Creature Animation

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jhooks1
Posts: 780
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 21:34

Creature Animation

Post by jhooks1 »

I have been trying to fix a crash that happens with a lot of creatures when the skeleton is linked. I have observed this happening in Kwama queen.nif and ancestorghost.nif, I am sure it also happens in many other creatures. In Kwama Queens I have determine this crash is associated with Tri_Antena_L, Tri_Antena_R, and Tri Kwama Queen Eggsac. Until this is fixed, animation work will be limited to creatures that don't have this problem.
jhooks1
Posts: 780
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 21:34

Re: Creature Animation

Post by jhooks1 »

Hell Yes!!!!!! I fixed the crash, this is pretty major progress (I spent many many hours trying to figure out what was wrong).
Apparently if one submesh contains vertexBoneAssignments, all must contain vertexBoneAssignments. In nifs though, every NiTriShape does not contain a skin (where vertex assignments are located). I put a dummy vertex assignment with an index of 0 and weight of 0 onto submeshes whose corresponding NiTriShapes do not have a skin.

I pushed the fix to github.
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raevol
Posts: 3093
Joined: 07 Aug 2011, 01:12
Location: Caldera

Re: Creature Animation

Post by raevol »

!!! :D

I can't wait for physics and AI to get implemented so we can see all this animation work in all its glory! Congrats on the progress!
jhooks1
Posts: 780
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 21:34

Re: Creature Animation

Post by jhooks1 »

Thanks

Just fixed another animation related crash.
jhooks1
Posts: 780
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 21:34

Re: Creature Animation

Post by jhooks1 »

Ok, so creature animation is sort of working now. It is not entirely accurate but we are definitely going in the right direction and are very close. I am going to post a video of an AshZombie in Ainab soon. There are some vertex weight related things that once I fix I think this will look better.

EDIT: I may also post a video of an ancestral ghost. It looks very cool!!!!!!!!!!!

EDIT2: I had to actually modify the hardware buffers every frame to get this working. I also had to save NiTriShape data in a map, it was quite a task.

EDIT3: The positioning tactic that I was using (Apply "Bip01" to a ogre animation state) will not work for creatures. For now, creatures stay in the same postition, we are going to have to develop equations to move the scenenode when necessary.
jhooks1
Posts: 780
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 21:34

Re: Creature Animation

Post by jhooks1 »

AshZombie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSm8himWuNk

Once I fix a few things, the same technique should be used on NPCs to get hands to open and close. It should also be used to make tails on beasts bend, and chest pieces transform.

EDIT:
Ancestor Ghost http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebjM2d93L58
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raevol
Posts: 3093
Joined: 07 Aug 2011, 01:12
Location: Caldera

Re: Creature Animation

Post by raevol »

jhooks1, you are a machine.
safferli
Posts: 14
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 23:06

Re: Creature Animation

Post by safferli »

This (and you, jhooks!) is unbelievably awesome. Especially the ancestral ghost. :)
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sirherrbatka
Posts: 2159
Joined: 07 Aug 2011, 17:21

Re: Creature Animation

Post by sirherrbatka »

I guess that we should form jhooks fanclub :D
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Greendogo
Posts: 1467
Joined: 26 Aug 2011, 02:04

Re: Creature Animation

Post by Greendogo »

Nicely done Jhooks1!
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