Demystifying mountobject()

#1 IIRC, the mount slots have to be named "mount0", "mount1", etc, and I believe there's a 32-slot limit, though I'm not sure.

I think the mounted object also needs a "mountpoint" node, though there may be some reasonable default behavior in its absense.

--Mark

#2 You are doing the right thing , but a health is a item and no object thats why its not working. You can do it reverse mount a object on a item.

#3 Thanks,

So a slot is basically created by creatin a model in e.g 3ds max, where I name it "mount0" etc?

And what is the definition of item and object; what is the difference between those entities?

Also wondering: where in the documentation can I read about details like this?

- I find the docs very shallow, so every time I need to learn something new I have to spend hours seeking in the forums, looking at some more or less good tutorials and eventually waste experienced users time with replying to these basic questions. I have both books by Finney but they are too hands-on, what I need is a good, detailed reference.

From what I've read on review sites of Torque, the docs are one of the bad sides with Torque and I have to agree.

Kind regards.
Thomas

#4 I really need an answer to this so if some GG personell can please reply asap,
Thanks
Thomas

#5 @Pin: Your questions have probably been asked and answered on the forums already. Check out the "search" link in the upper right corner of the web page. I just tried "mount" and "max" and got quite a few hits, several of which looked like they might address your problem.

One of the things it turned up is Chapter 8. Exporting Shapes from 3D Studio Max: Max2DTS. Have you read through the "Torque Engine Documentation" (which starts here)? Until you have, you're really in no position to comment on its quality (one way or the other).

Between those docs, and the "search" link, you can find the answers to the vast majority of the questions you'll have in your first several months as a torque user.

#6 I have no doubt these questions have been asked before....

@Mark Storer: - Sorry if my tone is sounding frustrated but that is how I feel. If it is that easy as you seem to think to find info about what I'm asking for, why are you referring to a search function? This is what I "find" when searching for mount object: http://search.garagegames.com/search?q=mount+object&restrict=&ie=&site=GarageGames&output=xml_no_dtd&client=GarageGames&lr=&proxystylesheet=GarageGames&oe=
Not very easy to find anything like what I'm looking for.

- Yes I have read and tried to find information in the "Torque Engine Documentation" but I can't find what I seek. Is it too much to ask for a well structured, in-depth documentation? It IS very shallow; compare with help files in Macromedia Flash and Director for instance

- Yes I have read the Max2DTS exporter but forgive me if I am blind but I can not find any information about my questions about slots, items and objects.

- Also, we're using Blender and you can't expect people to find general info such as those I asked for in specific modelling tool targeted docs....

-And this is just one of several questions which have been a pain to find out....

Regards,
Thomas

#7 @pin: okey doke. Lets see here.

As I understand it, there are two things that can be mounted. "Images" (which aren't very well named. They're light-weight objects. They don't have their own energy/health/position/etc. What they do have is a state machine for "empty", "firing", "reloading", "on", "off", whatever) and "Objects".

Objects are full-blown engine entities. They DO have position, health, energy, and so on. They transmit this data across the network, suck up more memory and so forth.

I don't believe "Item" is an engine-thing. You can mount objects and images. That's it.

Ah. Did some more poking around and found this little gem. It'll build a full character skeleton complete with all the nodes you need (and quite a few you don't for this purpose). You should be able to 'reverse engineer' how nodes are created from the skeleton it coughs out.

You could probably get much faster answers on the IRC channel. "irc://irc.maxgaming.net/garagegames", channel "#garagegames". Many People lurk there on a regular basis. Surely some of them will actually be familiar with 3DSMax as it relates to Torque.

#8 @Mark Storer,

Thanks Mark! Really appreciate your reply.

Just to make things clear: I do appreciate the helpful community, I just think that such details should be documented in a structured way so that you can tell me to RTFM, read page this and that :)

Yes I have used the IRC and yes it is good. I just hate to waste peoples important time, that's my point!

Also, an official detailed documentation can remove those ambiguities which often is the case when everyone has to do trial and error, ending up in that I think, or I assume this or that. No critique to you, the critique is towards GG!

Further: the GG opionion right now is this (just got the reply from GG):
"Many new schools have signed on in the past month and are also eagerly awaiting the release of TDN and dOxyogen. We can not, however release specific dates on their release, as most of our resources are focused on final crunch for new games (including an Xbox360 launch title). While the needs of educators and our development community are very important to us, maintaining our strength in our primary market (games), takes first priority. ( It doesn't matter how good or product is if we can't remain industry leaders.) All I can say is that TDN and dOxogen will be released soon and is and we are aware of its importance to our community."

My reply to this is that the internal game dev and the production tools must not compete with each other. If MS had replied developers using XNA / DirectX with saying that the MS Game Studio is our focus now; how many would have used DirectX today...

With this being an official opinion I would advice any educator from using Torque... no matter how helpful the community is

Again, thanks for your reply and your time reading my ramblings :) I'll give Torque one last chance now with your helpful advice above

Kind regards,
Thomas

#9 The "Official GG Opinion" from above is from an e-mail I sent to Thomas earlier this week. And since I am still the new guy here I don't entirely view myself as "The Official GG Opinion." Still, I have been here long enough to know the constant external pressure we receive for release dates of projects in development. Hee, hee = ).
I also have come to appreciate the creative techniques applied by some members to derive more information our intentional non-answers.

Trust us, as soon as there IS a fixed date for a release, we WILL announce the release date.

While we appreciate the opinion that "internal game dev and the production tools must not compete with each other." We don't see TDN as an area where there is said competition. We use the tools we sell and want to ensure the tools are quality before pushing them out the door.

I must express my reservation about being drawn further into this conversation. But I would like to say that the forums have stood up for years as the source for help and documentation. It may not be a perfect system but 56 released games to date have found the forums sufficient. TDN is the next evolution of support for our already exceptional engine, and our even more exceptional community. Through a history of community contribution Torque and GG have grown into not only into a powerful development platform, but also a fun place to build your dream game.