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Join Date 02/2007

Strange Weapon Point problem...

I seem to be having a problem with Weapon Point emitters.

I have added 3 dummy points to the front of my mesh called:

Weapon-0

Weapon-1

Weapon-2

..as described in the IC modding manual supplement.

I have then added the 3 weapon effects from the TEC Kol Battleship entity as is just to get it working, and specified that num of weapons =3 in the new enity (which is basically a modified copy of the TEC Colony Frigate).

The problem I have is that the weapons appear to fire from the center of my mesh in game and not from the 3 dummy points I created.

I have tried adding the p001- prefix but that didnt work, I don't think MAX has the same dummy point duplicate naming problem as XSI so that was probably a red herring.

Any thoughts what could be going on here? My gut feel is that it is just a naming problem and the Flair dummy point that I have in the center is being used in preference to the other dummies.

Also probably worth mentioning is that some of my dummies are cloned objects, but they are named differently.

I assumed that the order of the Weapons as they appear in the ship entity file would map them to the correct dummy points as named. The modding supplement doesn't really explain how this works.. I have also been looking at the Kol mesh and dummy points themselves and I can't any real difference other than the shape of the mesh and position of the dummies.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Hey man, how do you get your model in game? When ever I try its either black color or it crashes?

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I assumed that the order of the Weapons as they appear in the ship entity file would map them to the correct dummy points as named. The modding supplement doesn't really explain how this works..

Yeah it does it automatically

As to the more overall problem, I don't think its the naming of the Hardpoints, largely because if they were named improperly the weapons just wouldn't work, it sounds more like the hardpoint locations aren't being exported properly.

Unless i have misinterpeted you are using Max right?

Because i have never seen this happen in Max, but then I dont use the splitmesh handling function of the 2.0a script, so it could be something to do with that.

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Hey man, how do you get your model in game? When ever I try its either black color or it crashes?

If the game crashes it probably means the format of your game file is wrong or has some kind of syntax error. I had a problem last night where I thought it was a new mesh crashing the game, but it actually turned out to be a typo in the ship entity file. If your model is black in game it pretty much points to a problem with the textures (either the naming or format), or possibly tangents. I don't know much about tangents yet I haven't gotten around to messing with them I rely on Max (and the exporter script) to sort it out for me.

Unless i have misinterpeted you are using Max right?

Yes thats right.

but then I dont use the splitmesh handling function of the 2.0a script, so it could be something to do with that.

I gave up on v2.0a it just doesn't work for me as is, I have to use v1.1. but even that takes bloody ages to construct the SoaSE mesh. I'd prefer to just export the model as an XSI from Max then use the conversion tool, but the tool moans about the header info in the XSI and won't convert it to a .mesh as is. How are you going from Max to .mesh then?

I think what I am going to try next is import a vanilla SoaSE model, then export it back in game and overwrite the orignal to see if it behaves as expected....

UPDATE : I imported a Kol then exported it back in game and it worked ok, so the exporter tool does appear to be doing its job. I think I'll try moving the dummy points away from the Kol mesh and re-export to see if that is the cause.

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I use the 1.1 script as well, 2.0a just has far too many issues.

Hmm, strange question is it all the hardpoints or just the weapon hardpoints that are exporting incorrectly, that is to say is the exhaust particle spawning from the center of the ship as well?

If its all of them then literally the only thing i can think of is that you are not linking them to the mesh properly, but that said I'm not even sure if they export if you dont link them correctly, it seems unlikely but are you linking the dummies to the mesh or the mesh to the dummies, maybe the chain makes more difference than i would imagine

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Seems a lot of people have a problem with hardpoints and Max exporter. I don't know if the exporter follows the same procedure as the official converter, but if it does then you need to add a dummy called "rootpoint" and link all your hardpoints to it. In XSI, if you don't do that, they don't show up. I'd tell you to open the .mesh file and look, but I seem to recall the exporter writes files in binary...

Anyway, if you haven't, try the above. Might work.

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There was no 'rootpoint' helper/dummy on the Kol after I imported it, and that exported and worked ok.

One thing I have noticed is that the mesh object name seems to always be called SOASE_MESH which the dummies will of course all link in to, or be a child object of.

I am going to rename my mesh to SOASE_MESH and see what effect that has.

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Think I've found the problem, its the facing of the dummy object.

It seems if the Weapon mesh points are not facing the right direction the game defaults to the center to emit the fire.

Unless anyone knows otherwise I can't find a way in Max to show you the facing or direction of a dummy object. What you can do though (after reading the Max bible) is:

1) Align to View the dummy object in a given viewport to reset its position, if I use the left viewport it seems to do it right without any further adjustment.

2) Before naming the dummy object Weapon-x called it Exhaust and export the model so when viewed in game the Exhaust trail or direction act like an arrow. You can then go back into Max and rotate the dummy to your preffered facing.

Mystery Solved.

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Pilfered from a tutorial i wrote previously (so apologies for the tone and simplicity)

Step Seven

Select the Mesh and Freeze it (as we dont want to edit it in anyway)

Under the Hierarchy tab click "Affect Pivot Only" and select all of the dummy objects
DO NOT MODIFY ANYTHING

Notice that extending from each of the Dummy Objects there is now a Blue Arrow (ignore the green and red arrows), this is the direction that the dummy object is facing, and is especially important for weapons.

Turn off Affect Pivot Only

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Ah nice, I'll use that for sure.

It was my fault not knowing what I was doing basically, but I certainly learned alot today and that's part of the fun too.

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In 3dsmax do you connect them using the schematic tool or do you manually link them together?

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I find the drag and drop method a bit unpredictable with complex meshes, so what I do is use the select by object name tool to grab everything minus the mesh then add the mesh as the parent with the link button enabled.

Then what you see is all the dummy objects appear as sub-object or children to the mesh.

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WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO after so many days of trying I finally able to import a model and resize and putt he textures on and export!!!! woooo!

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so i have the same problem, but everything is in the center, no exaust and weapons fireing from the center too
i dont what im doing wrong, i use maxtool v1,1 and i have a tutorial from an other post

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