Replacing conversation animations

[Springheel]

I have two sitters having a conversation.

 

The regular "idle_talk" animations that play when AI have a conversation don't work on sitters--they lean back too far.

 

I've made some new sitting ones, but I can't seem to get them to play. I've tried adding the following spawnargs to the AI directly:

 

"replace_anim_idle_talk1" "sit_talk_gesture1"

 

and putting them on a prop and def_attaching that to the AI.

 

Neither options worked, and the AI continued to play the inappropriate standing animations.

 

I've tracked down what is probably the cause, in tdm_ai_base.script:

 

void ai_darkmod_base::Torso_IdleTalk()
{
while (1)
{
// Play an idle_talk animation and pause 2 seconds, repeat
if (hasAnim(ANIMCHANNEL_TORSO, "idle_talk")) {
// play the animation
playAnim(ANIMCHANNEL_TORSO, "idle_talk");

while( !animDone(ANIMCHANNEL_TORSO, 6)) {
waitFrame();
}
}

sys.wait(2);
}

// finish up and start idling again
finishAction("idle_talk");
finishChannelAction(ANIMCHANNEL_TORSO, "idle_talk");
animState(ANIMCHANNEL_TORSO, "Torso_Idle", 6);
}

I'm only guessing, but it looks like the script calls the idle_talk animations directly? Is there a way to add a clause to specify that AI should play different animations if sitting?

[SteveL]

Hmm I thought we'd fixed sitting idles on 2.03. Or was that custom idles only? How did your sitting-writing animation work?

 

I'll have a look how it's handled in situations where the replacement does work. I don't remember seeing anim replacement code in the scripts: I expect it's done in game code.

[Springheel]

Hmm I thought we'd fixed sitting idles on 2.03.

 

 

Just to be clear, I think the code is doing what it's supposed to...the talk_idle animations are being called only on the torso when the AI is sitting down (they aren't popping up to standing while playing). It's just that they don't look very good even when just played on the torso--the sitting animations lean the torso forward, and standing ones don't, so playing a standing animation on an AI while sitting makes them lean backwards quite a bit.

 

I'm not sure why the replace_anim lines aren't doing anything, but if we could change the script so that it automatically plays the sitting versions when the AI in the convo are sitting, that would be easier for mappers.