Animations .... what can we do with them?

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi Bwian

I've managed to get something working now .... but I haven't got the feet on the ground! I scaled up to 1.2, and the feet are buried. I think when I scaled up the mesh I have scaled it from the wrong point. More experimentation needed!

Are you doing the steps I outlined in https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...&postcount=102 . You have to make changes to the mesh, the modeldb file and the descr_skeleton file. If you're doing your mesh scaling in Milkshape, make sure to set the scale point as 'origin'.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[Bwian]

Yes ..GOM, that is the way I did it. I checked first to make sure that the dat and idx files were being rebuilt. I was using a mod folder and shortcut...and it built the files in the mod folder, not hte main one. Which was fine...it looked for the anims there too.

The centre function was used with origin... I guessed that was most likely.

The thing was not correctly aligned with the ground though. The feet were underground....which indicated to me that the vertical position of hte root bone had not shifted as it should.

Bizarre ..really...and obviousely not correct. If your hobbit archers had the same issue, they would have been floating! I need to verify that I have swapped all the correct animations. I used the fs_fast_mace skeleton for the Chaos Warriors, and I am wondering if there are some of the 'fast' anims that I have not picked out correctly. I will try and follow the hobbit steps EXACTLY and verify that I get that to work, then go back and troubleshoot the Chaos Warriors to see what steps I could have messed up.

[Bwian]

Additional:

I have double checked the mesh for the scaled up unit, and the origin is DEFINITELY still positioned exactly over the root bone, and is identical in position to the unscaled unit. The mesh has been scaled up in MS3D, and is no longer in line with the skeleton ... which I have not moved or changed.

The animation is MS2_fast_knifeman .... and I have copied both the parent animation set.... now MS2_knifeman ... with a scale of 1.2, and the extra run anim and basepose anim for fast_knifeman...which I have also given a 1.2 scale instruction after 'type'.

Modeldb also has a '1.2 4' line after the name and before the mesh definitions. This should have given me a scale of 1.2.

All works fine...the animation seems correct ( no obvious distortion or bones popping around ) and all is perfect except for the fact that the model is sitting with it's feet at the original foot level. The thing has scaled from the origin...but the origin should have moved up in proportion to the scale factor.... which it hasn't.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi Bwian

Additional:

I have double checked the mesh for the scaled up unit, and the origin is DEFINITELY still positioned exactly over the root bone, and is identical in position to the unscaled unit. The mesh has been scaled up in MS3D, and is no longer in line with the skeleton ... which I have not moved or changed.

The animation is MS2_fast_knifeman .... and I have copied both the parent animation set.... now MS2_knifeman ... with a scale of 1.2, and the extra run anim and basepose anim for fast_knifeman...which I have also given a 1.2 scale instruction after 'type'.

Modeldb also has a '1.2 4' line after the name and before the mesh definitions. This should have given me a scale of 1.2.

All works fine...the animation seems correct ( no obvious distortion or bones popping around ) and all is perfect except for the fact that the model is sitting with it's feet at the original foot level. The thing has scaled from the origin...but the origin should have moved up in proportion to the scale factor.... which it hasn't.

I just tried it and it worked for me:-







Did you give them a new weapon scaled up as well?

Edit, in the descr_skeleton.txt file I mean.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[Bwian]

no

I noriced there is a base-pose animation included in the weapon, and I giuess this is what is messing me up. I will try it again with the weapon bit changed as well. Got distracted by some stiuff KE sent over and a bundle of Dwarves ... but I will add this to my list oif things to play about with when I get home tonight!

[Bwian]

Tried it again, and made sure I had the weapon in as well, with a scale of 1.2. The model has scaled perfectly, and the animation shows the skeleton has scaled too. Lovely

Now....I have managed to duplicate the error..and it was rather odd. I ran the game having forgotten to amend the skeletons used. I had switched from knfeman to a more appropriate Mace set, and inadvertantly forgot to update it to Macex ( my scaled one ). The model ran fine, but the feet were underground. I must have messed up the skeleton def somehow, and wasn't getting the correct version. I'm amazed it actually ran at all!

But this is great all round! Coupled with the tools KE sent me today to make abstract skeletons, I am now one happy bunny! I can scale, I can tweak, and I can do things I never could with RTW .... and I think it's absolutely fantastic!

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi Bwian

Tried it again, and made sure I had the weapon in as well, with a scale of 1.2. The model has scaled perfectly, and the animation shows the skeleton has scaled too. Lovely

Now....I have managed to duplicate the error..and it was rather odd. I ran the game having forgotten to amend the skeletons used. I had switched from knfeman to a more appropriate Mace set, and inadvertantly forgot to update it to Macex ( my scaled one ). The model ran fine, but the feet were underground. I must have messed up the skeleton def somehow, and wasn't getting the correct version. I'm amazed it actually ran at all!

Because the models are fairly close in size the difference between normal anims and scaled anims isn't too obvious only the feet sinking into the ground is a dead giveaway. Figures will run happily with mismatched anims, just as long as they have a full set and matched up against their bone structure in their mesh.

But this is great all round! Coupled with the tools KE sent me today to make abstract skeletons, I am now one happy bunny! I can scale, I can tweak, and I can do things I never could with RTW .... and I think it's absolutely fantastic!

Here's a sample of what I'm working on as a test project, to see if we can get new mounts and skeletons with additional bones into the game:-



People may not want to use it but at least it's fun for now . After I finish there should be a new dragon/raptor skeleton and anims available for people to use.

@@@@@KE - I've had a further message from Mete on Time and Timing, seems he answered my question in haste and now wishes to add further information. It seems that the time is indeed timing, but he answered on the basis of a 1 fps model where the timing would be 1 per frame. The FPS value for the ms3d model/anim should be 20.0 (I'm amending my converter to fix this - I had 10.0 in this slot) and the frames should increase by 0.05 per frame, starting at 0.05 for the first frame. This shows the anim in real time.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan