Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Guest fbnweoghnwd

Switches are picky about camera position

Recommended Posts

Guest fbnweoghnwd

I just added a few switch animations to a VC for an FSX project. The first is a switch cover animation that has worked fine on another project; the next one is the stock avionics master switch. When you're in the aircraft's default eyepoint view, the switches don't respond - no cursor change on mouseover, no animation - nothing. If you move the camera so that you're looking at the switches from a weird angle, they work fine. I checked to make sure that there are no objects between the camera and the switches.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's been my experience that sometimes adding an X-Form modifier to the stack for those "problem parts" and then applying Reset Scale to the X-Form's Gizmo will fix them so that they'll work properly.This seems to occur mostly with parts that have been scaled at one time or another during creation, especially if the scaling was NOT done at one of the mesh sub-levels (vertex, edges, faces, polygon, element).


Fr. Bill    

AOPA Member: 07141481 AARP Member: 3209010556


     Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest fbnweoghnwd

The switches have been scaled during creation, but resetting the xforms isn't fixing the problem. I'm going to mess with it some more tomorrow when I have the time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest fbnweoghnwd

I tried a few more things (yes, I know I said I was going to wait til tomorrow, but you know how that goes!). If I move the switches out in front of the windshield by, maybe, 5 feet - then delete the windsheild so there's nothing between them and the camera - they work fine. But move them back to their correct position on the overhead panel and they don't work.I thought maybe the xforms didn't get reset properly (I've heard programmers ranting about how Max doesn't properly reset transforms), so I tried creating a quick switch to replace one of the bad ones - same size and shape, but no scaling. Same result: It works only from certain camera views (all of which are wierd and serve no practical purpose!) So there's wacky stuff going on here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, for what it's worth, I've previously encountered the case where no matter what I've tried, I simply cannot get certain animations to work on their intended polygons.As a specific example, I've used the same XML code for years to "hide the pilot's yoke," and it's always worked as expected.I've got one model where even if the bloody air vent (where the "hide code" is Attached, and the yoke itself are the only parts in the VC, it still will not work...On the other hand, I can apply the same "hide code" to an entirely different part (such as the parking brake knob) and......the durn thing works perfectly!"Okay, I think, let's just clone the parking brake knob and move it where the air vent is located"Nope! As you've reported, there do appear to be "certain angles and/or positions" from which the Attachpoints simply do not work!!! :-bang


Fr. Bill    

AOPA Member: 07141481 AARP Member: 3209010556


     Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest fbnweoghnwd

I just kicked this bug's butt.Apparently, even if your switches haven't been scaled (or have been but have had their xforms reset), other objects in the scene can cause the problem. In my case it was the disc that has the blurred rotor texture. I reset its xforms (using the Reset Xform utility, not the Hierarchy panel). This made it rotate on the wrong axis, so I corrected the animation. And now the switches work fine.I'm not sure why it works, but it does. It may be that FS misinterprets the dimensions of these problem objects and considers that they have polygons that lie between the camera and the switch.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...