[Swamp_Thing]

I really hate having so many questions all the time, but i´m in a jam!

I have a few questions for the modding "gurus" around here, regarding turrets and animations. If you could answer them, i would be  forever gratefull. There´s quite a few questions, so i would apreciate you answering the most that you can.
Here they are:

a) Animations: there´s a few models in FS2 that have moving parts, like radars, solar panels, and whatever. How is this achieved? Can i use the Truespace animation tool, and record the frames? Will the model retain the animation after conversion to .pof? How do i edit the group? Does it need a light glued to it, or something? And how do i glue them together, do i use "glue as child" or "glue as sibling"? And what´s the diference between the two?

b) Turrets, with animations? I modeled a few turrets, one with missile pods, one with gattling lasers, and one with flak cannons. I need the base of the turret to rotate 380 degrees, and the gun/missile pods to go up and down. How do i do that?
I also attached a small radar to the turrets, so that it looks like it is searching for targets, and i want it to rotate continuaslly, in a loop. Do i use the same animation methods that i use for the first question, or does it need something diferent?
I was even thinking of having the gattling laser´s barrels spinning as it shoots, like a real minigun. But that means the turret needs to have 3 moving parts, in complete opposite directions. Is that a problem for FS2?
Do i use "glue as sibling" or "glue as child" when glueing the various components of the turret?
Does FS2 handle complex high poly turrets, or do i need to make just simple cubes with triangles sticking out of them, as FS2 has?
What´s the poly limit for turrets?

c) Regarding Truespace 6.5:
Does anyone know where i can get the TrueView pluggin for it? My copy doesn´t have it... It has many other pluggins (extensions) but TrueView isn´t amongst them. If i can´t get True View, would the scene editor in TS do the same job?

Whew!! That was a lot of questions...
Hope to get some answers.


PS: Final question: I have the RENEGADE RESSURGENCE mod campaign, but when i start the first mission i have no primary guns!?! Why the hell not???
Tried changing pilot, deleting everyother mod and table, placed the .vp as the first one FS2 reads from, and no go! Any ideas?
I use the retail version, NOT patched. Does it need the patch?

[Anaz]

Alright. First of all, look at the wiki (FsDoc). Link at the top of the page. You should be patched, and have SCP 3.6 installed.

As for the modding questions:

FS is not so cool as to have keyframes and such. It uses a much simpler method. You create your model, with all of its subobjects and such for things you want to move, attach lights to them (I think...been a while since I actually tried this stuff), and then in PCS (Pof constructor suite, see the wiki again) you actually make it move, by saying that the subobject rotates around z,x,y, etc... The actual time one rotation takes is specified in the ships table entry (IIRC). For turrets, I've never actually gotten them to work properly, then again, havent expended too much effort towards it, but they don't do animations either. It involves lots of lights and gluing as well. Look for Karajoramas (sp?) modding tutorial. He's got it in his sig last I checked, and it's also in the wiki.


Bottom line: Wiki is your friend

[Swamp_Thing]

I just wanted to leave here a couple of screenshots of the turrets, so that people understand better what i was asking about. And while i´m at it, have you guys giving me an opinion on wether they look good or not.



You can see some screens of my very first work on modeling 3D!
Opinions are welcomed, but  note that i´m still trying to figure out how the whole damn thing works!


http://www.geocities.com/thethirdworldwar/freespace.html

Just call it as you see it. And feel free to tackle a few of the questions above, too.

[WMCoolmon]

Those are all excellent models but the turrets look too detailed.

[Setekh]

Welcome to HLP, Swamp_Thing.

[karajorma]

Very impressive. Those turrets are probably a little too high poly for the game though. How many polys are they?

The fighters have a very atmospheric look which is a bit out of place in Freespace but would look great in a total conversion like the one Unknown Target is working on.

As for getting Turrets to work, take a look at the Turretting tutorial in the link to my FAQ below. IF that can't help you feel free to make comments so that I can improve it.

Rotating parts are made a seperate subobject in the modeller you use. When you convert the model you set a bunch of values in the tables and in PCS to specify how you want the rotation done. The modding section of my FAQ contains a whole bunch of useful links that will help you do that. The Wiki also contains a lot of similarly useful info.

[magatsu1]

Check out Bob's "Learn to use PCS" too. It's in his sig.
(I can't recall how to properly spell his full name without seeing it!:nervous: )

Get PCI scene tool from karajorma's FAQ. Does the same thing as trueView

[karajorma]

Forgot to mention that

[Swamp_Thing]

Made another cap ship. If only i knew how to texture it right...


It´s missing the awacks towers and various turrets. This is just the base model.


...

[StratComm]

Those turrets are way too high-poly to be used in game, but the ideas are nice.  See if you can reduce some of the divisions in the curves (and make a map rather than surface modeling the missiles and guns) and see if you can achieve something close.  The radar's won't work in FS the way you've got them set up (the ones on top of the turrets could be faked by making them a seperate subobject, but it'd be a lot of work for very little gain).  Your models look pretty good, though I see some of Truespace's characteristic "I'm not smoothing today" mess around the flat faces, but you'll learn how to get around that.

Good luck getting it working, but you really need to just bang through one of the tutorials before you start asking too many questions.  It's much easier to get an explanation if you've got some grasp on the process.

[Bobboau]

yeah, my sig might be of some use to you

[Swamp_Thing]

Made a basic texture. Too sleepy to go on...  must...  sleep... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.