Multiple animation channels

MajorTom, did you once tell me that there could only be one animation channel per lightwave scene? If so, I don't think my idea for fixing the wing animations will work. Because there has to be 3 channels for each LOD, and all LODs must be in the same scene, for a total of 9 channels in one scene.

Also, how many weapon effects do you need created and what are they? I know you need the basic Imperial and Rebel turbolasers, but are there any other non-standard weapon graphics that you need?

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Hmm
*in total confusion*
I've said lots of things in my time that I don't remember
AFAIK you can have multiple channels and they can all be named specifically. They should however be named the same on all ship types so we can use the same pog scripts for all the different animated ships. in other words we need the same name convention for all ships.

*more confusion*
At the moment you have only 2 LODs for the wings per model and two .lws files (wings left and right) with the animation for the model.
Each of those have the same channel which is called.
AddNullObject <anim channel=sfoil?+s(0.5)>
(note: the (0.5) means 2 sec duration)

I thought we were talking about making the wing position Closed visible and not visible with one channel. say like:
AddNullObject <anim channel=wingopen?+s(<?>)>
(Note: the (<?>) means whatever we need to insert for it to be instantanous)

Accordingly the Wing Position Open which would be visible and not visible with a channel. Say Like:
AddNullObject <anim channel=wingclosed?+s(?)>

The third channel would be the same as we already have and would show the sfoils animating during the 2 sec duration.

I guess (if the concept works) you would need 3 channels in each wing .lws (left and right) which would then be named the same in each LOD you provide.

Hmm come to think of it. Maybe we can just have 2 channels: One alternativly Open and Closed with instantanous animation, and one with the slow 2 sec animation to show in between those 2 states. [?]


On the weapons graphics:
Are you happy with the Disruptor gun bolts and effects? Basically we need bolts for each type of weapon on each ship. I think they should be/look a little different on each ship? At least it was my intention to have different fire rates and somewhat different sounds on each ship.





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We may need to talk more about this on the phone. But I'm pretty sure you told me that I could only have one animation chanel per scene, which is why each wing, at each LOD, has a separate setup file. As well as the engine lights being another separate file.

Although there are only two LOD models, there are still three LODs. The two closest LODs use the high res models, because they're both so close to the camera. And the lowest LOD uses the low res models.

Different fire rates for each ship sounds reasonable, presuming each ship is mounted with a different gun type. And we definitely want to use the correct sounds for each ship's guns.

I need to look through the films again to check the A and B-wing guns, but the X-Wing needs to have it's guns fire like in single player mode; i.e. each barrel fires in turn, not at the same time. I'm sure you can do that. But let's continue the gun topic in the mod scripting forum. I didn't mean to get it started here, sorry.

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Yes, it does look like we need to use the phone.
I think I said if you use seperate scenes, the channel in each scene has to have the same name. That doesn't mean you can only have one channel per scene. Look at the fast attack ship scene; it has a whole bunch of channels.

What I said or didn't say in which context isn't really important. What counts is what works.

instead of theorizing, lets do something, then try it out and see.


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instead of theorizing, lets do something, then try it out and see.

Because it's a lot of work. I'm going to have to have nine different versions of the contents of each of the three scenes, for each animated ship.

I think the issue might have been with having more than one anim chanel with the same name in the same scene.

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I think I might have an alternate solution that, if it would work, would mean a lot less work and much less complicated scene files.

But first, a question: Let's say that there's an X-Wing next to me with it's wings closed. It animates it's wings into the open position, but I don't see that (the standard problem). It's wings are now in the open position. But I still don't see it. After calling the wing animation, it calls another animation; any animation, it doesn't matter what. After that, I look at the X-Wing. What do I see? Are the wings open or closed? Do the animations stack? Will the second animation displace the first one.

My hope is that, instead of the extremely complicated animation scene files we discussed earlier, I could just add a sort of non-animation channel null. That is, an animation channel null that doesn't do anything or animate anything. If you could call this animation channel immediately after the wing animation, and it would flush the animation buffer, leaving the previous animation (wings) in the finished position, then that would be much easier to set up (not to mention execute) than the other solution.

Could this work? You can add an animation channel null manually to a scene through notepad to test this if you need to. Since the null doesn't have to actually animate anything, it doesn't matter where it goes or what it's attached to. (Or I could do it. Whatever is easier for you.)

I think my original solution was pointing in the right direction, but it was needlessly over-complicated.

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