Code Release

Boy, I must really be sick to have decided to double the size of stations out of the blue. I think my original intent was to try and seperate each individual station module into it's own sim, though I must've gotten sidetracked along the way.

Anyway, here's a more distant shot, though it looks like the fortress cannons are still their original size.
mywebpages.comcast.net/Mehrunes/newsize2.jpg

EDIT: Now I remember why I didn't want to split each station up into it's components, because it's really really hard (especially without having the models available). Each one needs a new collisionhull as well. I created a new docking arm and attached it as a child to Emerald STC and docking to it counted as docking to the station correctly, however it was still there as a seperate contact in the list.

Does lightwave have an easy way to "snip" down a collision hull from the larger station?

If you fire on the attached piece, does it hit the station as a whole?

What class type was your attachment? They all seem to have different behaviors when attached. Perhaps make the modules class Inert - like an asteroid block. It might not show up in the contact list.

I am glad docking works. I worried that if the null was over in one file, and the main station in another, the dockpoints would become unusable.

I wish I knew something about lightwave files. It must be possible to create a low polygon mesh that surrounds an object from code. I did a quick look on the Newtek site, but they don't seem to be offering any tools for reading thier files. Strange, since games need to read this data in.
-Gtrout

Originally posted by GrandpaTrout

Does lightwave have an easy way to "snip" down a collision hull from the larger station?

I suppose they could be cut up. I had no trouble doubling the size of the collisionhull for the station I upsized in Milkshape. The real problem is figuring out to where the center of the model is, and where the various connection points are without having any way to view a PSO model file.

If you fire on the attached piece, does it hit the station as a whole?

Dunno without a collisionhull, but probably not, since they're seperate sims. Which means each module can be destroyed seperately (maybe).

What class type was your attachment? They all seem to have different behaviors when attached. Perhaps make the modules class Inert - like an asteroid block. It might not show up in the contact list.

icStation, I'll try it as an icInertSim.

I am glad docking works. I worried that if the null was over in one file, and the main station in another, the dockpoints would become unusable.

Yes, for some reason I expected iSim.IsDockedToStructure not to work as advertised, since they dropped the idea of true modular stations during development.

You could always just POG the modules out of sensor visibility very easily. By the way, you might actually want to keep some of them visible. The player might find it helpful to target some of the specific components individually.

I was hoping they'd be subtargettable like cargo pods but they appeared as seperate contacts. I suppose the sim's class determines how it's targettable after it docks or is childed.

originally posted by Mehrunes
I suppose the sim's class determines how it's targettable after it docks or is childed.

Prob'ly. I remember from scripting contact filter rules that stations are more or less impossible to keep off sensors at short range, even with iSim.SetStandardSensorVisibility(station, false). icStation sims also cause problems of a crashing the game nature if you try to meddle with their subsims. Inert and ship sims behave themselves better in response to pog. You can set (I think) any sim's mass to zero if you need to make it immobile -- might be useful here.