Tracking turrets on ships?

how is it done

from Sins Forums

Hey guys, another question im interested in.

I created and imported a ship to the game ... well i say ship.... its just a long cube with two spheres on either side of it referencing turrets... but anyway i was wondering what i need to do to get these turrets to rotate towards the target with the limitations of not being able to fire through the ship.

 

So shoot to the front, back, up, down and the side of the ship its on but not through the ship to the side the other turret is on .. if that makes sense :|

 

So far all i did was place some bones to signify where the turrets are, but i dont think i named them right (dont you need to add a prefix name to the bones and attach them to the root?) because the attacks still come out of the middle of the ship ^^

 

Sorry for the 2 threads in a very short span of time, but they are quite unrelated. Did a search for each issue, but didn't find the answer on the first 2 pages so i thought id ask you wonderful people instead :D

modding
13,643 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

no bones, OR working turrets in sins, the engine does NOT support them, some MASTER modders have been able to FAKE moving turrets with particles, BUT not in the mesh for the ships, just a particle on an emitter ON the mesh and the weapon point is NOT in the particle mesh BUT on the SHIP mesh.

harpo

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

The game has no actual arcs. Weapons can only fire left/front/right/back with no care for Z or things in their way.

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Combat is pseudo 3d. You can move in 3d (but why bother sometimes). Weapon targeting, and firing arcs are in 2d. As was said. forward, back, left, and right. If ships are above, or below the z axis it doesn't matter. Weapons will fire 180 degrees above, and below no matter what. Its hard coded.

One of the problems modders had making "fake turrets" with particles was the particle mesh ignored the light source. So the ship looked lighted from the light source on one side. While the turret looked as if it was lit from the opposite side, or worse. It would "glow" so to speak.

Its been a while since i kept up with this. Sins of the Younger Races has IMO the most experience dealing with this issue, and they did make ships with rotating sections using particles. They would be the ones to explain it better than i can.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Oh, fascinating stuff guys.

The reason i asked was because i thought i saw it in one of IskatuMesk's videos ( http://youtu.be/6lXbzxI0w3g?t=44m26s - looks & sounds freaking awesome bud, good job!) but now that i go back and rewatch it i noticed you guys are right. In my haste i didn't notice they were not rotating, i blame my failure on the fact that he has about a bijillion cannons per ship hehe :D

Its fantastic, the new count in rebellion is awesome:)

 

Hmmm, so rotating turrets are particle emitters that are placed on top of the hard point dummy? Anyone know what area of the forum i should go looking through to find out how the masters did it? Sounds way beyond me but just want to have a little nosey :blush:

 

Related to turrets, and likely the question i should of started with lol.
I imported the Kol into Max and i noticed it came without any of the turrets. Did i import it incorrectly or is it supposed to come without the turrets. If so, should i export my own ships without turrets (and if so, how to i get custom turrets onto the ships? ...or any for that matter)

 

Would it be these?

 

Point
        DataString "Weapon-0"
        Position [ 16.977081 22.018959 343.160919 ]
        Orientation
             [ 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 ]

 

Thanks for the help guys :D

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting StefanMucha, reply 4
Would it be these?

 

Point
        DataString "Weapon-0"
        Position [ 16.977081 22.018959 343.160919 ]
        Orientation
             [ 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 ]

 

Thanks for the help guys
End of StefanMucha's quote

 

Yes.

As was stated, not possible. If the turret rotates, the end of the barrel is no longer at the position. That position above is the exact point the weapon leaves the barrel and is where the muzzle effect will show.

The best I could muster was on the top of the ship I had a huge ion canon, doors would open on top of the ship, the gun would raise up from inside, the gun fires, lowers, doors close. This weapon was an ability though so I could use"FORCE FACE TARGET".

I also animated gun barrels recoiling, but it was not perfect as I would have liked.

Did it on that ship

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

ooops

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

ooops O:)

damn, I need a coffee. Double brain fart  :annoyed:

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

That is what happens when you do multiple mods at once..   You lose your mind :p

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Multiple modding projects must require a lot of enthusiasm ... and considering the original definition i can understand the loss of ones mind

:dur:

 

enthusiast:
“intransitive be inspired or possessed by a god, be rapt, be in ecstasy, transitive inspire”

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Ya, multiple mods is to much. That's why I made the Homeworld Vengeance mod under a pseudonym, so I could pass the thread on to someone or a team. I had a bunch of the models ready, but no offers to help means no Homeworld mod. Too bad, so sad.

Homeworld - Vengeance

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting myfist0, reply 10

Ya, multiple mods is to much. That's why I made the Homeworld Vengeance mod under a pseudonym, so I could pass the thread on to someone or a team. I had a bunch of the models ready, but no offers to help means no Homeworld mod. Too bad, so sad.

Homeworld - Vengeance
End of myfist0's quote

 

I was considering a Homeworld mod. Was going to make the Mothership a mobile starbase so that it can build all the other ships =P

 

However, I decided to go with Freelancer instead.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting StefanMucha, reply 4

should i export my own ships without turrets (and if so, how to i get custom turrets onto the ships?
End of StefanMucha's quote

 

Hey guys! Was just wondering about this one again. I got a nice ship model and a nice turret model, how do i set it up so that I don't need to add the turrets to the ship mesh before i export to XSI? It would take so long to place all the turret uvs on top of each other so i was wondering how i go about setting it up so that all i do is say "add this turret here" with a dummy like they did with the kol :D

 

... i just dont know how to do that is all haha :hugme:

 

 

edit: hmm maybe i loaded it wrong the first time, i re-imported the model and it has turrets on it now :o