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[fabiobasile]

here is the deal: i have created a character and spent all day long creating animations routines for it until i got 9 loops divided as follows:

(frames range     action)
 
1-39                  stand
40-139               walk
140-189             run
190-260             pickup
268-309             punch
309-338             opendoor
350-356             sit
358-370             get up
383-410             type

The X file is flawless, i opened it in both Deep Explorations and the default X viewer. Also i have exported a basic 3ds object, a flat road with some sidewalks and decided i would try to load everything in WME.

I created a new game, i called it "Alien". I deleted Molly's folder and created a new 3D actor (Trinity). I changed Trinity's name into Alien and replaced the geometry. I changed also the reference name of the actor and changed into LoadActor3D. In the main (and still only room) i clicked on the 3D tab and added the 3DS object, which didn't show in the window, nor the actor.
In the actor definition act3D file i changed it to reflect the following:

Code: [Select]

ACTOR3DX
{
  NAME = "Alien"
  CAPTION = ""
  INTERACTIVE = TRUE
  ACTIVE = TRUE
  SCRIPT = "actors\Alien\Alien.script"
  SHADOW_IMAGE = ""
  SHADOW_SIZE = 12.0
  LIGHT_POSITION { -40, 200, -40 }
  SIMPLE_SHADOW = FALSE
;  SHADOW_COLOR { 0, 0, 0, 128 }
  SCALE = 180



  ;--- velocity
  VELOCITY = 70.0
  ANGULAR_VELOCITY = 400.0

  ;--- external data
  MODEL = "actors\Alien\Alien.x"
  FONT = "fonts\outline_white.font"
  ;CURSOR = ...

  ANIMATION
  {
    NAME="idle"
    LOOPING=TRUE

    EVENT
    {
      FRAME = 1
    }

    EVENT
    {
      FRAME = 39
    }
  }

  ANIMATION
  {
    NAME="hold"
    LOOPING=TRUE

    EVENT
    {
      FRAME = 309
    }

    EVENT
    {
      FRAME = 338
    }
  }

  ANIMATION
  {
    NAME="walk"
    LOOPING=TRUE

    EVENT
    {
      FRAME = 1
      NAME = "footstep"
    }

    EVENT
    {
      FRAME = 139
      NAME = "footstep"
    }
  }

}

When i run the game i can see the 3D actor on top of the default background image. There is no trace of the 3DS object. My actor also won't move at all. In the debug window i have the following:

11:00:22 PM:  Maximum texture size: 4096x4096
11:00:22 PM:  Engine initialized in 359 ms
11:00:22 PM: 
11:00:22 PM:  Missing image: ''
11:00:24 PM:  Error: Animation 'idle' cannot be found in the model.
11:00:24 PM:  Error: Animation 'hold' cannot be found in the model.
11:00:24 PM:  Error: Animation 'walk' cannot be found in the model.
11:00:24 PM:  WARNING: Referencing absolute path 'e:\all projects\project template\template\3ds\roadmap.geometry'. The game will NOT work on another computer.
11:00:24 PM:  WARNING: Referencing absolute path 'e:\all projects\project template\template\3ds\roadmap.3ds'. The game will NOT work on another computer.

The way i see it there is a bunch of stuff i definitely neglected to do, but i have been out of the loop for a long time so i might need to refresh my memory... any help?

[Mnemonic]

Does the 3DS file contain camera? When you assign the 3DS file in SceneEdit, there's a selection of cameras.
Also, the 3D objects contained in the 3DS file need to be named in certain way to be recognized by WME. It's described in the documentation. At very least the file should contain one camera and a walkplane (a 3D mesh, whose name starts with "walk_").

There are other problem as well, as the log file indicates (you're refrencing the 3DS file using absolute path, because probably it's not located in your project folder, and the actor definition file references animation names not present in your X file). But these problems are not fatal.

[fabiobasile]

granted i fix the 3DS issue... how do i go about adding names on the X file? there is only one AnimationSet and i have no idea how to add more entries without messing up the file. I tried modifying it in Deep Exploration but no dice... there is an option to add animation sets but the changes are not saved, i even doubt it actually writes in the file.

Are there any direct x editors out there that can do this kind of job?

[Mnemonic]

And what software are you using to create the character? It can't export multiple animation sets?

[fabiobasile]

i created and animated the character in Maya 8.5 and exported it as .rh (Deep Exploraton native format), then i converted the rh into X and the result was disastrous, the shape was horribly deformed. The only way to to it properly was to export as LWS and then convert the LWS into X, which resulted in the model displaying and animating correctly.

[Mnemonic]

There used to be Maya exporter shipped with DirectX SDK, but it's no longer there in the recent versions...
Anyway, you don't need to use multiple animation sets with WME, you can export each animation to a separate X file. Then reference all the X files in the actor definition file. If the animation set isn't named, it inherits the name of the X file. So, for example you'd create a file called idle.x for "idle" animation, walk.x for "walk" animation etc.

[fabiobasile]

Man, it seems DirectX is both the most useful and the most neglected out of all 3D formats!

Anyways your approach of creating multiple files sounds reasonable so i'm going to try that. So basically in order to pull it off, for each file i should go find AnimationSet and add "walk", "talk", ect...?

[Mnemonic]

No, naming the X file should be enough. Like I said, if the animation set within the file is unnamed, it inherits the name of the X file. No need to manually mess with the file contents.