Turret on a fighter

[jmarso]

Okay, got this puppy barely past the beta stage- I guess I AM going to learn texturing after all- what a PITA!

Trying to get the turret working on this SA-43, and so far no luck. Here's a list of what I've done and not done:

What I did do:

1. Installed the ship in spot 29, usually the preybird fighter.
2. Set up the turret as its own mesh, and labeled it a rotary cannon in XWA OPT Editor
3. Put two hard points on the turret, with red turbolasers. Put a single gunner hardpoint nearby, although I have no clue about how this works.
4. Did not list the turret weapons on the weaponry tab of MXvTED, because no other turret equipped ships do.
5. Listed the craft as a shuttle, and 'playablegunner' in MXvTED.
6. Set up the nose cannon and torpedo launchers normally. (And they work normally in game- no issues)

7. Screamed "OOH-RAH! Get some, CHIGGY VON RICHTOFEN!" when I gunned my first bad guy in game.


What I did not do:

1. Install the ship in a slot already used by a turret equipped ship, like the Otana.
2. Build a cockpit OPT of any sort.
3. Figure out how to get the turret to rotate, if it's even supposed to be able to.

I don't know if either of the things I did not do make a difference. I can select the turret to defensive fire in game, but it doesn't shoot on its own. If I select it to forward, it does fire in concert with normal cannons. Hitting 'G' has no effect in terms of switching any sort of stations, but for this model I'm not really looking for that. I'd just like the cannon to cover my six in defensive mode if I select it. One thing I am also unclear on is whether anything special needs to be done with the turret mesh or the hardpoints need to be placed a certain way.

Again, sorry for being the noob parade on OPT creation. Anyone know what I'm leaving out / doing wrong here? Thanks.

[Driftwood]

You will need to set up the gun turret arcs for one thing, this is why the ship doesn't fire because it doesn't know where it can fire. I suggest looking at the turret arcs for the corellian transports in MXvTED. I suggest copying those arcs 1:1 for now assuming your turret is either directly ventral or dorsal.
If it's facing directly rearward I suggest looking at the lambda shuttle turret opt and MXvTED configurations. Hypothetically you can reverse those numbers to have it point directly forward too.
Your firing lanes are restrained by the turret arc coordinates and won't fire outside those parameters.
Also you need to create a <shipname>gunner.opt that coincides with your <shipname>.opt, I suggest to start copying the corellian transport gunner opts for the time being so you have something pre-configured to at least visualize things.
Additionally you need to set the gunner turret to ON in MXvTED.
Doing so you can base your gunner POV off of the corellian transport as well.

Jeremya also has expanded the turret configuration to include more than two turrets via the ship .ini file in the event you need more. You will need to look at the corresponding documentation. It works more or less the same, but you'll need to figure out your arcs in MXvTED and move the ones beyond the first two into the .ini file.

Obviously in the long run you'll want to custom make a cockpit interior, exterior, and custom gunner turret opts. But for now, just figure out the basics.

I have done extensive work with turrets once Darksaber worked me through the basics. I can write something up when I have time. But I'm still experiencing computer issues so I've not been able to do anything and probably won't be able to for a while.

For now, I would suggest copying the corellian transports 1:1 and start poking around. They'll at least get you started. One thing to do is open up the associated gunner.opt file in optech v2 and go into the mesh rotations tab and see how the rotation coordinates work, that way if/when you start creating your own model you can see how.

Sorry I can't be more help in more detail right now, but hopefully what little I've been able to provide here at least gets you going in the right direction.

Also, I can't say I'm familiar with that Halo fighter/bomber/gunship/whatever.

[jmarso]

The fighter is the SA-43 Hammerhead from Space, Above and Beyond, a one season-and-done Fox series from the early 90's that was absolutely awesome.

Thanks for all the pointers!

[jmarso]

Got it working! Domo arigato!

[SgtMac]

I loved Space Above and Beyond would you share the fighter? Using MXvTED As for getting turrets working try this, put it in a slot for one of these if you dont plan to use them. I got the turrets working on the Y-Wings, Skipray Blast Boat, A-Wing to make the RZ22, and the Assault Gunboat fairly easily. Im mostly computer illiterate, I figured this out just goofing off.
For the Y-wing and Y-Wing B, under Weaponry, add in Laser 3 slot Ion Cannon and all values are Zero. Go to Cockpit, Gunner 1- X-0, Y-250, Z-19. Then below that under turret one, make sure these numbers are there in this order top to bottom - 317, -16384, 16384, 12040, 17308. this turret mostly seems to work best in a fairly flat arc to teh front rear and sides. once i got it working I didnt mess with it again. with this you can set the turret to auto fire and still manually fire forward ion cannons.
For the Skipray blastboat, under Weaponry Laser 3 add another green laser with following values all zero. Go to Cockpit, Gunner 1- X-0, Y-250, Z-19. Then below that under turret one, make sure these numbers are there in this order top to bottom - 317, -16384, 16384, 12040, 17308. this turret mostly seems to work best in a fairly flat arc to the front rear and sides. once i got it working I didnt mess with it again. with this you can set the turret to auto fire and still manually fire forward laser cannons.
repeat the Skipray for the Assault gunboat, just decide if you want ions or green lasers. The Awing i think i just turned the turrets on in Cockpit. But it became a murder machine, full laser charge to engines, turrets never run dry. I saw where you got it working, did you do it this way or something else?

I just read that Driftwood basically tells you same thing.