Vertex animation.... any ideas (3dsMax)

[bigbadbogie]

so they do work - they just wont export

[OvermindDL1]

They need to be converted to translate functions first in other words.
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[Warfreak]

Its my topic, so ill bump it up .

Anyhow, to seriousness now: Linked Xform DOES NOT make it through teh exporter...... that and i cant find any other controller that allows parts of the mesh to be linked to other meshes... 

[Nielk1]

What happens when we just move the points around and key frame it, does it not key frame? (never tried)

[Warfreak]

It Doesnt register as animation, it registers as editing the mesh if oyu jsut move around the points..... THis is one of those times when Dx has to finally cough up what he knows....

[Warfreak]

0_o, i jsut realized something...... I forgot there was the Skin controller for 3DS Max... the ONLY problem with it is is that it is by far the most complex way of setting up vertexes for animation (i've only seen the Halo 1 models use it really, so i dont have much of an idea how it works).

[bigbadbogie]

all halflife 2 models use that - its damn tuf to do though

[Warfreak]

Im gonna test out if the Covenant Ghost exports with its "skin" later on today.... only problem being the pivots of the controllers are WAY too messed up for bz2.... im scared to even mess with them. 

[OvermindDL1]

I remember when vertex animations were faster then bone animations, now, because bone animations can be done on the video card itself, they are much faster.  Also vastly easier to program for, hence why everything, like HL2, uses bone animations near exclusively.

Kinda funny though, because the bones themselves are animate using vertex animation, just with only a dozen or so vertices instead of thousands, and the video card can link all the visible ones to the bones with various weights.
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[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Are there any settings that can be adjusted in max? In gsl the k f editor has like a dozen or so parameters that can be selected by right clicking the record button while in the scene editor, but i'm not sure such things work with max.

PS: Does hl2 use the mdl format?

[OvermindDL1]

HL2 supports the mdl format I think, but it prefers newer formats, don't really recall which, check in the official wiki?
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[Warfreak]

It DOES use mdl, but thats not all you need..... the main format it looks for to build all its models (yes, everything you put into the folowing format is converted into it own separate files) is .smd .   There is an exporter for 3DS Max, but im not sure if there is one for anything NOT Autodesk. 

[bigbadbogie]

yeh - i got that exporter to test it out - modding hl2 is near impossible to somebody who cant c++ code

even the modelling is extremely difficult

[Nielk1]

I was thinking we could get the entire BZ2 style of things (touch a unit to get in, pick up weapon crates, interface screen) into the source engine and even add unit collisions and some cool physics, but it would take a lot of time.

[bigbadbogie]

ive been looking up some source tutorials - god, it is probably easier to make a brand new game then to make a source mod!!