In BZ2ME (Threed) What does the setting BZ2 Animated mean?

[mrtwosheds]

No, just rotate your model before you convert it to .x
.xsi/bz2 uses different rotation from the .3ds format, but not for everything.

hmm, but I suppose you animated it in max and if you rotate it the animation will rotate too and still be wrong....
cut n paste the anim from un-rotated model to rotated model. 

If you really did need to alter the animation rotation orientation for some reason, you would just move the columns of data about.

[Nielk1]

I will do some tests with a cube with ABCDEF on it. I will export as xsi and an animated x file and then find what the differnce is to make an export process. You are probably right. I should be able to just rotate the model. Actuly, I will just rotate the pivots.

FINALY! I might be able to do animated models.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I kind of figured out some more info about the BZ2 animated check box in BZ2ME, and the animation box too. I made a simple cube in GSL saved as X and opened in BZ2ME. Then I made 3 XSI files. The first without adding anything to the cube frame. The second with the BZ2 animated box checked. And the third with both the BZ2 animated and animation boxes checked. Then I opened all 3 in notepad for a side by side file comparison. Here's a screen shot of the differences I noticed between the 3 XSI files.


As you can see from the image the BZ2 animated XSI added _h to the cube frame. The BZ2 animated plus animated XSI have both the _h and Animation set entry in the XSI. Do these additions have special significance to he BZII engine?

I then open 3DEX to look at the 3 files and I noticed that 3DEX had a warning triangle on both the _h and Animation set XSI files. When I click on the triangle it reported the the animation set key was an unsupported version or something to that effect. Could this be one of the reasons why animation sets are not read correctly by BZII?

I still need to compare the files against a known good XSI animated file from the XSI data pack, but I suspect that part of the problem is that BZ2ME writes out a non standard animation set format that theoretically could be corrected in notepad using MTS's manual method of editing the XSI file in notepad and then resaving the corrected file and then trying it out in BZII. Any feedback would greatly be appreciated to help me try to make some kind of workaround to get animations workable using BZ2ME. Tanks, BNG.

[Red Devil]

That _h means 'hidden', so if you have anything (like treads) not showing up in the Vehicle display box in the game setup screen or in the Factory cosole or Recycler console, that's what does it.

[mrtwosheds]

There is nothing wrong with the animation set other than a total lack of animation data.

__h is hidden
__hc is hidden collision
__e is emissive lights
__2g is transparent 2 sided

[Nielk1]

I know of __2, but not __2g?

[mrtwosheds]

building console screens are__2g

[Lizard]

I think __g is for glass stuff but I think it's nearly always paired with __2 so that it's visible from both sides.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Cool, I wondered how transparent objects like cockpit windows were done. In TS there's a setting in the material editor for adjusting the transparency level of a material applied to an object. Didn't really notice this in GSL but both TS 1.0 and 3.2 have the option listed in the material editor.

I'm still perplexed with the animation thingy in BZ2ME (BZ2 Animated and the Animation check boxes in the frame edit dialog, but don't really feel anything useful will result as I'm sure other modders have already explored the topic to it's full potential and concluded as OM has that BZ2ME will never be able to do animations.

[mrtwosheds]

For simple frame animations all that is needed is the data. The data for a rotation, for example is pretty much the same for any object. it is really very easy to just paste the ibpgen data in to create full rotation animations, you can change the frame numbers to slow it down or speed it up.
What would be usefull, is to find a program that does do animations and outputs them in a text format, you could possibly then create an animation in it and simply transfer the data to your xsi model.
For Vertex and bone animations, I suspect only the original xsi software would really do, as it looks a bit complicated in the xsi.

The thruster flames use __h, see the ivscout00.xsi,
flame__h will in the BZ2 engine create a thruster effect It does have to be called "flame", the shape of that poly will determine weather it looks any good or not. The __h just hides the poly, sadly the flames only go backwards, they will not go down.

[bigbadbogie]

flames go in whatever direction they are pointed - down, up, left, right, ANYWHERE!!!!!

[mrtwosheds]

Not talking about emits here, but the effect linked to throttle usage created by using flame__h, I tried to make it go down but it wont, it goes backwards, relative to the ship.
If you know how to make it go down please tell.

[TheJamsh]

ive tried to emit electricity as a vertical beam, but it doesnt :@

just seems to emit a teeeeny bit in the wrogn direction no matter how much i plaey with it

and mrtwosheds, it can be done! look at the XSI for the isdf howitzer (ivartlcv) was its original xsi/odf i believe from the ULER mod but im not sure...

anyway, it has thrusters on its feet which thrust downwards when you go forward... check it out!

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Maybe it has something to do with the way the pivot points are set. The game engine seems to read such things better then the 3d applications that created them; displaying them visually correct, but not necessarily with the true orientation as seen by the game engine itself. It's a enough to drive a modeler whacky trying to see things the way a computer application does.

[mrtwosheds]

hmm, yes the are rotated....and I think they need to be untriangulated, damn.