Firing arcs

from Sins Forums
Has anyone figured out how to control/limit the firing arcs on a weapon point? I have beams that fire a full 360 degrees when they should only fire left or right front or back. This is very disturbing. I thought this was controlled by the model hardpoints
modding
4,522 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Do you have a full set of nulls? I reckon "Center" null might be important for determining what exactly is "left", "right" and so on.
Also, make sure the "rootpoint" null and the mesh are centered on origin in XSI (0,0,0) AND that the "rootpoint" has also been frozen (no transform values).

Other than that, as far as I know, weapon arcs are controlled by the orientation of the null. But since I know that not specifying any nulls causes weapons to fire in 360 degree arcs, it may be a problem with something of the above.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Ok, i think i figured it out.

The weapon hardpoints have to be oriented exactly 0, 90, -90, 180, degrees on your model. On the entity files you need to specify a damage amount to the front, right, left, and back of each weapon type you use for said hardpoints. Otherwise they wont fire in the direction you wish. Your mileage may vary depending on how many hardpoints you use for each weapon type. I found if hardpoints arent oriented in this way all your weapons will ether fire in front, or a full 360 arc no matter what you specify on the entity.

Perhaps IC will add in a way to better control firing arcs in the future.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
That would be great. Along with actually being able to have proper turrets. :)
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Yes. Having turrets would definitely be awesome.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah so we can actually go Ready, Aim, Fire!!!
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
can anyone tell me how to do that 360 degrees fire in 3ds max, caus i use that and there you can easyly put a weapon to fire in the direction you want but you can t do the 360 thing without putting 4 dummies per weapon per facin
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Experiment by offsetting your hardpoint to angles other than 0, 90, -90, or 180 degrees. Also in your ships entity file you will see damage values for "front, back, left, and right" for each weapon type your ship uses. Play around with those entry's. My ships usually have many more than 4 weapon points, and the 360 bug was more, or less an accidental (shocking) discovery. I am not sure if you can duplicate it with just 1 hardpoint, but it doesnt hurt to try.

In 3dsmax i believe the dummy points normal is the direction the point is facing.