Warthog animations.

[Hunter]

Okay, I want to get a warthog in-game quickly. So I rigged it up quickly, and started to animate. There was a probelm with exporting the first animations for the wheel turning.

But then when I come to export the model blitzkrieg gave me this error "there are two many actors in the scene! Can not export single model."

I am guessing I have to many nodes.. am I correct?

And anyone know a good step by step tutorial on animating a warthog?

[kid908]

you have 2 or more independent frames. make sure all is connected to "frame warthog" or something. it gives that when it can tell which one is the parent frame because there are more than 1 parent frame.

[Kalub]

I'll basically reiterate what kid said.


If you press, "h" it will bring up an object selection. Make sure your display subtree is on. Once you've established that, make sure there is only one parent frame in the scene. If you have any more problems then post a screenshot of your "h" object selection.


(Sorry if our replies are really vague Hunter)

[Hunter]

frame hull
#antenna
#camera driver
#camera rider
#driver
#driver enter
#engine
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights
#headlights_light
#left hand lf
#left hand rf
#passenger
#passenger enter
#passenger lb
#passenger lb camera
#passenger enter
#passenger lf
#passenger lf camera
#passenger lf enter
#passenger rb
#passenger rb camera
#passenger rb enter
#passenger rf
#passenger rf camera
#passenger rf enter
#primary trigger
#right hand lb
#right hand rb
#taillights
#taillights
#taillights
frame left back suspension
back_left
frame left back engine
frame left front suspension
frame left front engine
frame left fron tire
front_left_wheel
front_left
frame right back suspension
back_right
frame right back engine
frame right front suspension
frame right front engine
frame right front tire
frnt_right_wheel
front right
frame steering wheel
#left hand wheel grip
#right hand wheel grip
Object02
Object05
frame left back tire
back_left_wheel
frame right back tire
back_right_wheel
Just noticed some of those a linked wrong. But yeah...
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/martynball/warthog_animation.jpg

Edit: I am guessing it is because the two frame down bottom which are not linked right. Yes? Lol.

[Advancebo]

the frame tires should be linked to its corresponding frame engine

Also you wont need to reanimate it if your using the same node set as the stock warthog, and if its the same basic size.
And the "engines" are those little objects that connect the tires to the supensions.

[Kalub]

Yea, and you have a typo:

frame left fron tire


Anyways, good luck animating this thing. It can be a royal bitch till you figure it out. With all those other markers you not going to be able to use the stock warthog animations.

[Advancebo]

Animations tags dont care about markers, only physics and gbxmodel tags do.

Oh and I forgot that he cant use the stock warthog animations because he doesnt have the frames from the turret.

by the way, this should help in animating:

Source:
http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=24629
Go down to my post on vehicle animations

[Kalub]

>_> I was pretty sure that they did,



However, if I remember right there is only like 7 animations that you have to do. I think he can pull it off. :)

[Hunter]

Cheers guys.

[Kalub]

:) Always happy to help, or throw in my two cents.

[Hunter]

Eh. Wanted to check the seats work ingame.. but I cannot put it in sapian, says it is Out of objects.... I need to have collision-geometry? Or an animation-graph.


Damn, so long since I modded Halo:CE lmao.

[Choking Victim]

Eh. Wanted to check the seats work ingame.. but I cannot put it in sapian, says it is Out of objects.... I need to have collision-geometry? Or an animation-graph.


Damn, so long since I modded Halo:CE lmao.
All units need animation graphs to be placed in sapien. btw, without collision, if you enter a vehicles seat the game will exception when you exit.

[Hunter]

Damn. Okay, so what animations do I need for the warthog? Its a pretty simple vehicle to animate, the only thing which move are the suspenion, and steering and the wheels turning.

ffs. Is there an easy way to make a collision model without attaching every single part which goes through geometry?

[Kalub]

I'll explain the animations from memory:

Stand Closing.JMA - Like the banshee when the cockpit closes, it really isn't needed in the warthog. This animation can be a renamed Stand Fixed Idle copy.
Stand Fixed Idle.JMA - The animation for the idle state of the vehicle
Stand Opening.JMA - Like the banshee cockpit opening, it can also be a renamed copy of Stand Fixed Idle
Suspension Left Back.JMO - Animation of the suspension fully compressing
Suspension Left Front.JMO - ""
Suspension Right Back.JMO - ""
Suspension Right Front.JMO - ""
Vehicle Ground-speed.JMO - Animation of all 4 wheels turning 360degrees
Vehicle Steering.JMO - Animation of the warthog steering. Don't forget the warthog has four wheel steering. This will be the hardest animation because I can't remember how you have to set it up. I will look around in my data folder and try to find a reference. I will edit this post when I do so.

e: Here is a link to an older project of mine, it will give you some ideas of what you need. Please keep in mind that it is easily 2-3 years old and I would only use it for reference. Also, it will be missing a lot of dependencies, you shouldn't need them to preview the animations.
http://rapidshare.com/files/220667817/dune.rar.html

Please reply to the thread telling me you have the files, and they aren't corrupt. And check your rep

[adumass]

If you have the same frames as the regular warthog and its just missing the turret frames, why not just add in the frames for the warthog turret so you can use the same animation graph? Its not like frames are visible in game.

[Hunter]

Cheers Kalub for writing the post and uploading stuff for me. And I have now got the file and killed the link. Thanks again.

And does anyone know how to make easy collision models? Because there a lot of parts which need to be added onto the main model because they go through the geomtry. There a way around that?

[Invader Veex]

I usually create a box and just shape it around the edges of the object, making it slightly more detailed as I go.

[Hunter]

Thats what I was thinking, Thanks. Eh.. you have to keep all of the nodes and frames on the collision model dont you? Because I made a box a attached it to the main frame because I cant be arsed make proper collision yet, but tool said this :



C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool collision-geometry veh
icles\hr_warthog
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
### hr_warthog.JMS
### ERROR couldn't add pathfinding sphere.
### ERROR failed to import collision model 'vehicles\hr_warthog\hr_warthog'.

[Choking Victim]

Thats what I was thinking, Thanks. Eh.. you have to keep all of the nodes and frames on the collision model dont you? Because I made a box a attached it to the main frame because I cant be arsed make proper collision yet, but tool said this :



C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool collision-geometry veh
icles\hr_warthog
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
### hr_warthog.JMS
### ERROR couldn't add pathfinding sphere.
### ERROR failed to import collision model 'vehicles\hr_warthog\hr_warthog'.

Delete any markers in your scene and recompile.

[Hunter]

Mint. Worked, thanks.

Edit: More problems, there is no shadow coming from the warthog. And it is floating a bit. (Physics HaloGuru said, will fix.) And the wheels stay turned to the right even though I animated the turning animations right. which is:

0=Default
1=Right Turn
2=Default
3=Left Turn

[Kalub]

Sorry I don't remember how to fix any of that :(

[kid908]

the floating is caused by the physics. and for the shadow...i think u need to give it bounding area(try it i'm not 100% sure...actually i'm about 25% sure that it's the bounding area; the other 75% say the shader tag)

[Hunter]

Well I am using the vehicle tag from the normal warthog. So it must be the shader.

[Choking Victim]

Well I am using the vehicle tag from the normal warthog. So it must be the shader.
If you have no collision, that's why you don't have a shadow. To fix the turning animations, you need to set the aiming screen bounds in the animation tag.

[Hunter]

I have got collision now. (A box) Lol. And cheers.

[kid908]

I have got collision now. (A box) Lol. And cheers.

try a proper collision -.- actually try to outline ur model it's not that hard. most extrusion on that hog of urs can be totally removed and while we're on the topic of your hog model, plz fix the wheel smoothing groups. It's seem like the tires were over pumped and it's going to explode to me.

[Advancebo]

If the part are intersecting, it will go through tool. But you cant have a collision if it has open edges, or overlapping faces, as in the faces are right on top of each other and in the same position.

[Hunter]

I have made a proper collision for now. Still no shadows...

[Kalub]

Did you ever fix the floating? That might be the cause of it too. But, I really wouldn't worry about it until a final build. If you need so I'll give you my collision model for my warthog, and you can just add the roll cage and seats to the back. I know mine works, because it's Bacons :P

[kid908]

Did you ever fix the floating? That might be the cause of it too. But, I really wouldn't worry about it until a final build. If you need so I'll give you my collision model for my warthog, and you can just add the roll cage and seats to the back. I know mine works, because it's Bacons :P
the floating should not effect the shadow. one of my vehicle was floating but there was a shadow.

[Advancebo]

There should be a way to extract collision models from Halo CE... so that you can just modify the frames or geometry for a new vehicles collision.

[Heathen]

This is completely random and totally unrelated, but is their any way to make the invisibility from the powerup look like it does when you press control while using the Tachikoma on hugeass?

[Advancebo]

I dont think you can change the invisibility shaders of the powerup. Though I might be wrong.

[Kalub]

I'm not sure why you would want to do that, but I'm sure you could tinker around and try?

[Hunter]

I fixed the floating, it was the physics.

[teh lag]

This is completely random and totally unrelated, but is their any way to make the invisibility from the powerup look like it does when you press control while using the Tachikoma on hugeass?

There's a section in globals.globals that deals with active camo settings. I'm sure you could mess with the cubemap and such to get that effect.

[Hunter]

With the back 4 seats. I have named them "hrwarthog LB" ect... in the label name. Do I need to define that seat name in the globals tag or anything? And i will need to make strings wont I?

[teh lag]

With the back 4 seats. I have named them "hrwarthog LB" ect... in the label name. Do I need to define that seat name in the globals tag or anything? And i will need to make strings wont I?

You'll need to set up the cyborg .model_animations tag to recognize those - unless you nee custom animations, just duplicating and renaming the w-passenger (or whatever the normal seat is called) block at the top of the tag to the appropriate strings should be enough.

[Hunter]

Okay thanks.

[Advancebo]

Try the scorpion seats.

[Kalub]

^This



I'm glad to hear that your getting it going.