Thief Player Animations

[ascottk]

I'm starting a list of animations needed for our thief player:

• idle
  
• creep (forward/backward)
  
• walk (forward/backward)
  
• run (forward/backward)
  
• crouch idle
  
• crouch creep (forward/backward)
  
• crouch normal (forward/backward)
  
• crouch fast (forward/backward)
  
• lean left
  
• lean right
  
• crouch lean left
  
• crouch lean right
  

possible animations:

• swimming
  
• lean forward (stand & crouch?)
  
• mantling
  

Luckily I've had experience with leaning animations for TDS. It should be pretty easy to do in maya.

___________________________________

 

Based on player.def:

af_pose

ik_pose

initial

 

idle

crouch_down

crouch

crouch_up

crouch_walk

crouch_walk_backwards

 

walk

walk_backwards

walk_strafe_left

walk_strafe_right

 

run_forward

run_backwards

run_strafe_left

run_strafe_right

 

creep_forward

creep_backwards

creep_strafe_left

creep_strafe_right

 

crouch_creep

crouch_creep_backwards

crouch_run

crouch_run_backwards

 

 

jump

run_jump

 

Extremely low priority

soft_land

hard_land

fall

turn_left

turn_right

pain

pain_head

pain_right_arm

pain_left_arm

pain_chest

[New Horizon]

Here is a link to some anims that odd did awhile back.

 

There is a right lean animation that looks pretty good and just needs to be mirrored somehow for the left version. I tried to flip the anim myself, but couldn't figure it out. Probably could have if I had some more time to poke around.

 

http://newhorizon.veledan.com/farrellmbs.zip It's 3:14pm as I'm typing this, give it another 10 or 15 minutes before you try to download them. I'm only 20% through right now.

[Springheel]

The thief had a crouch animation done as well.

 

Are these for sound purposes? Aesthetically, reusing the current walk/run animations is fine for the time being.

 

 

The Thief animations will only be visually important in three situations:

 

1. For NPCs (which will not need specialized player movements)

 

2. For reflections (low priority)

 

3. For cinematics (very low priority)

[ascottk]

Here is a link to some anims that odd did awhile back.

 

There is a right lean animation that looks pretty good and just needs to be mirrored somehow for the left version. I tried to flip the anim myself, but couldn't figure it out. Probably could have if I had some more time to poke around.

 

http://newhorizon.veledan.com/farrellmbs.zip It's 3:14pm as I'm typing this, give it another 10 or 15 minutes before you try to download them. I'm only 20% through right now.

I'm not too keen on the leaning animation oDD did but & I already have those anyway. Remember I did those animations on TDS & they are quite easy to do. Here's a reminder:

 

The thief had a crouch animation done as well.

 

Are these for sound purposes? Aesthetically, reusing the current walk/run animations is fine for the time being.

The Thief animations will only be visually important in three situations:

 

1. For NPCs (which will not need specialized player movements)

 

2. For reflections (low priority)

 

3. For cinematics (very low priority)

The animation hacks done for the player seem to be producing some bugs. I'm certain that having proper animations will resolve these issues:

Creeping only plays half of the walking animation:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=4461

 

The leaning bug:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=2716

 

And (low priority) having the thief walk while swimming:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=4460

 

I did try to get our thief ingame with the current animations but it's not cutting it. The side effects would include:

• Having the walking animations stop so he starts sliding around
  
• Crouching doesn't work
  
• Animations in general get stuck
  

I think having new animations is a higher priority than what people think.

[New Horizon]

Your leaning animations were quite awesome in TDS. If you feel it's better to start with a clean slate, I say go for it.

[Springheel]

Your leaning animation does look quite good!

 

I'm still unclear about exactly how much of the camera movement and sound feedback are tied to the player model, but you bring up some good examples.

[ascottk]

Your leaning animation does look quite good!

 

I'm still unclear about exactly how much of the camera movement and sound feedback are tied to the player model, but you bring up some good examples.

If you do a pm_thirdPerson you'll see that the creeping animation looks like he's skipping like a little schoolgirl & the walking animation, although he slows down, looks like he's running. He does have leaning animations but they get stuck. The side effects shown in 3rd person & 1st person are the same. The leftfoot/rightfoot declarations tell d3 when to use sounds.

 

Why on earth are the creeping animations calling the jog animation?

anim creep_forward					models/md5/characters/npcs/playermoves/jog.md5anim
{
	frame 1							setRate 12

	frame 2							leftfoot
	frame 11						rightfoot
}

anim creep_backwards				models/md5/characters/npcs/playermoves/jog_back.md5anim
{
	frame 1							setRate 12
	frame 6							rightfoot
	frame 15						leftfoot
}

anim creep_strafe_left				models/md5/characters/npcs/playermoves/walk_strafe_left.md5anim {
	frame 1							setRate 12
	frame 2							rightfoot
	frame 13						leftfoot
	frame 23						rightfoot
	//frame 25						leftfoot
}

anim creep_strafe_right				models/md5/characters/npcs/playermoves/walk_strafe_right.md5anim {
	frame 1							setRate 12
	frame 2							rightfoot
	frame 13						leftfoot
	frame 23						rightfoot
	//frame 25						leftfoot
}

 

Same goes for walking:

	anim walk							models/md5/characters/npcs/playermoves/jog.md5anim
{
	frame 1							setRate 24
	frame 2							leftfoot
	frame 11.5						rightfoot
}
anim walk_backwards					models/md5/characters/npcs/playermoves/jog_back.md5anim {
	frame 1							setRate 24
	frame 6							rightfoot
	frame 15						leftfoot
}

I don't think the setRate does anything.

[Springheel]

Crouching doesn't work

 

Are you sure about this? I tested the animation in the editor recently and it seemed to work ok. I don't think it's actually being used by the code atm though, is that what you meant?

[ascottk]

Sorry, ascottk's not in now. May I take a message?

[Springheel]

Yes, I just wanted to tell you about a great offer from R&G publishing....

[ascottk]

Yes, I just wanted to tell you about a great offer from R&G publishing....

Seriously though, there's still a few things I don't understand yet. The player leans but there's no reference to a lean in the def file. If I can answer questions then I'll post what I know. Otherwise there's nobody home

[New Horizon]

Seriously though, there's still a few things I don't understand yet. The player leans but there's no reference to a lean in the def file. If I can answer questions then I'll post what I know. Otherwise there's nobody home

 

I think I can answer that one for you. I'm pretty sure the current player lean was done either in script or in the sdk somehow. I can't remember who did it though. Basically they set it up to twist the player model around...so that will have to be removed, and support for 'true' lean animations will have to be added.

[sparhawk]

It was implemented in the SDK, but it was pretty crappy, because of some limitations so far. The programmer did the best he can, but we really need the animations in order to implement this properly.

[ascottk]

I added several new rudimentary and tweaked animations for the thief:

• lean_r
  
• lean_l
  
• creep_forward
  
• creep_backwards
  
• crouch_idle
  
• crouch_backwards
  
• jump ( kind of pathetic atm )
  
• run_backwards
  

There's some strange side effects that effect the thief model & I don't know what.

 

Now I'm requesting the removal of the code that modify player movement. Then replace those with support for the actual animations.

[Springheel]

run_backwards

 

Keep in mind that running backwards won't be significantly faster than walking backwards.

[ascottk]

Keep in mind that running backwards won't be significantly faster than walking backwards.

And the point of that is?

 

EDIT: nevermind

[Springheel]

You beat me to my edit. From the design docs:

 

Running Backwards is Slow (yes)

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=2003

 

Your run speed when moving backwards will be considerably slower than when moving forwards or sideways. This removes the ability to exploit backing up in combat, and is a pretty reasonable restriction on movement.

[ascottk]

We'll need the sdk animations to be removed in order to get the actual animations supported.

 

& I'll slow down the run_backwards . . .

 

test:

"player_*"

 

weird: "tdm_", "player_", and "thief.def" can't be combined into one word . . .

[ascottk]

Ugh, the forum doesn't want me to post a few things. I added:

 

tdm_ player_ thief.def (can't make that into one word).

& modified player.def for support for the thief model.

[Springheel]

We'll need the sdk animations to be removed in order to get the actual animations supported.

 

Yeah, there is a lot of programming work needed to get the AI in working order...far more than SZ is going to be able to do on his own.

[New Horizon]

Yeah, there is a lot of programming work needed to get the AI in working order...far more than SZ is going to be able to do on his own.

 

I'm still working on finding more help. Nothing lately though. If the community wasn't splintered into so many pieces, we would likely be able to blow through some things a lot faster.

[Springheel]

Well, maybe DarkRadiant will be far enough along soon that we can reassign one or two of the programmers from there to the actual mod?

[Crispy]

I'm game. Anything to get out of having to wade through the Spaghetti Marshes of SPoG.

 

Seriously though, I'm happy to help out wherever help is most required - if that means DR, that's fine, but if it means the mod itself then that's fine too. And if there's going to be a discussion about re-allocating programmers it should probably go in a new thread.

[Springheel]

Well, I was being a little tongue-in-cheek. I know it's important to have a good, working editor, but at the same time, I'm not sure if people are fully aware of just how much programming work there still is to do, particularly when it comes to AI. With Ishtvan and Spar both busy in RL, and SZ posting updates only semi-regularly, things are a little slow.

[New Horizon]

I would check to see what OrbWeaver says first, but it's looking like he and Greebo are doing well to keep things rolling on DR. If you're interested in helping out with the main mod, we could definitely use the help. When things are able to pick up with Spar, Isht and SZ again...we can re-evaluate the situation to see if DR is in need of more assistance.