Weapon moding questions.

[TexMurphy]

Hey guys.

Ive got a few questoins about weapon moding.

The questions concern fighter guns.

First, how is a guns ability to hit affected by choise of weapons graphic type (spite, blob or custom 3d model)?

Obviously if I have a custom 3d model then the bigger it is in size the easier it hits. A collision between a say sphere of radius 10 meters hits easier then a sphere of radius 2 meteres as I can be 8 more meters of in my aim, right?

My guess is that using blobs works the same way right?

But what about spites?? What exactly is the spite? Is it just the texture image rendered to the screen or is it a simplistic 3d model with 1 vertical rectangle and 1 horisontal rectangle?

If so what is the size of these rectangles and if its just the texture rendered to the screen without any model to it how does collision detection work for spites vs blobs and custom models?

Next, can I get two fixed mounted guns to converge?

Meaning. Say I have 2 wing mounted lasers on my fighter. With a standard gun set up these two shoot straight forward along the Y axis. Since the guns have a wide gun placement I will have an extreamly hard time hitting small ships as my guns shoot around them. I will need to focus on aiming one of the two guns in and will never be able to hit with both.

Inorder to fix this I would like to have my guns converg at a certain point. The convergence point would be the guns optimal range. So say that my lasers have a 10k range I would want the convergence point to be at say 6k.

This would in a real world be done through having the guns point slightly inwards towards the center of the ship.

Can I acomplish this somehow, other then using self aiming?

The problem with using self aiming is that the azumith range is an arc from the center of the gun. This means it will self aim both "in" and "out" from the center of the ship.

The problem with this is that it makes aiming too acurate as it gives you aiming help not gun convergance.

Thats it for now.

Thanks.
Tex

[TheDeadlyShoe]

1.) If a projectile doesn't have a lethal_radius or a model I presume it just uses collision detection. I have had no problems with custom weapon collision detection. I've developed and tested (for several hours each) about 7-8 distinct weapons systems. However I have never used a sprite in a weapon which collides with other objects (i have used them in other capacities) so I can't say whether they collide for sure. I see no reason why not though.

2.)
Milo sez:

Self aiming weapons can aim themselves at their targets. If self_aiming is set to false, the weapon can only fire straight ahead. It is usually better to set self_aiming to true and just use smaller aim basket parameters to simulate fixed weapons.

Almost all of the built-in weapons in Starshatter have self_aiming set to true, even the fighter guns. The only exceptions are the Rocket and Recon pods, which have self-aiming set to false. The reason for this is because those weapons have turrets - the rocket launcher and the recon pod are both implemented using turret models - that should be fixed to their hardpoints. You don't want the fighter's rocket launcher gimbaling around as it tracks the target, so the weapon is designed with self-aiming set to false, even though the rockets themselves are guided.

In other words, self aiming refers to whether or not the weapon launcher (i.e. the gun barrel or missile launch rail) can be slewed towards the selected target.

As you can see the solution used by Milo is to use miniscule arcs in self_aiming which is just enough to simulate convergence. Minimum hassle that way and it works quite well. However if you want actual convergence you can achieve this by calculating the required angle and then slewing the direction of the fighter guns by just that much. The angle involved is likely to be miniscule. The problem is that you will have to recalculate if you ever want to adjust the guns position or range.

[TexMurphy]

@Spite weapons.

When I have tested spite weapons they do ofcourse hit. Ive actually managed to get the best look for a weapon using spites in cases when its a weapon like a plasma gun.

The question is how big the collision area is for the 3 different types. I know its depends on the size of the blob and model but when it comes to spites I have no clue. There has to be some sort of collision area but is that the size of the spite image or the size of an underlaying model?

@Convergence

How do I set the slew?

The auto aim with very small basket is what Im doing atm. I tink the azumtih range Im using is about 0.01 atm.

Tex

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Doesn't a seperate parameter. You would just change the direction the gun actually points slightly, in the Ship DEF rather than the Weapon DEF. IMHO, the auto aim probably works better for gameplay purposes, and looks better to boot.

Hmm, as for sprites, I think it just collides if the sprite's location (center) collides with a ship/shield model.

[TexMurphy]

That would mean that spite weapons are harder to aim then blob or custom models, right? As they hit even if the center of the model passes the ship at a distance of less then radius/2 (asumping sphere).

Tex

[TheDeadlyShoe]

If its a problem, I think a lethal_radius would work with sprites. Not sure tho.

[Mehrunes]

Sprite collision is probably spherical based on the sprites size.

[John DiCamillo]

No, it doesn't matter what type of graphical representation you use for a weapon. If the center of the shot intersects the target model, it's a hit. Otherwise, it's a miss.

Unless it is a missile type, and there is a lethal_radius set for the weapon. Then, if the weapon misses the target, but comes within lethal_radius meters of it, the weapon will detonate and do damage proportional to the distance.

[Mehrunes]

There goes my idea for a gun that fires aircraft carriers.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Mehrunes

There goes my idea for a gun that fires aircraft carriers.

Aircraft carriers? Did you planning mod about water ships?

[TexMurphy]

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

ORIGINAL: Mehrunes

There goes my idea for a gun that fires aircraft carriers.

Aircraft carriers? Did you planning mod about water ships?

What else are we supposed to do with the old 20th century left overs?

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I was thinking restaraunts, or maybe daycares.