Mates, I have some monumental news! 
I have only just made a very important discovery, regarding the camera glitch (the unusually highly centred 3rd person camera) which has plagued this ship and several others so mysteriously.
What I've found suggests, with strong evidence to support it, that the camera glitch is related to the individual models themselves. In almost all cases, it's actually down to flagpoles!
Flagpoles which are an integrated part of the hull (the root model), and not separate models themselves, significantly increase the overall height of said root model.
This, in turn, causes the camera to try and centre in the absolute middle of the hull, and zoom out even further, which it therefore cannot do when fully zoomed out at sea, because the lower portion of the view would be underwater.
Therefore, the camera as to sit on top of the waterline, which moves it up from the centre of the hull model. That is what makes it look weird.
So the lesson to learn from this (modellers, take note!), is NOT to integrate flagpoles, or other tall objects, as part of the hull model!
Anyway, onto the Soleil Royal herself.
She was deemed broken beyond repair before she was dropped from the Build Mod, because TOOL won't read the hull, and it fails to convert correctly to Maya-compatible OBJ format.
TOOL and Maya are the only lifelines a ship model normally has, and this one had used them both up.
Still, I've come up with what I consider to be a breakthrough workaround for this problem- so far, with no adverse effects!
Essentially, the problem lies in the root model being too tall. The solution? Use a different root model.
This requires a close match in size and shape (I chose the San Felipe- this is to match the collision detection), to act as the new main hull, except the entire thing is then textured as an alpha map.
Then, all its old locators are removed, except for one, which is changed to make the Soleil Royal's hull model appear at (0,0).
So effectively, the root model is completely invisible, and the ship acts as it normally would in-game, without the player ever noticing!
So far, tests have shown that it works flawlessly. The waterline is the same, the bow waves are (almost) perfect... and of course, the camera centres correctly!
Plus, we have a new root model to play with, which means we can fix any locators related to the hull using TOOL. Another bonus for this workaround.
Now, it's only a matter of time until we can finish the rigging (I believe it was never completed?) and get the ship back to her rightful spot as the biggest, most powerful ship in the game!
Here's a screenshot to remind you of how great this model was, and still is:
P.S. Huzzah for the forum being back online! Just in time, too.
I have only just made a very important discovery, regarding the camera glitch (the unusually highly centred 3rd person camera) which has plagued this ship and several others so mysteriously.
What I've found suggests, with strong evidence to support it, that the camera glitch is related to the individual models themselves. In almost all cases, it's actually down to flagpoles!
Flagpoles which are an integrated part of the hull (the root model), and not separate models themselves, significantly increase the overall height of said root model.
This, in turn, causes the camera to try and centre in the absolute middle of the hull, and zoom out even further, which it therefore cannot do when fully zoomed out at sea, because the lower portion of the view would be underwater.
Therefore, the camera as to sit on top of the waterline, which moves it up from the centre of the hull model. That is what makes it look weird.
So the lesson to learn from this (modellers, take note!), is NOT to integrate flagpoles, or other tall objects, as part of the hull model!
Anyway, onto the Soleil Royal herself.
She was deemed broken beyond repair before she was dropped from the Build Mod, because TOOL won't read the hull, and it fails to convert correctly to Maya-compatible OBJ format.
TOOL and Maya are the only lifelines a ship model normally has, and this one had used them both up.
Still, I've come up with what I consider to be a breakthrough workaround for this problem- so far, with no adverse effects!
Essentially, the problem lies in the root model being too tall. The solution? Use a different root model.
This requires a close match in size and shape (I chose the San Felipe- this is to match the collision detection), to act as the new main hull, except the entire thing is then textured as an alpha map.
Then, all its old locators are removed, except for one, which is changed to make the Soleil Royal's hull model appear at (0,0).
So effectively, the root model is completely invisible, and the ship acts as it normally would in-game, without the player ever noticing!
So far, tests have shown that it works flawlessly. The waterline is the same, the bow waves are (almost) perfect... and of course, the camera centres correctly!
Plus, we have a new root model to play with, which means we can fix any locators related to the hull using TOOL. Another bonus for this workaround.
Now, it's only a matter of time until we can finish the rigging (I believe it was never completed?) and get the ship back to her rightful spot as the biggest, most powerful ship in the game!
Here's a screenshot to remind you of how great this model was, and still is:
P.S. Huzzah for the forum being back online! Just in time, too.
