Tracking targets with the cannon tower

[Discipline]

Hello... I'm wanting to create a few turret models for an urban warfare themed map, but before I started on those I thought it'd be best to find out how the cannon tower in warcraft can aim in the direction of it's target with the cannon while the base of the tower remains stationary.

I'm using Gmax to model my meshes and unwrap the uv, and am planning to using milkshape 3d for animating (I learnt the hard way with gmax that dexport doesn't quite export the animations even close to properly)

thx for any help

 

[Bloody_Turds]

name the bone for the weapon, Bone_turret, and blizz will take care of the rest , or is it turret_bone?, blah check the tower with war3modeleditor from the tools section.. (im at school oO)

 

[BlinkBoy]

lol milkshape for animation? that must be a joke, xD. Gmax even has IK, but meh, the trick is on doing a correct skin and using the correct controllers.

 

[Discipline]

Thx bloody, I thought it was more involved then that. I'll check out the correct bone name later.

What's the problem with using milkshape for animations? I've known people to have success with it in the past.... and gmax doesn't work for animations... atleast with the export scripts that I have found for it. What do you recommend I use?

 

[BlinkBoy]

I suggest you to use NeoDex instead of old dexporter. Also READ the description in my post (the one in neodex thread), it should tell you a big common problem at exporting animations from gmax/3dsmax, like using TCB or Float rotation controllers. The current version only supports Linear Rotations. Oh, and sepparate the geometry by the parts you'll animate. Gmax's Skin modifier has the problem that requires envelopes.

 

[Discipline]

ah excellent, I wasn't aware there was an alternate export script that worked with GMAX... I'd much prefer to use it to animate. I'm aware of separating geosets to make using the animations easier, but I'll check up your notes on the rest. Thanks for your help, it'll surely make life easier