Cant get animation to show in-game

[biggestkid]

Hey guys i recently altered one of the staff animations in 3ds max(staffmagicright_runarm to be exact) and need some help getting it to work ingame.

 

So what i did was edit the animation to what i wanted, and then de-select everything. I then exported it as a .kf file(using the exact settings show in the 2 tutorials i am following) to my desktop. I then opened a cmd window and ran the hkxcmd.exe and converted it from a .kf to a .hkx file.

 

After this i made a folder following the pathway of Data/meshes/actors/character/animations and put my new staffmagicright_runarm.hkx file in there, hoping it would overwrite the game's current staffmagicright_runarm animation and show my custom animation in-game instead.

 

But upon testing ingame, i equipped a staff in my right hand and nothing had changed. He was still running around using the original staff animation, no sign of my custom animation anywhere to be seen. So i need help getting this to work. Can anyone spot any errors in my workflow that may be causing this to happen? Am i doing something wrong? If not can you think of anything i may have forgotten to do which could be preventing this from working?

 

Thanks in advance for any help,

big

[biggestkid]

bump

[fore]

No, it's not your fault. It seems to be the system.

 

An animation StaffMagicRight_RunArm.hkx, but it's nowhere called in the behaviors, and it's not even listed in defaultmale/female, which is mandatory for working. There is a ClipGenerator named StaffMagicRight_RunArm, but that will call the StaffMagicRight_WalkArm.hkx

 

Only in 1st person a specific run animation is used.

[biggestkid]

So should i change StaffMagicRight_WalkArm.hkx and try that out? Is that what you are saying?

[fore]

Yes, that'S it. But you will change Walk and Run together (3rd person). Can you describe the difference vanilla today?

 

This is an interesting, but simple mechanism in the behavior I havn't seen before. Maybe you want to investigte and report? You know how to convert hkx into xml and back?

 

Both Run and Wlk go off a StaffMagicRight_RunWalkArm_Blend, which has 2 hkbBlenderGeneratorChild (one for run, one for walk), which point to the cilpgenerators with the animation file name.

 

Tee only difference which I see between both is a "weight" parameter in the respective hkbBlenderGeneratorChild , which values are 350.987000 for the run and 58.000000 for the walk. MAybe you would like to play with them a little bit?

 

It would be very interesting to understand these parameters. If they have impact on speed, or boneweight, or what.

[biggestkid]

Nah dont know anything about what you're talking about, im merely an artist messing around with the game's animation files sorry.

 

I did however edit the StaffMagicRight_WalkArm.hkx and put that into the Data/meshes/actors/character/animations folder, but it did not show ingame when walking either.

 

So what i tried next was rename staffmagicright_walkarm.hkx to mt_jump.hkx and eureka! It shows in-game, but only when i jump. This leads me to believe either i am doing something wrong, or maybe staffmagicright_runarm and staffmagicright_walkarm are not used in the game at all? Just so you know i tested staffmagicright_walkarm and staffmagicright_runarm with a staff weapon(the forsworn staff to be exact) in the right hand.

 

Any ideas fore? Or anyone else for that matter?

 

Thanks,

big

 

EDIT: Ok just edited staffmagic_walkarm.hkx(no right this time) and placed it in the above folder structure, and tried ingame and still nothing. Either the _runarm and _walkarm animations are not used when running and walking with a staff or im doing something wrong with them. I can get my edited animations to show if i rename them to mt_jump, but not when i try and make them a _runarm or _walkarm.

Edited May 21, 2012 by biggestkid

[fore]

The I don't have a handy explanation. Except it must have something to do with behavior. Because when you place an animation file under the right name, it will ALWAYS try play. Maybe scrambled, or as (half-T) bind pose, or maybe even CTD, but it will never ignore your animation file.

 

Maybe it has something to do with blending. Very often in_game animations are blended from different animation files, and if you only changed specific bones from standard your changes might be over-blended from another animation. Did you do a complete modification?

 

If you want to verify your animation in-game (however without forward motion, and with an ironsword instead of staff) you can use FNIS Spells. Simply replace animations/FNIS/FNISo001.hkx with your file and cast a non-busy NPC, like the guard at Whiterun market.

[MrMino]

make sure to unequipped any staffs you are holding or have sheathed. your animation won't appear if you are already holding a staff, or it would appear all messed up for me otherwise.

 

each animation has a left and a right... so staffmagicwalkrightarm will only affect the right arm when walking.

The best way to test out your animation is using the ck in the actor-animation tab. it reads nonreplacer files so you don't have to rename the file everytime.

[xp32]

I have some hypothesis for this case:

-Problem : Why staffmagicright_runarm.hkx doesn't played even after we put it

- Possible answer:

1. It's not listed in Default(fe)male.hkx, Why ? to no 3

2. No Action of Event>Animation Event define the trigger

3. Bethesda intentionally disable it (e.g mt_jumpforwardtest.hkx)

4. staffmagicright_runarm.hkx is a floating type animation which only take certain motion from certain skeleton node (e.g mrh_idle.hkx or mlh_idle.hkx it only motion right or left hand not the entire skeleton motion)

 

no 3 is just an assumption

What Mr Mino say is refer to no 4 and I agree with him

To should rename it to the correct name (replacer type)

 

as for 350.987000 for the run and 58.000000 it may refer to speed. The number is so similar to run and walk speed in CK

Edited May 21, 2012 by xp32

[biggestkid]

make sure to unequipped any staffs you are holding or have sheathed. your animation won't appear if you are already holding a staff, or it would appear all messed up for me otherwise.

 

each animation has a left and a right... so staffmagicwalkrightarm will only affect the right arm when walking.

The best way to test out your animation is using the ck in the actor-animation tab. it reads nonreplacer files so you don't have to rename the file everytime.

 

Yeah i dont even have a staff on my character, every time i load up the mod i give him one using player.additem in the console.

 

Could you please elaborate further on the actor-animation tab? What is a non-replacer file? Will this change how my animation is viewed in game?

 

Thanks for all the help so far,

big