[bobbtmann]

Hi! I'm trying to rig a model for importing, but I'm getting hung up on various aspects of rigging. In the wiki there are instructions, but I'm having a hard time understanding them. So I've got a couple questions right now for anyone who's on top of this stuff:


1: On the topic of turrets, the wiki says:

Grouped as children of a node with name starting with "firepoints" which is a child of the turret submodel node helper node

What does this mean? Are the children points, dummies, geometry, splines? Same question about the nature of "firepoints".



2: On the topic of paths, it says something similar:

Grouped as children of a node with name starting with "firepoints" which is a child of the subsystem, submodel or dockpoint helper node.

Does this mean that a docking bay needs a (dummy?) named "firepoints" linked to it, with the path linked to "firepoints"? Is the path a spline (as in Styxx's version of exporter), or just a bunch of objects?



3: on the subject of helpers:

If they are indeed used, do they need a reset x-form modifier on them?



4: on the subject of "children":

Do these "children" follow a naming convention, or is that unimportant? For example, should I name these "children" something specific like $pathxx?



Thanks! 

[Nuke]

ive always said that these wiki entries need more information and possibly pictures.

[Dragon]

Do you really have to do these before conversion? These things can be done in PCS2, though setting firingpoints for turrets may take some time.

[zookeeper]

This is how I setup turrets in Max. Note that the new PCS2 builds require a slightly different helper hierarchy than in the old tutorials and that one helper needs to be named "multifirepoints", not just "firepoints". As far as I know they can be dummies or geometry or whatever, as the only thing that matters is their location.

EDIT: Similarly, here's how I setup the dockpoints and paths.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Nuke]

Do you really have to do these before conversion? These things can be done in PCS2, though setting firingpoints for turrets may take some time.

autogen from data in the model in its native format is faster, and allows you to make changes to models without having to redo everything. like if i dont like the placement of a missile bay, and move it over, i can just drag the helper (with all the points under it) with it so i dont have to edit the points one at a time. i just wish that the existing autogen features were better described in the wiki. make no mistake this is not a feature request, but rather a request for better documentation. whats the point of coding autogen features if nobody knows how to use them.

[bobbtmann]

The images are a great help. Thanks guys!