Meshpoint Types and Requirements

Could anyone give me some additional description of the meshpoint types, which and how many are mandatory, and how they are used? Especially:

Are the Buff Points mandatory?
Are Exhaust Points where the engines are, or smokestacks (like on the TEX Refinery structure)?
What are Other Particle Effects?

Thank you very much.

3,694 views 9 replies
Reply #1 Top

you must have the following points- Center, Aura (-Y axis coordinate, this is below the Center), and Above (just what is says, but it must be DIRECTLY above the Center).

Exhaust is the engine effects. Other particle effects are ability points, bombing points, and weapons points. Ability points are only necessari for certain abilities; bombing points are only necessary on something that can bomb a planet.

Buff points, not sure what you mean what this is.

There isn't a mandatory number of points. For all intents a purposes, a mesh only NEEDS 3 points- Center, Aura, and Above.

Reply #2 Top

Center, Aura, and Above are the Buff points. So yes they are mandatory.

Ability Points, Bombing Points, and Weapon Points each have their own identification already, as do Flair Points and Hangar Points. Other Particle Effects are a separate kind of null point and I would like to know what they are and a simple example of how I might use them.

It also appears that Weapon Points are mandatory for the number of weapons assigned to the ship, but I need to verify this.

Reply #3 Top

well, for each weapon type, you need a different set of weapon points. So, if you want a ship to have 3 weapons, it needs at least three weapon points (Weapon-0, -1, and -2). You can expand forthwith from there.

As for other points, there really aren't any.

Reply #4 Top

If the null points are improperly done, will the weapons fire, engines, etc. all start at the origin/rootpoint of the model?

Reply #5 Top

Correct.

No mesh points are "mandatory". They just won't fire right.

Reply #6 Top

Hmm, well that also indicates I've added the nullpoints incorrectly somehow...

Reply #7 Top

Did you name them right? I don't use XSI so I just type the correct name in my point in max, I think xsi has to add extra stuff (like a p?) to get it to convert?

Reply #8 Top

Actually, the converter is clearly not finding the null points this round. I do not know when it stopped finding them, so let me fix that first and see if this clears itself up.

 

Reply #9 Top

Okay, I did everything over again from scratch and it worked flawlessly this time, so I do not know what the trouble was before. Thanks!