[Question] Rigging/Animation in PA?

Discussion in 'Mod Support' started by swizzlewizzle, June 7, 2014.

  1. swizzlewizzle

    swizzlewizzle Active Member

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    Hello everyone. I currently have a few models in max that I animate via the Skin property.. I believe it animates the model based on the distance between bones and their corresponding vertexes? I was wondering.. how can we bring animations (walk/run/etc..) into PA? Do we need to re-rig anything or can we just set weightings for the vertex distance skinning directly and "rig" the model in PA?

    Also... turrets that follow the target - is there any info out yet on how those are set up? I need to set one of my character's arms as a "turret" so that it tracks his targets. :)
  2. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    You would probably heavily copy what current units do. The difference is a fine line, where you will define the game to use your unit's skins, and where you will from there start to use turret animations that already are ingame (or make your own but both will work the same).

    The problem is, importing them to .papa I believe requires a strict porting from 3ds. The converter works .fbx to .papa and it is very picky because .fbx is a "magic box" format and is formatted many different ways while the converter can only convert a very strictly formatted version of it. I will make a post quoting something bgolus mentioned earlier.
  3. swizzlewizzle

    swizzlewizzle Active Member

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    What do current units do? When you talk about "Skins" you mean the vertex distance weighting and magnitudes correct? Also... for each unit I have multiple animations... how could I export them to PA while keeping individual names for each animation? I mean, for example, I have a run animation, an attack animation, a death animation, etc...

    Is it possible to bake multiple animations into a single FBX file somehow? I have been able to import the model's animations one by one into 3dsmax (they are originally from D3) but i'm not sure how to correctly bake multiple animations into the single model. D3 stores animations and models separately as .ANI files... wondering how PA does it...
  4. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    don't have the computer in front of me. I know different commanders use same one of 4 animations and that other models have been attached to that animation set and worked, ask @KNight.

    the jsons per unit that dictate a units health and weapons/tools and behavior, also dictate event animations. Different units get different ones, and the json usually lists a location of an animation set for an event or action.
  5. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    No don't ask me, I don't even use MAX! xD All I know is that based on a raw FBX I received from Uber for Testing purposes and opened in XSI is that they do use a basic Skeletal system(not with proper Bones thought, just Nulls) and weighting the points/vertexes. I haven't really had time to sit down and get to the point of trying to get a mesh into the game yet so I haven't been able to properly troubleshoot the process yet.

    Mike
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  6. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    that sounds righteous. I suggested the devs record a go at their process. If you did one it would be excellent too.
  7. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    Except that in my experience I'm the only person ever to use XSI so there wouldn't be anyone to profit from it..........assuming it even works, I have no idea yet.

    Mike
  8. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    If it reproduces results reliably, I think model makers would use whatever they had to. It would be unfortunate if they had to use 3ds max, but if it was demonstrated as reliable then a handful of people may resort to it.
  9. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    That's not the problem, any major piece of software is reliable at what it does, the catch here is that different 3D softwares do things slightly differently which makes things hard to pass files between them without either using a very basic format that might not have everything you need or special plug-in/converter and even those are far from perfect.

    Mike
  10. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    That is the problem. That is what makes doubts that blender can work, and that is what makes it important to know exactly what program or methodology does.

    Uber did explain, fbx SDK, 3ds max, and papatran with usual use cmds. I am just curious the exact details an orbital fabber or gil-e or commander model goes from shapes on a screen into the game.

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