Animating a Tank with both wheels & treads

Madin · Plasma Trooper **Joined**: 05 Apr 2009

So I have a tank were the wheels have been modelled and I'd like for them to rotate has well has having the animated tank treads.

Any idea how I'd go about doing this?
I checked out the 'TruckDraw' schema and it seems to suggest that 16 wheels are your limit ( and even then any wheels assigned has the front pair will automatically turn when the vehicle does.

Any help would be appreciated!

Golan · Flamethrower **Joined**: 21 Nov 2007

TruckDraw is the way to go. If it doesn't offer enough wheels, you might wish to use to move some of the wheels to a second model+draw and attach that to the main model (similar to how FX are handled on e.g. the Predator).

Note that you can limit the maximum angle the steering wheels turn in the Locomotor (WheelTurnAngle). Just set it to 0 if you don't want them to turn at all.

Note that if you wish for the wheels to adjust to the terrain and the treads to align smoothly, you will have to disable wheel rotation (TireRotationMultiplier="0") and divide the tread under every wheel and link that to the wheel. We've tried something similar in TSR on the MEMP, it makes the treads and wheels look more natural from afar, though up close it's clear the wheels don't rotate.

_________________
Off Duty.

Madin · Plasma Trooper **Joined**: 05 Apr 2009

Golan wrote:

TruckDraw is the way to go. If it doesn't offer enough wheels, you might wish to use to move some of the wheels to a second model+draw and attach that to the main model (similar to how FX are handled on e.g. the Predator).

Note that you can limit the maximum angle the steering wheels turn in the Locomotor (WheelTurnAngle). Just set it to 0 if you don't want them to turn at all.

Note that if you wish for the wheels to adjust to the terrain and the treads to align smoothly, you will have to disable wheel rotation (TireRotationMultiplier="0") and divide the tread under every wheel and link that to the wheel. We've tried something similar in TSR on the MEMP, it makes the treads and wheels look more natural from afar, though up close it's clear the wheels don't rotate.

So I can do animated treads on a 'TruckDraw' as well has turning wheels?
It's more versatile than I thought!

Golan · Flamethrower **Joined**: 21 Nov 2007

The animated threads is purely a shader thing (the TankDraw settings for moving treads don't work anymore), so you can use it with any kind of draw you like.

_________________
Off Duty.

DaFool · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Nov 2006

Could you have the texture for the wheels appear to be spinning?

_________________
Please, read the signature rules of the forum.

Golan · Flamethrower **Joined**: 21 Nov 2007

The best way of having the wheels turn is making an animation for them, as Sargeant Rho suggested. This would allow you to overcome the problem of requiring the wheel bones not to be rotated by the game.

_________________
Off Duty.