[Cobra]

who are you talking about?

[Unknown Target]

You're an idiot.

Anyway, if you're in TS3, I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere--if you search.

[Cobra]

..... I...DO....SEARCH...MORON. I just can't find what I'm looking for.

[vyper]

Originally posted by Cobra
who are you talking about?

You ya tube. Try listening to these guys once - even if they are arseholes to you at times, they are still trying to help.

[karajorma]

http://www.lunadude.com/rsrc_trueSpace.htm

If there isn't something that will help somewhere on there I'll eat my hat. Well actually I'll have to buy a hat first then eat it but you get my point.

I'll tell you now though. It won't be big sign saying "Here's how to break objects into sub objects" though. Take a good look around and pay special attention to anything involving booleans.

[Cobra]

booleans give me gas

[Nuke]

booleans have their uses but they also have limits. i use them sparingly. the big block intersect technique is a really good way to clean up a mesh.

[KARMA]

actually I think he's asking how to make a subobject in TS for fs2, i.e. how to beef up a hierachy.

Which, if I'm not wrong, is even worse

[Cobra]

er, you're right karma. that's what i'm asking. getter robo g wants me to do a little bit of modelling work for him, and i need to know how to that.

[Swamp_Thing]

Ok, listen up Cobra. Listen very carefully, i´ll shall say this only once:

There are 2 kinds of subobjects in FS.
The physical ones, where an actuall object is used.
And the coded ones, where a spot in a mesh is used by FS to point a subsystem. Like a fighterbay.
The latter one is made in PCS and ModelView, by choosing certain coordenates of the model and assigning the proper code in the table entry. Check around. The method is exactlly the same as turrets, basically.
As for physical subobjects:
First of all, you´ll need a TS plugin, called TrueView. Get it on the site Karajorma pointed out above.
Next is to remember a fundamental rule of modeling: organize yourself. Picture what you´re going to do first, BEFORE starting the work. It´s very hard to break down a mesh into seperate objects, once you´ve done it. So build them in seperate. If you want a certain part of a ship to rotate, for example, you must build it in seperate.
Once you have two objects, wich we will call the "main hull" and "subobjects", you need to group them. Basically, grouping them means adding a light to each object. It´s very easy to do.
Open Trueview (while on TS), and select your object. Then place a light next to it, and use the various viewports in TS to center the light with the object. Then move to TrueView, select the light (if you haven´t already) and drag in into the object in question. It´s just like Windows Explorer. It´s a drag and drop operation, all done in the TrueView window. You will notice that once you drop a light into an object, a small "+" sign will appear left of the object. That means it´s a "group". Open it by clicking on the "+", and you´ll see the object and the light.
Do the same for the object you wish to have as "subobject". Then, to complete the operation, you drag the subobject group into your "main hull" group (always in Trueview).
And that´s it. Name the groups acordingly, call the main grup "Freespace Model". Save it, and convert it.The rest is just like turreting, of wich you can read an extensive tutorial in Karajorma´s sig, as i had said earlier. You can also open a model from FS and check the hierarchy of it on TrueView, to get a better idea.

That´s it. Remember to organize yourself, and think ahead. Always.

[Cobra]

yikes. that's a lot!

[StratComm]

This whole modding thing isn't milk-n-cookies anyway, especially if you're new to it.  While Freespace is fairly open to modding, it's got some conventions that are, well, annoying at best, and we still don't have a good editing program for the post-modeling work that's as comprehensive as it should be.  Modview and PCS come close, but to complete a model you must use both, often simultaneously.  It's a steep learning curve, and if you don't start simple (like with Kara's modding FAQ) you're going to get lost really fast.  Take it slow.

[KARMA]

How to make a subobject in ts for fs2 is just ridicolous, it is the very very very basic of modding, and it is covered in at least 4  tutorials (max sterling's, karajoma's, ipandrwes', bobboau's) which are pretty known in the community and easy to find.
Asking for that after some months spent here means just "ehy I'm too lazy to make a search, please do it for me". You know cobra, you won't find many fans that way
Making searches, trials and errors is the only way to learn something, doing that for him means that he'll never learn and he'll continue asking stupid questions in future.
I've nothing against cobra or answering questions (actually I do it very often) but I'm totally against responding to THAT kind of questions. That's what tutorials are there for

[TopAce]

I agree with the point of doing a search, KARMA, but I think why Cobra actually did not do a search was he did not know how this feature was called in TS or he tried a search and failed.

[Swamp_Thing]

Originally posted by Cobra
yikes. that's a lot!

If you want it easy, stick to gardening. Every single modeller here has been where you are now. And if they/we managed, you should manage aswell. But obviouslly you´ll have to work for it. Being a lazy arse won´t get you nowhere.
If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. It takes patience, perseverence, and lots of sleepless nights hammering at it. If you are expecting to be able to build a quality model after only a couple of days, think again. You´ll get a whole lot of bad reviews and critics before it starts to get better. You´ll get a lot of  
s and  before you start getting those .
Start small, and slowly move up the ladder. Otherwise you´ll fall on your arse if you try to climb too fast.

[Cobra]

ST, take a look at the last few pages in the utility freighter thread in the fs modding forum. you'll see a huge improvement from 7 blocks to a decent looking x-wing fighter.

[TopAce]

Swamp_Thing is right. Heed his advice.