Fully Functional, Customizable Zoids

[VR_Dev]

The four posts below this one each have their own Zoid. Instead of having four separate threads, I will keep those posts updated.

Imagine fully customizable zoids. Zoid mechs you could build to match the original, or make your own by combining different head's, body's, leg sections, feet, ect.

Or Imagine zoids like the liger zero here, one mech, four different armors. Imagine you could take each individual damage resistant armor off and swap it out to build one of the other ligers. Or mix and match armor pieces to make your own. The skillful weapons mod has damage resistant armor that these could be modeled after.

That's what I want to accomplish. Fully functional, walking, running, flying, fighting zoids. Powered by sirkuts Infernal Robotics plugin. Each joint having the same properties as one of the IR parts.

I've been working for a while on the t-rex, the Berserk fury, and I'm pretty proud of it. At the beginning of this endeavor I had no idea how to use Blender or Unity or anything, but now I can crank out one of these models in a couple hours. Which is awesome, because I have 8 of them. For now I'm only going to focus on a couple, each has it's own post underneath this one. All development will go in this thread and I will update the Zoid posts as each one progresses.

I would love some help, from anybody. I don't have much free time so having someone to help with some of the busy work would be awesome. I don't care if you have never used blender or unity before. If you've been thinking about learning to use them I'd be more than happy to teach you. I could give you like 10 step instructions on how to get a model into the game.

If you are interested in the steps I took to get these models in the game, it's all within my original thread.

Things I could really use some help on:

The Infernal Robotics:

As you can see here, I had all the IR parts working perfectly, but after the second .14 and .15 updates they no longer work correctly. My unity layout, .cfg and what the part looks like now can be found on this thread page.

This is by far the most important thing I have to overcome. I've spent several hours looking into this problem and I have no idea what the problem is. I'm working on my new models now hoping the solution comes to me in a dream or something soon.

Particle emitter:

This thing baffles me. I can get it to shoot little balls and what not, but I have no idea how to make it look good. I can just use in game engine effects for all the engines but I do need some custom ones to hopefully make the Fury look like this when it's shooting it's particle cannon.

What I'm working on now:

Getting my new models into the game.

The four posts below this one are dedicated to their own Zoid

Edited May 22, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

Berserk Fury Progress:

Built by DGMM

Original Thread

My macbook slows way down when recording, I've also removed probably half of the polygons since I recorded this. In this gif my animations open the mouth, tail, scythe claws, and lower the foot stabilizers. Sirkut's IR plugin moves the arms out.

Almost done. Gotta take some more polygons out then it will be set to go

Edited May 24, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

Liger Zero Progress:

Build by thecoins

Nodes need to be tweaked, legs broken into segments. .cfgs written

Album

Edited May 22, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

Raynos progress:

Created by 3d Raptor

I still don't know how it's going to take off. Either have the bottom engine rotate down for VTOl or make the feet act as wheels. I'm happy to save it runs really really smooth. It only flies a short distance before nosediving into the ground. I have to tweak the lift.

I hope you dig it, I do.

The flaps on the wings work now too. They seem to be inverted however. It's fixable

Edited May 26, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

ShadowFox Progress:

Made by 3d Raptor

Pretty much everything needs to be done, this guy is last

Edited May 22, 2014 by clown_baby

[m1sz]

awesome work man, as always..., we need to figure out how to work with the same KSP copy!, the one on the dropbox fails to open

[Azimech]

Ah, the lovely eighties design. No round shapes except the wheels.

[VR_Dev]

awesome work man, as always..., we need to figure out how to work with the same KSP copy!, the one on the dropbox fails to open

Yeah I haven't tried it lately. You wont be able to make it walk til I get the robotics working, so there's that

Ah, the lovely eighties design. No round shapes except the wheels.

And yeah. There are some zoids which don't look the greatest. I think all these look awesome though

[NoMrBond]

I can see the IR parts inside the assembled models, maybe talk to Sirkut and/or ZodiusInfuser about making the parts themselves IR parts so that they rotate/bend/plex/push etc by themselves

You'd need to have IR installed for the plugin so they function, but the models wouldn't be dependant on the IR parts, maybe you could even include the plugin, but not the parts if you can get permission or the mods licence allows it?

[VR_Dev]

You'd need to have IR installed for the plugin so they function, but the models wouldn't be dependant on the IR parts, maybe you could even include the plugin, but not the parts if you can get permission or the mods licence allows it?

I've made the IR plugin run the parts before. But the update has changed something. I've talked to sirkut. He told me how the IR .cfgs had to be changed. I recoded them exactly like he said but the parts act like this now.

That gif above has the exact same code as a tall hinge .cfg, minus the name. It should rotate on the game objects center(the cylinder), working exactly the same as the hinge, but it looks like a piston.

This gif below has the knee, hip, and foot joints running on the IR plugin.

Something changed with the meshes in the update

Edited May 23, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

Here is the unity layout and the .cfg for that "middle leg" part. Like I said, it should rotate around the x axis of the cylinder, like it used to, but now it operates like the gif two up. The model has not changed since it worked last

How it loads into the game, looking exactly like the hinge above it that shares a .cfg with.

.cfg

PART
{
// --- general parameters ---
name = LMiddleLEg
module = Part
author = Sirkut & Devo

// --- asset parameters ---
mesh = model.mu
scale = 1.8
rescaleFactor = 1.8
specPower = 0.1
rimFalloff = 3
alphaCutoff = 0

node_stack_top = 0.0, .5, -.15 , 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3
node_stack_bottom = 0.0, 0, 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0, 3

// --- editor parameters ---
TechRequired = advConstruction
entryCost = 0
cost = 50
category = Utility
subcategory = 0
title = Powered Hinge
manufacturer = Magic Smoke Industries
description = Taller motorized hinge.

// attachment rules: stack, srfAttach, allowStack, allowSrfAttach, allowCollision
attachRules = 1,0,1,1,1

// --- standard part parameters ---
mass = 0.1
dragModelType = default
maximum_drag = 0.2
minimum_drag = 0.2
angularDrag = 2
crashTolerance = 15
maxTemp = 3000
breakingForce = 999
breakingTorque = 999

// toggle parameters
MODULE
{
name = MuMechToggle
rotateJoint = True
rotateAxis = 1, 0, 0
keyRotateSpeed = 20.0
rotateLimits = True
rotateMin = -90.0
rotateMax = 90.0
rotateLimitsRevertKey = False
jointSpring = 0
jointDamping = 0
onActivate = False
rotateKey = 
revRotateKey = 
fixedMesh = Base
servoName = New Hinge
invertSymmetry = False
motorSndPath = MagicSmokeIndustries/Sounds/infernalRoboticMotor		// Motor loop sound path
}
}

.cgs notes

It worked just fine with fixedMesh = base before, but not this time. I've also tried leaving it blank, // it, and using meshes from my model(Cylinder) to no avail.

Also I have tried 1 & -1 for each axis with no luck.

[VR_Dev]

I swear to god man, there is zero rhyme or reason to the attachment direction part of the node_stack code. I could have built 50 models by now if they made even the slightest amount of sense.

These parts should attach on the y axis, just like the first tail section attaches to the body, but no, it won't even snap to it. I've built two of these things based on my understanding on the attachment direction, but what works on one part doesn't other others. It's beyond frustrating.

It's the y axis because everything in the SPH is rotated down 90 degrees, so pointing out the door is really the y axis. Imagine how fun that is trying to get the nodes where I want them

Edited May 24, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

So using the multipoint connector as a guide to finally get things to attach in every which direction. There's still a lot to do, and the legs wont move until the robotics work. Eventually the wings will be able to fold up as well.

I still don't know how it's going to take off. Either have the bottom engine rotate down for VTOl or make the feet act as wheels. I'm happy to save it runs really really smooth. It only flies a short distance before nosediving into the ground. I have to tweak the lift.

I hope you dig it, I do.

The flaps on the wings work now too. They seem to be inverted however. It's fixable

Edited May 26, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

reeemoved...........

Edited December 23, 2014 by clown_baby

[mjy]

was lookingfor legs like that to make robot stuff, bahamut had a crab that has legs, he added invisible wheels to it, works great, that might be a way to get those legs going

the other stuff looks really good

[VR_Dev]

was lookingfor legs like that to make robot stuff, bahamut had a crab that has legs, he added invisible wheels to it, works great, that might be a way to get those legs going

the other stuff looks really good

I've actually had that exact same thought. I would need his help though. Or someone who knows code. His animations speed up according to the velocity of the craft. And even though it would be much more impressive to make it walk they way I'm trying now, this could definitely be a back up plan.

Some other thoughts I've had on this project recently

-Sirkut has a new tutorial on his thread about making parts. I haven't looked at it yet but it might be just what I need to figure out my problem. However, I've also thought about just including, with sirkut's permission, the last IR plugin that worked in my mod. That way I wouldn't have to fix my parts every time he upgrades.

-High poly count. With ksp .24 dropping any day it has been confirmed that, at least on windows, the game will run 64 bit. I'm hoping this helps the fps issue with some of the bigger crafts.

-Cockpits. I'm gonna release all the cockpits soon. I feel bad having all these cool models I haven't shared yet. So I'm gonna release a mod with just the animated cockpits that could be added to personal creations. Like so,

download thread

People don't seem super interested in full custom models. But the ability to incorporate custom pieces into ksp designs might be more popular.

And as always, any help would be super appreciated. This is just super time consuming, so any help at all in blender or unity would be much appreciated. I'm gonna finish my new gundam then it's back to this.

cb

Edited July 15, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

Well this project is back on amigos. I don't know what happened, but the parts work just fine on the .16 IR plugin

[radmp41]

Yes! Very glad you can get back to this!

[VR_Dev]

Yes! Very glad you can get back to this!

Yeah I couldn't believe the parts moved again. I'm out of town but once I get home ill jam out the t-Rex and upload it. I really wanna now how fps is on 64 windows.

I'm on a Mac as you know

[radmp41]

Okay!, PS: Mine is Windows 7 Home Premium to be exact.

Edited July 21, 2014 by radmp41

[VR_Dev]

The nodes are giving me trouble as always. I figured out how to make a beam cannon though. Also add two animations to one part.

[radmp41]

RA-A-A-D! Can't wait to see what else you add to it!

[VR_Dev]

I think I'm gonna build an in game berserk first. Just like the raynos, custom cockpit with all in game parts. I'll still release the full models, I just wanna build them all from game parts first

[radmp41]

Smart idea,

Will you use the kerb paint on this version?

[Bacon_commando]

Does this work in 0.25?