Unreal Vehicles, Max, and Bone directions.

oXYnary

So its been awhile since I have attempted to bone. Anyhow is the pivot for weapons and such on a vehicle supposed to be at the root or where the weapon attaches? Also on the root bone. Does it matter what way it faces?

I was going via this tutorial, but it kinda skimps on the bone part.http://www.psyonix.com/ImportingVehiclesTutorial/

Yes, backwards not backwords.

e_x

I've always done my vehicle rigging with dummies and used the actual mesh of the vehicle as the root bone.

And the pivot point orientation is critical. X is forward in UT2k4, which it isn't in 3ds max. I've had good luck following that tutorial that you have. It talks about using dummies instead of bones, which is why I do it that way. Dummies seem to be easier to correctly orient too, at least for me.

Also, maybe a better screen shot so we can see what all is going on? You need to make sure each pivot point on each bone is correct.

oXYnary

I thought you placed nulls at the end of bone chains to stop unreal from creating an extra bone when its converted (at least on characters).

Here is a better picture. The bones are children of the root, but not actually "connected" since the pivots for each are at the joint.



Here is another method Im trying.
Bones hierarchy going from root to end. But to have pivots, needs 2 bones. (1 bone from root bone to area (pivots at root). 1 for the pivot itself. the null object is something i read about you need a null object at a end of a chain, or unreal will insert an extra bone.



Edit: also dont suppose you have an idea on size conversion? The tutorial doenst help much in that either. So I can import 1to1 to unreal without having the programmers shrink/enlarge it in code.

Sett

I think someone else also asked for these- links to ut vehicle tutes'
http://www.psyonix.com/ImportingVehiclesTutorial/
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/SVehicleCreation
http://www.psyonix.com/NewVehiclesTutorial/

As for nulls or end bones I never had to. I fact I never used bones at all. I just linked objects. Objects that were not linked were Ignored by Ued.

Here's how youe are suppost to link struts,wheels...

but it looks like you are doing a complex vehicle where the wheels are moved via ani, yes?

The size for Ued/Max is 1:1 but you can change the size via code. DrawScale=1.0000 is the val you are looking for.
Changing it will reduce collision boxes et al proportionatly. But you do have to watch for HeadLightCoronaOffset, HeadLightProjectorOffset, DriverPos(if you pos off root) and ExitPos

oXYnary

Actually its a flying ship with legs.. So I need bones for animations of it landing/taking off vertically, and the rear hatch opening closing. Plus the legs interpolate between animation and the surface (like struts) so the programmers got some work cut out for him. But he wants me to have separate animation/model files for the legs.

The programer wants me to use bones where dynamic particle effects (such as jet exhaust) will be. I saw that linked object idea before, but they told me it would be easier for them to use bones all around. PLus all the turrets swivel to some degree (it holds gunners and a pilot) so I cant just say "X" object is where the fire for such and such weapon is. (I know I will have to make separate files for the weapons at the end).

The one tut on the ut2004 bonus disk by buzz only shows in maya.

Thanks for the additional links. I will try to see if I can use them to get further.