here i believe,are some of the technical specs on the animation format(hooray for me! )
ANM File Format

a very comprehensive guide to building airplane models with moving parts,animated with anm format....might be the key to understanding this format and an insight into the FL game engineTargetware Developer's Guide to 3D Modeling


Edited by - Cold_Void on 7/25/2005 5:32:44 PM

It seems DA has done something something different in this case. Cuz I don't think the ANM-files those tutorials deal with are in an UTF-format. But the ones you find in the Freelancer directory are.

But if they really use the format descriped in the tutorials, the inofmation is most likely to be split, for bones and the sceleton are defined in the DFM-file.

"ANM" is a very generic file extension. I wouldn't read very much into it. I'm thinking that the ANMs were probably made with Max 4 using motion-capture and then a lot've blend zones, and then exported into FL.

I'm not sure if we're going to get this file-type cracked, to be perfectly honest. I've already done some experiments, and have changed the rotational speed of some static animations, but it took a LOT of experimentation to even figure that much out. Quite honestly, it's going to be extremely hard to do, unless this lead we got from Strail about using the Havok export tools for Max is correct...

It would be great if we figured out this "Last Myatery". He,he, all my m8s will be going "WOW!" if i could make that warp drive thinghy on my warp ship rotate when it jumps!!!

P.S, Strail's server is great, i'm playing there.
P.S.S, Jump drive itself is still under develomment.

The keyboard is mightier than the sword

Edited by - Evangel on 7/26/2005 5:36:36 AM

How 'bout we talk about tradelane jump drives? similar to the theory of jump drives, but intra-system

*smacks face*
i put that on the wrong thread, soory

Considering the latest 3ds max version is 7 and 2-4 years ago was 3 or 4: How often do new versions come out? Cuz verson 4 sound... "older".

Anyway: I also think anm was just chosen, because it is a nice suffix for animations, that's all.

So, Argh, if I may ask, if you changed the rotational speed, you have to know a bit aout the format, right? What is it you know?

knowing something about the format won't help much if you don't know operational parameters like displacement,rotation,etc - although an exporter would certainly help you're not going to get anything new without knowing at least how joints are mapped,animations are programmed etc.the 'anm' files are collections of .anms,each contains jointmaps keyframes and headers-the basis of all ANIMation formats. if you actually want to animate body parts all i can say is good luck - freelancer has NO interpolation between animations which means any new animation will just look like unnatural twitching,you're going to need a motion capturing setup and you can't even map joints without being able to import the model.Take this advice,give up on animating body parts,its not going to happen -ever.meanwhile,i have gotten the cargo bay door animation to work but the Joint Mapping errors it generates produce significant load on the server.If we could simply rename baydoors in animations and remap joints we would be well on our way to having stations with working doors,custom jumpgates that work,etc.your ambition is admirable but we must learn to crawl before we can compete in the triathalon

Yeah, exactly this is the problem I am encountering at the moment. I modified the script for the first sequence on manhattan a bit and while Trent is doing what he is supposed to do, in the background people do strange things like running short distances, typing on an imaginary keyboard or scratching their heads.

It all is possible, with good coordination even entirely new scripts, but the main problem is to have the animations lined up to look realistic. And with the (considering how many things a human being can do) small number of animations being there already, I came up with this topic.

And I am still very interested in this baydoor animation thing and tried to get information about it for quite some time now.

Heck, I just want a female shipdealer to fidget correctly! As it is, she looks like a person who was once badly mauled by a giant guard wombat.

Oh... in case you're wondering giant guard wombats are one of my commodities. Their blurb (ids_info) reads like this:

These ugly, malicious, minions of destruction and chaos are a cross between the Ancient Behemoth and the now extinct Devil Wombat (and good riddance if you ask me!). These extremely territorial, intractable killers are as vicious as a jilted mother-in-law divorce lawyer, as tough as a piledriver, and as large as a wheeled transporter. You need but one (don't, for the love of God, get a breeding pair) to ensure your vacant property (and I mean VACANT) stays free of intrusion in your absence... Best never to visit at all after getting one of these! They breed on but one hidden planet in the far reaches of nearly unexplored space (Thank God!), though how they ever accomplish such a union with their temperment is beyond human understanding. JSG found these things and sets the price of Giant as well as Mini Guard Wombats thruought the systems. If you must have one it can be acquired at only a few scattered stations and of course Planet Wombata or Wombata Moon, but don't say I didn't warn you!

They cost about $120,000 apiece so I buy a bunch of them whenever I get close to the billion mark and eject them into space and shoot them! Then I go back down a few bucks so I can still collect stuff from the guys I shoot.

See my post, "Sexist THNs! begone!", which is farther down this Forum.

Edited by - Argh on 7/28/2005 3:50:16 AM

the idea of people running around in the background is really good - why would everyone just stand around in a bar? btw there is a really cool drunk-staggering animation you could use in a bar *Manhatten_Guy i think with the right thn coding you could probably make the drunk mill around in circles or just walk out the opposite door also there is a dancing animation that i haven't seen used - would be cool to see the center of the bar filled with people doing that goofy dance to some music

Edited by - Cold_Void on 7/28/2005 2:28:34 PM

Which dance animation do you mean? Are you refering to the one shown in this one very early trailer? I'm not sure if this animation is in the game anymore.

no ive used it myself in the cvfc roleplay enhancement just for fun,its in bodygenricmale.anm; Sc_MLBODY_STND_DANC_000LV_A_28 for males and Sc_FMBODY_STND_DANC_000LV_A_20 for females