WIP Strutter

[Dagaith 0]

So I've been messing with 1 1/2 Strutter and the 3d model is almost done - the wires are still missing and I'll redo the propellor and Lewis gun as they aren't made by me. And do I need to make the gunner, too? I mean, there's no way to use the existing ThirdWire gunner in 3rd party a/c?

 

And another thing - I made a test skin for wings, stab and rudder (they're in one bmp), but when I wanted to see how it looks in-game it was gone. So how do I exactly export model with texture? I did check whether the folder in a/c.ini is correct.

 

It's my first time to mod anything, so I will have more questions soon :)

[Wrench 9,461]

And do I need to make the gunner, too? I mean, there's no way to use the existing ThirdWire gunner in 3rd party a/c?

 

Why not? I'd think you just add the position in the data ini, and add the pointer for the gunner's model name. Take a look at some of the others that have the rear gunner; that should give you some idea.

 

As to the other stuff...sorry, can't help ya there. I do know it's something about UVmapping. I'm sure a better informed person will step in and clarify it.

 

BTW, the model look pretty good to me!

 

I think I'l be getting back into this game soon....

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+SkippyBing 8]

For the textures double check they in the right format, probably easiest comparing them to another aircraft's.

[Southside Bucky 1]

That's looking most excellent, Dagaith...You'd never think it was your first attempt! Great choice of plane too. Conspicuous by its absence amongst all the add on plane's available.

 

Don't wanna sound pushy, but have you given any thought to doing the single seat and 'comic' versions as well?

 

Whatever, I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished model.

 

All the best.

 

Bucky

[+ojcar 157]

Very good! We need more two seaters!

[+whiteknight06604 931]

excellent work,thank you for the efforts and please keep up the good work.

[+p10ppy 2]

looks great :)

 

I'm afraid you can't use the TW gunners (pilots are fine)

The gunners are part of the airframe mesh because of their relatively heavy interaction with the rest of the plane

And all that I know of are built in...

feel free to use the gunner max file in the Voisin but he has no lewis of course, only the hotchkiss

if you can give me a little time I probably have a half finished lewis some where you can use if you want it?

 

Textures, there's a myriad of little things that could be wrong, but its most likely in the game engine itself and not MAX

If you have it mapped (clearly ) and the textures showing in max (clearly ) then the game doesn't care about max's folder structure at all (the game does care that the textures have the same name though)

look at your folder structures in game and double check your ini's

Edited October 9, 2008 by p10ppy

[+Geezer 3,569]

... and I'll redo the propellor and Lewis gun as they aren't made by me. And do I need to make the gunner, too? I mean, there's no way to use the existing ThirdWire gunner in 3rd party a/c?

 

I have seen p10ppy's excellent work and highly recommend that you wait for his 3D model. However, I have a simple 1916-era Lewis and gunner that I would be happy to donate if you would like something to tinker with until then.

 

[Dagaith 0]

Don't wanna sound pushy, but have you given any thought to doing the single seat and 'comic' versions as well?

Well, after I finish the 2 seater (I hope it'll happen one day) then sure, it shouldn't be too hard to make different variants.

 

feel free to use the gunner max file in the Voisin but he has no lewis of course, only the hotchkiss

if you can give me a little time I probably have a half finished lewis some where you can use if you want it?

Thanks for the offer. I'll probably use the gunner. And as for the Lewis, I am in no hurry :)

 

Textures, there's a myriad of little things that could be wrong, but its most likely in the game engine itself and not MAX

If you have it mapped (clearly ) and the textures showing in max (clearly ) then the game doesn't care about max's folder structure at all (the game does care that the textures have the same name though)

look at your folder structures in game and double check your ini's

Hm. Perhaps I'm missing something important. I have it set up like that: the .max file and wings.bmp are located in .../3d/Projects/Strutter/ folder. The map is applied to the object via material named "wings", which has wings.bmp as diffuse map.

So, I export the model as strutter.lod in FE/Objects/Aircraft/Strutter/ folder. In that folder i have a subfolder named RFC, which contains textureset.ini and wings.bmp. The strutter.ini has this line:

[TextureSet001]

Directory=RFC

Name=RFC

Nation=RAF

Specular=0.400000

Glossiness=0.200000

Reflection=0.300000

 

Is anything missing?

Oh, and I think there's something wrong with the .out file as there are lines at the bottom:

2 Materials:

( 1) 15 - Default:

<No Texture>

( 2) wings:

Specular=0.00, Glossiness=0.00, Color:<0,0,0>

<No Texture>

 

0 Textures:

 

Why doesn't the .out file show any texture? Tried adding it manually there, but it has (and shouldn't have I think) no effect.

 

I have seen p10ppy's excellent work and highly recommend that you wait for his 3D model. However, I have a simple 1916-era Lewis and gunner that I would be happy to donate if you would like something to tinker with until then.

Yes, p10ppy's works are really fabulous. I may try out your gun, too. But as I'll probably leave the armament for the last (i guess it's simple to add/change even when other things are done), let's just see what the time will bring. Thank you for your kind offer, I'll remember it.

[+p10ppy 2]

your ini/folder setting look fine

so yeah looks like a MAX glitch

 

I'm sure you have read the max porter notes but just in case...

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...mp;showfile=344

 

runs through setting up a material in max

 

nothing obvious i can think of...

cept what Skippybing said...

make sure its a 24bit BMP ,don't think it will like 32s

 

and one other.. you have the latest MAX dont you?...that could be an issue...

the last LOD exporter was for MAX9 and it works in MAX2008

maybe MAX2009 is the problem

 

anyway if you stay stuck send me the file and i can test it...

i will pm you a email addy

Edited October 10, 2008 by p10ppy

[Dagaith 0]

Yes, I've read the notes. And the bmp is 24bit.

Also, you're right - I'm using MAX2009, although the exporter in ThirdWire page should work with it (3D Studio Max (2009) Exporter Plug-in (51.4 KB).

 

Anyway, sent you the files :)

Edited October 11, 2008 by Dagaith

[Dagaith 0]

Ah, stupid me. Should have read the exporter notes more carefully.

I forgot that line: The only material type recognized by the exporter is the Standard Type.

:D

 

Now it works anyway

[+p10ppy 2]

excellent :yes:

 

I couldn't open it of course

differing Mentalray versions of materials (i think)

which shouldn't have matter, and now doesn't that you have it working (with out the extended materials )

 

have fun

[Dagaith 0]

Huh. I've been very busy with my studies and haven't had much chance to make the a/c. Anyway, found some time today and I decided to make the wires for 1 1/2 Strutter. But I'm not very good at animation in 3ds max and therefore ran into a problem:

 

I made 2 wires for left elevator and animated them (frames 11-20) and they work perfectly (tested in game). But when I wanted to mirror-copy them to the other side (right) too, the animation got screwed up. To illustrate the problem I've included 3 screenshots. One for frame 11, second for frame 15 and the third for frame 20. As you can see from top view, the wires are gradually getting screwed somehow. But in left view it seems ok though...

I guess I'm doing something fundamentally wrong here, but what? Can anyone enlighten me?:)

[VONTOBLER 18]

The Sopwith is looking GREAT!!, so glad to see this one coming right along. Do you have any other planes in the "wings" waiting to be finished?

[+russouk2004 6,951]

Mirror the wires in "view" mode.....unlink them so they are "scene roots"...move them into place...then relink them....this should sort the animation out...

[Dagaith 0]

The Sopwith is looking GREAT!!, so glad to see this one coming right along. Do you have any other planes in the "wings" waiting to be finished?

Not yet, too much real life :/

 

Mirror the wires in "view" mode.....unlink them so they are "scene roots"...move them into place...then relink them....this should sort the animation out...

Hm, did that, but it still doesn't work. Of course, I could make new animation for other side, but it seems irrational...

[Dagaith 0]

So I've had some time lately and developed my plane a bit. A few questions have arisen:

1. What should I do about the fuel tank? Those are mentioned in data.ini's and they have Min/MaxExtentPositsions there - but where do those values come from? I see no trace of fueltank model (node) in other data.ini's. So, should I make the model of it and place it inside the plane or...?

2. The same thing about the pilot. I have no pilot model, of course, in my .lod. Where do I get the extent positions?

3. Landing gear is quite big and bulky object. Yet I see no trace of its Extent positsions or collision points in data.ini's. Why so? Without collision points, other planes would simply fly through my wheels without a scratch, wouldn't they?

4. What's even stranger - control surfaces (eg elevators) too have no collision points or extent positions. How come do I shoot them off every now and then if they have no extent position values?

5. The Strutter has 4 ailerons altogether. The top and bottom ailerons are connected with a wire. So, which one should the wire be linked to, upper or bottom aileron? I guess the answer has something to do with RemoveNode thing, but does this allow the removal of any model/object in the .lod or only it's "children"?

 

I'd be thankful if anyone could answer those questions :)

And beware - I have a lot more of these to come!

[+SkippyBing 8]

Not sure about the rest, but

 

1. You don't need an actual model of the fuel tank, however giving it Min/Max Extent Positions lets the game know where it is in the aircraft for damage purposes, i.e. it uses those positions to generate a kill box for the fuel tank and if it gets hit bad things happen!

2. I just kind of make them up based on the size of the seat plus a bit! I think there's a utility in the downloads section which will generate the min/max extent positions for a part.

 

 

5. I think it's up to personal preference, on my Baffin most of the struts etc. were attached to the bottom wing as I figured the top one would be more likely to get ripped off. Or at least it would look better that way if it was.

[+whiteknight06604 931]

not to be pushy or anything but did you plan on making the single seat version too?Looks great and lots of us are looking forward to this.

[Dagaith 0]

Well, I'm progressing quite slowly as I'm mostly occupied with my studies (my last exam this semester will be day after tomorrow). But I hope to get the plane airborne soon, I will not give any dates though. When all goes well and I manage to finish what I've started then I guess making the 1-seater version would be reasonable. I'm afraid the biggest problem lies with FM. I just have to hope that peter01 would like to make FM for it, without it the plane's no use. But it takes some more time to get to that point.

 

Anyway, a few shots of my progress too

[Nixou 25]

That looks pretty good! :d

[+whiteknight06604 931]

Please take your time.Studies and real life always take priority.I was just reading a bit about the single seater and got to thinking.Thanks for the updates,the pics you post make it hard to wait for but It most certainly is worth the wait.

[+peter01 2]

Well, I'm progressing quite slowly as I'm mostly occupied with my studies (my last exam this semester will be day after tomorrow). But I hope to get the plane airborne soon, I will not give any dates though. When all goes well and I manage to finish what I've started then I guess making the 1-seater version would be reasonable. I'm afraid the biggest problem lies with FM. I just have to hope that peter01 would like to make FM for it, without it the plane's no use. But it takes some more time to get to that point.

 

Anyway, a few shots of my progress too

 

Hi Dagaith,

 

The Strutter, 1 and 2 seater versions would be a fantastic addition and your work does look very good. I'd be more then happy to do the FM. It would take a couple of weeks - largely due to limited time. PM me when you are ready.

 

Cheers

Edited January 27, 2009 by peter01

[Heck 496]

Very nice work, Dagaith. Studies first, though. First Eagles is going to be around quite a while, with TK adding to it, so we'll all be waiting patiently for it to be finished. Thanks for bringing this important aircraft to the sim.