I'm trying to use a poly cone as a hardpoint in a custom weapon. The weapon shows up in game and fires, but the ord comes out from the 0,0,0 point instead of the hp_fire cone. In the model, the parent object is hp_active (also a poly cone). In the weapon odf, the hp_fire cone is called out using FirePointName. In the BFlog, there was originally an error about not finding the hardpoint, but it was because I named it hp-fire. Now that it's named hp_fire there are no relevant errors. Does anyone have any tips for how to get my weapon to fire from the right point?

Also, can anyone give me some specifics on the use of AimerNodeName vs. FirePointName? Some of the asset's odf's will use one or the other or even both. Maybe I should use a bone referenced by AimerNodeName and the hp_fire cone referenced by FirePointName?

Did you freeze the cones transformations? Maybe try it with a null instead.

I only have the XSI modtools, so I'm going through Milkshape and Bconstructor and I don't think nulls are possible. But the cone was in the right place in Milkshape, so I don't think the transforms were the problem.

Im pretty sure milkshape can only export one model group. Thatd be why it doesnt show up. I remember when i tried that method id only ever see one part of the model in game.

Yes, so possibly you could just Model>Create>Polymesh>Merge all the models so that they are just the one then try it.

-Waz

Good thought, but I've actually already figured that part of it out. The rest of the model is in multiple groups and it all shows up in-game. The trick is just to make sure that in bconstructor, you make the first model object (hp_active, in my case) the parent of all the other model objects. Any groups that are not children of that first object don't show up.

EDIT: I also think that if you merged the poly cones into the rest of the model, you wouldn't be able to call them out as seperate hardpoints.

Well, I figured out one part of the problem. It seems that the game looks at the translation numbers of the hard-point rather than where it's geometry is located. Since the translations were frozen, the FirePointName command registered at 0,0,0. So I used Bconstructor to give the hard-point the correct translation coordinates (I also changed the FLGS parameter from 0 to 1, not sure if it helped).

The interesting thing is that after putting in the correct translation, the weapon's muzzle flash effect shows up in the right place, but the ordanance still emanates from 0,0,0. So now I'm wondering if FirePointName controls the location of the muzzle flash effect while AimerNodeName controls the emanation point of the ordanance? I've added the AimerNodeName command to the weapon ODF, but I haven't yet been able to get it to do anything. Any ideas?

I think you have to write down your hardpoint coordinates from XSI and re-type them back in once your model reaches the BConstructor stage.
Also, try creating a msh.option file and put the -keepall switch in it to preserve the nodes which will keep them from merging during the munge.

AceMastermind wrote:I think you have to write down your hardpoint coordinates from XSI and re-type them back in once your model reaches the BConstructor stage.

Yup. That's what I was trying to say.

AceMastermind wrote:Also, try creating a msh.option file and put the -keepall switch in it to preserve the nodes which will keep them from merging during the munge.

Thanks for the idea. I tried it out but it didn't seem to change anything.

As for the AimerNodeName, I'm thinking that it either doesn't work for the unit weapon classes (maybe only on vehicles?) or maybe it needs to reference a bone instead of a hard-point?