LE .hkx animation - animate/move mesh, not bones?

[ghosu]

Hello

 

Well another new animation thread each 2 or 3 weeks, maybe i get some feedback this time.

Short story: I made a musket mod, i want to add a bolt-action rifle, i'm using the crossbow skeleton. Since this skeleton is not fitting my rifle and i can't adjust it the proper way i have to find another way to add a fitting reload animation.

 

Afaik there are 2 common ways of animation:

 

Using havok .hkx files, i exported the crossbow_reload animation to 3DsMax using the common method (http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Working_with_animations_in_Skyrim or the tutorial from TheNexus), this animation moves bones of the skeleton = moves vertices of my mesh when i shoot/reload or whatever.

 

or

 

(loop) animation directly stored inside a .nif, you can directly animate/move NiTriShapes, these animations are not linked to ingame actions like shoot/reload but based on time.

 

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to create such a .hkx and add an animation to it to move a NiTriShapeData of the nif? Maybe create a .kf in 3DsMax and add an animation from a nif to this .kf using NifSkope? So when i shoot/reload ingame the havok animation not only moves bones but a mesh instead?

 

 

I would create two meshes, one of the weapon itself and one of the animated part, in this cast just the bolt handle

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_59GYpEVAu0U/TDQhM5N3GdI/AAAAAAAAARA/GUWWYr0W5xw/s1600/bolt_action_rifle.gif

 

... or maybe another method / script to start an animation inside a nif when i shoot/reload? In fact i need a NiControllerSequence inside the musket's nif that plays the animation of the NiTriShape when i shoot/reload.

 

greetings

Edited October 17, 2012 by ghosu

[iakamil]

sadly, no you cannot create mesh animations.

in the dawnguard crossbow, the reload animation is actually done by bones. it is just that the bones are rigid bound to certain pieces of the mesh. if you do 3D modelling, you would understand what i mean. oh and, its actually quite hard to implement completely new animations that arent replacers for vanilla ones, but i have heard it done

Edited October 18, 2012 by iakamil

[ghosu]

I know that the reload animation is done by bones, i'm using this method in my actual alpha version but since the crossbow skeleton doesn't fit my musket mesh i need a new solution to add a proper reload animation.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jN9CSR4wCTQ#t=169s

 

So it seems that i have to avoid havok animations and the only other method i know are animations that use a NiTransformController inside the nif.

 

My actual 2nd idea: Create the rifle as a crossbow weapon slot (NIF0), create the reload mechanism (bolt handle) as a new armor slot (NIF1). NIF1 starts with a normal animation that is stored inside the file. Then i would need a script that re-equips NIF1 every time i shoot or reload to trigger the animation.

 

Or create the whole rifle without animation as NIF0 and another one that starts with a reload animation of the bolt handle as NIF1 and add a change script, but in this case i have to skip the re-equip animation and positioning so the first version might work better.

 

I could imagine that something like this would word, the Dwemer Mechanical Sword mod comes with such a script. It's a hidden blade, when you equip the weapon it uses NIF0 (blade hidden along the arm ) and when you draw the weapon it changes to NIF1 (starts with animation to reveal the blade), when you press R to put the weapon away it changes back to NIF0, that starts with an animation to retract the blade.

 

But i have no big clue 'bout scripts, so if someone could create such a script for me i would prepare a new plugin/nif. Otherwise i have to create it myself, this would take 100 times longer than for someone that is familiar with scripting and delay the mod...so help is much apprectiated, i guess i'll create a new thread.

 

UPDATE:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/809863-a-script-to-change-from-nifa-to-nifb/

 

greetings

Edited October 18, 2012 by ghosu