Chariot Development

[Bwian]

Right...this is interesting...and frustrating in equal measures!

Test 1 - Stock horse with an extra bone.

This worked absolutely fine. The bone was added to the end of the tail, and named bone_tail3. The bone order was left with Tail1 as 1, but tail 2 was changed form 14 to 2, and Tail3 was made 3. The thing was created fone, and worked perfectly in game. Good

Test 2 -Took the output form test 1, and moved the tail bones radically into the positions I would need a bone to be in relative to the horse. This also worked fine. Also good.

Test 3 - Took the radically moved skeleton I had tested as above, and added the extra bone to the tail as in test 1. This ALSO worked fine. This was good, since it meant that the skeleton I had moved about had worked OK, and now the addition of 1 extra bone had not broken it.

Test 4 - Flushed with the success of test 3, I figured I would try something else here. I took the 3 tail bones I had, and moved them into EXACTLY the position I wanted for my chariot parts. Tail1 became the pole...Tail2 the platform, and my new Tail 3 as a central axle. This also appears to be working OK. I have a chariot skeleton that WORKED.

Now...I thought to myself...with all this working, WHY did my other one fail? I wondered if the bones were wrongly named, or if there was something in the steps I had missed. But no. Perhaps I added too many bones. Is there a bone limit? For a horse PLUS pole, platform and 2 bones for wheels... have I overdone it? TRied removing a bone or 2... but couldn't see a difference.

Hmm... I got something that works, but I don;t know what the difference is between what worked and what failed!! AArrgh. A disaster in terms of a diagnostic test.

edit... just tried to re-do the 'working' test..and it is broken. I do not seem to be able to duplicate it with ANY reliability...