Wed Apr 16, 2003 10:07 pm
** Tutorial ** - Hardpoints ver.2
I don't want to step on any toes here. I know there is a current hardpoint tutorial by CW that is really good, but I had trouble understanding it until I was a little more advanced at moding, so I thought I would make one even a nOOb would understand.
First off, you have to open your ship's CMP file and to do that you use everyone's favorite program UTF Edit. Once you have that opened you need to expand the root "\" and then expand "Window2.3db", "Hardpoints" and "Revolute". This will show you a list of your rotatable hardpoints which are your Turrets, etc. It should be noted that these same procedures can be used for the "Fixed" hardpoints too but the only ones there you might want to edit are the CM/Mine launchers.
Select the turret/etc. that you wish to adjust and then expand it. Here you see a list of 5 things.
AXIS = Which axis' will be rotatable
MAX = How far the gun can turn to it's LEFT (might be right)
MIN = How far the gun can turn to it's RIGHT (might be left)
Orientation = Which direction the gun faces
Position = Where the gun is located on the ship
In this tutorial we won't worry about the Position as most people add the hardports graphically using MilkShape which does all of this by itself. What we are concerned with is the rotation and orientation of the turrets because MilkShape sometimes has issues dealing with said things. It should be noted that if you modify the CMP file and then have to go back and make a change in MilkShape you will have to re-edit the CMP file again to ensure your Hardpoints are correct. So here we go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~AXIS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is shown with a series of 3 numbers, which are either a 1 or 0 followed by a decimal and 6 more 0's... They're pretty easy to understand and here is an example.
0.000000 = X axis, meaning this gun isn't turnable (overridden by Min/Max).
1.000000 = Y axis, this gun has the ability of aiming up and down.
0.000000 = Z axis, Always a 0 because a gun shouldn't move up and down.
If you wanted a gun to only be able to swing left and right without the ability to move up and down simply change the second number to "0.000000 ", it's that easy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~MIN/MAX~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is where it gets a little more confusing. These two commands, Min and Max, let the gun know how far it can turn to the left (Min) or the right (Max). This is based on the mathamatical PI (3.1415) formula. The easiest way to figure this out is simply by drawing the left half of a circle and marking the top as 0 and the bottom as 3.1415. Then it's a simple fact of determining, using division, exactly how far you want your gun to turn.
Now, in the MAX and MIN entries I see two numbers. The first is the one you should be interested in. I believe the second (I may be wrong) is how much it can turn on the Y axis (meaning up or down). At any rate, here is an example of how you figure out what the first number should be;
I want my gun to be able to shoot 45 degrees to the left and 45 degreese to the right. Therefore, 45 degreese is 1/4 of the half that we've drawn. That being the case, 3.1415 divided by 4 gives you 0.7854 which would allow the turret to turn 1/4 to the left. So in the Max you would put "0.7854" and in the min you would put "-0.7854". Always remember that MIN is the opposite half of the circle and must be negative.
In the same respect, if you wanted to use 90' which is half of our little chart you would endup with 3.1415 divided by 2, because 90 is half of 180, which equals 1.5708. So you would put "1.5708" in MAX and "-1.5708" in MIN. This would give you 90' rotation to the left and 90' rotation to the right. Simple huh?
~Jay~
Fortune favors the strong mind.
Edited by - Stinger on 2/14/2004 7:43:06 AM
First off, you have to open your ship's CMP file and to do that you use everyone's favorite program UTF Edit. Once you have that opened you need to expand the root "\" and then expand "Window2.3db", "Hardpoints" and "Revolute". This will show you a list of your rotatable hardpoints which are your Turrets, etc. It should be noted that these same procedures can be used for the "Fixed" hardpoints too but the only ones there you might want to edit are the CM/Mine launchers.
Select the turret/etc. that you wish to adjust and then expand it. Here you see a list of 5 things.
AXIS = Which axis' will be rotatable
MAX = How far the gun can turn to it's LEFT (might be right)
MIN = How far the gun can turn to it's RIGHT (might be left)
Orientation = Which direction the gun faces
Position = Where the gun is located on the ship
In this tutorial we won't worry about the Position as most people add the hardports graphically using MilkShape which does all of this by itself. What we are concerned with is the rotation and orientation of the turrets because MilkShape sometimes has issues dealing with said things. It should be noted that if you modify the CMP file and then have to go back and make a change in MilkShape you will have to re-edit the CMP file again to ensure your Hardpoints are correct. So here we go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~AXIS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is shown with a series of 3 numbers, which are either a 1 or 0 followed by a decimal and 6 more 0's... They're pretty easy to understand and here is an example.
0.000000 = X axis, meaning this gun isn't turnable (overridden by Min/Max).
1.000000 = Y axis, this gun has the ability of aiming up and down.
0.000000 = Z axis, Always a 0 because a gun shouldn't move up and down.
If you wanted a gun to only be able to swing left and right without the ability to move up and down simply change the second number to "0.000000 ", it's that easy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~MIN/MAX~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is where it gets a little more confusing. These two commands, Min and Max, let the gun know how far it can turn to the left (Min) or the right (Max). This is based on the mathamatical PI (3.1415) formula. The easiest way to figure this out is simply by drawing the left half of a circle and marking the top as 0 and the bottom as 3.1415. Then it's a simple fact of determining, using division, exactly how far you want your gun to turn.
Now, in the MAX and MIN entries I see two numbers. The first is the one you should be interested in. I believe the second (I may be wrong) is how much it can turn on the Y axis (meaning up or down). At any rate, here is an example of how you figure out what the first number should be;
I want my gun to be able to shoot 45 degrees to the left and 45 degreese to the right. Therefore, 45 degreese is 1/4 of the half that we've drawn. That being the case, 3.1415 divided by 4 gives you 0.7854 which would allow the turret to turn 1/4 to the left. So in the Max you would put "0.7854" and in the min you would put "-0.7854". Always remember that MIN is the opposite half of the circle and must be negative.
In the same respect, if you wanted to use 90' which is half of our little chart you would endup with 3.1415 divided by 2, because 90 is half of 180, which equals 1.5708. So you would put "1.5708" in MAX and "-1.5708" in MIN. This would give you 90' rotation to the left and 90' rotation to the right. Simple huh?
~Jay~
Fortune favors the strong mind.
Edited by - Stinger on 2/14/2004 7:43:06 AM
.
thing, but I want to stop feeling like I'm the ultimate n00b. Thanx!
