Mesh problems with new units

[tyran_nick]

Hi, I m an old TA fan and I recently found out about Spring. Great stuff! I decided to try my luck at creating a few new units. I ve managed to overcome most modelling/texturing/animation/scripting problems by reading older posts here, but I wasn't able to resolve an annoying issue with the building phase of the units. When I "order" a unit to a factory, it starts producing normally, but there is no unit mesh..! Once the units are constructed they function fine.

The following pics may help
The unit nearly finished with no mesh...


The finished units, with no apparent issues


Any suggestions?

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the units are in s3o!

[SanadaUjiosan]

You know I've actually encountered this same thing with my own units. I haven't pinpointed an exact fix, but I've found recalculating the vertex normals, 3DO style has fixed it. I'm not sure if it was something else that fixed it, but that's what I noticed.

I'm sure someone else could give you a good answer, but that's my suggestion.

[tyran_nick]

Just tried it, but there was no improvement. However I observed a few more "symptoms". Although the units do not appear, if I place my mouse over them the team color mesh outline appears as normal. However, the units are not rotating as they should. They also cast shadow during the building phase.

[Argh]

Set:

shownanoframe=1;

[tyran_nick]

That didn't do it either...
I have created before 3do units and everything worked fine, but maybe I m doing something wrong now. With the s3o units the only thing i did differently was to add to the objectname in the fbi the .s3o extension and include the textures in the unittextures folder of my mod. Is there something I have missed?

[Argh]

Did you set up the collision sphere / height in the Model tab?

[tyran_nick]

Yes, I used the automatic upspring estimation

edit: I just realised that the height was missing... No automaric estimation for that one. Once I added that, my problem was solved! Thanks a lot!

edit2: I realised that the units don't rotate when under construction. I can live with that, but I would be interested to find out why!

[bobthedinosaur]

interrogative: how did you get those nice engine exhaust sfx, is that lups?

[tyran_nick]

Yes, I used it following the implementation "examples" in BA.

[SanadaUjiosan]

edit2: I realised that the units don't rotate when under construction. I can live with that, but I would be interested to find out why!

This is purely speculation, as I haven't wanted my units being built to rotate, but isn't this achieved by putting a spin on the pad in the animation script?

[tyran_nick]

You mean in the factory's or the unit's script? The factory pad is rotating and any other units (not mine) rotate normally under construction.

[MidKnight]

Yes, I used it following the implementation "examples" in BA.

Just for reference, CA's LUPS is newer, and would be a better version to use if you're making content separate from BA.

Additionally, I maintain a semi-standalone LUPS package, if you want it, feel free to ask.

[tyran_nick]

Thanks for the heads-up. Although right now I m just making a few new units to play together with BA's (I got in the whole thing half a week ago) I would be interested to get my hands on more advanced/stand alone code. If you can send/upload your lups pack that would be excellent!

Btw, of course if anyone sees a unit or something that you d like to use, feel free to ask. I should say here that I m also new to Blender and my 3d models have a few very bad mistakes (I used to work on rhino many years ago, so I have to re-learn everything on Blender )