[Admiral Nelson]

I really hate the default 90 degree orientation of turret gun barrels.  Having seen Stratcomm post the animation code for fixing this issue, I started going through ships and putting the appropriate codes in.  Howeer, I also seem to recall comething about new builds altering the default elevation.  Is it worthwhile to carry on with these table edits?

[Trivial Psychic]

There was some code to do this, but it had been broken for a while.  The last time it worked was for Goober's 07/28 build, which contained a fix by WMC.  Unfortunately, for some strange reason, no build since then has had this functioning.  I reported it for the first few builds following this, but no one seemed to listen, so I stopped reporting it.

[Nuke]

use the animation code, let me dig it up here really quick

Code: [Select]


$Subsystem: Turret01-base,1,1.0
$Default PBanks: ( "SG-12 Buckshot" )
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 90,180,0 ; this is to make an underside turret point forward


[Admiral Nelson]

Oh, sure, I am using that code, as you see in the screenshots.  However, it would take a while to do all the prominent turrets, which would be a waste of time if FSO is going to change the default angle in the code itself.  Thus, I'm wondering if I should carry on and fix up the other vessels or not....

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic
There was some code to do this, but it had been broken for a while.  The last time it worked was for Goober's 07/28 build, which contained a fix by WMC.  Unfortunately, for some strange reason, no build since then has had this functioning.  I reported it for the first few builds following this, but no one seemed to listen, so I stopped reporting it.

Partly because even when I tried to do it the same way as Bobb's animation code, it still broke turrets.

Edit: Make it as an XMT, if you can get it done before I release the mediaVPs I'll include it as well. If not then it'll be fully compatible with them.

To use Nuke's example as the base:

data/tables/nuke-shp.tbm

Code: [Select]

#Ship Classes
$Name: Unknown    ;;I don't recognize his ship. Sue me.
+nocreate        ;;Don't create the ship, just change the attributes
$Subsystem: Turret01-base  ;;We can skip the other numbers. :D
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 90,180,0 ; this is to make an underside turret point forward
#End

[Nuke]

what do those numbers mean, i know one is % of hull, but whats the other do?

btw that was off the apis attack fighter, its like an a-10, but more vasudan.

[Admiral Nelson]

Do I need to include all tags in an XMT?  I used:

Code: [Select]


#Ship Classes
$Name:                          GTC Aeolus
+nocreate        ;;Don't create the ship, just change the attributes
$Subsystem:                     turret01
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 70,180,0
$Subsystem:                     turret02
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 70,0,0
$Subsystem:                     turret03
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 70,180,0
$Subsystem:                     turret04
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 70,0,0
$Subsystem:                     turret05
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 70,0,0
$Subsystem:                     turret06
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 70,180,0
#End


and got:

Code: [Select]


Error: Nelson-shp.tbm(3):
Error: Required token = [$Species:], found [$Subsystem:                     ]
in ship: GTC Aeolus.


So obviously it want species to appear in here too -- does that mean I need to repeat all mandatory tags?

Incidentially, you'll note I put the turrets at a 20 degree slant, not perfectly flat, as I thought that looked unnatural.  Comments?

[Axem]

Originally posted by Nuke
what do those numbers mean, i know one is % of hull, but whats the other do?

Rotation time I think. The time in seconds to make one revolution.

[Trivial Psychic]

Just to clear things up, there are 2 sets of figures for one turret entry with initial position data.

The first line with the subsystem entry would have your subsystem strength, followed by a the rotational data.  The line that starts with "+relative_angle:" has first the angle of the barrels in degrees, the second is the rotation angle of the base in degrees, followed by a figure which I assume would be a rotation time, used in other cases.  Its probably for where a specific movement is triggered, so a time figure must be in to control its speed.  Since the useages being discussed here are for turret initial positions, only a "0" is required.

[FireCrack]

I beleive the third figure is a roll value, as a iremember seeing +time: in one of these.

[WMCoolmon]

Use a Recent CVS build, I implemented XMTs shortly after 3.6.7

[Nuke]

did the spelling of relitive change in any recent builds

oh yea and the angle is pitch,yaw,roll, for setting initial position of turrets roll is not typically used. the +time: is more for other animations.

oh and can we integrate the python scripting into the animation system as well. seems like an easy way to make it more versitile.

[StratComm]

Incidentally, roll doesn't work, nor does scripted animation act on any axis other than the axis of rotation as specified in the POF.  I consider this a bug, and I thought it worked differently at some point in the past, but having recently tested it on current CVS builds, I can verify that this is no longer the case.

And do go ahead and define values for the turrets (including turning them around when that makes sense), even if the defaulting-to-depressed code gets reintroduced.  Defining the angles to what looks good will always be better than having a hardcoded default.

[Nuke]

i think theres a line that needs to be in the subobject props for it to work. you need to add :$triggered:" to the subobject properties of any subobject that is animated. (i dont think its nessicary for initial angles though).

[StratComm]

This is exactly why I wish the submodel animation was documented somewhere that wasn't only indexed by the board's search feature.

That makes sense, though.  I'll have to test it.  Though IMHO, that seems like a silly restriction.

[Admiral Nelson]

The post 3.6.7 builds all crash on me.  First it complained about not being able to find 'shockwave.pof,' so I installed DaBrains shockwave release, and got by that.  Next it crashes on:

Warning: Couldn't open texture 'Shornetd'
referenced by model 'New_Qutrob.pof'

and

Warning: Couldn't open texture 'THRUSTER01'
referenced by model 'fighter2t-03.pof'

None of the older builds complain about this.  Also is it right to put a file only supported by post 3.6.7 builds in the media VPs?  Everything works fine when I am just editing ships.tbl directly.

Also, the line "$Subsystem: Turret01-base  ;;We can skip the other numbers. " implies that the values after the turret subsystem name can be skipped.  FS2 would crash on me here, complaining about a missing float until I restored the numbers.

[StratComm]

The THRUSTER01 bug is really a non-bug, and that's being taken care of.  The Shornetd texture error has been around for a while, though I can't remember what causes that.  However, both warnings should be non-fatal (press the middle button, cancel IIRC, to return to the game) so you should be able to get past them.

And I'd always put in the numbers as even if it is valid to have them missing (I don't think it is) the defaults would probably not be what you want anyway.  And be careful with dashes in subobject names; those can end up behavinig in very strange ways across different builds.

[Admiral Nelson]

Well, it seems there is also a:
Warning: Null vec3d in vec3d normalize.
Trace out of vecmat.cpp and find offending code.

in there.  FS2 always locks up for me in the post builds.  The first mission in the game dies complaining about an extra LOD in the Satis; my little test mission dies complaining about this null vec3d.

[Starman01]

Originally posted by Nuke
use the animation code, let me dig it up here really quick

Code: [Select]


$Subsystem: Turret01-base,1,1.0
$Default PBanks: ( "SG-12 Buckshot" )
$animation=triggered
$type="inital"
+relative_angle: 90,180,0 ; this is to make an underside turret point forward
[/B]

Damn, how could I missed that ? I thought this feature has never been finished and finally skipped because it didn't worked in the code-update. I just tested it, and the turrets work fine with this table change.

So now more turret erection for the WCS-Ships at all, I have to change the ships.tbl right now

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by StratComm
The THRUSTER01 bug is really a non-bug, and that's being taken care of.  The Shornetd texture error has been around for a while, though I can't remember what causes that.  However, both warnings should be non-fatal (press the middle button, cancel IIRC, to return to the game) so you should be able to get past them.

And I'd always put in the numbers as even if it is valid to have them missing (I don't think it is) the defaults would probably not be what you want anyway.  And be careful with dashes in subobject names; those can end up behavinig in very strange ways across different builds.

Who's fixing the THRUSTER01 bug & when will it be fixed?