BNG's first animation complete with texture, but atleast with animation finally.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Hoorah, I finally got a model into BZII that uses the illusive animation thingy. How did I do it? The models were created in Truespace 7.6. 4 models were copied from a single model and renamed to include 1 each with 00, sn, sf, and sr. Each model was keyframed seperately in the same TS workspace. Then each were saved in the X format. Afterwords, each was converted using 3dex 1.5.5. with the XSI exporter to my addon folder. I had to borrow the animation section from the ivscout and paste it in my modified Talon ODF as it did not include this part. I've included a zip file for anyone wanting to try out the model in BZII.

Please note that while the model works in game it has no weapon hard points as I still need to manually edit the hp_names to get them to be recognized by BZII; this oddity caused by the TS X exporter adding -number at the end of the hp_whatever name. However, it is pilotable and the original texture is applied as well; apparently, BZII can read a texture entry using TextureFilename =.
<iframe title ="Preview" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" style="width:98px;height:115px;padding:0;background-color:#fcfcfc;" src="http://cid-380832c976843acb.skydrive.live.com/embedicon.aspx/Public/Ivmark00.zip"></iframe>

[mrtwosheds]

You got the xsi export from 3dex to produce a model that works in bz2?

[General BlackDragon]

Nice.

Hey, here's a tip on how to make flames work hun.

You set the "pivot" of the flame, in the direction you want the flame to shoot out to. ATM they look wierd because the pivot is directly behind them. You need to move it down to below them, then the flames will shoot downward and look right 

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I guess that would need to be reset to 180 degrees and yes the X model was converted using the 1.5.5 XSI converter. I think I messed it up last time because I added spaces after the hp names; which somehow screwed up the texture read thingy. I may try saving COB out of TS7.6 as COB is native TS format which 1.5.5 also reads both binary and text, and it does not add any extra characters to the object names in the parts list of the model. Plus I'm still getting used to keyframing which is a bit tricky for me now. BNG.

I think what I'm going to try now is using the TS COB exporter with animation as it does not appear to add anything to the parts names like the X exporter does. Then convert the COB to XSI via 1.5.5 and see what happens. TS also exports 3DS and ASC. Should be simple enough to do as the models already prepared in the workspace now...vish me luck fellers. BNG.

The 3DS, ASC didn't work with 3DEX, but I am making some progress with the COB format. Unfortunately, the model needs to be rotated up 90 on the models butt and the pivots reset to 0 0 0 again. More to come as I continue to unravel alternatives.

I did some testing with other export formats out of TS with 3DS, ASC, and COB, but done seem to do very well at all. The X exporter appears to be the best way to get animations to 3DEX 1.5.5 for exportation via it's XSI exporter. The remaining drawback is that the X file still needs some editing magic in a text editor to remove some extra characters the TS X exporter adds, namely a -number that if not removed makes BZII hp's and other related parts like __h non working. I get rid of them by doing a global replace in Notepad to create a space after the affected part name. Then after saving the X file again it's ready to be converted to XSI using the 1.5.5. XSI exporter.

What really surprizes me is that BZII can actually read a texture file with the TextureFilename = entry as apposed to the traditional SI_Texture2D typically found in a standard BZII style XSI model file within the actual 1.5.5 produced XSI model file. No doubt probably due to BZII supposed compatibility with the X format? Anyways, for those wishing to make some animated models for BZII (that don't already have another method) can keep in touch with me so that I can teach them the basics of modeling with TS7.6 and the other processes I use to make both static and animated BZII XSI models.

3DEX 1.5.5 is freely available at Dutch Boy's  http://www.dutch-boy.com/, but the program requires a key generator to unlock the the XSI exporter which I forget where I got it from, so you'd have to do a web search for  it.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I generally satisfied with the XSI files created by the 1.5.5 3dex XSI exporter using X model files out of TS7.6. I now have a way to do BZII animated models with relatative ease. I still have to manually edit BZII depend object names in Notepad, but aside from that my models do work in BZII with animation.

I'm testing the COB exporter out of TS, but the resulting models are not converting well at all; the models are all messed up when viewed from within the game. The HP's work, but the pivot points on every part look horrible. I don't really know why as they look fine in 3dex? The process also requires that models be constructed from bottom to top (pointing up like a misslie on a launch pad) in the workspace when using the COB exporter in TS; otherwise they convert upside down when converted to XSI. What I'm testing now are the pre-save options in 3dex that allow the X Y Z values to be preset prior to converting COB to XSI to overcome the issue described above. I've already set the X value to 90 degrees and the resulting XSI model appears correctly oriented, but in game it looks like a mess. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I might try adjusting to get things right? Tanks, BNG.