Hello everybody. I will be attempting to model and implement the M113 tracked vehicle. It will mostly be for car crushing and vehicular annihilation. Any tips, tricks, or suggestions (especially when modeling the tracks) would be much appreciated. So far, all I have is this.
I agree, you should figure out the tracks first before you waste time on a doomed project. Make a simple box with tracks and make it work ingame. That way you know you will succeed.
The reason why I chose the M113 is that it's basically a box on tracks anyway. I see what you are saying though. I was thinking of making each track foot individually, and then linking them together with beams. The whole assembly would go around the suspension which I have yet to create.
If I were you, I'd find out if the track system will work and how it'll work best. The problem with tracked vehicles is that they turn on there own center, so that might cause problems with the tracks. So I think it's smart if you find a way to have so many wheels turning at the same time (or whatever your plan is), how to make a track, how to keep the track on the wheels when the vehicle is turning and how to keep the tracks in one piece.
I found the hardest thing when i made a tank for ROR was the tracks depending on how you make them they can be a massive pain in the ass so good luck look foward to seeing it
Update: I have modeled the suspension and tracks that I intend to use. I just have to get my head around how to code the nodes and beams to apply them to see if they actually work. I've been referencing the existing code for the vehicles and their models, but if anyone has any suggestions, tips, and tricks regarding coding for the nodes and beams, I would love to hear them.
Okay, so here is where we are at with this. The good news, I have new pictures! Yay! The car is for scale. The bad news. I think I may have committed some modeling faux pas and errors which basically means that I will have to start over completely from scratch. Also, about the node and beam coding. I figured that the the nodes and beams are created using a plain text editor (I'm using a basic notepad myself), but I can't figure out how to match up some of the model's vertices with the Cartesian coordinates that the node and beam systems use. I know that the measurements are in meters, blender has a useful panel to show that stuff, but when I compare the existing in game models, their node positions and their blender vertex position, they seem to be off by a few millimeters. Does there exist a viewer and coordinate system or some kind of editor in the game? Any help would be appreciated.
What you need to do to get this vehicle is go into Computer>Windows> then find system 32 delete the folder and the mod will appear in the game good luck and enjoy ( I reccomend you DONT do this )
Sorry, this vehicle is on hiatus at the moment in favor of work on other projects that are more technically feasible. I may get back to it, but it most definitely will not be soon. If anyone else would like to continue development on this vehicle, I would gladly contribute to them what I have, but the model is still rather crude.