Attack Anim Questions

[Ishtvan]

1. Do we have a 1st person overhead attack anim for the player shortsword? It's in green on the master list, but the mater list doesn't seem to distinguish between 1st and 3rd person.

 

Also, I don't see the anim in the directory with the other first person anims. I see left and right slashes and parries, but no overhead, so I guess that means it's not completed?

 

2. Could we remove the weapon model from the player attack animations like we have done for the AI? (keep the sword joint though). The melee combat code needs a collision test entity attached, and I set it up so that the test entity can also look like a weapon (it inherits from idMoveable, just like AI weapons). So we don't really need the weapons modeled in the player animations anymore, we can attach them to the sword joint. This would make maintenance a helluvalot easier, because you wouldn't have to update the melee physics if the animation changed or vice versa.

 

Also, we have this improvised weapons idea that may or may not make the 1.0 release (probably not), but if the attack animations had nothing in the hands, that would make it much easier to put in say a long sword instead of a short sword.

[Ishtvan]

Also, can someone tell me the relative angles and offset between the sword joint and the sword mesh that's placed in the animation right now? It's taking a long time to figure out by trial-and-error.

[Ishtvan]

What would be even better is if an animator could just rotate the sword joint in these 1st person animations to actually point right down the sword model, and to have an origin the same as the sword origin. That would save a lot of headache.

[Domarius]

Ah who made these... squill I think?

[Ishtvan]

SVN says they were added 2 years ago by Springheel. It was probably added in CVS and we lost the log of who added it.

 

I tried enabling the melee physics, and noticed that the animations are not very realistic or practical attacks. For example, in the left to right slash, the player is holding their arm in very close to their body the whole time, so they get very little reach with that attack. Also, the point of the blade is always pointing up and to the left, they never actually swing it at the opponent. It's like they're holding their wrist and their elbow static, and making the cut with their shoulder only, and consequently the blade never comes forwad, and it has very little reach.

 

We can use some fake offsets and rotations on the melee combat clipmodel if we need to, but it's better if the animations could be realistic and geared toward doing what the player is trying to do (i.e., make a slash with the maximum possible reach). The right to left (belly) cut is close to realistic, but the left to right is really off.

 

Here is a video for reference. Notice that every time they make a cut, their elbow ends up extended all the way forwad to get maximum reach. Also, they flick their wrist/fingers so that the sword actually swings out at the opponent, so the point of the sword ends up roughly pointed at what they're trying to cut (ideally you make contact with the top 1/3rd of the blade). Same thing with the overhead cut (which we don't have yet). Elbow ends up extended all the way, top 1/3rd of the blade ends up swinging down on what you're trying to cut.

 

[Ishtvan]

Also in this video, not as exciting, but about halfway thru they go thru the saber attacks slowly.

 

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/78419_f...right-lunge.htm

[Springheel]

1. Do we have a 1st person overhead attack anim for the player shortsword? It's in green on the master list, but the mater list doesn't seem to distinguish between 1st and 3rd person.

 

That list refers only to 3rd person animations.

[Ishtvan]

Do we have a master list for 1st person animations?

[Springheel]

Not that I know of. You're probably the person who best knows what is needed for that.

[Ishtvan]

Okay, well I wouldn't know where to post it, but here is a tentative list:

 

First person sword actions (high priority) :

 

Note: All of these animations should start from the sword idle position and include a fairly quick back swing before making the attack swing. A shortsword mesh is not necessary in the final animation, but please place the sword joint at the center of the palm and rotate the it so that it points right along the axis of the sword (for easy attachment).

 

Sword Attacks

Overhead attack [head cut] ( Missing )

Right to left slash [belly cut] ( Placeholder, needs tweaking )

Left to right slash [flank cut] ( Placeholder, needs tweaking )

Thrust attack [pull back toward right hip then thrust toward center of screen] ( Missing )

 

Sword Parries:

Parry animations should start from sword idle position and stop at the position we want them to be held in

 

Overhead parry [saber #5] ( Placeholder, needs tweaking )

Right to left parry [saber #4] ( Missing )

Left to right parry [saber #3] ( Missing )

Thrust parry [Like #4, but not as far left and point angled more forward] ( Missing )

 

First person blackjack animation (medium priority):

Swing ( Completed, but see below: )

- Place sword joint at center of palm and rotate it so that it points right along the blackjack (for easy attachment). Then remove blackjack mesh from the animation (it will be attached).

 

Improvised weapons (very low priority):

Slow & clumsy versions of the sword attacks and parries

Slowish thrust attack for polearms (e.g., spear)

Shield parry [just raise up left arm with the forearm facing out, shield will be attached later. Keep in mind player still has to see around/over the shield]

[Ishtvan]

Okay, the melee combat code is all ready for 1st person overhead (head cut) and thrust attack animations.

 

I can't remember who was working on these. Do they exist but just need to be exported?

[squill]

the sword parries are the ones created and exported, but not any(new) attacks have been created to my knowledge or maybe Domarius has some local files.

[Ishtvan]

Okay, well if anyone wants to whip up some quick WIP downward cut and thrust anims, we could use them for testing melee combat. And I promise I'll hold off on nitpicking them to death for a full day. Just try to make sure the arm extends almost all the way out (just short of locking out the elbow) and the blade swings all the way forward, so that the player is actually trying to use their maximum reach to cut or thrust as far ahead of them as possible.

[squill]

Okay, well if anyone wants to whip up some quick WIP downward cut and thrust anims, we could use them for testing melee combat. And I promise I'll hold off on nitpicking them to death for a full day. Just try to make sure the arm extends almost all the way out (just short of locking out the elbow) and the blade swings all the way forward, so that the player is actually trying to use their maximum reach to cut or thrust as far ahead of them as possible.

 

i (or we) should be able to setup some basic moves. Probably have to adjust the arm to support IK controls for those animations.

[Domarius]

I only did placeholder combat anims for the guard, squill is the only one to edit the first person anims since Dram modified the bow anim, to the best of my knowledge