Tank treads that contour

[legacy-|Mx1|SithLegend]

i am traing to make something like this


what i tried and hasnt work is, i build a tank with treads that have section one under each wheel
made the tank based on wheelcraft
each bone is skined to a section of the track

my idea was that when the bones that are stuts would move with the wheel
they would also contour the tank tracks

but this isint working on the game
here is how i set up on 3dsmax



any ideas or sugestions apreciated

[legacy-CMan]

Well, first off, you dont have to use bones in Max. Simple Linkage will work. Check the UDN for specifics.

The only things I can think of would be hack jobs to make it look real. Firstly I would try making each 'wheel' of the tank an actuall wheel, then for the Treads to conform, I would link the 'wheels' to the tread, so the tread acts like the suspension, (ie it moves up/down with the wheel). Then you will need a tex panner to get the treads to be animated.

Edit: To clarify the linkage:

You will need to have the treads broken into segments about the size of each wheel for the above to work. You link the tire and the strut to the vehicle (not to eachother).

Hmm, now as I think of this, yes you are correct in using bones, as to get the effect to look good you will need a Skin modifier on the treads so they still resemble a tread shape and not be broken when a wheel moves up/down.

[legacy-|Mx1|SithLegend]

been a month now, is it posible to do this ?