So, as I expected, I'm having trouble scaling my radiators during deployment. I can scale the dorsal radiator just fine, it simply grows in the +Y direction by a factor of 5.
But the starboard and port radiators are a different story. I know which direction I need them to grow, and I know the factor and the reference point, but I can't understand how to get them to scale in the right direction.
For instance, the starboard radiator has to scale by 5 in the direction (0.86303420590433 -0.505145483439259 0). So I need to figure out what goes into the .ini file's SCALE=(x,y,z) parameter. z will be 1, because I want it to stay the same length in the z direction, but I'm having trouble with the x and y parameters. I put in the direction values times 5 for starters, but the radiator seems to only want to scale in the plus x and plus y directions, which makes it look all wonky.
Anyone got any experience with this?
Also, it seems that when I packed them up in Mesh Wizard, I lost the textures on them, but that's another bridge to cross.
---------- Post added at 01:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 AM ----------
Nevermind, I figured it out! Once you have the reference point set, your scale factors need no minus signs. I had just lain down in bed to go to sleep and BING it popped into my head, so I hurried up and switched my laptop back on to do it before I forget. Success!
Now all I need to do is to figure out what to do with the radiator textures being missing. I suppose I can just color the material by editing the .msh file, and forget about texturing, since retexturing in Anim8or means renumbering all the groups which means pulling my hair out. Besides the radiator textures are ugly anyway. Have to sleep on this. I'm so close to finishing this I'm starting to get "Upload Fever" and I need to keep it under control.
---------- Post added 01-29-10 at 12:26 AM ---------- Previous post was 01-28-10 at 01:16 AM ----------
Good news and bad news. First the good: I pulled the mesh back into Anim8or via MeshWizard, and reapplied the textures to the radiator. So now it looks good again. Here's a cross-eyed 3D pic of it:
Using Urwumpe's plug-in, I rebuilt the mesh and then I used Mesh Wizard to re-locate the center of the coordinates so the thruster plumes still line up. It also means I don't have to re-learn the anchor points for the animations and docking ports.
The bad news? Rebuilding the mesh in Anim8or changed all the mesh group numbers, so I have to use Mesh Debug again to identify all the parts before the animations will work. That will be about 2 hours of tedium, maybe this weekend, but it's not difficult. The light is visible at the end of the tunnel.