Animation in af, afx?

[langnao]

The animation is now in some "unknown" af, afx format? So they drop havok? I am sure its a totally different rig with different bones etc. So I guess waiting from someone to "crack the code" and come up with the animation framework ...

[davethedrunk]

The animation is now in some "unknown" af, afx format? So they drop havok? I am sure its a totally different rig with different bones etc. So I guess waiting from someone to "crack the code" and come up with the animation framework ...

 

I found this reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/starfieldmods/comments/165n9rv/modding_starfield_what_we_sort_of_know/

 

Looks like they built animation tools in house, which means either they will release that for modders with the ck or we're f*#@ed until someone hacks it and reverse engineers it. I guess in 2018 Bethesda said in an interview that they dropped havok for animations, however they still use if for the physics. I remain optimistic, but am preparing for disappointment. They have a bad history of not making it convenient to add animations, so i'm not expecting anything less. :(

[langnao]

Yah. For FO4, ShadeAnimator came out with the framework, rig ,etc but he has not been active for a while ... There is still skeleton file and they are still using the animation metadata files. These meta data files should be generated from their creation kit. But there is definitely complication. At the start of character creation, they allow u to choose between 2 different set of animations (or is it just male/female animation so allow a female to use male animation?) so I m not sure how it will affect animation modding.

[South8028]

Havok is known to be used, as in previous games. I didn't install the game because there aren't any tools yet and it's just not fun to play. If its not difficult, unpack the resources (nif static, nif animation, textures, havok animation file) and post the link here. I'll look at the format.

[South8028]

Yah. For FO4, ShadeAnimator came out with the framework, rig ,etc but he has not been active for a while ... There is still skeleton file and they are still using the animation metadata files. These meta data files should be generated from their creation kit. But there is definitely complication. At the start of character creation, they allow u to choose between 2 different set of animations (or is it just male/female animation so allow a female to use male animation?) so I m not sure how it will affect animation modding.

Fo4 has long had everything you need to create havok animation. Rigs with vanilla and zaz bones, cat/biped, any number of actors, list of annotations, direct import and export 3ds hkx 64 bit. There is everything except hat (havok's tool for creating creatures).

[langnao]

 

Yah. For FO4, ShadeAnimator came out with the framework, rig ,etc but he has not been active for a while ... There is still skeleton file and they are still using the animation metadata files. These meta data files should be generated from their creation kit. But there is definitely complication. At the start of character creation, they allow u to choose between 2 different set of animations (or is it just male/female animation so allow a female to use male animation?) so I m not sure how it will affect animation modding.

Fo4 has long had everything you need to create havok animation. Rigs with vanilla and zaz bones, cat/biped, any number of actors, list of annotations, direct import and export 3ds hkx 64 bit. There is everything except hat (havok's tool for creating creatures).

 

The animation file is no longer hkx but some .af, .afx files. AFX, animation framework extension? Or some format created by Bethesda? ... Okay so Creation Engine using The Forge which is using 'Ozz Animation System' (then it should be .ozz?). Maybe related to this ...

[South8028]

 

 

Yah. For FO4, ShadeAnimator came out with the framework, rig ,etc but he has not been active for a while ... There is still skeleton file and they are still using the animation metadata files. These meta data files should be generated from their creation kit. But there is definitely complication. At the start of character creation, they allow u to choose between 2 different set of animations (or is it just male/female animation so allow a female to use male animation?) so I m not sure how it will affect animation modding.

Fo4 has long had everything you need to create havok animation. Rigs with vanilla and zaz bones, cat/biped, any number of actors, list of annotations, direct import and export 3ds hkx 64 bit. There is everything except hat (havok's tool for creating creatures).

The animation file is no longer hkx but some .af, .afx files. AFX, animation framework extension? Or some format created by Bethesda? ... Okay so Creation Engine using The Forge which is using 'Ozz Animation System' (then it should be .ozz?). Maybe related to this ...

It is known that havok is still used in Starfield. Havok animation files, as far as I understand, are just a set of dope sheet data with the coordinates of the bones in each animation frame. This is an xml file packed in the original hkt(hkx) archive. Maybe bgs changed the extension to some kind of their own data packaging method? For example, to work with animation in ck... Or are these afx files not animation files at all? )

[langnao]

Okay, I take a look at the af, afx files. af is definitely the animation binary archive. afx contains the annotation data which previously was packed into the hkx archive.

 

Eg, relaxed_runforward.afx

 

<root>

<is_state>1</is_state>

<tag>RunForward</tag>

<filename>Relaxed_RunForward.af</filename>

<prefix>Relaxed</prefix>

<events>

<event><frame>0</frame><name>SyncRightFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>8</frame><name>FootLeft</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>10</frame><name>SyncLeftFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>17</frame><name>FootRight</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>19</frame><name>SyncRightFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>26</frame><name>FootLeft</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>28</frame><name>SyncLeftFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>35</frame><name>FootRight</name><payload></payload></event>

</events>

<audios>

<audio><frame>5</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

<audio><frame>14</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

<audio><frame>23</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

<audio><frame>32</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

</audios>

</root>

Also found the animation files location for the player (female). You got relaxed_walkforward, relaxed_jogforward and relaxed_runforward

Data\meshes\actors\human\animations\melee\unarmed\player\female\

I tried replacing walk, jog with run and test in-game the player straight away run from rest so the animation files location is correct. Now is waiting for someone to "decode" af format before I can start modding my animation ...

[South8028]

Okay, I take a look at the af, afx files. af is definitely the animation binary archive. afx contains the annotation data which previously was packed into the hkx archive.

 

Eg, relaxed_runforward.afx

 

 

<root>

<is_state>1</is_state>

<tag>RunForward</tag>

<filename>Relaxed_RunForward.af</filename>

<prefix>Relaxed</prefix>

<events>

<event><frame>0</frame><name>SyncRightFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>8</frame><name>FootLeft</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>10</frame><name>SyncLeftFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>17</frame><name>FootRight</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>19</frame><name>SyncRightFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>26</frame><name>FootLeft</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>28</frame><name>SyncLeftFoot</name><payload></payload></event>

<event><frame>35</frame><name>FootRight</name><payload></payload></event>

</events>

<audios>

<audio><frame>5</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

<audio><frame>14</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

<audio><frame>23</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

<audio><frame>32</frame><foley>FST_Foley_ArmorType_Run</foley></audio>

</audios>

</root>

 

Also found the animation files location for the player (female). You got relaxed_walkforward, relaxed_jogforward and relaxed_runforward

 

Data\meshes\actors\human\animations\melee\unarmed\player\female\

 

I tried replacing walk, jog with run and test in-game the player straight away run from rest so the animation files location is correct. Now is waiting for someone to "decode" af format before I can start modding my animation ...

Nobody deciphers anything. Either the bgs exporter will have official plugins/tools, like hct for 3ds (or I dont know what the 3ds plugin from bgs will be called), or there wont be any. In fo4, animation only developed because people had time to download hct2014 before Microsoft bought havok. If Microsoft had bought havok a year or two earlier, havok animation for fo4 would not have been possible. Therefore, either there will be official tools, or forget about animations in Starfield. But in general, send me at least one of this animation files, skeleton.nif, skeleton.afx (if you have one).. I can also dig into it and try to repack it into hkx. Maybe it will work out... Edited September 11, 2023 by South8028

[langnao]

Basically the 'walk style' during character creation is just 1 for male and 2 for female animation. So if you created a female character but chose walk style 1 then you will have a female character using a male animation and vice versa. Nothing special here. Maybe there is some actor keyword used to differentiate the animation under the subgraphdata. Its basically how I separated male & female animation for some animation that is shared under Fallout 4. Anyway, waiting for xEdit/creation kit to take a look ...