Dummies and Targets

Dummies and Targets

Dummies

A dummy is a named box — a mount point for a wheel or a weapon, a spawn marker, a script anchor. In Blender it is a cube empty with Frame Type: Dummy, and the box is stored explicitly, so resizing the empty changes what is written.

The add-on outlines the box in the viewport (blue, red once selected), with six handles to drag its faces, a dot at its middle, and — when the box does not sit on its empty — a dashed line joining the two.

The names the game looks for

Most of a vehicle is dummies with particular names, and the game looks each one up by name and frame type together. LS3D-4DS-Dummy-Names.html in the repository lists every one, the type it has to be, where it has to sit, and what happens when it is wrong.

Two are searched in one place only: BALLAST* beneath BODY, and WINDOW* beneath its own door.

Targets

A target is a plain-axes empty holding a list of links to other frames by name, including links to individual bones — the game uses them for aiming. A link whose destination is not being exported is dropped with a warning naming it, rather than silently writing a dangling reference.

Use armature:bone to link to a bone.