Milkshape exporter questions

#1 I believe Tim Gift did a tutorial on how to get a Milkshape weapon into the game. I'd look for that in the Code Snipits or Resources section.

#2 If you have the latest version from CVS, you should have several example MS shapes. Check out the rifle shape in example\fps\data\shapes\rifle for an example on what you need for a weapon. There is also an animated flag in example\fps\data\shapes\ms

You can't set transparency yet, but I believe you can add a enviroment mapping (haven't actually tried it). For the env map you'll need a PNG file with the alpha channel representing reflectivity, then you need to set

emap=true;

in the weapons datablock.

#3 Great, thanks a lot guys!!

#4 one more question.... do you export the guns, the shell and the projectile with bounding boxes? or not?

#5 The MS exporter automatically creates a bounding box around the geometry. You don't have to create a "bounds" object like you do with the Max exporter.

If it's an object you want to bump into then you do need a collision box or mesh. Any single mesh called "Collision" will be automatically exported as the collision mesh, or you can select the collision mesh from the exporter dialog.

#6 ok I'll give it a go... tnx a lot!

#7 heeelp! my gun is facing backwards.. what am I doing wrong here?? (its kind off cool.... a player with barrels coming out of his ass lol)

#8 Probably just need to rotate it :) Several of the axis are flipped by the exporter to make them TGE "compatible". Use what MS consideres as front, back, left and right (check the settings on your 3D panes), the exporter converts this into the appropriate TGE axis.

#9 yeh, sorry, figured that out only minutes after posting this question, forgot to post I found the solution.
I have another question... would it be possible to export vehicles with this MS exporter? or are some things not supported yet? and what about player models? If this is all possible, can you tell me where I can find the needed info on how to set up the model?

#10 You can export vehicles. I'm going to start on a vehicle example shape and some basic scripts this week. I'll check them into CVS as soon as I have them going.

#11 Hey, i was wondering, if anyone has just a skeleton with all the anims all set that i could use... while i can model geometry, my animation leaves a bit to be desired. I know about the example player, but, last i checked, he didnt have any legs, and again, im not the best at animation. I know this would make a fine addition to the SDK, and would speed the development of player models... Any input?
ryan

#12 Woot! this is great. Defently let us know when you finished that. I have some vehicles ready to be ported here... just dont know how to do it, an example would be great!

#13 Tim,

What if my "vehicle" is a horse, griffon or dragon? Could the engine handle animating the legs and/or wings while the "vehicle" drove or flew? Will your vehicle example cover the situation where the vehicle has parts which animate while it is moving?




Thanks,

Chad

#14 You could do any number of animations. The ground vehicles do expect some animations that are used for suspensions, wheel rotation, etc. It wouldn't be hard to modify though. If you don't want to mess with code, you could try creating your horse as a player object :) He'd run, jump, etc. And you could still mount other players on him :)

#15 I'm here again with my (stupid) questions. Today I tought i'd try some animating, because animators seem to be rare, so I tought I'd just learn it and do it all by myself. Unfortunately i ran into some problems:
-how do I add more then one animation in milkshape? I did see on the example models that all anims are placed on the same timeline and the for example 1-5 is running, 5-10 jump etc... but how is this done exactly?
-I tried to make rotating barrels for a chaingun for my game. For some reason the animation plays, and then stops and starts again, I can't get it to rotate smoothly. For rotating the barrels, how much frames should I use? how many key-frames?

#16 I did some more work on the rotating animation, and now it looks ok in milkshap, but still verry jerky ingame... am i using the wrong framerate here? or what could be causing this?

#17 Maybe interpolation between frames..