Trouble shooting in a new model

Moonhead

The idea behind this thread is not primarily to get the model to work properly (although that would be a nice, and if all goes well, logical side-effect), but to learn modelling and adding ships. I will ask about anything I run into that is an eroor, an issue, or that I consider odd.

I made my first working model, built from (parts of) the Hawk. The ShipArch.ini sections are also taken from the Hawk. I may post them when appropriate.

Moonhead

How can I best get rid off the [CollisionGroup] and [Simple] sections?

It seems that these have the function to enable your ship to be damaged (blown-off wings etc). But it’s much more work for the noob/beginner modder to do all this additional stuff. Will eliminating these subsections from the ShipArch.ini entry for my ship be sufficient? Or will there be data inside the .cmp file relying on these sections,

I already disliked these sections, but I now also find these lines in FLspew/spit:

WARNING: failed to open archetype (Ships\civilian\ba_fighter\ba_fighter_dmg_pwing.3db) file system
WARNING: missing Archetype file Ships\civilian\ba_fighter\ba_fighter_dmg_pwing.3db
WARNING: failed to open archetype (Ships\civilian\ba_fighter\ba_fighter_dmg_swing.3db) file system
WARNING: missing Archetype file Ships\civilian\ba_fighter\ba_fighter_dmg_swing.3db
```More reason to get rid of the concept - in my modified ships, that is.

EDIT: deleting the [CollisionGroup] and [Simple] sections from ShipArch.ini did not lead to any obvious problems, so I suppose this can be done without consequence. If I'm mistaking, please let me know!!!

Quarks

You’re right, they can usually be removed without causing any problems. Only make sure the simples are not used by another ship, as e.g. Starflier and Starträcker share some of them. The simples only define the model that is placed on your ship when a part has broken off (wing breaks off -> model of broken wing gets placed), they don’t define the parts that may break. This is done by the CollisionGroup sections. So removing these from your shiparch entry should do it.

Moonhead

Quarks wrote:
You’re right, they can usually be removed without causing any problems. Only make sure the simples are not used by another ship, as e.g. Starflier and Starträcker share some of them. The simples only define the model that is placed on your ship when a part has broken off (wing breaks off -> model of broken wing gets placed), they don’t define the parts that may break. This is done by the CollisionGroup sections. So removing these from your shiparch entry should do it.

Thank you very much It will be considerably easier to finish my Skimmer-Seagull-Albatros trinity (based on - or ‘ripped off’ a copyright zealot might say - the Hawk, Falcon and Eagle) with these sections out of the way. I might pick that up when I’m more advanced.

Moonhead

My Wing Guns float slightly above the wings!
And they’re also blown off quite easily by a strong / agile opponent.

Can I solve both issues by ‘sinking’ the HPs more into the wings?

In general, how deep should a Weapon HP be placed into a ship (or base for that matter)? (Btw I’m talking HardCMP here, where hardpoints are presented with a red cube, with X, Y and Z axes. Sofar, I always sunk weapon HPs into the ship for about half the red cube. Should they be sunken in more?)

Goulash

1. Just lower the hardpoint, it really is that simple, trial and error on that one although use the blue pointer as a rough guide and sink it into the ship about halfway so the pointer is halfway in.

2. Getting blown off too easily? Give yourself more hitpoints for the weapon

hit_pts = 2000 or whatever

Checkout the values used in weapon equip.ini on the most common weapons.

Timmy51m

Don’t think of the red cube as the weapon. You’ll see an x,y,z axis on the cube, the centre point of the cube where these 3 axis intersect is the actual position of the hardpoint, or if you like, the base of the gun.

Z axis is the direction the barrel will point, y axis is which way up the gun will be mounted. Easiest way to work things out is to open existing models and flick through the hardpoints, gives you a visual reference as to how things are done

Quarks

There is a control to make the hp’s middle touch the model, just control-click the point where you want the hp to be

Moonhead

Quarks wrote:
There is a control to make the hp’s middle touch the model, just control-click the point where you want the hp to be

Good to know, thanx!