Vehicle Wheel Animation

[FOO FIGHTER]

This is the stock a_firetruck being converted into a drivable vehicle. The wheels will not turn (as they do in the stock ai vehicle) despite my attempts to fix them. I seem to remember once upon a time that this was doable but I can't find the info for it. Any help with this would be much appreciated.

[rdaniell]

I've sent you a p.m. I sure could use both the red and OD versions of that fire truck as static objects in a retro airbase scenery that I'm doing for FSX.

RD

[Frosty]

This is the stock a_firetruck being converted into a drivable vehicle. The wheels will not turn (as they do in the stock ai vehicle) despite my attempts to fix them. I seem to remember once upon a time that this was doable but I can't find the info for it. Any help with this would be much appreciated.

You also repainted it, didn't you? With a good coat of paint even this stock vehicle suddenly becomes palatable! Nice job!!

The naming conventions can be found in the Aircraft Modelling SDK. I did a few vehicles for Airfighter55 but I am not sure if the vehicle part naming applies to a driveable vehicle. But if you have no success with that, try the part naming for aircraft. After all, a driveable vehicle in CFS3 is an 'aircraft in disguise'... In both cases you need a 'still' and 'blurred' wheel model, so it's easy to switch between the two conventions by renaming the parts involved.
Now I am struggling with making the front wheels of my driveable vehicle steerable... So far no joy, so let me now if/when you get there ;-)

[FOO FIGHTER]

@ rdaniell - I just sent you a PM.

@ Frosty - I've already consulted the Oracle (the SDK). It was a little confusing trying to determine exactly what to rename if any. You mentioned 'still' and 'blurred' and that made me think about props. I'll have another go at it with the prop renaming. Thanks.

[Daiwilletti]

@ rdaniell - I just sent you a PM.

@ Frosty - I've already consulted the Oracle (the SDK). It was a little confusing trying to determine exactly what to rename if any. You mentioned 'still' and 'blurred' and that made me think about props. I'll have another go at it with the prop renaming. Thanks.

Take a look at the text file found at this link. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum....php?catid=159

It contains a bit more information about setting up animations but I don't know if its for Aircraft or vehicles. Probably vehicles but it may halp. The mission and facility editor was from the KTCS site originally. I provided it to Hobbit to upload.

[FOO FIGHTER]

Thanks D, I'll have a look.

Been doing alot of comparisons between Bill Emslie's vehicles and the fire truck in a hex editor. Nothing is jumping out that would be a definite trigger.

Whatever I rename causes the model to disappear in sim. Still tweaking.

[Frosty]

...Whatever I rename causes the model to disappear in sim. Still tweaking.

Maybe that's the problem - like doing a standalone of a skin. IIRC the number of characters were supposed to be the same when hexediting the .dds entry in the .m3d. Unless you use a hexeditor that can remove empty spaces or add characters and CFS3 is okay with that.

For AI vehicles the naming convention is this:

F_wheel_still_# [front wheel model part. Should steer according to SDK but I have never seen this]
F_wheel_blurred_# [front wheel part, rotating]

R_wheel_still_# [rear wheel model part. Non-steering]
R_wheel_blurred_# [rear wheel part, rotating]

For aircraft it is this:

l_tire_still_# [left wheel model part]
l_tire_blurred_# [left wheel model part, rotating]

r_tire_still_# [right wheel model part]
r_tire_blurred_# [right wheel model part, rotating]

c_tire_still_# [center wheel model part. Should be used for tail wheels or nose wheels]
c_tire_blurred_# [center wheel model part, rotating]
c_wheel [should allow for steerable tail or nose wheels - the part that I have to investigate]

'tire' is 4 characters, 'wheel' is 5... But you could try going from eg. 'f_wheel_blurred_04' to 'l_tire_blurred_004' and see if that does the trick.

BTW, I wonder if the number '_#' really matters: I have found references in the .m3d to '_11', '_20' etc, while the vehicle only has 4 wheels...

[FOO FIGHTER]

Yes sir, tried that too along with a few other combinations but no dice. Been trying to reverse engineer other's work but nothing is jumping out. I'm beginning to wonder if something 'built in' is preventing this from happening in the stock AI vehicles?

[remcoc]

I admire your attention for detail and your determination to detail. And to be honest: when I pass an airfield at 150 feet ad 200 m/h I don't have time to see if the wheels are turning

[Frosty]

I tried shortening the reference by one character (f_wheel_blurred_04' to 'l_tire_blurred_04') and that made the model disappear (although CFS3 didn't crash. The model just was invisible in the UI). After that I tried keeping the number of characters the same (f_wheel_blurred_04' to 'l_tire_blurred_004') and this made the model visible again. Unfortunately the wheels didn't rotate when driving the thing. Can't really explain it either. I looked at my own vehicle and don't see the difference... Could it be something higher up in the hierarchy?

BTW, I got my front wheels steering by placing dummies named 'c_wheel_1' and 'c_wheel_2' at the pivot point of each wheel and linking the wheels to them.

[FOO FIGHTER]

@ Remcoc - I agree! This is trying to make one of those ground vehicles into a drivable/pilotable 'aircraft' so one can drive it around an airfield.

@ Frosty - I think c_wheel is the key. The vehicles that have wheels spin and steer (like Phillip M's 40mm Bofors Truck) also have a c_wheel component within the model. The fire truck does not. That is odd too, as the AI fire truck has spinning wheels.

[hairyspin]

...BTW, I got my front wheels steering by placing dummies named 'c_wheel_1' and 'c_wheel_2' at the pivot point of each wheel and linking the wheels to them.

That's usual in CFS3. A game-animated object like a wheel will rotate on one axis only, so to pivot as well as rotate needs two objects linked together like that. Castoring tailwheels in aircraft work the same way.

[Frosty]

...
@ Frosty - I think c_wheel is the key. The vehicles that have wheels spin and steer (like Phillip M's 40mm Bofors Truck) also have a c_wheel component within the model. The fire truck does not. That is odd too, as the AI fire truck has spinning wheels.

Hmm, I don't think so. My wheels were rotating fine without the 'c_wheel steering' bit added. And that bit is needed only for aircraft. The AI vehicles are much simpler, animation-wise; they don't have suspension or steerable wheels (even though the SDK advertises this, I have never noticed it), just still and rotating wheels.

From the cab you can't see the wheels rotating or steering anyway so for me it was just an exercise to see if I could get it to work. Although I do think it's nice if the external model shows what you are doing inside . Still, I am puzzled why your vehicle's wheels won't spin. Maybe I will try the renaming thing with the AI version of my vehicle and see if that disappears too... I 'll let you know!

@Hairy - I 've never built an aircaft before so for me it's trying to see how far I can get with the aid of the SDK and the info that I have gathered from the web. Am I correct in assuming that the pivot range of the steerable wheel is tied to the deflection of the rudder?

[FOO FIGHTER]

Hmm, I don't think so. My wheels were rotating fine without the 'c_wheel steering' bit added. And that bit is needed only for player aircraft. The AI vehicles are much simpler, animation-wise; they don't have suspension or steerable wheels (even though the SDK advertises this, I have never noticed it), just still and rotating wheels.

Exactly! The one I'm working on is the stock AI fire truck that spawns in convoys or airfields, I just made it drivable. As an AI vehicle the tires/wheels spin but as an aircraft they do not. And out of the five stock AI vehicles that I have converted to aircraft, none have a c_wheel component and non have spinning tires. The 3rd party vehicles that have spinning tires have a c_wheel component.

I'm beginning to think that the lack of a c_wheel component is a deal breaker for the stock AI vehicles. Unless there is a way to edit a c_wheel component into their models.

[Frosty]

Actually I mean quite to opposite : I started out with an AI vehicle that I did in gmax. I then got the idea to turn it into a driveable vehicle as a break from the old driveable jeep. I just renamed the wheel bits according to the SDK (and copied parts to create a rudimentary cockpit). This got them rotating ingame. Only after that, I wanted to make them steerable and added the c_wheel part. So it should be quite possible to see rotating wheels on a driveable vehicle without a c_wheel part. Your problem is puzzling and intriguing at the same time!

But as I now have my gmax source file, the AI .m3d export and the playable .m3d export, I can experiment some more. I 'll hexedit the AI .m3d sometime this weekend and see if I get the same results as earlier in this thread.

[hairyspin]

Frosty: the tailwheel can be tied to the rudder if you like, but it's better to let CFS3 handle it. The castoring angles are defined in aircraft.cfg as is the tailwheel lock. Gives a better result, imo.

[NachtPiloten]

Don't want to state the obvious but have you looked at the vehicles in the gamepack?