New range of turrets

[Smivs]

giant boob nipple gun station

It's not the snappiest name ever, but I have to tell you I laugh every time I read it

[Pleb]

In case nobody knows what I'm on about, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy_vDj1bec4

[Shipbuilder]

I have tried to make the gun larger

The easiest way to alter the gun without affecting the remainder of the model is to: -

1 Open the modle in Wings 3D and select the body select mode then click on the model.
2 Right click and select separate.
3 In the Geometry Graph you should now have 2 items listed orbital_turret and orbital_turret_sep2. Select the one that relates to the gun (I think it will be orbital_turret).
4 You can now scale uniform, move etc as required and this will apply changes to the gun section only.
5 Once you are happy with the size and position of the gun ensure you are in body select mode and select the entire model i.e. orbital_turret and orbital_turret_sep2.
6 Right click and select combine.

I also need to pt flashers on my station

You can get the x y and z co-ordinates from the Wings 3D model. Let me know if you are unsure how.

Also do you know how to define a flasher ?

[Pleb]

Thanks Shipbuilder, my gun is no longer shy from the coldness of space!

Are the co-ordinates the three numbers at the top after Position (example: Position <-128.2012, 540.2342, -12.4564>)? I used these numbers to get the position I needed for the dock. However I am unsure of what numbers are what on Flashers, for example:

Code: Select all

"*FLASHER* 0 92 360 60.0 1 -0.50 12"

Which of these numbers are the co-ordinates? And do the others control the size and colour? I'm sure I saw something explaining this before but I can't seem to find it now...

EDIT: I found the Flasher definition on the Wiki!

Code: Select all

*FLASHER* x y z hue frequency phase size

Bit confused how I would figure out where to put flashers for the docking bay though, as unsure of how to get the co-ordinates as docking bay is not part of the model...

[Shipbuilder]

Are the co-ordinates the three numbers at the top after Position (example: Position <-128.2012, 540.2342, -12.4564>)?

Yes in order of x y and z. Therefore x is the co-ordinate from side to side, Y is the vertical co-ordinate and z is the front to back co-ordinate.

However I am unsure of what numbers are what on Flashers

Info for flashers is given in the subentities section of the shipdata.plist document on the wiki see here http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shipdata.plist

The system you have quoted is a older system of defining flashers (Having said that it still works ok it is just less flexible with regard to what you can do). If you want white flashers you will need to use the newer version.

However to answer your other questions using your example:-

Code: Select all

FLASHER* 0 92 360 60.0 1 -0.50 12

The first 3 numbers are the co-ordinates x, y and z. The fourth number is the hue(colour) so this will result in a yellowish flasher, the fifth number is the frequency so in this case it will flash once per second, sixth the phase and seventh the size i.e the 12 in your example will produce a flasher with a diameter of12m.

Also note the following that should help:-

Hue:-
Green = 500.
Red = 360
Yellow = 50.
Cyan = 150
Blue = 200
Indigo = 225
White = You will need to use the new version of defining a flasher – see link above.
You can use numbers other than these i.e. a number between 360 and 500 will give a hue based on a mixture of green and red. These were just a few that I played about with when I was learning how to define flashers.

Frequency is simply the number of pulses per second. Use 0 for a constant i.e. non flashing effect.

Phase is used to define flashers where you want them to not all flash at the same time. For example if you define one flasher with a phase of 0.5 and the other with a phase of 1 the first will be at it's brightest half a second before the second.

The best way to understand flasher is just to have a quick go.

I can help you with defining flashers using the new method tomorrow if required.

Frequency is simply the number of pulses per second. Use 0 for a constant i.e. non flashing effect.

If you have any problems or if any of the above is unclear let me know.

Hope that this helps.

[Shipbuilder]

Bit confused how I would figure out where to put flashers for the docking bay though, as unsure of how to get the co-ordinates as docking bay is not part of the model...

I have not tryed designing a staion yet so don't have experience with regard to the docking bay.

However I would look at locating the co-ordinates in the wings model around the opening, then may be defining the x co-ordinates so that they will locate a flasher slightly inward from the opening edge and then define the z co-ordinate so that the flasher moves within the model.

I don’t know if I have explained the above very well. If not give me a shout and I'll try to explain in more coherent English

Perhaps someone else on the bb with experience of incorporating docking bays in to models may be able to offer some better advice.

[Shipbuilder]

Is it possible to define a turret that can rotate by 360 degrees around a horizontal axial and also rotate upwards and downwards (Above the horizontal axis) but does not rotate downwards below the horizontal axis ?

I don’t know if I have explained this too clearly above so hopefully to try to explain what I am trying to achieve is a turret that can be mounted on a flat surface which will have complete freedom of movement but only on or above a horizontal plain i.e. I don’t want the turret to rotate so that it is pointing into a model.

[Thargoid]

No - turrets can rotate and fire around a 157 degree cone centred on their Z-axis direction orientation only. You would have to get fancy with some scripting to change their orientation, and even then that may not work for an active turret.

[Shipbuilder]

Ok Thanks Thargoid.

I don't suppose that this would be an additional option in the shipdata.plist in a future release of Oolite would it ?

[quatermass]

Hi all just now logged on to this board after reading posts for a couple of months.
Anyway talk of turrets had me thinking of how I imagined things when I used to play Elite on my old C64. I always assumed that large traders (anaconda boa and python) where all equipped with turrets for port and starboard mounts, after all the crew had to have something to do in a firefight.
Anyway just my tupence worth and something that developers/oxp writers can consider or not as they feel fit.

[Cody]

Hi quatermass and welcome aboard!

[quatermass]

Hi quatermass and welcome aboard!

Thanks

[Smivs]

Hi Quatermass, and welcome.
Ha, if you like turrets you'll certainly find plenty of them around the OXPs, and some (occassionally heated) debate about them here on the Board as well.

[Shipbuilder]

Welcome to the BB Quatermass.

[quatermass]

Thanks for the welcomes folks.
Have already found the oxp list and some very interesting stuff there is to investigate.