i assume it is perfectly possible to animate HP's by movement? What i want to know is, in a visual HP, will the attached XSI follow the animation? will it clip? any ideas?
Considering that the ISDF Pilot rifle moves along with the arm...
YES!!! However the visual HP will remain static until animation is applied to it via the weapon odf itself. (Just like the Rifles)
Yes.
My gun towers animate and have weapon models.
However I would not recommend animating the hp_dock frame (visual hp) itself, animate one of its parent objects and it will move with it.
I can't see any good reason for animating a dock, unless you want to make a pilot look like he has dropped his gun...
exactly that, or putting weapons on his back...
The stock pilots do not have the HP_hand as a child of hp_dock, so the firing point would not move with the gun if you animated the dock.
I assume you mean to have 2 gun models/weapons on 2 docks that swap as the pilot switches modes, it could work, but the animations for the pilot could be very tricky to do.
Yes you can animate the docks, I did it by mistake.