Misplaced Weapons? Incorrect Meshes?
 

Another topic about modding DW. Trying to make this short and sweet.

Question: How do I place weapons/armaments on the model's hardpoints correctly? Specifically, can someone indicate what programs are needed?

Here are some images:
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3533/screen2oy.png
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5849/screen3lp.png


The above weapons are placed as if on a P-3 Orion air frame, since that's the base model I used.

I've searched the forums for a while but I'm not quite sure what to call the above. Is it a mesh problem? Model problem? Something in the data? Searches haven't been too handy. Looked all through DWedit, nothing there. Cmputil and decompressed just about everything in the DW folder, still nothing.

From what I gather it seems a hex editor may be needed or some altering with the model through 3dmax. I have neither, although I'm willing to at least check out a hex editor.

Could anyone steer me in the right direction to absolve this problem?

As always, I appreciate any responses:arrgh!:

Regards,
Dark

DWEdit, Launcher dialog. Look for the sets of coordinates.

The first set is for the center point.
The second set is for a puff of smoke where the weapon launches (so you can put it at the muzzle of a gun, for example).
The third is used for an array of launchers, to designate a corner. If this is used, the second set also designates a corner.

Gah! I missed it beforehand. Either way, anything doable in the database editor makes me happy. Haven't been able to try the weapon relocation yet but I'll surely do this tomorrow and post back if I failed or succeeded (for all of my many fans who are eagerly awaiting details on this thread, you know who you are don't hide it).

Thanks again ML. Two thumbs up in your direction!:yeah:

Hey Darkhunter.

Looks like you've started a nice little project here, the Tomcat looks like the one a friend gave me for Fleet Command & DW.

I did something like this before, but got board with having to mess around with interface files with the Hex editor, its just to much work. :damn::damn:

If you need any help with models let me know. :salute:

Hey FCCC!

Thanks very much for the offer, I will likely take you up on that. I just typed in "Tomcat" in the database editor and that's the model that appeared, but I think this may have been created from you or a friend of yours. Hope it's okay that I'm using it! :salute: If not...well I'll just use it in secret hehe.

I'm working on repositioning the weapons but I have no other method than formulating a guess for the coordinates and then fine tuning from there. Blast cartesian coordinate planes!

EDIT 1: SOLUTION FOUND. Finally figured out it was "Ship class ID" under the "Ship Class Dialog" in DWedit. It was just my luck that the object ID/Index number was coincidentally the same as the ship class ID/Index number. Unfortunately, this doesn't solve the incorrect weapon placements for *cloned* objects. Changing the launchers location changes the location for all platforms associated.

Hmmm, I've run into more problems.

In controllers.ini, the name of the platform is followed by a number; I.E. for P-3 Orion it's: [Interface] "P3" 25. However, the number "25" seems arbitrary and does not match the DWEdit's index number of "35." Out of shear coincidence DWedit's index of "21" for the F-14 Tomcat coincides with the controllers.ini of "21." In my controllers.ini I have the following:

[Interface] "F-14" 21

I copied the P-3 interface, changed the name and number to the above, and when I go in-game the P-3 model is replaced with the F-14. Great, right? Not really. Any time I make changes to the launchers it affects all platforms associated. I figured that would happen so I tried making my own launchers but I have to tie the launchers to an object/platform. I cloned a P-3 Orion and changed its model and stats, but the controllers.ini cannot recognize this clone since it can't recognize the index number. The index number is 1157 and I get a CTD when I click quick mission, mission, etc.

My question is how do I find the "correct" platform/index/whatever number?


Again, grateful for any help thrown my way. :yep: