Bell 209 wrote:Just pretend I know nothing about custom animations and explain again?
I tried Tick 18, too but didn't do the custom xml thing. Someone will need to walk me through that...
Probably the easiest way to approach it is to get the little props spinning like you want. Now that I think about it, AI models do not use "prop_slow". It's either full on or off using "prop_still" or "prop_blurred". If the engine is on, then the AI will use "prop_blurred".
So that being the case, if you use the normal prop names, you may not be able to control the parts even with XML codings as it may interfere with the default part names that FS uses. So you may have to make the parts and use unique names for both of them.
What I would do is to model the non moving prop part and just make up a name for it that you will remember. The nice thing is that you will be able to simply make the other pod's little prop parts, children parts of the main ones that you are making, so you should only have to write the XML code for one prop and then the others will follow suit as they will be child parts of the main ones.
Find that xml text file I mentioned, it should be in the main MakeMdl SDK folder that you have to install in order to make use of the MakeMdl compiler. Name is MakeMDL.parts.xml
That file comes by default as a read only file that can't be modified. You have to double check its properties and make sure that the read only attribute in not enabled. This will prevent you from modifying it if it is. No one bothered to share that tidbit with me and I spent an entire day pulling my hair out trying to figure out why I couldn't modify that file. Once you have made sure that it is no longer a read only file, you should be able to right click on it and choose "edit". This should open up in a text editor like Notepad.
If you can do that, you're in good shape. This is what the top portion will look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
Notes on certain tags:
SIM: Converts simvar to keyframes: simvar * scale + bias = keyframes
CALLBACK_JUMP_DRAGGING: Units are in pixels.
CALLBACK_DRAGGING: Converts simvar units to event units, which are the units of the internal variable.
scale: Scales from simvar units to event units
yscale: Scales movement delta in pixels to event units
minvalue: min event value in event units
maxvalue: max event value in event units
CODE: Written in postfix stack-based language.
TOOLTIP_TEXT: Convert code to text using %(code) construct. Use %!d! construct to printf.
G:Variables: Global to file. Not shared by 2d and VC.
L:Variables: Global and shared by both 2d and VC. Use these instead of G:Variables.
Part names: Must NOT have trailing "_#". This will be stripped off by makemdl.
Some units:
percent: 0 - 100
part: 0 - 1
position: 0 - 1
-->
<part_dictionary>