Tagging the Body on the Track

The majority of the Helper points (aside from passengers) are placed in the Body Group. I am going to need the following for this thing to work: Four body anchors and four track anchors. This is the suspension of the vehicle. It does matter which ones are which and where they are placed. Left Front = 0, Left Back = 1, Right Front = 2, & Right Back = 3. In layman's terms these are actually the shock absorbers. The track anchor is the bottom and the body anchor is the top of the shock absorber. In addition, I am going to place damage animation in the body of this vehicle to allow a little smoke and flame for special effects when the vehicle is destroyed. Damage Helpers are named as follows: ^[d0]effect type. Refer to the Level Builder's guide to aid you in deciding which effects to use. I am going to hide my passenger tags to clear up the scene a little and start on the left side suspension:

Here is where I am placing the Left Side Front Track Anchor:

I am going to move to the Back Viewport to aid in vertical positioning:

I had zoomed in for exact positioning and then entered values into the Move Transform Type in dialog box in the Absolute world. I am also making a side note of these values to aid in positioning of the next Helper Points. Now I am going to place the Body anchor. I will enter the x and y values that I made note of from above.

Here is what it should look like:

Now I will move to the Back Viewport for final positioning:

I will make note of the z value for future body anchor point reference.

Next step is to add the Left Side Back Track anchor:

Back Viewport View:

Next step is to place the Left Side Back Body Anchor:

Double check your positioning in the Back Viewport and then repeat these steps for the right side of the vehicle. Start with the Right Front and remember to start the numbering of the names at the number 2. [^trackanchor2 (right front), ^bodyanchor2 (right front), ^trackanchor3 (right back), & ^bodyanchor3 (right back)]. After you are done with that we are ready to move to the damage tagging steps.

Refer to pp 33-35 of the Level building pdf found on the Island Thunder CD in the extras folder for special effects tags. I am going to add an explosion cloud and some smoke coming out of the engine compartment.

Here is the tag for the explosion cloud in the Top Viewport:

Move to the Front or Back Viewport to get the final position:

Continue to place all of the effects that you want spawned upon the death of this vehicle. I am going to add one more tag (^[d0]smoke_medium_type1) to this vehicle. The next step after placing your final tags is to place a capital "O" tag for the body. I place mine in the center of the vehicle.

Here is what it should look like:

Then open the Map Editor on the Utility tab and tag the surface properties. Now unhide everything in the scene. Select your two track groups and hide those. Then select all of the remaining mesh and Helper Points. Go to the Group menu and select group. Name your group <n><body>vehiclename. If you have included damage animation you must include <ian> after the body name like this: <n><body><ian>vehiclename.

Refer to the picture below:

Unhide the tracks. One more tag and group and we are ready to export. Next add one more capital "O" tag at the zero axis in the absolute world for x, y, & z. Name this group <n>vehiclename or <n><ian>vehiclename depending on whether or not you have damage animation tagged.

Here is how it should look:

Here is a look at the Hierarchy in Track View:

When you are finished, click the Export button to continue.


Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is a trademark of Rubicon, Inc. under license to Ubi Soft Entertainment.

Ghost Recon is a trademark of Ubi Soft Entertainment.