The planet mesh work like a ship mesh... you have first the model itself... second, you have a box who include all the mesh... third, you have a sphere centered at 0,0,0 who include the box...
The box is a non fly zone, the sphere is a non fly zone except for little thing like fighter/bomber...
In case of planet, the bounding radius define the surface of the planet, not the mesh itself... the area between the surface and where you can begin place orbital structure or navigate with ship is called "atmosphere"... these area is used to render elevator, atmosphere effect ( cloud ), corona, etc... In real life, there area is not a place for huge spaceship who are not made for atmospheric fly...
Normally, the bounding value are calculate when the .mesh is created, in relation of the model location... by example if the planet is 5000 in size but is center is at 20000, in game, the planet will seem to rotate on a orbit... the box will be identical but the bounding sphere will be huge since it have his center always located at 0,0,0 ...
Well, will be more easy to show with picture but for the time being i have no more room on my own server... have explain it on a other forum with one of my previous model...
light blue is the bounding radius sphere, dark blue is the bounding min max ( box )... both are used in internal for collision detection...
by reducing the sphere radius, you allow to reduce the collision but you move all the other layer too ( elevator, etc )... the game don't use the mesh for collision... will use to much processing power in case of complex model...
it also moves the planets corona "atmosphere effect" and the little planet cars and bunkers inside the planet model. I still want those to remain visible.
Look at the bright side... if you reduce enough the sphere radius, you will be able to place orbital turret just below the surface of the planet... now, you have surface to space gun !!! same thing with hangar... you will have fighter/bomber who take off from the planet surface...
never happy !!! well, i don't know any other way...
It is not because i don't know a way for make it that it is impossible... rotating part was say to be impossible but the B5 mod have make it true... myself, i was able to make model with moving texture or partially transparent texture ( cloak )... once i am finish with the actual model, i plan to make a animated ship, with wings moving like a bird, using chained particle effect...
I have a try a idea long time ago... take a look at the pic below :
You can fully rework the gravity wheel... each gravity wheel will have a center sun mesh ( 1 )... with a various amount of particule hardpoint who call the planet .mesh ( 2-3 )... via particle, you can control the speed/direction/axis of the planet rotation around the sun... some planet .mesh can have their own particle hardpoint for moon who will rotate around planet...bounding sphere will be related to the central sun only....
In some way, each gravity wheel will become a full planetary system... use a black hole for the usual central sun on sins map and you have created a galaxy... huge random multi star map with become a 5 galaxy map...
Seem good on paper but not so perfect in reality... calculate the orbit of the various object are hell and you don't wish that they visually collide... particle effect don't use collision detection, so ship can fly trough the planet/moon ( can maybe be solved by using the ship fx, need testing )... for colonize a system, you need to bombard the sun... if a orbital structure is in the path of the rotating celestial body ( planet/moon ), they pass trough it...well, these method will solve your problem but create some other...
You need to think outside the box and maybe you will find a solution to your problem... i have plenty of crazy idea that i have not yet tested due to lack of time ( i am mainly a modeler, not a coder )... by example, i think that it is possible for ship turret to move and track target by making them part of the firing particle effect... will work perfectly with pop-up turret...
In soase, something is impossible only until somebody find a work around... and there are plenty of bright mind around...
