Custom Flap Animation

[Pilot]

Is there a way to make a custom flap animation for planes?

In case anyone is wondering what I need a custom flap animation for, I'm making a Boeing 757.  If you have seen a 757 wing (or any other commercial jet wing for that matter), you probably know what I'm talking about.  For those of you who aren't fanatical about planes like I am ;D:
The trailing edge of the 757 wing comes almost straight out fom the fuesalage.  About one third of the way down the wing, the trailing edge angles slightly back.  The problem is, the flaps take up about two thirds of the wing (these are really rough estimates).  The flaps follow the trailing edge of the wing, which means they also angle slightly back about one third of the way down the wing.  The memory LOD only allows two points per axis, which means the bend in the flaps will raise when the flaps are lowered (I hope this is clear, if not, check the picture.  However, I had to make the picture small to comply with the 50k limit, so it might not help much).
My solution:
Divide the flaps into two parts for each wing.  However, this would require, you guessed it, a custom flap animation!

Is this possible?

[Pilot]

Anyone have a suggestion?

[Unnamed]

Hi,

Yeah two points is not much help if I understand the problem correctly, most addon makers (when it applies) make do and hope nobody notices when the flaps appear to move through the wing.

There are two ways round it that I can think of:

The first, you attach cargo proxies to the wing and the flap section you use with the two valid axis points. Then using the init event in your config you create some game logics and move them into the two cargo proxies you added to the wing. Once there in place you can get their X,Y,Z position using the GetPos command. By subtracting the top Z position from the bottom Z position you can use that value in conjunction with an animation to control your custom flaps.

The other method is to try and identify when the aircraft slows down because the flaps are being used, and translate the magnitude of deceleration into an angle for your custom animations. With a bit of trial and error you might get some that looks similar, but the first method is the most accurate.

Either way, there is no easy solution and ATM I cant offer much help other that pointing you in the direction of a tutorial that might help you setup the game logics.

[Pilot]

I was hoping it would be easier than that!

I noticed in the eventhandlers section of the config, there are different eventhandlers, like init, fired, and gear (for custom gear animations).  I was hoping there would be something similar for flaps.

As I'm not very good at scripting or config editing, these two solutions are probably past my skill level.

Anyway, thanks for answering!  I'll keep looking into it.

[Unnamed]

Sorry I cant offer anymore help, I've a load of projects on the cards so not much chance in the forseable future.

I'll post the link to the tutorial I wrote for the MCar project, just in case someone here can help you out.

MCar Game Logics Tutorial

What you want to do is a bit easier than whats coverd in the tute, but it's has everything you need to know.

If not try posting the problem over at the offical forums http://www.flashpoint1985.com, I'm sure you can find someone there who can offer some real help.

[Pilot]

Ok, thanks!  I'll take a look after I download the tutorial.

One question on the Game Logics though:

If the player destroyes the plane, the gamelogics will also die, causing the player to aquire a negative rating.  (I know this after I destroyed the PT Boat addon a few times, and kept getting shot by my own guys) ;D

Is there something I can do, so the game logics don't affect the players rating?

[Unnamed]

If the player destroyes the plane, the gamelogics will also die, causing the player to aquire a negative rating.

Yeah it's covered in the tutorial, the PT boat used an older (pre MCar) version I had kicking about.

[Pilot]

Ok, thanks!  I'll look at the tutorial.