dummy-model question

Ok, sorry for the stupid title, couldn't think of anything proper.

First I have to admit that I have absolutely no clue about modeling whatsoever. So if this seems obvious to you, plz don't throw stuff at me, fill me in. So here's my questions:

1.Would it be possible to create a dummy model that:

-has 360 attachment-points with 360 different angles (tiltes sideways) named "stand1-360"
-further has 360 animations showing the attachment points in 360 different angles rotating forewards

2.Would creating such a model be a pain in the ass?

3.Would a model like that take up a lot of space or cause problems of any other kind in warcraft?


I'd like to have a way to freely rotate certain objects ingame and thats the only possibility I could think of.


Thanks for reading.
-Patpup

Edit: horrible MSpaint-pic to illustrate my genius artistic talent:

why dont you attach something billboarded?

You can't create 360 attachment points, but you don't need to. However, you'd literally need 360^2 animations ordered properly, which is a lot. every 360 anims increases the pitch by 1 degree and does that for 360 degrees. That would technically make a dummy model that could instantly be set to face any angle in any direction, provided it was oriented in some initial facing position.

this might be a little better in some most instances because you can easily alter a missile facing with proper algorithms. unfortunately, i have no idea how much space a model like that would take up.

Since dummy.mdx is 33kb with 180 animations, a similar model with 360^2 animations would be 33 * 2 * 360 = 23760 kb... or more than 23 mb. Seriously, it's NOT going to happen.

You can do both Yaw and Pitch angles with SetUnitLookAt. If you need Roll, you need some animations, but I dont know how those behave with SetUnitLookAt.

I think Bob666 ( aka N.A.Z.G.U.L , or whoever that guy who made CombatZone is.. ) knows this stuff pretty well. He was making some flight simulator thingy in hive.

um.... the only problem with setunitlookat is that You can't dynamically change the facing on the fly, which means this is only good if you want to generate a missile that flies completely straight. However, trying to make a realistic missile or projectile, which follows a curved motion, will not work very smoothly with this method.

Yes, I know it flickers if you call it every .025 seconds, but thats not how you should do it anyways.

You can for example use 2 dummy units per projectile, and set that visible dummy unit to look at that invisible one. Then you can just fine modify visible dummys facing by moving that invisible dummy.

If you can't update the missile relatively fast (ie 0.05 seconds or faster) then it's going to be very choppy as an effect for a non-linear projectile, which I'm assuming, this dummy might be required to mimic. I've already tried what you're suggesting and it didn't work out that great for me. Perhaps you can make a testmap because my experience with this method made me believe it wasn't a good way for doing non-linear projectiles.