Attatching extra entities to a tank.

(Diego) #1

I’ve been adding some additional brushwork entities to my Churchill tank. Right now, I’m attatching them to “tag_turret”. This is working ok, but I think because this is the turret tag, my brushwork entities rattle around on the sides of my tank. I think this is caused by some built in animation that occurs when it moves.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knows of another tag on this tank that I could use that won’t vibrate my entities. Or does anyone know if I can use “setposition” to stick my entities to the center of the tank and still follow it as it moves?

Thanks.

(S14Y3R) #2

Yea tags are easily added. All you need is a secondary script_mover with a model2 key with a .md3 tag rig. You just attach the “tag rig” to the tag_turret, but then you attach your stuff to the tag rig.

-I was doing some quick testing to make sure and it does work properly.
-You’ll need to measure out to where you want your tags from the tanks Origin. I did a tutorial a while back and use the tag rig creator. Its pretty straightforward, but if you get stuck check out: Mount an Mg on Anything.
For creation of the tag rig, hit :Chruker’s Md3 tag rig Creator

-Set up a small script_mover with model2 /path/to/tag_rig.md3 and targetname/scriptname. You don’t need to set the tagent or anything, that’s just for the mounted mg.

-In the script, don’t forget a small wait before attachtotag’ing, that one “got” me again, heh heh.


tag_rig //script_mover with model2 key set
{
   spawn
   {
      wait 250
      attachtotag tank tag_turret
   }
}

all your objects will now just get a -wait 250, and -attachtotag tag_rig tag_name… and to “jiggle” everything like you said, you’ll only need to “move” the tag_rig and all attachables happily follow suit.

gl.

Thankyou Chruker!

(Diego) #3

I thought about making a tag rig in Maya to export to .md3. But without the ability to bring in the tank model for reference, my tags would not be entirely accurate.

Currently I have brushwork entities that have origin brushes at the center of the tank. These are attached to the tank_turret tag. This keeps the entites in the right place, but they shake and jitter around as the tank moves. I am assuming that is because the tank_turret tag is moving.

Your solution is to build a tag rig that is also attached to the tank_turret tag. So if I change my brushwork entities and attach them to individual tags on the rig, won’t they still shake because the rig is itself attatched to the tank_turret tag?

I’ve avoided using that tag creator for a while. I’ll give it a shot if it will fix the shaking. If not, then what I have is working well enough.

On a side note, I’ve run into one other wierd issue. I’ve constructing a control system that players use to “upgrade” the tank with these new entities. The brushwork entities are non-solid and fairly flush against the tank. But for some reason after 1 of the upgrades, when I move too close to the left side of the tank, the player movement gets sticky and sluggish as if I am meeting resistance from invisible or bad brushes. Once the tank gets moving, it seems to ease up a bit.

I thought I knew which entity was the problem so that’s why I made them non-solid. That seemed to fix it for a couple of compiles. But it came back again on my last compile. And it actually occured after an upgrade that doesn’t even attach any brushwork entities. Not sure what to make of that.

(mazdaplz) #4

have you tried adding an extra tag to that tank?

if i am correct you can load md3 models in milkshape (if you still have 30 day license), load up the texture and add a little one faced triangle called tag_something, you can put it anywhere you want.

then milkshape will generate a new md3 with an extra tag you can attach stuff to

there’s a tutorial somewhere, i never got it to work but i never really tried much

http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/ms3d/tutorials/q3a/

that’s not the one i mean but it’s very similar, perharps it could work

(Diego) #5

Well, I downloaded a new version of Milkshape to try this out. I figured since I was going to go to all this trouble, that I would just make a new churchill tank model with all the tags I want on it. Only one “minor” obstacle. When I import a .md3 model into milkshape, the animation is removed. And since I need my tank to do it’s start and stop animation, this solution is busted for me.

However, on the positive side, since I can convert the .md3 file to an .obj file, I can load the tank into Maya so that I can place all the tags I need in the correct positions. I’ll just have to make it a separate tag rig model as S14Y3R suggested. That’s easier to me than messing with Chruker’s tag rig creator.

However, in the end, I doubt this will actually solve the original problem, which was to get rid of the shaking of my tank attatchments since the only tag on the tank that I know I can attach to is the turret tag.

Unless someone knows a way to read the churchill.tag file so I can check to see if there are any others on there…

(Diego) #6

Well, found some interesting issues with this.

I originally set up my new tag rig entites using model2 to point to the files. My setup was no different than what I have for the tank turret. But for some reason, when using model2, the tag rig or the attachables don’t show up. So I changed my entities to just be the models themselves. So, now my models are showing up and attaching in the correct spots.

The attachments do still shake around because they are inheriting the animation of the turret. So I guess I’ll have to live with that. The only other way I can think of to stop it would be to set up a completely separate scriptmover that would not be attached to the tank, but would have its own movement script to follow the spline along the path at the same time the tank moves.

The biggest problem is that the entity attached to the tag rig is coming in upside down. But it also appears and disappears from time to time. I’m not using LOD models, and in fact, it can disappear when you are right up on it, or when you are really far away, or when the tank is making a particular movement.

So, to try to remedy this, I’m going to try a simple solution tonight. I’ll remove the tag rig from the equation and just make my attached models with an origin at the position of the tank_turret tag. This should position the model in the right spot on the tank while still attaching to the one tag. In fact I am already doing this with the brushwork entities by having their origin brush at the center of the tank. But this last entity I am making has to have tags of its own.

(Detoeni) #7

Unless someone knows a way to read the churchill.tag file

notepad/wordpad
I dont have et installed on this rig, so I cant check, but I think there should be a none animated tag that the triggers attach to, think it might be on the track model not the body.

(Diego) #8

I did finally find another post in here that said you could read those .tag files with notepad.
Unfortunately, the churchill only has tag_turret. And it doesn’t have a separate tracks model.

(Diego) #9

I just spent the last 6 hours remodeling and texturing my weapon attachment for my tank so that I can use it without a tag rig and attatch it directly to tag_turret. I’ve finally gotten it to work using model2 and my tags on the new weapon are working fine as proven by a corona that succesfully attached to the barrel.

After doing all that, Why oh why in all the years people have been mapping before me, has there never been any mention that you can’t attach a shooter rocket to a tag?

I think I might have to go postal on ET.

:bash:

Kiss my gatling panzerfaust goodbye.

(stealth6) #10

well there was a question about that a while ago, where they said you would have to make a new mod inorder to make it work, other wise you would have to work with 4 buttons to direct the aiming or somethigng like that…

that person asked if you could rig an mg42 with a panzer

(Diego) #11

I’m not trying to manually aim it. I just wanted to attach it to my tank like any other entity so it would move.

hmm.

Can you attatch an info_not_null to a tag? So that a shooter’s target moves, but the shooter stays stationary?