Trespasser supports Animation scripts!

Post by **Andres** » Sat Sep 06, 2003 10:40 pm

I've discovered an unused trigger action (26), which I've called "Play Animation". This loads an animation script, which specifies the state of objects at different times. Also, you can specify a Camera object that controls the viewport, giving Anne an "out of body" experience. Once the animation finishes playing, the viewport moves back to Anne. (Working example to come soon.)

eg. "test.asa"
version 1

object Crate-00

frame 0
pos 1 2 3
rot 0 0 0 1
scale 1

frame 2.5
pos 10 2 3
rot 0 0 1 0
scale 1.5

end_object

Post by **Rebel** » Sat Sep 06, 2003 11:17 pm

This sounds incredibly interesting!

*So that's what that grouping inside of the exe translates too, eh?

You're a clever man, Andres.

Post by **Andres** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 12:24 am

Here's an example, let me know if you have problems: http://www.ediy.co.nz/andres/temp/AnimTest.zip

My first thought was of a proper robotic arm doing things in the hatchery when buttons are pressed. I'm not sure what TC_Isle is going to include, but people would sure be blown away with some decent animated objects! (To think that DWI went to the trouble of fully implementing this but didn't ever use it!)

Post by **Rebel** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 12:34 am

I'm checking it out now.. ..

Didn't appear to work inside the demo engine, so I switched to the retail. That is way cool! We're definitely going to have to find some uses for this, great discovery!

*Actually, it does work inside demo engine, I messed up. That's just damn cool, though. I've noticed those settings a hundred times but I just assumed that they were attached to dino animations in some manner. This type of operation reminds me of the first dino crisis game when you're operating the crane and moving the containers about. Initially, you start up the controls, but then the animation sequence took over, gave that oob camera trick and placed you near the action. Cool stuff -

Again, beautiful.. .. I'm certain that we'll be using this.

Post by **madppiper** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 1:24 am

man....

that is sooo darn cool...

in which ways are these animations limited? like how would we place certain camera movements etc?

Post by **Andres** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 1:52 am

The animations can move/rotate objects and the Camera in any way: eg. smoothly interpolating between key frames, or instantly jumping a large distance. Animations are started by triggers just like sounds etc. So using a location trigger, if Anne entered a certain place it could fire a 'cutscene' type animation, where the camera peeks around a corner or something to see a raptor nest. Or at the start of the level there could be a flyover of the level, or cut to a special part of it as a preview before returning control to Anne. Or with a collision trigger, we can have buttons making robotic arms move etc. Quite powerful really

Only problem is there's no hierarchy (parent objects), so all positions are in world space. Our robot arm can't actually have joints, but we can still set the position/rotation of the write/hand to make it seem like they are connected. Remdul of course knows more about making animations than me.

Post by **Rebel** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 2:26 am

So, if I understand correctly, if for instance, we wanted to do a flyby (camera only), we'd simply use 'object camera/object_end' without the virtual object?

*I seem to be correct (just tried it). Cool, could do an intial flyby as you suggested, peak around a corner, make machinery move smoothly.. .. what a fine addition to tc isle this will be.

Post by **MikeTheRaptor** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 3:12 am

Wow, this is awesome!!! I can't wait to see this in-game!!!!! Wow... wow...... ok really though, this is cool!

Post by **Rebel** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 3:20 am

I'd say that pretty much sums it up, Mike.

Post by **madppiper** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 11:03 am

Hey Andres, is there maybe a way to simplify scripting this thing in TresEd? (like they do in SMax?)

Like could you create a 'camera path' which is then turned into the needed script?

Post by **Rebel** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 12:04 pm

Post by **madppiper** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 12:09 pm

yeah true...

Post by **Rebel** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 12:11 am

I spent a few minutes (about 20 actually) putting together a camera flyby of tc isle. Man, Rem, I'm surprised that you haven't commented on this yet 'cause this is just, wow.

I put the view of the island music (fits nice) on a timer trigger which kicks in as the flyby begins. The camera goes up to what will be the waterfall area, does a nice 180 pan, then glides back down towards where the SSVenture will be, another 180, then rotates around the ridge. Far from perfect, but beginning the level like this, with this island panorama would simply blow people away. I even love this!

I had this setup in a duplicate tc isle level (my dino testing center) so I had several raptors running beneath my disembodied self while the camera headed up to the waterfall area; that was pretty neat.

Obviously, this is just one possibility. If you wanted, you could fly up to the crater, do a 180, then swoop back down towards the ocean, or swing out past the lighthouse and glide down towards the b29 area. Whatever, doesn't matter. The main point is, I think this would be a fantastic way of introducing the players to the level. This would also be a good method of creating an avi for the level if you just wanted to showcase an overview of the isle and not gameplay itself --

http://www.trespasserextras.com/view.ZIP

Post by **Andres** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 1:45 am

Well I can put up a TresEd version just for Ops members. (I wasn't intending to make any public releases in the near future anyway.) What I could easily do is: print to the output window a "frame" with the current view pos/rot in it, and also a frame with the selected instance pos/rot/scale. You'd still have to put together the animation yourself, but it might simplify typing the pos/rot values. Would that be much use do you think?

Post by **Rebel** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 1:51 am

Actually, that sounds pretty good. Ouput current camera position, and if desired, an object along with it. Put it all together and you have your animation.. ..

It's got my vote.