Animations ***spoiler***

[Governor]

I realize this won't be able to be answered until after the SDK is out, but I'm curious about the amount of ship animations possible in the HW2 engine... the only animations I noticed at all were those of the resourcer arms and...

***Spoiler***
the unfurling arms on the planetkillers
***Spoiler***

Did anyone else see any animations? I was really hoping that animating ships might have been made easier... but now I'm wondering if doing things like transformable valkryies is possible at all?

[TheSilentOne]

Dont forget one of the best animations in the game-the Vagyr infiltration frigate. Also, there is the vagyr missile frigate, with its opening bay doors.

A transforming ship would probably be very difficult(it would require quite a few animations to work), but I see no reason why it would be impossible.

[omnigon]

I think a lot of the 'animations' are being handled via the code using the goblin meshes. Like turrets and facilities that open up. I think the resource collecter arms and the planet killers are the only animation (in the way you're talking about) that i can think of in the game.

[TyrealMathias]

a Transformers Mod would truly test the limits of the HW2 engine's animation capabilities... :)

vaygr probe, vay prox sensors, vay dis probes.. hgn prox sensors, hgn dis probes... vay hyperspace gates..

all of these have animations... granted, they are one-shot animations... but animations none the less.. :)

[Miguel]

What are goblin meshes?

[Sandalpocalypse]

Goblins are the close in details that get tacked on to a ship when you zoom in. Instead of an entirely different model, more detailed, they tack on Goblins.

[Captain Pierce]

Um, kids, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't people already DONE transforming Valkyries?

[Governor]

Yeah, they did them in the original HW... Like in the Macross: DYRL mod... but the original HW engine had coding for things like docking and attack animations... ala the Taiidan corvettes and defender strike craft

[Captain Pierce]

Good, then I'm not going crazy... ;)

I would have to hope that HW2 would not be a step backward in the animation arena... certainly, most people who follow HW modding have both sets of fingers and probably some toes crossed that HW2 will allow simultaneous turrets and continuous animations... it does seem that the game seems to have less animations than HW did, but then again I've had to spend a lot of time zoomed all the way out or in the Sensor Manager running battles, and not spent nearly enough time zoomed in enjoying the details...

[TheSilentOne]

Well, even if the RC and Planetkiller are the only animations...
Well, let's just say that if the planetkiller is possible, anything is.


[edit]Actually, come to think of it, animations are handled with .MAD files, right? Here's a list of the ships with animations then.

Defense Field Frigate
Hiigaran ECM probe
Interceptor
Mothership
Hiigaran Probe
Hiigaran Proximity Sensor
Resource Collector
Keeper Attack Droid
Balcora Gate
Vagyr Battlecruiser
Vagyr Carrier
Vagyr Command Corvette
Vagyr Heavy Missile Frigate
Vagyr Hyperspace gate
Vagyr Infiltration Frigate
Planetkiller
Vagyr Probe
Vagyr ECM probe
Vagyr Proximity Sensor
Vagyr Resource Collector


Dunno about some of them, but they all have .MAD files, and .MADSTATE files.

[edit2]And guess what-the .MADSTATE files are not compiled....At least, most of them aren't.

[edit3]Only ones I can see that are compiled are the planetkiller(snif...:[ )and the vagyr BC. Everything else is readable.

[Final edit, I swear!]
:)
I think the B5 team will be VERY happy to see this!
setLoopCount(ship, "RotateInnerRing", 100000) --infinite looping

[Sandalpocalypse]

The Vaygr Carrier animation is probably the resource pad - it folds down after the carrier leaves dock. And the Missile Frigate has an attack animation...etc...

SO this suggests that the animation system is probably more capable than HWs.

[Spooky]

HW2 .MAD files are IFF format files like many others. The basic layout of the Vagyr Battlecruiser (my favourite ship btw :)) is:

FORM
MAD
NAME (Homeworld2 MAD File)
VERS (260)
STRI (Strings for the animation name etc.)
MARK
CURV

Should not be too hard to deciper. :)

[White Haven]

Take a good, close look at a Keeper Drone sometime. THAT animation interests me, quite a bit. The three arms move as the ship manevuers, which means it's at least one, perhaps three, dymanically-triggered animation(s). Hmm. I'm no modder, certainly not a hardcore one, so I'm not sure what-all that signifies, but it's intriguing.

[TheSilentOne]

Here is the .MADSTATE code for the attackdrone. I was wondering what it did! I'll have to look at it closer next time...


KPR_ATTACKDROID_Normal_OnSet = function(ship)
startTime = 0
if(isAnimRunning(ship, "turnStart") ~= 0) then
startTime = getAnimLength(ship, "turnStart") - getTime(ship, "turnStart")
stopAnim(ship, "turnStart")
end
startAnim(ship, "turnEnd")
setTime(ship,"turnEnd",startTime)
setPauseTime(ship, "turnEnd", 1000)
end

KPR_ATTACKDROID_DoingFlightManeuver_OnSet = function(ship)
startTime = 0
if(isAnimRunning(ship, "turnEnd") ~= 0) then
startTime = getAnimLength(ship, "turnEnd") - getTime(ship, "turnEnd")
stopAnim(ship, "turnEnd")
end
startAnim(ship, "turnStart")
setTime(ship,"turnStart",startTime)
setPauseTime(ship, "turnStart", 1000)
end

KPR_ATTACKDROID_Launched_OnSet = function(ship)
startTime = 0
if(isAnimRunning(ship, "Close") ~= 0) then
startTime = getAnimLength(ship, "Close") - getTime(ship, "Close")
stopAnim(ship, "Close")
endEffect(ship, "Close")
end
startAnim(ship, "Open")
startEffect(ship, "Open")
setTime(ship,"Open",startTime)
setPauseTime(ship, "Open", 1000)
end

KPR_ATTACKDROID_Docked_OnSet = function(ship)
startTime = 0
if(isAnimRunning(ship, "Open") ~= 0) then
startTime = getAnimLength(ship, "Open") - getTime(ship, "Open")
stopAnim(ship, "Open")
endEffect(ship, "Open")
end
startAnim(ship, "Close")
startEffect(ship, "Close")
setTime(ship,"Close",startTime)
setPauseTime(ship, "Close", 1000)
end

[White Haven]

Hmm....again, code's something of a mystery to me, but from what I glean from that, most anythin's allowed to trigger an animation. And since it NAMES the animations, rather than just saying 'do this model's anim,' that suggests, to me at least, that it could refer to multiple anims per ship. Course whether they can run concurrently is the BIG question.

[Guyffon]

Originally posted by Captain Pierce
Um, kids, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't people already DONE transforming Valkyries?

I wondered whom was that silly puss having all that time to actually figure out how HW1 animations work :D

Dun worry abt transforming valks, if it can be done in HW1, it can be done in HW2 :D and yes I will do it again and disappear again when I complete it :D

Wad I would like to see if there are any ships with continuos animations and turreted animations working concurrently. From wad I gathered, that would look like you can have a certain animation for a specific task, I wonder if you can tie it to a specific weapon, i.e. the main gun on macross lowers teh twin booms all while the smaller turreted weapons are still firing.

[Delphy]

I'll be looking at MAD and MADSTATE files shortly :)

[omnigon]

I'd like to see some screens/video of those valkyries. Is the mod still available? if so, where?

[Newtype]

You may find the Macross Mod here!

http://www.strategyplanet.com/homeworld/macross/index.html

[Spooky]

Well Stuart, .MAD is something of a speciality for you. :D