My first homemade addon and its problems

[Applesan]

Ive spent the past few days trying to make a ship for Orbiter but its been a bit bumpy to say the least. Ive been reading many helpful tutorials and api manuals that have got me to where I am but now Im stuck.

This spacecraft is used to find out how exactly to make my own spaceships. As you can see its missing texture, its not pointing towards the ISS, and tho the camera if focused on "cubeship", the vessel is several meters away from where the camera is looking at; and the exhaust is not on the engine.

Im using Vinkas spacecraft3 and have tried changing several "XYZ" coordinates in the ini files. Im not even sure I set up the cfg files properly. Any help is appreciated!

 

[liber]

Try this,I put anim8tor file into zip,so you could see ship size and orientation.
You cant add texture with ini file,thay had to be with mesh,writen in mesh file what texture thay would use.
Examine scenario files to see how cubeship need to be proper named with spacecraft.

 

[ar81]

When you add a ship to a scenario using Vinka's Spacecraft, syntax is a bit different.

If you want to check exhaust location, you may use [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2740"]Mesh Wizard 1.9d[/ame]
to preview your mesh.

 

[Applesan]

Ya, I was using a differect program to model other than anim8tor which probably messed up my texture and a few other things. I actually did use the mesh viewer program to find exhaust but because I used a different modeling program it resulted in weird coordinates. But how did you fix orientation. Does that depend on the orintation in the modeling program when it is saved? And Im guessing size is also dependent on the modeling step.

 

[Hielor]

Ya, I was using a differect program to model other than anim8tor which probably messed up my texture and a few other things. I actually did use the mesh viewer program to find exhaust but because I used a different modeling program it resulted in weird coordinates. But how did you fix orientation. Does that depend on the orintation in the modeling program when it is saved? And Im guessing size is also dependent on the modeling step.

What modelling program? All of those questions you asked depend on what program you used.

 

[Applesan]

I used MED by 3d gamestudio, its one of 3 programs that comes in a pack when you buy their programs and I already know how to use it, so I used it to model. I heard that Anim8tor isnt too hard to learn but it lacks some features, but Ill just learn it then.

 

[Hielor]

I used MED by 3d gamestudio, its one of 3 programs that comes in a pack when you buy their programs and I already know how to use it, so I used it to model. I heard that Anim8tor isnt too hard to learn but it lacks some features, but Ill just learn it then.

Possibly also try Wings3D. It's not as widely used as Anim8or in the Orbiter community, but imho it has a better feature set and is easier to learn and use. There's also a plugin available for Wings3D which allows you to export directly to Orbiter's .msh format.

 

[Applesan]

ok, Ill check that out. I hope it can hollow out objects.

 

[ar81]

Ya, I was using a differect program to model other than anim8tor which probably messed up my texture and a few other things. I actually did use the mesh viewer program to find exhaust but because I used a different modeling program it resulted in weird coordinates. But how did you fix orientation. Does that depend on the orintation in the modeling program when it is saved? And Im guessing size is also dependent on the modeling step.

Mesh Wizard has a rotation feature.
Vessel nose should point to the +Z axis.
Try loading a known mesh like Atlantis, so you know the proper orientation.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

I'll second the call to Wings3d. It has a superior texturing system IMO and it allows numerical entry of position and scaling commands and other stuff. I haven't been able to use for it a month or so, but when I was using I loved it much more than Anim8or!

 

[Hielor]

ok, Ill check that out. I hope it can hollow out objects.

In order to "hollow out" an object you need a second mesh inside which is facing inward (in the case of a closed object). Just duplicate the exterior mesh, scale it down by like 1-2%, and flip the normals.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Actually, depending on what you're hollowing out, the Intrude command works well. It works best on objects that aren't that complex yet, but I've discovered it can work with much more complex objects.