Hey

Im having ALOT of trouble in figuring out how to map the gun locations on sprites in the shan resource. Basically, the 'orbital path' never seems to track the ship properly.

In addition, when I render the sprites and insert them into the shans, the very centre pixel of the render is never the part of the ship that stays in the same place, is this a CRITICAL problem? (......this is hard to explain) Must the sprite spin on an axis which is exactly centered in the window?

I hope this all makes sense. Any help would be apreciated.

cheers

l e g i o n

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The heart goes streight from sugar to coffee.

Sounds like you need to start clipping from the center of the image. Try using Dr. Ralph's "Sprites" package to solve this problem.

Play around with the Up/Down Compress X/Y fields while you're at it to generate elliptical orbits; look at the values for similarly sized ships in the default scenario.

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NTi Ozymandias of the Red Shadow Organization

Quote

Originally posted by Legion:
**Hey

Im having ALOT of trouble in figuring out how to map the gun locations on sprites in the shan resource. Basically, the 'orbital path' never seems to track the ship properly.

In addition, when I render the sprites and insert them into the shans, the very centre pixel of the render is never the part of the ship that stays in the same place, is this a CRITICAL problem? (......this is hard to explain) Must the sprite spin on an axis which is exactly centered in the window?

I hope this all makes sense. Any help would be apreciated.
**

At what angle are you rendering your ships?

Actually, the center pixel of the render is not going to be the same (location on the ship) if you render the ship at a non-vertical angle. What's important is that the ship rotates about a point that's centered in the middle of the render. Did that make sense to you? Basically, if the origin is centered in the middle of the render, and the ship rotates about that point, then you should be fine.

To get the orbital path to track the ship correctly, just play around with the up and down compressions. If you rendered the ship at 45° above the plane of the ship, then you could simply copy the compression settings from the ship data files.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
**At what angle are you rendering your ships?

Actually, the center pixel of the render is not going to be the same (location on the ship) if you render the ship at a non-vertical angle. What's important is that the ship rotates about a point that's centered in the middle of the render. Did that make sense to you? Basically, if the origin is centered in the middle of the render, and the ship rotates about that point, then you should be fine.

To get the orbital path to track the ship correctly, just play around with the up and down compressions. If you rendered the ship at 45° above the plane of the ship, then you could simply copy the compression settings from the ship data files.

Matrix

**

Ive really just been rendering ships at various angles for now, just experimenting, ill probably render them the same as the existing nova sprites, 45deg?

Btw, is there an easy way to make sure the point the ship rotates on is centered in the render? - Or is it basically just doing it by eye?

Thanks,

l e g i o n

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The heart goes streight from sugar to coffee.

Wait a second........ I think I see what's going on. If you don't rotate around the camera interest, you're basically screwed......... What program are you using?

Quote

Originally posted by NTiOzymandias:
Wait a second........ I think I see what's going on. If you don't rotate around the camera interest, you're basically screwed......... What program are you using?

what? Why would you rotate the camera around the interest? You be better off setting the interest at <0,0,0>, and having the ship rotate around the origin as well. Rotating the camera will cause the light to only hit one side of the ship (making it look as if the light is rotating with the ship), rather than... yea....

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
**what? Why would you rotate the camera around the interest? You be better off setting the interest at <0,0,0>, and having the ship rotate around the origin as well. Rotating the camera will cause the light to only hit one side of the ship (making it look as if the light is rotating with the ship), rather than... yea....

Matrix

**

I meant to rotate the ship around the camera interest. It doesn't matter where that is as long as the two converge.

Does anyone know what the UpComp.XY and DnComp.XY fields do?

best

l e g i o n

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The heart goes streight from sugar to coffee.

Quote

Originally posted by Legion:
**Does anyone know what the UpComp.XY and DnComp.XY fields do?

best

l e g i o n

**

Ahem:

Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
To get the orbital path to track the ship correctly, just play around with the up and down compressions. If you rendered the ship at 45° above the plane of the ship, then you could simply copy the compression settings from the ship data files.

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It's hard to enlighten someone who's brain doesn't have an "on" switch.

(This message has been edited by Quantum Transcendence (edited 07-14-2002).)

Ill try and give an excuse, but well, whats the point?

<edit> ive just had a broswe through the ship files and well, all the vales are the different in the upcomp.XY and dncomp.XY fields, and i find this really confusing given that all the ships were rendered at the same angle. Im sure there is an easy explanation of how they work, but could someone 'tutorial' me in it, you know, the one with big pictures, big writing, and for ages 5+. <edit>

best

l e g i o n

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The heart goes streight from sugar to coffee.

(This message has been edited by Legion (edited 07-14-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by Legion:
**Ill try and give an excuse, but well, whats the point?

<edit> ive just had a broswe through the ship files and well, all the vales are the different in the upcomp.XY and dncomp.XY fields, and i find this really confusing given that all the ships were rendered at the same angle. Im sure there is an easy explanation of how they work, but could someone 'tutorial' me in it, you know, the one with big pictures, big writing, and for ages 5+. <edit>

best

l e g i o n

**

I found that using the shuttle's up and down comp values generally works.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
**I found that using the shuttle's up and down comp values generally works.

Matrix

**

Go to the delta-v subscribe page on ambrosias web page, or whatnot, and download the delta-v.mbox file or whatever it is, the gigantic text file which contains all the posts to the list ever made. Somewhere in the list someone posted an unscientific and silly way to find the correct upcompress dncompressxy etc fields. It didn't seem to make much sense logically, but it worked for someone I think as a good way to find the right values to make the exit points work right.

Quote

Originally posted by SD:
Go to the delta-v subscribe page on ambrosias web page, or whatnot, and download the delta-v.mbox file or whatever it is, the gigantic text file which contains all the posts to the list ever made. Somewhere in the list someone posted an unscientific and silly way to find the correct upcompress dncompressxy etc fields. It didn't seem to make much sense logically, but it worked for someone I think as a good way to find the right values to make the exit points work right.

I dont s'pose youve got a extract of the text on hand do you?

thx

l e g i o n

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The heart goes streight from sugar to coffee.