Hoverclass with animation

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

My model is based off the FE Cerberi Talon. I believe the class supports 3 animations forword, backword and strafe as well as nuetral right? My model has an engine pod assembly (single object 2 actual pods) each has a flame_ __h and hp_trail_. I want the pods to point down in nuetral, forword going straight, and backword flying in reverse. Would I need to move the assembly axis to the center of it to pivot correctly?

As a reference like the jump jets the Brits and Marines use. I believe that I only need to use rotional based keyframes to pull it off right?

[General BlackDragon]

Hovertank Animation for Dummies, take number 5?:

So, a hovercraft has this:

animCount = 3 //(or 7 for morphtanks)
animName1 = "forward"
animFile1 = "BLABLABLA_SF.xsi"
animName2 = "neutral"
animFile2 = "BLABLABLA_SN.xsi"
animName3 = "reverse"
animFile3 = "BLABLABLA_SR.xsi"

//For morphtanks only. Technically you can name an animation file jimmyjoebob.xsi, as long as it doesn't conflict with another animation file name.
animName4 = "deploy"
animFile4 = "BLABLABLA_MORPH.xsi"
animName5 = "forward2"
animFile5 = "BLABLABLA_MF.xsi"
animName6 = "neutral2"
animFile6 = "BLABLABLA_MN.xsi"
animName7 = "reverse2"
animFile7 = "BLABLABLA_MR.xsi"

Each of the _sf, _sn, _sr XSI files has lines like these for each piece that movees:

AnimationSet {
   Animation anim-FRAMENAME {
      {frm-FRAMENAME}
      SI_AnimationKey {
         0;
         3;
         10; 4; 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, -0.120000;;,
         10; 4; 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000;;,
         10; 4; 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.120000;;;
      }
   }
}

Broken down, the 3 numbers after each 1.000000 are X Y Z rotational positions. The first row is the animation for steering to the Left. The 2nd row is the animation for not steering at all, and the 3rd row is for steering Right.

So, you have those 3 basic sets of animations. Now you apply them to each XSI animation file. SF is Steer Forward, simply put, the animations that play while driving forward. SN is Steer Neutral, animations that play while not moving forward/backwards. and SR is Steer Reverse, animations that play while driving backwards.

And go play around with numbers and see what you get in game with animations.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Are all required? Could I try a single animation say forword without the others? At this point I'm basically testing animations and would prefer to keep it simple. Would excluding the other animations screw things up? Tanks, BNG.

[Clavin12]

That's based on the talon? I don't see it.

[General BlackDragon]

Just include the files, but mess with only 1 animation at a time.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Cool, actually the unit bears no resemblance at all to the Talon with the exception of having all the same hp_part names in the model; the geometry is completely of my own design. I was refering to the ODF parameters.

I sort of figured out a way to borrow the animation sections from an X model text file, but I need to confirm the rotation = 0 and translation = 2 values as per what MTS mentioned about what numbers BZII uses to play an animation. You see I am trying to use a Threed created XSI animation template to edit that with notepad; it works in 3dex, but I must be missing something as when I load it in BZII I'm not seeing any animation. I also figured out that in order to see animation even on stock BZII models the object detail or some other parameter needs to set to high in the graphic settings panel of BZII. I noticed this the day when loading some stock models like the Tug and Scavenger into the game and not seeing any animation that is until I increased the levels to high on everything. This is something I never really thought much about until I noticed it not actually being visible due to some game settings.
Which is why I'm asking if a single animation will play if BZII also expects a set of animation files.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I was able to avoid using Threed altogether. What worked for me was using 3dex 1.5.5 and TS 7.6. I made animation files for forword, reverse, and neutral from a single copied model. I also added the animation entries from the ivscout to my Talon variant ODF, and converted the X file models to XSI using the XSI exporter in 3dex 1.5.5. To my total surprize the model actually was using the animations in game. None of the hardpoints work yet as I need to edit them in notepad to delete some extra characters that the TS X exporter adds by default. What really shocked me is that the texture I applied also appeared on the model as well; in the past it never appeared which I thought was due to 3dex not renaming TextureFilename to SI_Texture2D.

What I need to check out now is doing more animations.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Just as a simple update I used all three copied from the ivsout ODF. Then I made several animations with TS7.6 and converted all of them to X, and then to XSI with the XSI converter used by 3DEX 1.5.5. The animations work fine now with the exception of the flame_1__h part; still need to flip them both 180 to point downward.