unit.

Oh, Thank you so much!

Edit:
Wellp, I've managed to cloak a few buildings, but every time I try to cloak a unit the game crashes when I look at it. I managed to create a functioning cloaked Marine once, but when I tried again it crashed. Any suggestions?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 5 2012, 8:10 pm by c(O.Oc).

So make sure the unit is not visible until you've finished the Disable-Disable-Enable-Move, marines should consistantly cloak

Btw, you can also use the arbiter-burrow cloak glitch for many zerg units (example attatched)

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Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 5 2012, 9:38 pm by jjf28.

You need to put the unit you want to cloak somewhere where the player can't see it, and then give it a move order via trigger.

...The following is based on memory and guesswork. I think that this issue arises because of something called iscript. A file called iscript.bin defines all the animations that a unit can do; this includes enable and disable animations, which are used for the Installation doors/traps doing stuff. Now, when a unit is told to use an animation it does not have, the game crashes; a fairly common modding mistake is forgetting to add new animations to iscript when giving a unit new capabilities it didn't normally have. Therefore, enabling or disabling units that don't have the associated animation would cause a crash. Another possibility is that the cloaking process sets the unit to an invalid frame; this also causes a crash. Either way, however, telling the unit to move will make it display its movement animation, which also changes the frame the unit is displaying, fixing both of these issues. (As to why it doesn't crash if you can't see the unit, I have no idea. Iirc, it should...)

Anyway, just give it a move order before it can be seen.

Once the cloaking processes is complete, in order for it to fully cloak the other players must have a detector detect it or have shared vision for a moment. Otherwise they'll see a non-cloaked unit with no shadow until they detect it. They won't be able to attack it like a cloaked unit, but they will be able to see the unit.

Here's a step-by-step outline of what to do. Basically each trigger cycle will need it's own separate trigger with the specified actions, and you can use DCs to step through them in order.

Trigger cycle 1:
Create unit somewhere that the player does not have vision
Order unit to move to another location, basically this just gives the unit a specific directional graphic (optional, but can't hurt)
Disable doodad state on the unit

Trigger cycle 2:
Enable doodad state on the unit
Order unit to move to another location, to refresh the unit graphics

Trigger cycle 3:
Move unit to your desired location

You can probably smoosh cycle 3 into cycle 2, but this is just a precautionary system. Note that when you do this trick it will create a 'rock sprite' about 5-6 tiles above the unit when you disable doodad state on it. If you do this action near the top of the map I believe the sprites will fall off the edge and not be visible; but the whole area you do this needs to not be visible anyway.

Not all units can be cloaked (they'll crash the game no matter what you do). Cloakability seems to have some tileset basis as well where some units will cloak in some tilesets but not others.

Further to Vrael above, one interesting result of this is that it's not a true cloak. For example I have used this on mutalisks in the ashworld tileset and after other players have been briefly given vision, they will then see a cloaked/blurry mutalisk outline with a crisp black shadow beneath it at all times. So players will still be able to see the shadow and know the cloaked unit is there, but will need a detector to be able to attack it. Other units and other tilesets may vary. I can also morph the mutalisk into a guardian or devourer and it will stay cloaked (not sure about the shadow), whereas attempting to cloak those units directly results in a crash.

Hey it works now Thanks a bundle Lanthanide for that tutorial.