Stock Plane canopy opening

[Guest capun]

I may have stumbled into something new. Either that or I missed the posts

 

Anyway, I think it is possible to animate the stock plane canopy opening/closing without having the 3DS File to muck around with.

 

I think by default, the stock planes canopies mesh name is "canopy" and hopefully all of them have the pivot set in the correct place. I made it work with the MiG-21PFM with the cockpit mod to make it flyable.

 

So this is what you have to do

 

- Find out if the canopy mesh name is "canopy" using a hex editor and the main plane LOD

- Add the following to the Data ini file

 

[Nose] ; Or any other section

.

.

.

SystemName[003]=Canopy ; check for the correct sequential number

 

// Crew ---------------------------------------------------------

 

[Pilot]

.

.

[Canopy]

SystemType=HIGHLIFT_DEVICE

DeploymentMethod=AUTOMATIC_SPEED

AnimationID=

Setting[1].Angle=60.0 ; Max Angle of opening

Setting[1].DeployValue=1.5

Setting[1].RetractValue=4.0

MaxDeflection=60.0

MinDeflection=0.0

ControlRate=0.2 ; How Fast it ooens

ModelNodeName=Canopy ; Canopy Mesh Name

RotationAxis=Z-AXIS ; Axis of rotation. Z for side hinged, X for Front or back hinged. I don't think it works for sliding canopies

ReverseModelOrientation=FALSE ; May have to try TRUE or FALSE to get the right rotation

 

Note that the AnimationID is not used, so will it work with models that do not have the canopy animated?

 

Here's some pictures.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2006 by capun

[jtin]

You might want to look at something simmilar I saw at http://wrench1smog.com/wrench3.html, the canopy fixes zip. He does use an animation ID, so it may be different.

[Guest capun]

It is different, we have made it work before, but the impression was that we had to have an animationID.

 

So it looks like there may be other meshes that may be animated without using up an animation slot (or having to make it).

 

So for example we could have some spoilers pop up based on an Aerodynamic load, right now we use an animationID.

 

Another possibility could be to have the bomb rack of a Stuka extend out based on an angle of attack. Now I am just thinking aloud, need to try it.

 

This coupled with the ability to assign a keyboard key to an animationID (see ThirdWire's post or at C5's) it could lead us to planes with more and better animations.

 

We are limited to 10 animations so anything that can free them the better. Tailhook, control surfaces, etc are not counted on those 10 slots since they are animated by the game engine, as long as they are simple rotations.