[Rampage]

I have checked almost every source available on doing this.  Most self-help modding pages just tell me how to do this in several sentences.

I need to ask you guys to give me the specific steps on how to do this.  Please don't direct me to a self-help site.  (Turreting 101 does nothing for me on this topic!)

Tell me how to do this "axis" thing in Truespace.  What buttons I need to press.  Post your answers here.  Thank you all.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Rampage
I have checked almost every source available on doing this.  Most self-help modding pages just tell me how to do this in several sentences.

I need to ask you guys to give me the specific steps on how to do this.  Please don't direct me to a self-help site.  (Turreting 101 does nothing for me on this topic!)

Tell me how to do this "axis" thing in Truespace.  What buttons I need to press.  Post your answers here.  Thank you all.

To switch to the axis of the current object, I hit 'v', but that's because I've heavily remapped my keyboard. What version of Truespace are you running?

[TrashMan]

On the right side of the toolbar (make sure ALL toolbars are turned on), there is a icon with axes on it. By clicking on it with the other (right) mouse button a drop down (up) menu will apear. You have several icons, but search for the one that says "move axes to the center of the object" and the second one "normalize axes rotation". After the axes have been normalized you can move tham around as you wish. (You can delete the axes after that, TS remembers how they look).
Note: This is for TS 4.2, and it should work in 3.0 too!

[Grunt]

It's a shame but I'm still using TS1.
Few months ago I wrote short TS -> FS tutorials to some friends on the absolute beginner level, but in Hungarian.
One of them is about basic modeling, glueing and turreting in TS1. I'll try to translate it tonight and put it up onto my website.

Maybe others can use it as well. :wink:

[Rampage]

Originally posted by mikhael
What version of Truespace are you running?

Running Truespace version 4.2, I think.

[StratComm]

Here's the way I do it:

1.  Set your view to left view, so that all coordinate data matches what I will tell you.  Remember: TS left view gets converted into the front of the ship in FS.  Axis switch or something.

2.  Make the turret and barrel as seperate objects-this should be obvious.  Bring up the model info window (right click the select tool, I think) and change the name of the turret model to "turretxx" (where "xx" is the number of your turret).  For the barrel, call it "turretarmxx".  Set the turret body location to the point where it is centered on both x and y, and the bottom surface of the turret is on the plane z=0.  Place the barrel also directly above the origin, but to the height you want it to be.

3.  There should be a button, I don't know where it is in 4.2, that has three arrows: one red, one green, and one blue.  Select the turret body and press that button.  Then place it at position (0,0,0) so that it aligns with the origin (you can also bring up the sub-tools and select normalize location).  Select the turret body again to lock in the axis position.  Now do the same for the barrels, but this time set the location to (0,0,z) where z is the height of the pivot point you want the barrels to have.  When you convert, Freespace will use the axis of each sub-object to determine point of rotation.

4.  Make a local light, move it to the same location as your barrel pivot point, and with the glue as sibling tool, join it to the barrel.  Call this group "turretarmxx".  Then create another local light, move it to position (0,0,0), select the turret body, and group the new light, the turret body, and the "turretarmxx" group together using the glue as sibling tool.  Name this group "turretxx".

You may want to save the group as an object that can be used in the future; it comes in handy.  Now you can safely stretch, resize, move, or do whatever you want with the turret and it will maintain its pivot points in game.  And a tip: the barrels of two-part turrets always point directly up or down.  Don't try doing this differently; it does not work.

[Rampage]

Ok.  I got the rotational thingy figured out.  Another question: "What does 'paths' have anything to do with turrets?"  It seems that the "paths" secion has a complete section on turrets.  Why?

[karajorma]

As far as I understand it without paths you can`t order ships to disarm the mod.

[EdrickV]

Paths are used for docking and to provide "attack paths" for turrets. You can have ships try to disarm a ship without paths as I recall, but don't be surprised if they don't do it very well and bump into the ship. Without paths, and dock points, support ships can't rearm a fighter/bomber/etc. type ship.

[TrashMan]

I make the base and the arm of turrets, and then just normailzr the axis of the base (and pull it down a little to the bottom), and I do the same with the arms (pointing up). Will it work (without the 0.0.0. or the 0.0.z. coordinates)?