SDK Question How do I attach a vessel's shadow to itself?

[DonSimonVa]

Hello All,

I am attempting to make a companion vessel for Kev Shanow's USS Hornet (CVS 12) addon. It is a Gearing class destroyer in the FRAM I configuration and it is intended to represent USS New (DD 818), one of the recovery ships for Apollo 11. When I import the mesh into Orbiter, the ship's structure shows up Ok but its shadow is located up sun of it! In fact, it seems the shadow is not really attached at all to the ship creating it. In the attached picture, the shadow from the Hornet is correctly positioned, while the shadow from my destroyer is obviously incorrect (the sun is to starboard of both ships).


I built the ship model in Anim8or with the following characteristics:

The model's origin is centerline, amidships and at the design waterline.

The axes are as follows:
x Axis: Positive to Port (left)
y Axis: Positive Up
z Axis: Positive Forward

Units used are 1 unit = 1 foot.

After exporting in 3ds format, the model was converted to a mesh using 3ds2msh with the following entries:

3ds2msh i=Gearing_FRAM_I_3ds o=Gearing_FRAM_I s=0.3048 a=-xz-y f=v

Any ideas as to why the shadow is disconnected from the ship creating it?

Thanks,

Don Simon,
Troy, VA

 

[computerex]

Your ship seems to be underground...

 

[Izack]

Yes, your problem seems to be with where you set the waterline. Orbiter's solid oceans don't like that very much.

 

[tblaxland]

Expanding on what the others above have said...

The model's origin is centerline, amidships and at the design waterline.

...you want to make sure your vessel has its touchdown points set in the Y=0 plane.

 

[DonSimonVa]

Thanks Gents,

Using the ShipEdit's Translate function I am able to raise my ship to near correct position. It appears that one has to raise it approximately 1/2 of what the 3ds2msh converter thinks the height of the object is. The results from the 3ds2msh mention a <keep> parameter, which supposedly retains the 3ds origin, but there's no info as to how to use it. Has anyone used this parameter before?

Sincerely,

Don Simon
Troy, VA