How to create front wheel steering for my car?

[Christian Bahr]

Hi!

I have switched from "rudder_key" to "rudder_percent_key". I mean the wheels now have a slightly larger steering angle. That is not bad.

When exporting with "rudder_key" came a warning message:

The warning tag is gone with the animation tag "rudder_percent_key"

 

[A306capt9]

There's nothing "wrong" with it per se, but it is overly complicated. This method I'm going to describe will take about 20 seconds once you've gotten the steps memorized!

I'll have to use the nose gear from an aircraft to illustrate the simplest method I know of, so bear with me. I don't have time for a full blown 'tutorial' but it's simple enough to not take too many words.

Here I'm looking at the nose gear from Top view, and the "steering node" is outlined in blue:

1. Make certain that "Assign Controller" is set to "Linear" for Position, Rotation and Scale (Note TCB and Euler are not good choices).
2. Set "View" to Local
3. Right click on the Angle Snap Toggle, and enter the max angle for steering, such as 48º as in this example, then close the dialog box.
4. Left click in the Angle Snap Toggle to active it.
5. Set the Time Slider to frame 50 (as shown above).
6. Click on "Auto Key"
7. Click on the "+ Key" button to set a key at frame 50
8. Move Time Slider to frame 0
9. Click on the Rotation icon on top row then grab the Yellow "circle" and rotate it to the left one turn (will be precisely 48º) and a key will be automatically set at frame 0
10. Move Time Slider to frame 100, and using the Yellow "circle" rotate it to the right one turn (again precisely 48º) and a key will be automatically set at frame 100.
11. DONE!

i tried that. it works, but the wheels are stuck in either the left or right position, as if i was steering. they do not appear straight in the model unless i move the stick to the right or left. how do i fix this?

 

[n4gix]

Did you place a key at frame 50?

 

[n4gix]

When exporting with "rudder_key" came a warning message:

The warning tag is gone with the animation tag "rudder_percent_key"

That warning is read from the modeldef.xml file:

  <PartInfo deprecated="true">
    <Name>rudder_key</Name>

They left the deprecated tag in the file for backwards compatibility for folks converting really OLD models to FSX/P3D format.

Since MCX parses the same modeldef.xml file as does GMax/Max, of course it will work...

 

[Christian Bahr]

They left the deprecated tag in the file for backwards compatibility for folks converting really OLD models to FSX/P3D format.

Since MCX parses the same modeldef.xml file as does GMax/Max, of course it will work...

Aha, now I realize that from the beginning I took the wrong animation tag. First it was "c-wheel" and then "rudder_key". But lately I'm using the right "rudder_percent_key"-tag.

 

[lionheart]

Tagging can be tricky. Sometimes you have to erase and reset it. And do not forget to add the keyframes. I have done that and couldnt figure out why it wasnt behaving right. Had to erase the tag, reset the key frames, and then redo the animation tag.