How are attached objects handled again?

#1 The engine currently supports "attaching" shapes to hard points on sim objects. The helmet would be a separate shape and the player object would have to have a hard point defined on his head. Attaching shapes to sim objects is controlled through the scripting language.

#2 Where are these hard points defined? In 3DSMAX? Or is there a character editor that ships with the engine?

#3 Currently 3DMax. It is generaly the artists who are putting these objects together and making sure they fit and look correct, not programmers and scripters.

#4 Sweet :)

#5 BUT you can use the scripts to offset from the hardpoint to the scripter/programmers can "tweak" the locations

basically you can use a script to move the object along the axes in a positive or negative direction

i'm not sure but i think the missile launcher is offset from its original posistion, either that or it has its own unique hardpoint.

#6 Im not sure about V12, but its similar to a test method we have been using. the artist creates the bone setup for the character in 3dmax or whatever your program. you add 'dummy' nodes to the bones everwhere you need an object attached. the nodes have to be linked to the closest bone to follow rotation and position.
you create the armor/helmet/objects you want to attach (in scale to the humanoid or target model) and reposition thier axis to centre and reposition the model to 0,0,0 in world.

the programmer can call objects to be attached to the nodes. This gives us a very cool uniform system.
you may have to tweak the positions of the models to fit the nodes properly.

#7 On the subject of MAX....

I just got my new computer...
AMD Athlon 1GHZ, GeForce2 MX 32 mb system... Had to turn off AGP 4X mode because it froze up often... Especially in MAX. Anyone else had this problem or have any info on it?

#8 Well, AGP4x isn't the most stable in many scenarios, especially when you combine it with AMD stability-impaired hardware.

I have a P3-933 running on ASUS mainboard using AGP4x, and I've never had problems.

#9 You probably just need the lates VIA drivers.

Check www.via.com.tw (official) or viahardware.com (fansite) for the latest 4-in-1 set.

Also you would best be served using nvidia reference drivers with the card. There's a site that compares & contrasts the various point releases of the drivers, but I don't have URL handy. The 7.58 work flawlessly for me (for everything including Tribes2 in W2K) but your mileage may vary to overuse a saying.

#10 The "AMD+VIA+Nvidia-GF with 4x AGP" problem is very common one. I have an AMD Tbird 700 with Asus V7100 GeForce2MX , and I had the exact same problem.
If you are running "Windows 2000", the cause of the problem is that the AGP data is corrupted in some cases.
There is a fix for this at AMD's website: http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/athlon-duron/amd_win2k_patch.html
It fixed my problems , and I'm now able to run at AGP 4x
without the terminal lockups. Hope it helps you. :)

-Shigawire
Primary 3D modeler at VaeVictisGames

#11 I get those lockups, but run under Windows 98.
So, should I still update my AMD or VIA drivers? (I'm trying to remember what VIA is and where I have seen it before) Or reinstall the old GeForce drivers?(didn't help with or cause freezing)
P.S.
What is AGP 4x good for?

I wish I had another system with Windows NT, it would have less problems with resources(right?), and MAX is very resource sensitive. Even this system I have has resource problems (with MAX).

#12 I believe that the latest VIA drivers include the AGP patch but I'm not sure. Apply both and see if it helps.

VIA is a motherboard chipset manufacturer.

#13 Yeah, I found that out... I have VIA audio as well.... Can't get my audio hardware acceleration to work(I don't think), but it still sounds good with a 1 GHZ processor...

#14 3dS Max is optimized for PENTIUM systems.
I have an AMD too but I am going to invest my duckets into a Pentium system for my next computer upgarade.
I have talked to discreet people and they are pushing the Itanium for good functionality. From time to time I get max to crash which isn't hard but on a system with 768mb of ram.. Well I just need to get my self a new computer that matches what the software that was intended for. :)

Stephen Cook
AKA Hivoltage

#15 I'd like to know what they are running on an Itanium. Last I heard Linux was about the only thing that would run on one.

#16 I believe Windows XP will have an Itanium addition.

#17 I now have a pentium 4 2.2gig.
I havn't had a 3dsmax crash in a while. :)
So far I rather like the pentium line of cpu's.

I also heard that the Itanium cpu's have some issues and that Intel is working on them.