[IamtheHunter]

I'm creating a new ship, and I want to be able to fire multiple beams from one point at the same time.  I saw this done in the Derelic campaign, and I was wondering if anyone knew how to do it.  At first I assigned multiple fire points with different turret names to a single "Turret01", but only the first point fired.  Then I copied its geometry and single firing point four times, and that worked, i got four beams.  I can work with that, but is there a way to have all four beams on one piece of geometry?  I'll post the ship if anyone wants to see it, but right now it is not skinned.  Thanks.

[Setekh]

AFAIK Hunter, you've struck what I once found myself; for beam turrets and the like, an actual geometric shape must be defined for each turret you want (hence you would need to copy the geometry and use that as a kind of makeshift solution). I know it's a bit inelegant, but I couldn't find another way to get it to work. But I'm not a real modding expert around here anyway.

Oh, and welcome to HLP.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by IamtheHunter
I'm creating a new ship, and I want to be able to fire multiple beams from one point at the same time.  I saw this done in the Derelic campaign, and I was wondering if anyone knew how to do it.  At first I assigned multiple fire points with different turret names to a single "Turret01", but only the first point fired.  Then I copied its geometry and single firing point four times, and that worked, i got four beams.  I can work with that, but is there a way to have all four beams on one piece of geometry?  I'll post the ship if anyone wants to see it, but right now it is not skinned.  Thanks.

Your basic error here is assuming it was something special about the model. Mulitple beams are usually done by use of the fire-beam SEXP in FRED Any beam can be made to fire repeatedly in this way.

Of course if you want your ship to fire multiple beams every time you see it and you plan to have several ships of the same class doing it you may find your way easier in the end

[IamtheHunter]

Thanks for the welcome Setekh!  Thanks for the advice, i will probably end up just having multiple copies of the same thing.  If they take up the same geometrical space, they should take damage at the same rate, right?  The only annoying thing will be that it will show "Beam Turret" or whatever each time for however many beams there are.  

And I have yet another question.  My destroyer model has a fighter bay that you can physically fly through.  Right now it has two entry points.  Everything is working with it, except at the points where the geometry from the two sides meet: i cant fuse the vertices.  I just assign them the same location and it seems to work fine.  What do you guys think?  Thanks for your help!

[Setekh]

No prob, Hunter. Yes, that's true, if their geometry is identical, they should take damage concurrently. If you're at all concerned about balancing (eg. this beam turret is four times harder to kill than the rest of them), drop the hull points of each sub-turret till it matches up to a quarter of how strong you want the whole turret to be. But I don't envisage that being a problem for you.

Whooo, okay, that's way out of my field of expertise. Need a dedicated modeller to explain that one. But, as a general rule of thumb, if your solution works here, then that's you being innovative and finding ways to make it work in-game. If it doesn't crash for you, and it doesn't crash for anyone else (when you're ready, put it up for beta-testing), then congratulations - you've made a functional model for FS2.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by IamtheHunter
And I have yet another question.  My destroyer model has a fighter bay that you can physically fly through.  Right now it has two entry points.  Everything is working with it, except at the points where the geometry from the two sides meet: i cant fuse the vertices.  I just assign them the same location and it seems to work fine.  What do you guys think?  Thanks for your help!

Which modelling program are you using? Truespace?

[Anaz]

alrighty tehHunter...I've had a few of those problems before...


For the non-fusing hangar bays, well, TS doesn't like to do that, so here's my solution:

Make the hanger bays meet at about the same point, but leave the faces in. Texture them with a texture called "invisible". Interestingly enough, it won't show up in game . Next step would be to convert it 'till it's all happy in game, and in your table, add the "no colide invisible" flag to the table. Viola! You can then fly through your hangar bay! If you want invisibleness that you can't fly through, just use a texture not named invisible for those parts.

As for your multiple beams, making them all in the same group of geometry would *probably* work. Use trueview and put them all in the same group for your turret. I think. Never actually tried to do that.

[IamtheHunter]

Thanks Setekh.  I dont know when the model will be done, but ill put it up for beta when its ready.

Anaz, thats a really cool idea!  I was looking in the table and i see the Knossos is an example of that.  So far when i do my hangars i have to delete a few faces from the hull of the ship, going 'unde the hood' as it were.  After i manipulate the geometry of the hangar within, i add the face back.  There shouldnt be a problem with this, should there be?  And are you using LithUnWrap to texture your models?

[karajorma]

Those of who know lith use it. The rest of us muddle through with other methods

[Anaz]

Originally posted by IamtheHunter
Thanks Setekh.  I dont know when the model will be done, but ill put it up for beta when its ready.

Anaz, thats a really cool idea!  I was looking in the table and i see the Knossos is an example of that.  So far when i do my hangars i have to delete a few faces from the hull of the ship, going 'unde the hood' as it were.  After i manipulate the geometry of the hangar within, i add the face back.  There shouldnt be a problem with this, should there be?  And are you using LithUnWrap to texture your models?

Nope, I use TS for my texturing, because I have the artistic skill of a drowning duck when it comes to texing, so I stick to bigger ships, and using the "Cubic UV map" in TS.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Anaz
Nope, I use TS for my texturing, because I have the artistic skill of a drowning duck when it comes to texing, so I stick to bigger ships, and using the "Cubic UV map" in TS.

*Considers Anaz a kindred spirit*

[Anaz]

Originally posted by karajorma


*Considers Anaz a kindred spirit*

Seem to be quite a few of us about here then