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View Full Version : My ship keeps coming apart

SovereignKnight
12-30-2004, 02:30 AM
As much as I hate to sound like an ignoramous, or a complete newb, I have as issue that seems to have defeated me. I was wondering if there's something I'm overlooking.

I have a model of a ship I imported from a .3ds file. Looks great, renders fine, all that. What I'm trying to do is instance it onto particles so I can animate a whole fleet of ships swarming. Simple enough. Now, the model is in about fifty-thousand different parts, so when I instance it, each particle is one of the various parts of the ship. It looks like my ship has exploded.

I need the whole ship to instance together. There has to be a simple way of doing this, but aparently I'm retarded. Grouping, constraining... none of these things keeps my ship together. I'm sure this is something simple. Anyone help?
young_927
12-30-2004, 02:38 AM
maybe putting them on a model node?
or did you try freezing all your transforms ?
dmonk
12-30-2004, 11:43 AM
maybe putting them on a model node?
or did you try freezing all your transforms ?
Do this . When I first started using instance with models with a lot different parts if if the all had their own ceters pointing in every direction the modl would go haywire. Tell us how it works out.
wurp
12-30-2004, 02:14 PM
Parent all the parts under a null and stick that null in a group, and instance the group from the particles PPG. That should work.
SovereignKnight
12-30-2004, 04:47 PM
Parent all the parts under a null and stick that null in a group, and instance the group from the particles PPG. That should work.
It won't let me do that. Or rather, I'm not sure how. I thought I knew, but what I tried didn't work.

I don't know what a model node is, or how to put my model on it. The Worthless Help File did nothing for me, and what benefit would freezing the transforms have?

Thanks for the suggestions, but so far no luck.

:(
Hazmat
12-30-2004, 05:10 PM
I don't have XSI on this computer, but I think that all you need to do is:

1. >get>primitive>null. (make sure that you have nulls visible in your viewport (the little eye at the top of the viewport)),

2. Set the null next to (or in) your model,

3. Go to XSI explorer (view set to scene), select all of the objects that you want to group together and drag them over the null (in the explorer) and drop them.

4. Middle mouse click the null. (This is a branch select)

5. >create>model A dialogue should show up that allows you to name it.

Now you should be able to instance the model without it flying apart.

This think that this is roughly what needs to happen, but as a disclaimer, I'm pretty new with XSI, I don't have it in front of me, and someone might have a faster/easier way to do it. :shrug:

Good luck!
SovereignKnight
12-30-2004, 05:24 PM
Thank you Hazmat! That worked beautifully!

Now if I could just figure out how to rotate the particles...

:)
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