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Any way to render parts immovable?

greycap.raf

greycap.raf

Charter Member
In short, is there any way to render moving m3d parts immovable? Hacking the m3d isn't out of question if someone knows what has to be done. Why I'm asking is because I'd really like to fly my Hurricanes and Gladiators - don't worry, personal use only - with the canopy open at times and as you know the door opens with the canopy. I believe I've seen a thread about this long time ago but can't remember what was the outcome. Any ideas are welcome.
 
It's quite a simple job to do. You just need a hex editor. Open the m3d and search for something called c_canopy or f_canopy or some other variations of the like and just rename it anyway you want, keeping the same number of characters.

Once you identify the part in question, remember to do the same for every LOD the animation is modeled into.
 
I think you'll have to edit the main model and the cockpit model. You may find with the Hurricane that the door and canopy have duplicate names so it won't work.

I'm doing this for the next BoB installment Spits & Hurris btw with the door being mapped to the open bomb bay command. Makes bailing out a bit more fraught!
 
Is there anywhere the structure of an M3D file gets explained?
What I'd like to do is make tail hooks work on Hellcat and Corsair for PTO like the SBD5 does. I can see it's mapped to Bomb Bay command, but exactly how isn't, of course, obvious.

I've tried, as many before me have I'm sure, to find out about M3D files, with not much success, so any pointers would really help.

I'm not interested in pawning off any mod I might make as my own Model; just want to grab the #3 wire ...

Thanks
 
Agreed with Rene - Hurricanes did NOT have doors. It's an emergency escape panel and it doesn't open and close. I said that when the MAW one was being trialled before release, and several times since, but it falls on deaf ears...
 
@Pat

It will work, after all, they're two different parts. They share the same animation but stand in different spots of the m3d file. It's just a matter of finding which is which.

@KellyB

Unfortunately, there's no way you could add an animation to a still part. You'd need the source file for that. The only thing you could do is giving them a different animation IF both animation tags share the same number of characters.
 
SixGhost said:
@Pat

It will work, after all, they're two different parts. They share the same animation but stand in different spots of the m3d file. It's just a matter of finding which is which.

@KellyB

Unfortunately, there's no way you could add an animation to a still part. You'd need the source file for that. The only thing you could do is giving them a different animation IF both animation tags share the same number of characters.
Click to expand...

No wonder my head hurts. I got all excited when I saw in the Aircraft config files for the two planes that the tail hook was defined, as it was in the .air file.

It was less trouble for me to get an ibm mainframe to script code to write out a PageMaker file to send to a typesetting device.

That being said, it's not as if I have successfully landed the SBD-5 on a carrier yet, so I still have much to do...

Appreciate the info, even though I don't like it
 
KellyB said:
Is there anywhere the structure of an M3D file gets explained? ...
Click to expand...

Nope. IIRC it was believed MS structured the .M3D file to avoid people ripping off others' work and it was never publicly documented. This also means we cannot correct or improve a model without the gmax source files.

The .MDL files used by other FS sims are better understood and tools to work with these have appeared - which has meant the occasional model rip-off - but no-one has so far taken apart and documented the CFS3 file format. There's no money in it any more, so I don't believe it ever will be done.
 
SixGhost said:
Open the m3d and search for something called c_canopy or f_canopy or some other variations of the like and just rename it anyway you want, keeping the same number of characters.
Click to expand...

I thought as much. But it doesn't work... the Hurricane m3d has five f_canopy entries and even with all of them renamed to f_xanopy the animation goes on like it always did. I then thought the secret may lie in the character lines next to the f_canopy parts but no joy there either. Somehow this feels a bit odd.

KellyB, also consider the fact that the tail hook may be the animation of the dive brakes.
 
...How about the AI He 126's silly rudder going up and down instead of back and forth...?
Is something like this hackable with a hex editor?:jump:
 
greycap.raf said:
the Hurricane m3d has five f_canopy entries and even with all of them renamed to f_xanopy the animation goes on like it always did. I then thought the secret may lie in the character lines next to the f_canopy parts but no joy there either. Somehow this feels a bit odd
Click to expand...

Yeah, kinda odd. Have you tried deleting the bdp file? That's the only thing I could think off. I remember doing something similar with the Sm.79 since the torpedo version didn't need a bomb bay animation and didn't want to recomplile a different model. I'm almost sure it worked back then.
 
When all else fails, read the SDK

greycap.raf said:
... the Hurricane m3d has five f_canopy entries ...
Click to expand...

Hold on, panic not. f_canopy is for the animated (sliding) canopy in the external model, say hurricane.m3d.

If you want the animated canopy in the VC, you're looking in the VC's .M3D which would be hurricane_Cockpit0.m3d and you're looking for vc_canopy, vc_canopy_0, vc_canopy_1 etc

Hope this helps!


@popsaka: don't think so..
 
hairyspin said:
Hold on, panic not. f_canopy is for the animated (sliding) canopy in the external model, say hurricane.m3d.
Click to expand...

Indeed it is. At this first stage I was trying to kill the entire external animation and then proceed from there but didn't succeed.

I also found "vitres_verriere_mobile" parts that sound promisingly like moving canopy parts but changing them provides similar results, in other words no results at all. Some serious hard coding if even changing the m3d doesn't get rid of the animations! Deleting the bdp makes zero difference, tried just to be sure.
 
Ah, thanks for the info Sixghost, you are right of course. :)

Greycap I've checked the sources - in the ETO and BoB Hurricane pits that I had a hand in the canopy is named vc_canopy (this is for the cockpit .m3d) There are 3 parts all named the same, the hood itself, escape panel and handle.

In the Patrick Didier external model the hood and door/panel are both named f_canopy.
 
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