[FlareBaffled]

Been away for a looooooooonnnnnngggg time, and wondered where things were at and where hte best place to go to get up to speed is. I don;t know where things are in terms of tools for modding, what's possible and what isn't and even what is hte latest version of the game and the upgraded files.

It's a bit daunting to try and work out all this, and hte Wiki doesn;t seem to have changed much, though I am sure lots else has!

What modelling software is supported now?
Are there still issues with models created without the scourge of Truespace?
Can turrets reliably point any direction?
Can cockpits be done properly and can joysticks be done ( objects move like control surfaces when the player moves a joystick) ?
Visible weapons and rockets were possible, I recall...but has anything else been added?

Want to have another bash at making a mod .... but just don't know where to start!

[The E]

First of all, get the latest mediavps and latest official engine build via Turey's installer.

Second, in terms of modelling software, PCS2 supports any modelling app that can export to .dae.

Can turrets reliably point any direction?

Define "any". Yes, you can do Turrets on diagonal surfaces without a hitch now.

Can cockpits be done properly and can joysticks be done ( objects move like control surfaces when the player moves a joystick) ?

Define "properly", and no. The necessary animation triggers (not to mention, animation modes) aren't implemented.

In conclusion, there's lots of stuff that has been added (and most of it has been documented on the wiki).

[FlareBaffled]

Your reply was considerably more precise than my question

As far as turrets go, yes...I meant the orientation oif a multi-part turret. Before, if I put them on anything other than horizontal, the turret never worked well, even with the code that was supposed to work. Was a major irritation when a turret points forward and fires backwards.... Glad this is fixed!

'proper' cockpits for me would have working controls so you get the illusion of a working cockpit. Same when applied to guages and HUD type displays. If you are stuck with the stock layout, show_ship flag does the basic job I suppose.

Busy reading up on the Wiki now and trying to make some sense of it all. Collada seems to be a pretty sane option for input. Lightwave later versions have collada support, so that's good for me

[Scooby_Doo]

As far as turrets go, yes...I meant the orientation oif a multi-part turret. Before, if I put them on anything other than horizontal, the turret never worked well, even with the code that was supposed to work. Was a major irritation when a turret points forward and fires backwards.... Glad this is fixed!

You'll have to do a little digging in these threads, but I've got a tool that helps create the necessary up and forward vectors you will need to get side angled turrets to work

'proper' cockpits for me would have working controls so you get the illusion of a working cockpit. Same when applied to guages and HUD type displays. If you are stuck with the stock layout, show_ship flag does the basic job I suppose.

External cockpit models are also working.  See here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=69938.0

Busy reading up on the Wiki now and trying to make some sense of it all. Collada seems to be a pretty sane option for input. Lightwave later versions have collada support, so that's good for me

Always do test samples with other variations of Collada.   It seems each one is slightly different from the next.