Firepower, bullets question.

[pomidorov333]

Hi,
I have read this thread about the bullets final position staying parented to the gun and therefore rotating around the scene as the gun rotates > http://forum.craftanimations.com/viewto ... tion#p1176

1)Is there a workaround for that issue? I have been rigging a 'minigun' on a turret attached to 4WheelerExt rig and the problem is still there. The bullets start to rotate as i rotate my turret. My link tree is as follows:
4WheelerExt>1DRotator(horizontal)>1DRotator(vertical)>Firepower(bullet gravity linked to ground plane same as 4WheelerExt gravity).
2)Is there a way to expose your input controllers to link Pflow values to? My idea is to use the firepower/fire input to shoot out particles from the minigun or create a particle and link to the bullet object in real-time in-case there is no solution for the bullets staying parented issue, since i know that the particles can be passed to another event upon colliding with the floor.
3)Finally , I'm trying to link up the rotation of the minigun barrels to the Firepower Accessory Tool. Currently a hidden barrel is attached to firepower so that the bullets appear to always fly out from the top most barrel, and the barrels are linked to a 1DRotator to spin those barrels. I configured my controller to fire and spin the barrels at the same time but they are not in sync since the 1DRotator needs to first speed up to spin at a constant rate while the bullets start flying out immediately. I tried using delay but I can't seem to get perfect spin fire ratio going, especially when ging from full auto firing to single shots since the barrels spin starts to offset. Is there a better solution for rigging that up? a scripted controller or a better accessory tool then 1DRotator?

Sorry for the long list of questions, Thanks in advance,
Ivan

[Patrik Martin]

1)Is there a workaround for that issue? I have been rigging a 'minigun' on a turret attached to 4WheelerExt rig and the problem is still there. The bullets start to rotate as i rotate my turret. My link tree is as follows: 4WheelerExt>1DRotator(horizontal)>1DRotator(vertical)>Firepower(bullet gravity linked to ground plane same as 4WheelerExt gravity).

The order that is important is the one in the Craft Director Studio main window. Make the order in the same way as you made it in the scene (4WheelerExt>1DRotator(horizontal)>1DRotator(vertical)>Firepower). Just drag and drop the tools in the Tool Tree List of the main window of CDS.

2)Is there a way to expose your input controllers to link Pflow values to? My idea is to use the firepower/fire input to shoot out particles from the minigun or create a particle and link to the bullet object in real-time in-case there is no solution for the bullets staying parented issue, since i know that the particles can be passed to another event upon colliding with the floor.

At the moment it is unfortunately not possible to get out the input information from CDS and be able to connect this information to something else. We can of course if you need this offer to develop this. Please contact Sales for more information.

3)Finally , I'm trying to link up the rotation of the minigun barrels to the Firepower Accessory Tool. Currently a hidden barrel is attached to firepower so that the bullets appear to always fly out from the top most barrel, and the barrels are linked to a 1DRotator to spin those barrels. I configured my controller to fire and spin the barrels at the same time but they are not in sync since the 1DRotator needs to first speed up to spin at a constant rate while the bullets start flying out immediately. I tried using delay but I can't seem to get perfect spin fire ratio going, especially when ging from full auto firing to single shots since the barrels spin starts to offset. Is there a better solution for rigging that up? a scripted controller or a better accessory tool then 1DRotator?

Change the response factor to 1 to get instant speed right away. Other solotion would be to create a firepower for each barrel and let them rotate togheter. Make a delay for each firepower for example if you have 4 firepowers you can set the rotation to be 4 times/second, discharge to 4 times/second for each firepower and have a delay for the firepowers as follows from 1-4; 0.0000, 0.0625, 0.1250 and 0.1875.

[pomidorov333]

Hello Patrick,
Thanks for the quick response. I tried to recreate the scene by following your instructions, but the problem with the bullets staying linked to the gun after landing still stands. I made sure the order of the connections in the 'craft studio window' is correct, I attached the video below to illustrate my point. The controllers are linked through regular max linking i.e. firepower01 > rotator02 > rotator01 > wheelerext01. I tried resimulating the scene after the first keyframe but the problem is still there, when I enable trajectories on the bullet objects it's very apparent that the bullets travel correctly when fired > bounce for a bit and then start rotating with the gun.

<object%20id="scPlayer"%20%20width="1430"%20height="867"%20type="application/x-shockwave-flash"%20data="http://content.screencast.com/users/ill ... 20</object>

incase the video does not work you can find it here:
http://www.screencast.com/t/BoU3EXlRdfE

here is the scene file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/449492700/c ... blem01.max

thanks again.