Min/Max and Collision point ?s

[Wrench]

ok, if I'm wrong, somebody please correct me...

been using the LOD viewer to make some corrections, and have some questions...

 

Min/Max defines the hit boxes?

Do Collision points define "what gets hit?" or whatever during colliisions (mid-air or ground strike?)

I assume (oh! that word!) collision points are a necessary thing, for the aforementioned reasons?

 

I know they're defined in each components statements in the data ini, but do they have to match each other?

More specificly, if one has min/max at

 

MinExtentPosition=-0.42,-12.51,2.89
MaxExtentPosition= 0.42,-18.52,9.45

 

do the collision points (as below) need to be set the same, and why do some components have 3 or 4 positions?

 

CollisionPoint[001]=0.00,-15.49,5.30
CollisionPoint[002]=0.00,-15.62,5.45

 

(note: the satements above are for the same aircraft component)

 

I'm not even going to ask about "bounding boxes"....

 

need a little understanding here...

thanks!

[+NeverEnough]

Wrench:

Here is what I got from the Thirdwire forums:

If I remember correctly, TK mentioned that the CollisionPoints are used for the contact with the ground (landing, takeoff), so if you are taking off and hit one of the CP's you should see some damage/explosions. Also if you don't have a CP, you can get messages like "can't retract gears while on the ground" or something like that.

So normally the CP's are the lowest part of the mesh, there is no "limit" on the CP's but they take some CPU cycles to check so keep them within reason, we normally do 3 or 4 max per mesh.

One thing I am not sure if we also need a CP for the tallest part of the mesh, for example I expect to have some damage/explosion if I flip backwards on the ground instead of just skidding for a while.

 

Not entirely sure but I think the CP's also play a part in both contact with static ground objects and mid-air collisions so you'd need CP's on every mesh, even the vertical tail.

 

I use the Min/Max for Hit boxes for damage by gunfire etc, and Collision Points for collision with the ground. The hit box should be a three-dimensional space, roughly equivalent to the volume of the target itself, whereas the collision points are independent of each other.
Removing a hit box (or giving it the wrong parameters) can make a component invulnerable to gunfire (the original B-52 FM had this problem - the wings had hit boxes with a zero thickness, so you could never hit them with gunfire, and thus never damage them), so I think they are still needed.

TK said:

 Max/Min Extent defines hit box, used by damage model. Collision points are used by collision checks against ground and other aircraft.



 

[+russouk2004]

Coll points....if you imagine tail for example,has imaginary box,loosely fitting around the tail mesh,then the box corners are its collision point co-ordonates

Min max is used to tell game where the mesh is,as mentioned above for hit boxes,as min max extents are more exact

 

I gather collision points are important,I've had planes blow up simply as it had no entries set.

Edited October 11, 2015 by russouk2004

[KJakker]

Wrench, I to am working on an aircraft and objects hit box overhaul for stock TW assets myself. I could send you a PM with attachments of the data files that I have edited so far, if you want them let me know.

[Wrench]

mostly, I'm trying to fix some new builds, but I'll be happy to see what you've got!

[+baffmeister]

Regarding the collision points, I think the main areas to worry about are the nose, lower fuselage areas, lower tail area, and the leading edge of the wings, horizontal stabs, and vertical stabs. I usually give the wings and nose a quick check by taxiing into ground structures. The lower tail area can be checked on some planes with tricycle gear by over rotating on take off and see when the crash noise occurs.