-= Gametoast.com =-

I have a vehicle coming up for my new map. It's a pilotable ground tank that serves as a breaching device. This has several features:

-a large back door which can open allowing troops inside (controlled from the inside)
-Turrets placed through windows, which are player controlled
-2 floors, the back of the 2nd floor exposed with more turrets
-free roam within the tank

The model is 35% complete. I have so many questions, it's ridiculous. I'd like to first ask if anyone can personally talk with me on X-Fire via microphone to help me understand this. The documentation is very confusing about animation. I'm having a hard time understanding just how animating vehicles (also characters, but that's later) works. So, I'd like to explain how I want my vehicle to be animated and then I'd like to learn how to do those animations.

PLAN:

a). So, the vehicle is a ground vehicle. It will have 6 wheels, 3 on each side. I want those to spin when it moves forward/backward/etc.

b). The back door, like I said above, is controlled from the inside. I'm thinking of a switch you can just blow up because I don't know if you can "press" buttons in BattleFront 2. When the switch is destroyed, the door will come down. However, when repaired, the door will come up.

c). I'm not sure how attaching weapons work. Do I make turrets separately then attach them to the vehicle some how in the ODF? Or do I make the turret part of the vehicle when modeling?

Basically, I'd like to learn how to animate all those things. I'd like to have someone talk to me through X-Fire, but if not, this will do. X-Fire: sharkmon7 (if you can't see it on my profile description) Thanks in advance.

If you put the model of your gun on your tank, you can put a hp_fire at the end to tell it where to make the laser
the hp_fire is a null

Ok....this is why I posted this thread. I have no idea how to do what you just said. I know a little about nulls, but I want to know more, like why do I use nulls and not a box, and what's an hp_fire and how does that work? I can't get anywhere because it's not being explained enough. Please further your answer. Thank you.

a) http://www.gametoast.com/forums/viewtop ... =36&t=8854 , no animations required.
b) Not possible
c) Make the turret part of the vehicle when modeling, your hierarchy is important if you're making turrets that swivel, but no animations are required, all movement is done through the vehicle ODF.

a). Ok, the forum made a bit more sense. I read the tutorial and I'll have to try that later.
b). It is honestly is not possible? The door cannot be attached to a vehicle at all? That's irritating... so much for new features.
c). Alright, when I get to that point, I'll ask that question again. I'm guessing I use a null and name it something and then plug it into the ODF, right? If I'm right, nulls are making more sense to me.

I still would like to have a microphone chat with someone. Talking is much better than reading. Thanks!

a good way to learn how to set up turrets is looking in the msh of a turret(vehicle) with unwrap 3d
you will be able to seee the hirarchie and all the hardpoints

I don't have unwrap 3D, unless it's a tool included in the mod pack. Why can't you just explain it on this? That would be real helpful.

A picture is worth a thousand words so here is a picture of a very simple turret (roof mounted chain gun actually)
First the two parts aimer-y and aimer-x are model parts aimer-x is the main part of the gun and aimer-y is the shaft that is coming out of the top. Now for the hierarchy. If you look at the part on the side where is says bones (BTW even though it says bones they aren't that is just the way Unwrap displays things) you can see where the the different parts go. So they have rootnode (same as dummyroot) then under that is aimer-y then aimer-y is under aimer-x then the hp_fire is under aimer-x (this ensures the bullets come out the right place when it pivots) the p_os things are primitive collisions for ordanance and soldier they move with the gun as it turns but they have to be in the places indicated in order to move properly.

As for what to do to get it in game have a look at the odf for tur_bldg_chaingun_roof and the com_bldg_chaingun_roof.msh.option. (these are in the tur side folder)
The .option file is important to have or it won't move.

Ok, now I know more about Unwrap 3D, but what about Maya? I'm not modeling the turrets just yet, but I'm getting there. What do I do, model them as separate objects? I'm still confused as to how the entire setup works for a turret.

EDIT: Here's a turret I modeled today:


Could someone give me a visual as to where the nulls would go, etc.? Still waiting for someone to hit me up on X-Fire. It would help a whole lot more. Thank you.