posted 11-29- 08:52 AM               

As I am putting engine damage into the fighters, those with a moving canopy have a problem. As soon as I save the .sm file in OPS(whether I added any code or not), the file gets smaller by about 15,000 bytes. Also the moving canopy section now is located below the pilots legs! It still does work, although it looks rather strange. I have attempted to correct this by adjusting the origin Y axis property, but every time I do this, OPS crashes.

Does anyone know why the canopy is getting moved below the pilots legs? Does anyone know how I can prevent this from happening or give me some guidance as to how to correctly reposition the canopy?

Thanks,

Condor out

posted 11-29- 11:45 AM               

There should be an option that allows you to "display save options" when you save a file. Make sure you check "Do NOT save referenced files" in the save options. If you want to modify a cockpit.sm file, open that file itself, not the aircraft file.

If the canopy is not part of a cockpit.sm file, but part of the aircraft itself, you should be able to move it around using the part tool in OPS. Failing that, you should be able to "edit-copy" and "edit-paste" a copy of the canopy into the model, and move THAT around, and then delete the original and rename the copy.

You can also move the canopy part in your 3D program, but that's a lot of trial-and-error, since you can't see where it's going to be until you reopen the model in OPS.

Oh yeah, just remembered. Make sure you're looking at the correct .lod. You may be looking at a 2nd- or 3rd-level .lod that hasn't been properly positioned. The canopy usually has 3 .lods. The first one is only seen from inside the cockpit. The second is a "close-up" .lod for high-detail external views, and the third is for long-range externals, like in a dogfight. These .lods can ALL be in different places, and moving the first one will move them all, while moving a lower-level .lod will just move that one. It can get REAL confusing in OPS if you're not clear on which .lod you're looking at, and when it should be visible in the game.

posted 11-29- 11:57 AM               

I will give the save options thing a try. If that does not work, then I will try to attempt to figure out which lod I am working with. Wish me luck.

posted 11-29- 12:32 PM               

How exactly did you move the canopy reference back into place?

Thanks,

Condor out

posted 11-29- 12:59 PM               

(you have no idea how long it took (and how many time I sent files back to Mposis to fix) before I figured this out! (I stupidly thought they were being deleted!)

posted 11-29- 01:27 PM               

I can't select the moving part of the canopy. Every time I try to select it, the main body(forwar part of the fuselage) of the plane gets selected. Please try it with the a6m5 zero for youself and let me know if you can select it. I will keep trying too.

Thanks,

Condor out

posted 11-29- 01:56 PM               

You can select the canopy from the left-hand view menu from the reference tree. Just click on the root-text for the canopy and it'll select the entire canopy.

posted 11-29- 02:59 PM               

No pressure...the future of engine damage depends on this canopy fix working.

I will let you know what happens.

Condor out

posted 11-29- 04:09 PM               

I am using OPS 1.30. Zur, does that impact the method you described above about moving the canopy piece?

Thanks,

Condor out

posted 11-30- 10:20 AM               

I will try and email you guys. Please give it a try as soon as you can and let me know how you did it. Call me OPS challenged cause I certainly am.

Thanks,

Condor out

posted 12-01- 10:03 AM               

Thanks very much! I am all set now with the ones you fixed and I have even fixed a few of my own.

The future for engine damage once again looks very bright.

Condor out