What Are Bounding Boxes and How Do I edit them?

[Atrocities]

I am in the process of setting up firing arcs for a new ship set and I have discovered that the shipset viewer has this options call Bounding Boxes.

I noticed that the ships I am working on have these boxes but they do not surround the ship like they do in other sets. The bounding boxes are oriented in a top down direct and not level with the ship. They share a common center point, but while the ships face say N and S, the bounding boxes face Up and Down. Very odd.

So does any one know anything about bounding boxes, what they are for, and how to adjust them?

[Randallw]

Up and down you say. Hmm, well if a ship flies into a planet it will move up, bound perhaps, and the same if it takes up the same space as another ship, except when ramming. I'd guess this bounding box is to tell it when to move up, or down, when it moves into another ship/planets bounding box area.

[Atrocities]

Aaron gave me some very helpful information. I would like to share it here with you all.

Bounding boxes are the boxes which surround a ship that detect collisions (as a second pass). They are invisible in the game, and are just mathematical constructs. When a projectile is heading towards a ship, first I check to see if the projectile is within the radius of the object. If it is, I check to see if the projectile is within the bounding box (seond pass). The bounding box is a bit more form fitting than a huge sphere. If its within the bounding box, I then check vertices to see if the projectile has hit one of the polygons of the model (this is time consuming and is only done if all previous tests say we had a hit). Bounding boxes are also used to make sure that when a weapon misses its target, it fires close but does not hit.

The bounding boxes are computed based on the models maximum extents in all 3 planes.

Ship Set Viewer - Controls
==================================================
I: Toggle command listing.
W: Toggle weapon firing point glow display.
L: Toggle weapon firing point line display.
S: Toggle object spin.
E: Toggle engine glow display.
R: Toggle engine center lines.
G: Toggle engine glow realistic and symbolic.
C: Toggle showing model center lines.
M: Toggle background grid map.
H: Toggle ground combat hexes and squares.
O: Toggle object radius.
B: Toggle bounding box.
~: Enter Cheat Code.
F1: Top Down View.
F2: Skewed View (the view will rotates level at the plane).
F3: Skewed Reversed View (the view will rotates level at the plane).
F4: Skewed View (no rotation at the plane).
Arrow Keys: Move viewpoint.
Add: Zoom In
Subtract: Zoom Out

Ship Set Viewer - Cheat Codes
==================================================

list [Model #]
Show a list of all of the firing and engine points for model [Model #].

endlist
Hide the firing and engine point list.

changefiring [Point Index] [Element Index] [New Value]
Change a firing point on the model. (Applies to the model selected with "list").
[Point Index] = The firing point index.
[Element Index] = 1, 2, 3 indicating the x, y, z coordinate.
[New Value] = The value of the element.

cf
Same as changefiring.

changeengine [Point Index] [Element Index] [New Value]
Change an engine point on the model. (Applies to the model selected with "list").
[Point Index] = The engine point index.
[Element Index] = 1, 2, 3 indicating the x, y, z coordinate.
[New Value] = The value of the element.

ce
Same as changeengine.

changeengineradius [Glow Size]
Change the glow radius of all of the engines. (Applies to the model selected with "list").
[Glow Size] = the new radius of the glow effect.

cer
Same as changeengineradius.

changepos [Element Index] [New Value]
Change the start offset position of a model. (Applies to the model selected with "list").
[Element Index] = 1, 2, 3 indicating the x, y, z coordinate.
[New Value] = The value of the element.

cp
Same as changepos.

changescale [New Scale Value]
Change the scale of the model in all planes (x, y, z). (Applies to the model selected with "list").
[New Scale Value] = The new scale factor.

cs
Same as changescale.

changeradius [New Radius Value]
Change the radius of a model. (Applies to the model selected with "list").
[New Radius Value] = The new radius of the model for the xfile class. This does not change the
actual radius of the model, just the value of the radius stored in the xfile
class. This value is used in the game to determine the size of the model for
placement in the combat grid (so we can place ships before we actually load
the model itself).
cr
Same as changeradius.

NOTE:
When the program is shutdown, all of the values for the current ship set will be saved in the file
ShipSizes.txt (including any changes you made in the program).

Side Note: Don't make changes in the data files directly. Make them in the program using the cheat codes, then shutdown the program. Load up the file ShipSizes.txt and copy all of the changes to your Ship Set Class File.

Hope this helps!

Aaron

[Captain Kwok]

Thanks for that info!

[Slick]

So it appears by reading this that smaller/sleeker models have an advantage.

[Captain Kwok]

Not anymore due to a fix in v1.24.

Whether a weapon will hit or not is decided before the animation is drawn. However there was a bug where a weapon fire that was suppose to miss would hits it target due to the target's movement and it would damage the ship - in that case your statement would be true. But now when that happens, it won't do any damage...

[Atrocities]

I just need to find out how to reposition them so they are surround the ships instead of facing up and down and only covering a portion of them.

[shinigami]

I think I've figured it out, AT. You've rotated your models in the XFileClasses but the box stays with the model's original orientation. It can be fixed, but you're not going to be happy. You would have to go back and rotate the models in the .x file. The downside is that doing this will screw up all your engine glows and firing points.

[Atrocities]

Thanks, I just won't worry about it then for the time being.

[Spoo]

I'm a little concerned that bounding boxes might be abusable by "cheat sets".

For example, if you put the bounding box outside of the ship, does that mean that all shots fired at that ship will miss?