[Spoon]

Heya guys
I'm thinking of modelling mechs (think gundam) for use in freespace but I doubt they would look good being static. Would it be possible to have the limbs move when increasing/decreasing thrust and when shooting? I figured i'd better ask here then spend a whole lot of time trying to figure it out on my own heh
Also, is it possible to have a model with a turret that would not actually be attached to the model it self? (Think of those 2D side scrolling shooters with ships that have options orbiting around them)

 

[Retsof]

I've seen fighters that have animations.  Like you select a weapon bank and a pair of guns slide down into position.  I think what you're talking about would be possible, but would certainly take some work.

[Flipside]

Basic animations are possible thanks to the SCP engine, but any kind of gun recoil is still just a bit jerky at the moment due to the way it works. You cannot create an animation and load it into the game, you have to script animation of parts of the model itself (so you'd make those parts as seperate submodels, and then use a short batch of script to describe what that sub-model does and when).

[Spoon]

Thanks for the replies guys!
Good to hear it Is possible. Might be a bit too hard for a starter like myself though 
So help me understand this a bit better. Is the script needed for such things something you create in the FRED event editor? Something you do in 3ds max? Or is it something you do outside of these programs (a notepad file with c++?).
Are there any mods you guys could recommend in which things are animated? Some kind of example would really help

[Flipside]

The script is in the ships table entries in the VP, there's a few examples out there, the one that springs to mind, since I made it, is the Azeas with its minigun, but there are a few animated ships in the Media VP, I'll leave to someone who knows what ones they are to tell you though

[Getter Robo G]

Bad timing, BUT long agoshadow0000 made my namesake mech and ANIMATED 3 functions (defense , punch, getter Beam) on a 28k mech model!

I think I can send you the pof and table later on, but more to the point since I converted a LOT of Gundam models to fs2 already (see my siggy for some of the projects I dabble in) I aim for something MUCH simpler that emulates the HW2 style of animation...

TURRETS!  Align the core of the body for flight mode. Make the head a turret with LIMITED motion (the table will be for a ZERO damage weapon (like null) just so it TRACKS current target and appears to be looking at it...

Have the arms themselves be the turret as well not just the rifle on the arm so it MOVES to track also (limited but not as much as head).

To em THAT is the most logical and less work method of a simplistic form of animation versus a completely static model...




I used the remote bits as "reinforcement wing" but planned later to simply use the Counter Measures...


Agreed static does look terrible especially when using a NON-posed mesh.

[Spoon]

Awesome 
I'd very much love to recieve those files from you Getter.
The turret idea sounds like the way to go.

Oh man, you are getting me all pumped up here with that post of yours. Is hotblood contagious?

[Getter Robo G]

Sorry took so long, I have a ENORMOUS amount of things in my archives, but ZERO organization.


Here is the models, textures, and tables for the animated models...
I tried them long ago and they work fine.

My only displeasure is the style, it's the FAT version from teh newer Armageddon anime while I prefer the classic "slim" 1976 poportional one...

I also included some of the short proof of concept avi movies shadow0000 made (the ones I liked).


People should save this in case I lose it, it really was groundbreaking for it's time...

http://www.4shared.com/file/88084699/a271746e/Getter_G_POF.html


[EDIT] something's wrong. error on "dummy.pof" changed to hornet, then "none" error. Said screw it and dumped weapons table entirely used defualt weapons for fred managed to load all lightbars and then freeze never get to briefing.

I dunno if my Dl got corrupted long ago but someoen will have to go in the table and model and look through teh animations to see if Shadow forgot to include something vital we need to make it work.

I could have sword I got it working with 3.6 back in the day, but I could be wrong. I know for sure I never tried his weapon tbm's...

[Spoon]

Thanks a lot Getter, this is a great example of what I had in mind!