[Pilot Of The US]

Hi, I just need some info about how to set up the hierchy-(cant remember how to spell that), for a spacestation/installation in TrueSpace 3.2.

You know in what order and structure do you set up the LOD's, hull, a couple of turrents, rotating subobjects, subsystems, docks, etc.....

Oh and BTW, say if you had a structure in FS2 which had 8 docks, could you have a mission which at the start has 5 ships docked with it, then all of them undock and leave?

[karajorma]

In a word. No. FS2 doesn't support multiple docking. However you could position them a metre away from the ship you want them dcked to and launch them as soon as the action begins.

As for the hierarchy look in my FAQ at the ship creation guide or Bobboau's PCS tutorial (or both!). Both have very nice guides.

[diamondgeezer]

You, sir, need this and this

[Bobboau]

my sig

[Pilot Of The US]

Thanx guys for your help. Oh and when you're in TrueSpace is this where you have to set how big the object is, so it shows up the right size in-game, or do you do this somewhere else?

[kasperl]

IIRC you have to scale in PCS, though check da siggy. DG lready linked to the wiki, wich should contain a lot of usefull info.

[diamondgeezer]

Ph34r the Wiki

[Pilot Of The US]

What does IIRC mean??

[karajorma]

If I remember correctly

As for scale you can set it either in Truespace or in PCS (from the options menu). The default is 1 TS metre = 20 FS Metres but that can be changed pretty easily.

[Pilot Of The US]

Ok, now my space station has got a couple of radar dishes so i want to set some of them as subsystems, but i also want to set one of them as a normal radar dish. How do i do this? (do i set it up as a subsystem and call it a dish?).

If some of you dont exacly know what i mean, have a look at the GTD Orion-class destroyer, it's got a couple of radar dishes on top, near it's comms & nav systems. IIRC that is!
How do i set my radar dishes just like that?

[StratComm]

Build them as a seperate subobject, and glue them on just like you would a turret.  They fall under the "rotating subsystems" category, as covered by Karajorma's FAQ.

Also, if the ratio of conversion drops to less than 1:1, I think you can get some glitches.  However, I cannot remember if that's a failing of Truespace or PCS.

[Pilot Of The US]

Ok, right ive imported the basic model into model view. I've set up the part in Truespace as follows:

+detail0
          |
    -  box1 (x5)
    -  tube1 (x8)
    -  etc......

So as you can see ive got the hull which is made up of about 20-30 diffrent objects. under the group of detail0. It exported properly but the textures didnt show up.

[karajorma]

Have you exported the textures in the correct format?

Unless you're using FS2_open you must use 8-bit pcx files for the textures. Nothing else will work. A common mistake is to use 24 bit files. Check the format and use irfanview (from www.irfanview.com) to convert them if you have to.

[Pilot Of The US]

It's ok, ive got the textures showing. It was because i was using BMP files and not PCX. Any way i just wanted to know is my model's main hull suposed to be made up of 30 diffrent objects?

I mean, ive had a look at Flipside's herc model and it's main  hull is made up of 1 object for each LOD. So isnt there any way i can glue/join/group all my hull objects into one object???

Oh and Stratcomm said that to made a radar dish you have to glue it onto your main hull as a . Should i use glue as"child" or glue as "sibling"?

[aldo_14]

There are mesh editing tools in Ts, but i don;t know 'em cos I use max.  But yes, it is easily possible... basically you have the option of painstakingly joining multiple objects, or starting from a simple one (ie. cube) and building 'outwards'.

[Pilot Of The US]

Aldo_14, ive got 3D Studio Max. I used it to originally to make the model, then i imported it to Truespace because 3D MAX can't export in .cob.

In Truespace is where i textured the model and exported it. So i wanted to know:

1. Does it matter that ive got so many hull pieces in Truespace??? (will this have any effect in-game, at a later time)

2. Is there any way i can directly export my model into ModelView without having to go through Truespace?

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Pilot Of The US
Aldo_14, ive got 3D Studio Max. I used it to originally to make the model, then i imported it to Truespace because 3D MAX can't export in .cob.

In Truespace is where i textured the model and exported it. So i wanted to know:

1. Does it matter that ive got so many hull pieces in Truespace??? (will this have any effect in-game, at a later time)

2. Is there any way i can directly export my model into ModelView without having to go through Truespace?

1/ There is a subobject limit in Fs2, but i can't remember it offhand.  Think it may be about 80-100, including turrets.  I'm not 100% sure on the visual impact (i.e. clipping from intersections, etc), because all my models' hulls are a single subobject.... if it's basically set up in the same way as turrets onto a hull, i can't envisage a major problem.

The main errors come when someone builds a model from objects and suchlike in TS and just booleans them together, but I'm guessing this won't be the case here .

NB:  Insofar as gluing goes, I've always had more reliable results gluing as sibling.

2/ Unfortunately, there's no way to convert 3ds files without using the bastard Truespace to convert them to cob.

[StratComm]

That's not exactly true, there's a free version of 3dexploration that will do the conversion from 3ds to cob, and it can fix a lot of the holes and things that the 3ds format tends to create.  Plus, it preserves texture coordinates well, so you can use the infinitely better texturing of max to get your ship looking like you want it before you export.

However, to set up the heirarchy correctly, you do need to use truespace for gluing.

[karajorma]

Don't glue!

I've always found it much easier and less error prone to download and use Trueview (for TS3.2) or Scene Tool (For TS5+). That way you only have to drag and drop the subobjects into the right places. If you don't have them check the turreting tutorial in my FAQ for links.

[Pilot Of The US]

Thanx for all your help, any way, im gonna go back to TrueSpace 3 and take some time off to properly texture my space station.

And im planning not to make a new table and just use the GTI Achadia's table. I just need to know what systems to i need to add, and make so that the table will work with my model.

heres and untextured pic of my model in ModelView32.......




im sorry if the pic dosent load, ive been trying to link it to my site but i it dosent work, but i thought id try anyway.

(if you still want to see it, it's on my site (see the siggy) in the "Upcomming Projects" section)