posted 03-06- 08:59 AM            

I assume that if i replace the rocket rails on our current model with some tubes made from max that it will work. I am unsure about how to get the actual rockets inside the tubes when they fire. Would I take a rocket and move the location in OPS or would I have to open up the rocket.sm file in OPS and do it that way? Or would the best bet be to just create an entirely new rocket based on the sdoe rockets?

Has anyone played with the weapons?

Razer, if you get a chance, could you build me some 3" rocket tubes? I'm not sure how to make a tube in max. Would it be better to draw a peta or hexagon shape and extrude it? or just construct a cylinder? JT? At school so no access to my email. What if i took a machine gun off of the Jug and enlarged it? I think it would not look round enough since it only have 4 sides(?).

posted 03-06- 09:06 AM               

If you create a cylinder in Max and click the Modify tab, you can specify the number of sides and adjust diameter. Then just convert it to editable mesh and texture it. From there I would clone that to get the other tubes. I would cap the ends and have the end that's supposed to be the hole as just a black face... that wouldn't interfere with the rocket would it? I'm not versed enough in how the weapons actually work, so someone else should answer that.

posted 03-06- 09:18 AM               

Your "rail" is just a visual object to you. The sim doesn't care what it looks like. So all you need to do is make em look like you want em (I agree the hexagonal tubes should work--especially smoothed and textured).

You have to edit the properties of the rail to make sure it holds the right number of rockets. Then you have to edit your "loadout.ppf" file to make sure that number and type of rockets is correct in EACH loadout. You may get some CTD's if you test the installation before all the numbers match up.

Then all you have to do is get the position of the rockets to match the position of the tubes. No small feat, but the rockets only materialize if you create a mission with rockets as the loadout, so I'm not sure you can even DO it in OPS. OPS only shows the location of the mount, not the weapon itself. I was manually editing the .asc file--but you can edit the obOrdPts, or whatever they're called, in OPS. It just doesn't show you the result there.

However, in the case of rocket tubes, the y-component of each rocket's position will be the same, and the z-component of each pair of rockets will be the same, so it's not TOO difficult to get them all lined up. Try changing the x-coordinate by about 0.1 or 0.2 at a time, once you get the rockets in the ballpark. In the sim, it doesn't matter where the rockets "are," so long as there is a tube for each rocket. I had the rockets on the Corsair INSIDE the wing for a while until I got em lined up.

Oughta be pretty cool. If you get em lined up just right, the flame will come out the back of the tube. Of course if you jettison the rockets, they'll also fall "through" the bottom of the tubes, unless you can figure a way to jettison the whole tube...

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--jedi--

posted 03-06- 09:36 AM            

What I'm curious about is the placement of the pods and how the game lines up the rocket in side them. For example...on the spitfire, in OPS you can see the rocket rails. How does the game know to put the rockets on them? If I make the tubes and import them into OPS..how do I tell OPS that "these are rocket pods...put rockets in them?" Can i move the actual rocket placement around in ops ? What if i just imported my tubes and replaced the racks with my tubes...and them moved them to the underwing pylon? would this work? That way all I would have to do is line them up on the plane and then move the rocket placement as well. How do i see where OPS places the weapons?....set all lod visibile or something(?)

I guess I would have to make the tubes big enough to conceal the rockets...or just make a new rocket.sm file and resize them to fit in the tube.

posted 03-06- 11:08 AM               

Just type in the decimal value for the diameter.

posted 03-06- 06:10 PM               

What you want to do is kinda tricky. I'm gonna play with this a little bit, then reply later, I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase......yet

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Cheers!
Jaguar
The FS Hangar

posted 03-06- 08:19 PM               

The 190 is an excelent example of this, so you might want to check that plane's rockets out too.

posted 03-06- 11:30 PM               

The position of the rockets themselves are determined by the "ordPT" properties of the pylon. Open up the Mustang in OPS to see the structure of the .lod properties.

So, for a 3-tube rocket rail on a Jug...

Step 1: make sure each rocket pylon's properties specify 3 rockets.

Step 2: make sure the loadout.ppf file has at least one loadout of rockets.

Step 3: create a mission with a rocket loadout. Fly it to see where the rockets are.

Step 4: modify the pylon lods to look like the tubes. Use OPS to position the tubes.

Step 5: change the ordPt properties to place the rockets in the same position as the tubes. Lots of trial and error on this one. The only way to actually view rockets AFAIK is to run a mission with rockets loaded. They'll show up, but not necessarily in the tubes at first.

The pylon will need these properties:

(obProto 'COrdPylon)...makes it a weapon mount
(ordType 'Rocket)...tells it what weapon to draw
(ordPt 1 X1 Y1 Z1)...where to draw rocket 1
(ordPt 1 X2 Y2 Z2)...where to draw rocket 2
(ordPt 1 X3 Y3 Z3)...where to draw rocket 3

For a triangular tube config, Y1=Y2=Y3, Z1 is the tip of the existing pylon, and Z2=Z3, so only the X-coords and one Z-coord need to be determined.