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Animating Attachable Objects?

Scorch00

Scorch00

Members +
Bit of a development question for those that are more familiar with the system in P3D. As some may know, I develop attachable tanks from time to time to use with Lorby's FireFighterX. But there are some things I've been trying lately as this topic implies, of trying to put an action based animation onto an attachable object, rather than just a static/constantly moving one. I tried the first iteration of this last night and could not get it to work. And I thought that maybe it was possible to do this, but perhaps it isn't? Maybe someone could shed some light on this on if it's possible or there's a work around. What I'm actually trying to do is simulate a retractable snorkel to come down from an attached object via a key command. So I have the animation attached to the model of the object and it works when I preview it in MCX, but once it's attached to the aircraft via FFX, the animation does not happen when the animation key/action is activated. I figured likely because the sim defaults that action to the aircraft and either doesn't for the object or doesn't link the two. Hopefully that makes sense to someone?
 
Scorch00 - not sure if I can be of any help but a few ideas. The issue of animated attachments relates to the primary defined object or model, these in turn have a hierachy that creates a linkage between the animation and the model. Getting this correct is not so easy because when one retro engineers some of these models I do not have the original modellers ideas of how it was to work and what sequence they chose - so there is a lot guess work not always sucessful. The other thing I have discovered is that there are some areas of a model that are were originaly covered by an animation attachment - normally they then reference an effect file or part of the model and textures (lights for example) now if they do no work what then?

I discovered that using effects placement via the main config file you can still order and place the correct effect in the correct place - namely a light (In my case I deleted the attachments from the model but fixed the lights via the aircraft config file). This means that some things can be controlled via key strokes or xml guages if they call the effect to switch on or off that linkage again is in turn linked to the overall systems created and defined by the AIR file and the CONFIG files. So in the case of the lights because they are modelled in the system they are controllable via a guage or a key stroke.

I suspect what your suggesting about an animated object has a number of problems but is doable but I believe I may be wrong here that the reason such animations (like ground vehicles or moving avatar etc) work is because they have a separate model for that object which then allows you to call up or activate the AI scripting to have the animated object then move in a certain way or to do certain actions (usually quite repetitve). So I think for you to achieve what you want means you will need to create an object with its own container that can be attached to the model but what the object then does will need to be controlled via the AI process or SODE. SODE is very good at making all sorts of things happen but I have yet to understand how to harness or work with this amazing little program. For example you can get SODE to create storm waves or wild surf at a location or move jetways or vehicles or people about an airport. Same with FSL Spotlights which is effectively scripting light effects separate too but related to the model.

I think I am on the right track here but cannot give you any more help as I am still on a steep learning curve with all this myself. But I think that is the answer and I do not think it can be done via just manipulating the model itself!
 
BendyFlyer said:
Scorch00 - not sure if I can be of any help but a few ideas. The issue of animated attachments relates to the primary defined object or model, these in turn have a hierachy that creates a linkage between the animation and the model. Getting this correct is not so easy because when one retro engineers some of these models I do not have the original modellers ideas of how it was to work and what sequence they chose - so there is a lot guess work not always sucessful. The other thing I have discovered is that there are some areas of a model that are were originaly covered by an animation attachment - normally they then reference an effect file or part of the model and textures (lights for example) now if they do no work what then?

I discovered that using effects placement via the main config file you can still order and place the correct effect in the correct place - namely a light (In my case I deleted the attachments from the model but fixed the lights via the aircraft config file). This means that some things can be controlled via key strokes or xml guages if they call the effect to switch on or off that linkage again is in turn linked to the overall systems created and defined by the AIR file and the CONFIG files. So in the case of the lights because they are modelled in the system they are controllable via a guage or a key stroke.

I suspect what your suggesting about an animated object has a number of problems but is doable but I believe I may be wrong here that the reason such animations (like ground vehicles or moving avatar etc) work is because they have a separate model for that object which then allows you to call up or activate the AI scripting to have the animated object then move in a certain way or to do certain actions (usually quite repetitve). So I think for you to achieve what you want means you will need to create an object with its own container that can be attached to the model but what the object then does will need to be controlled via the AI process or SODE. SODE is very good at making all sorts of things happen but I have yet to understand how to harness or work with this amazing little program. For example you can get SODE to create storm waves or wild surf at a location or move jetways or vehicles or people about an airport. Same with FSL Spotlights which is effectively scripting light effects separate too but related to the model.

I think I am on the right track here but cannot give you any more help as I am still on a steep learning curve with all this myself. But I think that is the answer and I do not think it can be done via just manipulating the model itself!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input Bendy. I'm experimenting still and will be looking at several scenarios to see if it's possible. I talked with tankerguy72 as well late yesterday evening about it as well and he seems to think it's possible as we tried some things to experiment, but they didn't work on the aircraft I was trying to use it on. So it's still an R&D related thing.
 
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