Animations tool won't work for me!

[Bwian]

success...and now I know where I went worng, I will share this just in case anyone else gets tripped up the way I just did!!!!
OK...careful step by step breakdown on EXACTLY what I have done.

Step 1: Run 'unpack skeletons'

Step 2: Copy fs_dagger, and call it fs_roller

Step 3: Add fs_roller to the 'list' textfile

Step 4: Run 'repack skeletons'

Step 5: Modify Roman Peasant unit to use fs_roller and run the game. As an extra 'indocator' I changed the model to my robot model. so there was no doubt that the model in game was the one with the new skeleton.

All works fine so far.

Moving on....next step was to remove all the 'stuff' from the extract, just to keep things tidy. I know I don't need to..but it pays to be tidy when you are stumbling in the dark....

Now for animations. I have a new standing still animation, and a new walking animation. I want to replace, also, the 3 taunt anims in the fs_dagger set with a stand still. Same goes for the 9 standing 'incidental' animations. No reason why a droid would fidget.....

so...

step 1: Run extract animations, and create all those extra folders and animations. 913 in total.

Step 2: Under my new 'data/animations' folder, I create a new sub-folder called 'fs_roller'

Step 3: Into that folder I place my new animations.

Question... Do they have to have the same name as the file I am going to replace? If I replace 'LID_57_06 Taunt 1.cas' with a new animation...does it have to be named the same, or could I call it 'STAND.cas' ?

Anyway..I have taken the safe course, and named them exactly the same as teh original animation cas files. They are different...and in a new folder.

Step 4: Fire up xidx shell ( I am using v0.94 by the way )

Step 5: change the path of the animation to point at the new one.

chpath fs_roller "data/animations/LID_57_06 Taunt 1.cas" "data/animations/fs_roller/LID_57_06 Taunt 1.cas"

stp back...the thing fails. The skeleton file MUST BE UNPACKED for the animations to get updated....

Step 6: unpack the skeletons again, and re-type the chpth command.

Step 7: Add the revised animations to the anim list text file with the new path in the description

Step 8: Re-pack BOTH animations and skeletons. I noted that I had 913 animas before, and I have added 5 new. Run, march and 3 taunt. Now it has packed 918...so that is correct.

Step 9: Run them in game...and

It works. The wheels are rolling just as expected.

The problem, it seems, was all down to me trying to update a skeleton file, thinking that XIDX was updating it INSIDE the pak file, when it wasn't.

Next job will be to speed up the Run animation...it takes forever for them to get into battle...and also make some walk-run and run-walk etc . anims. The current animation is using the stock ones, and it looks wierd.