Questions

[Fluffy203]

1.Is it possible to have a hit animation?
2.Is their an animation limit?
3.Making sure can't have particle systemsl , animated textures or Garrison units right?
4.Possible for a kill animation?
5.Can you have multiple particles? such as 3 missiles?
6.How about having a unit create a unit , but its just a weapon? Lets say a sky fortress and i want you to be able to create gunners , but they have a certain spot on the ship is this possible?

Please feel free to answer these questions , would much appreciate it 

[silnarm]

1. Nope.
2. You shouldn't use many frames, Glest interpolates for you. If you set-up your 3d program to do the same, there may be a way to export just the keyframes, which is what you want.
3.particle systems = yes , animated textures = no, Garrison units = no (planned for GAE)
4.Most unit's have 'die' animations, is that what you mean?
5.Not sure, someone else might have to field this one.
6.Awesome idea! Can't be done now, no. (idea will be investigated for in GAE!)

[Mark]

I think that number 4 means like for the attack that would kill the enemy there would be a special kind of flourish in the attackers anim, like a combo or a heavier blow.

[madmanntis]

3.particle systems = yes , animated textures = no, Garrison units = no (planned for GAE)

Particle systems = yes? How? Can one currently export a particle system from blender, and if so, how?

[Fluffy203]

Thx for the answers , but yea particle systems = No lol just tried it =P

[Mark]

Thx for the answers , but yea particle systems = No lol just tried it =P

Your welcome.

3.particle systems = yes , animated textures = no, Garrison units = no (planned for GAE)

Particle systems = yes? How? Can one currently export a particle system from blender, and if so, how?

I think that he means the particle system in the xmls, not in a model.

Also, what is a garrison unit?  A unit that is solely for defence?  The idea sounds cool though.  I heard somewhere that in the future GAE will allow walkable buildings.  (Like a unit standing on top of a crenellated wall instead of on the ground).  I think that if applied, that would be the single most enjoyable battle feature for Glest.

[Fluffy203]

Yea hopefully they do it if not i'll have to try to find a way around it =P Anyways do you know how complicated it is creating a flash without animated textures lol i'm doing it tho 

[silnarm]

I think that he means the particle system in the xmls, not in a model.

Yep, that's what I meant. No particle systems exported from blender/max. They need to be set-up in XML and I think you can maybe only use them for attacks at the moment.  GAE effects/emanations would allow you to do what I think you are getting at, but I believe they need some more work yet.

Also, what is a garrison unit?  A unit that is solely for defence?  The idea sounds cool though.  I heard somewhere that in the future GAE will allow walkable buildings.  (Like a unit standing on top of a crenellated wall instead of on the ground).  I think that if applied, that would be the single most enjoyable battle feature for Glest.

It's unit's housing other units, towers or walls with archers on them, transports, bridges, and whatever other stuff people can think of to use it for. This is indeed planned for GAE, and I recently had an idea that I believe will make it much less painful, but I haven't got the time to pursue it just yet.

[Omega]

For multiple projectiles, it is not technically possible, but you can have multiple projectiles SEEN if you use a model of say three missles in succession. Of course, the damage is that of one... If you wanted to make a three round burst, you need a anim speed three times the speed of the attack.

For example, anim-speed=120 speed=40. Now if there is an EP requirement, you'll detract the EP after three attacks, so by having 3 EP and 1 regen, it simulated a three round burst. This technique works and is tried and true in military. (going by memory, I may have switched up the speed and anim-speed).

Hailstone or someone mentioned they were going to try to add a vast number of image types for glest, to allow numerous formats to be used rather than just TGA's and BMP's. Once done, hopefully animated GIF's will be supported!

As for animation limits, I recommend no more than 10 frames. I have got away with 2 frames on some models in military and they still look good. Most of my models are 2 - 4 frames. Walking is usually 3-4, death is usually 3-5, attacking is usually 2-3, still is usually 2, hold is usually 1-2, so on... Buildings are often never animated. You'd be surprised just how well glest smooths the model animations out!

4.Possible for a kill animation?

Define 'kill animation'.

[wciow]

Define 'kill animation'.

I think he meant sync'd kills (and other animations) a la' Dawn of War.

[John.d.h]

As for animation limits, I recommend no more than 10 frames. I have got away with 2 frames on some models in military and they still look good. Most of my models are 2 - 4 frames. Walking is usually 3-4, death is usually 3-5, attacking is usually 2-3, still is usually 2, hold is usually 1-2, so on...

I hope you don't mean you have human units with so few frames per animation, because that would seriously look awful.  The normal Magitech animations have about seven frames and even they could use some work.  I say walking should have a bare minimum of seven, but nine or eleven are preferable so that things can be proportioned properly.  You need at least a contact pose (foot hits the ground), recoil pose (foot takes the weight of the body), passing pose, and high point, and then the flipped versions of each, to simulate a realistic walk cycle.  When a person walks, it's a lot more than just their arms and legs that move and you don't want your units looking like robots or gingerbread men (unless that's what you're making!  ).

For an excellent tutorial on rigging and animating (especially for human figures) go here: Upper body: building the armature.  Start with that page and progress through the tutorial all the way through "Animating a walk cycle".  This is for all the Blender users but I'm sure the 3DS people could get some good knowledge out of it as well.

Buildings are often never animated.

Often never, huh?

You'd be surprised just how well glest smooths the model animations out!

With that few frames, it doesn't have anything to smooth!

[Omega]

You don't think I can't make the animations look good? If I recover my files, I'll show you the power of a three frame walking animation. That's what the flamethrower has, and it is one of my favorite walking animations. Nicely, it only took 10 minutes (I already modeled and armatured it).

Of course, I split the body into separate parts, so we have lower left arm, lower right arm, upper left arm, upper right arm, head, torso, left leg, right leg, weapon, all in separate objects, so that may have something to do with my success in low frames. They look good in the G3D viewer, and even better in the game!

Of course, this method of mine isn't good for high detail games, and since it requires the smoothing of glest, it will only work for glest. For everything else, you'll need the old fashion way with 29 frames per second. It is not a DETAILED animation, but in Glest, it is perfect.

The point? Don't knock it till you've seen the OMEGA do it!

[John.d.h]

Of course, I split the body into separate parts, so we have lower left arm, lower right arm, upper left arm, upper right arm, head, torso, left leg, right leg, weapon, all in separate objects, so that may have something to do with my success in low frames. They look good in the G3D viewer, and even better in the game!

Interesting approach, but how does that make it any different?