Missing/todo Player Anim: Run Sideways

[Ishtvan]

This is probably still on the TODO list, but I noticed that the player model doesn't do anything when running sideways.

 

Would it be possible to add just a placeholder with the footsteps at the right times? That would really help for playtesting because right now you can run sideways absolutely silently.

[Domarius]

Well I added it to my to do list so that it doesn't get forgotten at least.

[Domarius]

Hm - how useful is this anim other than for footsteps, shadow, and seeing yourself in the mirror? It seems like the least satisfying to make, in terms of how much it will be seen and how much work it could be.

 

Can I just make it nice and quick, without having it look totally awesome? I promise it won't look awful, just that I don't think I should go in to much detail because it doesn't seem like it would be worth it compared to other anims I could be doing.

 

 

Hey just curious - what anim will be used if you're running diagonally?

[Ishtvan]

IMO it doesn't need to be a top notch animation, as long as it plays the footsteps at the right times, and doesn't look immersion-breakingly terrible in a mirror.

 

As for running diagonally, I'm not sure. I hear footsteps when doing that, so I'm guessing it plays the forward animations. There is an ugly D3 script (maybe ai_player.script or something?) that chooses which anim to play with a long series of ifs.

[Domarius]

Thief now has run left and run right anims, but you can still run silently left and right.

 

Def file has the correct entries, with the sounds on the appropriate frames, and ai_player.script does reffer to run_strafe_left and run_strafe_right, which is what I called them, so I have no idea why running sideways is silent.

 

I noticed if you runbackwards, then run diagonally to the right, and then to the right (so do a curve) you do get a running noise (same for left). Wierd.

 

Also I noticed a mesh on the thief model went missing with this update but only by doing a diff with mine and the one on the server, so I only saw it in text form. I can't visually see what's missing from the thief model in the game.

 

Not sure why, because I used the fbx_import.mb to generate the files, like I was supposed to.

[Ishtvan]

Hmm, maybe there is some problem with the scripting that's causing silent running. You could check third person to make sure that the anim is actually playing when they run sideways, or if they are "ice skating" even though the animation is supposed to be played.

[Nyarlathotep]

Also I noticed a mesh on the thief model went missing with this update but only by doing a diff with mine and the one on the server, so I only saw it in text form. I can't visually see what's missing from the thief model in the game.

The shadow mesh is missing. The head and hands, as separate meshes, still show up, but the entire body is gone.

[Domarius]

Damn... I guess the fbx_import.mb is missing it, cause that's what I used to generate the mesh. I have to, if I want to import animations from Motion Builder.

[Domarius]

How do I get third person view? I looked in the Information board and the Wiki, and did a search on both.

[sparhawk]

Something to bookmark:

 

pm_thirdPerson 1

 

http://doom3.ingame.de/article.php?intID=1...7&intSite=5

[Domarius]

Ah thanks - it's just a console command, I didn't realise.

 

http://www.iddevnet.com/doom3/cvars.php

[Domarius]

Hm weird.

 

He's skating when he runs left and right but all other anims are fine.

 

The part of the script that's supposed to play the run left and right anims is being entered into, because I did a sys.println from them.

 

No time to work more on it yet, but will get there.

[Domarius]

Well I'm about to start my holiday and I still never got around to working out why the run left/right animations will play using "testModel tdm_ai_thief" and then "nextanim" repeatedly, but not when the player is actually running left and right, even though the strafe left / right script is being called correctly in ai_player.script, and it is calling the correct names of my anims (run_strafe_left and run_strafe_right).

 

As far as I can tell, it should be working, so maybe the reason is outside my knowledge of Doom 3.

[Ishtvan]

Are we sure that tdm _ player _ thief model def has the same animation defined as tdm _ ai _ thief model? Do they use the same model def?

[Ishtvan]

It looks like the answer is no:

 

model model _ player _thief {

// ...

//anim run_strafe_left				models/md5/chars/thief/run_strafe_left.md5anim {
//	prevent_idle_override
//	frame 4							footstep
//	frame 7							footstep
//	frame 18						footstep
//	frame 21						footstep
//}
//anim run_strafe_right				models/md5/chars/thief/run_strafe_right.md5anim {
//	prevent_idle_override
//	frame 5							footstep
//	frame 8							footstep
//	frame 18						footstep
//	frame 20						footstep
//}

// ...

 

model tdm _ ai _ thief {
mesh					   models/md5/chars/thief/tdm _ai _ thief.md5mesh

channel torso		( *Spine1 )
channel legs		( *origin - *Spine )

anim af_pose		 models/md5/chars/thief/af_pose.md5anim
anim ik_pose		 models/md5/chars/thief/af_pose.md5anim

anim idle			  models/md5/chars/thief/idle.md5anim

//walking
anim walk			models/md5/chars/thief/walk.md5anim {
   frame 2	footstep
   frame 17	footstep
}
anim turn_left						models/md5/chars/thief/turn_left.md5anim {
	prevent_idle_override
}
anim turn_right						models/md5/chars/thief/turn_right.md5anim  {
	prevent_idle_override
}
//running
anim run			 models/md5/chars/thief/run.md5anim {
	frame 3	footstep
	frame 11	footstep
}

anim draw			  models/md5/chars/thief/drawsword.md5anim {
   frame 16	sound_weapon snd_drawsword
}
anim look_around		   models/md5/chars/thief/look_around.md5anim
anim melee_attack		   models/md5/chars/thief/attack.md5anim {
   frame 18	melee melee_sword_rswing_base
}
anim idle_sword			 models/md5/chars/thief/idle_sword.md5anim
anim throw			  models/md5/chars/thief/throw.md5anim {
	frame 31			launch_missile RightHand
}
anim death			 models/md5/chars/thief/death.md5anim
}

 

I don't know if your experimental stuff is up on SVN yet, but it looks like the run_strafe anims are commented out on the tdm _ player _ thief. It sounds like you added them to the tdm _ ai _ thief modeldef but not the tdm _ player _ thief modeldef, from what you're saying about using testmodel on tdm _ ai_thief. I don't know why it's set up this way btw, you'd think they would both use the same modeldef, and just not use the extra player-only anims in the AI thief script. But that's how it's set up right now.

[Domarius]

It sounds like you added them to the tdm _ ai _ thief modeldef but not the tdm _ player _ thief modeldef, from what you're saying about using testmodel on tdm _ ai_thief.

That is exactly right. I had no idea this other file was needed.

 

NOW it's working perfectly Thanks for checking that out. I've committed the changes.

 

I based the timing of this off the forward run animation. The speed of the run plays back in such a way that frame 3 and frame 11 have the footsteps, this is the same for the forward run animation.

 

BTW: the actual animation is pretty okay, but like the other player movement animations, it looks retarded in game because the torso part of the animations aren't being applied.

[Crispy]

BTW: the actual animation is pretty okay, but like the other player movement animations, it looks retarded in game because the torso part of the animations aren't being applied.

So only the legs channel is playing on the player, and not the torso channel? If so, is this a bug we could conceivably fix in the SDK? All the animation code is there, it's just a matter of deciphering it (uncommented mess that it is).

 

(Not very high priority since we're not officially supporting third person or the player shadow - just as long as the footsteps work. But worth doing one day, since the animations will show up in mirrors.)

[Ishtvan]

So only the legs channel is playing on the player, and not the torso channel? If so, is this a bug we could conceivably fix in the SDK?

I don't think it's a bug actually. I think they designed it that way so that the player could have other torso animations (like throwing grenade, etc) playing separately, without having to make whole animations for every permutation (run forward while throwing grenade, run sideways while throwing grenade, etc).

[Domarius]

Yeah its something we'd have to animate around. My sideways running ones should be okay, but the forward running one could do with re-working, it changes the angle of the hips, which causes the whole torso to wobble around like a stick puppet, since the upper body doesn't compensate for that motion since it's not playing the upper body part of the anim.

[Springheel]

We want the torso channel to override some animations too (so a guard can yawn while standing or walking) but we don't want the torso channel to not play the standing/walking animation the rest of the time.

 

I find it hard to believe D3 can't do both (play the channel regularly but interrupt it for specific animations). Are we sure we're not missing something?

[Arcturus]

By the way. When you release crouch button it takes few seconds for the player model to stand up. This way you can run a couple of meters whithout making any noise.

[Crispy]

I find it hard to believe D3 can't do both (play the channel regularly but interrupt it for specific animations). Are we sure we're not missing something?

I also find it hard to believe that it can't do that. That's what I meant: Play the walking animation on the torso when there's nothing more specific available, but then transition into throwing/attacking/whatever animations when appropriate.

[sparhawk]

The MD5 format was designed to do exactly such things, because Quake2 (MD3) couldn't do this.

[Domarius]

Well AFAIK, all AI do play their full body animation, and only control the torso animation seperatly when specifically told to. But for the player, its permanently fixed that torso animation only responds to attacking etc.

 

So yeah... to circumvent this, we'd be working on something that would only benefit 3rd person view, which we aren't supporting

[Crispy]

Well AFAIK, all AI do play their full body animation, and only control the torso animation seperatly when specifically told to. But for the player, its permanently fixed that torso animation only responds to attacking etc.

Right, that's what I thought. So it should be possible to change that behaviour. (Honestly, what was the logic behind that decision on id's part? It just seems weird.)

 

So yeah... to circumvent this, we'd be working on something that would only benefit 3rd person view, which we aren't supporting

Well, it would also benefit mirrors and other reflections. But yes, as I said before, it is low priority.