[Omniscaper]

Possible spoiler for the US BSG audience......























After 6 hours of tweaking and blindly messing with dock modding (which is still frustrating me), I at least got these screenshots to show off Goober's uber skillz, and the Colonial Mover, Sikotik_Psyphi's first low polygon (will also have a 5k version) contribution to the project.

Now we could use an animation code for landing gear movement. I'd rather not use "change model" in fred. Its too abrupt.

[StratComm]

See Omni, that's what you get for not looking at existing examples for how to make dockpoints  Had I known you were only using one per point I could have saved you 5 hours of work.

[Omniscaper]

Whats with the time warp!!!! How did Strat get first post!?

I'll warn users of the 3dsmax puggin that Styx failed to mention and include a second docking point in his sample model. Thats what I get for abandoning PCS for conversions. I'm sure Kazan is laughing now.

[SadisticSid]

Dude, you really need to upgrade that butt-ugly stock sun that appears in a lot of your shots...

[deep_eyes]

its just there for nastalgia!

[Nuke]

bob's animation code should handle landing gear. he would just need to implement a landing trigger, one might already exist but im not sure.

[Gai Daigoji]

We of the BSG team wub Goober5000 and hope he will have our babies!

[Deepblue]

Hehe, hey Omni, up to putting landing struts on the vipers?

[Omniscaper]

I would if it were a usefull addendum.... I'll wait till Bob perfects that code.

[Goober5000]

WooT!  Now this is why I added the feature.  Great job.

[Deepblue]

BTW what ambient level are you using in those shots?

BTW2, please check your PMs.

[StratComm]

Originally posted by Omniscaper
Whats with the time warp!!!! How did Strat get first post!?

I'll warn users of the 3dsmax puggin that Styx failed to mention and include a second docking point in his sample model. Thats what I get for abandoning PCS for conversions. I'm sure Kazan is laughing now.

I'm just good like that

It never occured to me that the sample file had enough or not enough dockpoints, as I have always known that it takes two to make the dock act like you expect it to.  I'd guess it's defaulting forward because for most of the transports that makes the most sense (so that they don't push their cargo broadside into a jump hole) but the fact that it didn't break must have been really annoying to find the cause.

[Overlord]

Now there should be a way to disable the thrusters.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Overlord
Now there should be a way to disable the thrusters.

Damage-subsystem sexp would do it, I think.

Albeit I thought there was suppossed to be an 'idle' setting for thrusters, i.e. at 0 throttle you'd only see a very small, faint glow.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by StratComm
It never occured to me that the sample file had enough or not enough dockpoints, as I have always known that it takes two to make the dock act like you expect it to.  I'd guess it's defaulting forward because for most of the transports that makes the most sense (so that they don't push their cargo broadside into a jump hole) but the fact that it didn't break must have been really annoying to find the cause.

I think the thing is that when most of us wanted to learn how to do something like dockpoints we posted or looked in one of the tutorials.

I'm pretty surprised it worked with one dockpoint too. I would have expected a CTD or error message. I wonder what would have happened if he'd tried to dock the ships in game instead of having them start off docked.

[aldo_14]

I guess... maybe if the error was path related, it simply doesn't bother its arse to check?

[Omniscaper]

So much on my mind, its tough to keep track of EVERY SINGLE PROCESS involved with modding. I got used to dishing out trek conversions which kept my focus on a singular ship, without worrying about everything else. Last time I put all my focus on a a singular release was the Galaxy class model, which was roughly 6 months ago. Very few times have I actually implemented docking points.

Perhaps next time I'll refer to the wisdom of this community and not rely solely on Styxx's plugin. So much Truespace and Pcs PAIN I've experienced during my Trek conversions which made me biased toward alternative solutions.



So let me get this straight.

The first docking point determines the docking location.

The normal for that point determines one axis of its orientation (typically "roll").

The second docking point determines heading.

The normal for that point determins.... pitch?

[Goober5000]

No, the line between the first and second point determines orientation (sort of).

Here's the actual code...

Code: [Select]

void set_goal_dock_orient(matrix *dom, vector *docker_p0, vector *docker_p1, vector *docker_p0_norm, matrix *docker_orient, vector *dockee_p0, vector *dockee_p1, vector *dockee_p0_norm, matrix *dockee_orient)
{
vector  fvec, uvec, temp;
matrix  m1, m2, m3;

// Compute the global orientation of the dockee's docking bay.

// get the rotated (local) fvec
vm_vec_rotate(&fvec, dockee_p0_norm, dockee_orient);
vm_vec_negate(&fvec);

// get the rotated (local) uvec
vm_vec_normalized_dir(&temp, dockee_p1, dockee_p0);
vm_vec_rotate(&uvec, &temp, dockee_orient);

// create a rotation matrix
vm_vector_2_matrix(&m1, &fvec, &uvec, NULL);

// get the global orientation
vm_matrix_x_matrix(&m3, dockee_orient, &m1);

// Compute the matrix given by the docker's docking bay.

// get the rotated (local) fvec
vm_vec_rotate(&fvec, docker_p0_norm, docker_orient);

// get the rotated (local) uvec
vm_vec_normalized_dir(&temp, docker_p1, docker_p0);
vm_vec_rotate(&uvec, &temp, docker_orient);

// create a rotation matrix
vm_vector_2_matrix(&m2, &fvec, &uvec, NULL);

//      Pre-multiply the orientation of the source object (docker_orient) by the transpose
//      of the docking bay's orientation, ie unrotate the source object's matrix.
vm_transpose_matrix(&m2);
vm_matrix_x_matrix(dom, &m3, &m2);
}I'm not 100% sure I understand it myself, actually.

[Omniscaper]

I see,... it all makes sense now. ::takes a shot of vodka::.... GULP...   YES!!! It makes perfect sense.

[Kazan]

omni you realize when you use the 3ds plugin you _Are_ using pcs?

he used the PCS source as reference and i think borrowed code from it

PCS2 should have native read-support for 3DS max is someone gets me some decent documentation of the format and lays out terminology so i know the terminological TS equivilents of 3ds terms