Third Person View (new to coding)

[craze3]

Hey guys, im new to programming in C++. I have done scripting before with hl script, advanced PHP work, and mysql...so i know how to program.. except im not too familiar with C++ and other object oriented languages. I know the basics of C++ and I know how to edit c++ sources correctly... but that's about it. I just got Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 enterprise and I wanna get into modding HL2.

I wanna make a SP mod... but I want it to be different from the original half life 2. Since I can do basic modelling and advanced mapping, what I wanna work on the most is the coding. Its gonna be single player because I don't want to kill myself with coding as newb.

I've seen many tutorials around on third person view in a game. If I were to go into Garry's Mod, type in thirdperson in console, it will show my player model and the weapon he or she is holding. But usually in third person mode, the weapon is out of place. Sometimes the weapon my character is holding is on his head, and sometimes its on his knees. Do the tutorials online deal with this issue? I dont want my mod with messed up and out of place weapons.
Also, when i go into thirdperson in the game, the camera view is from the side, I think one of the tutorials was telling how u can rotate the camera around the player in third person, so it shows them from the back instead of from the side. Is that true? Can u fix that angle issue?
Maybe the tutorials I'm reading aren't good. Can anyone recommend some tutorials that show how to do the perfect third person view?

Thanks for your help everyone, and I hope to be seeing you all in the coding community.

 

[crackhead]

if you go to the offical half life 2 wiki which u can find through the source sdk menu it has a tutuorial on that which includes moving the camera round to the back.

 

[craze3]

The link your refering to:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Creating_a_Third_Person_Camera

thanks for the link, its exactly what im looking for...but..
there is no model for gordon in the game. So therefore that tutorial wouldnt show gordon right? I don't really think I can model and animate and skin a full thirdperson player.
Could I use combine soldier model that is already in the source engine? Seeing how your playing as a combine soldier in my mod, I think that would be a good idea lol. When I play gmod, you can play as a combine soldier, and when you go into thirdperson view, you can see the whole model + animations.
Anyone know how I can change the player model to the normal combine soldier so it fits with the tutorial above?

 

[crackhead]

yes you can do that. i suggest you get the third person camera code working first and then tackle that. i would expect you would have to edit the script for the blank gorden model and type in all the animations in the right places.

 

[craze3]

can anyone tell me how I could do that please?