Exporting Current Model with new pivot point

#21 If by the animations you're talking about the stuff in the .dsq files external to the .dts file, then it's quite possible that those need to be re-generated too, if they have some assumption about what the pivot point is. I don't see any part of the character being placed higher than it should be, like the "popping" you mention, but I would believe that the animations might need to be regenerated to prevent some problem or other.

If you have made an export of the model with a raised pivot point, I'd like to give it a try just for the heck of it. Theoretically the results should be the same as the exporting that Greg has been doing, but practice isn't always the same as theory... it would be nice to know whether we're boffing the export process, or whether the error is elsewhere.

In any case, thanks again for your help.

#22 www.joemaruschak.com/Pivot.zip

Good luck. Too see the 'popping' look in the -showtool, not in the game.

#23 Interesting. No missing pieces on that one, and no 90 degree turn, but it is standing way above the ground, as if the pivot had not been moved. Must be an indication that the animations do indeed need to be re-exported too. Once Greg becomes available again we'll check that out.

#24 Yes, the animations are aware of their relationship to the bounds pivot point.. The bounds pivot is sort of like the shapes own little 'world'.

I am still trying to think of a way to do this without you having to re-export all the animations, but at the moment, a way to do this is escaping me.

Again, good luck...

#25 Thanks. I've been looking at the docs, and it doesn't sound like re-exporting the .dsq files is a big deal, just maybe a little tedious. Tedious we can handle. :-)

#26 Mmm, although... are you saying that the animations are not already included in the .max file, ready for export?

If we don't have the animations available for exporting, that would be bad.

EDIT: Hmm, I wonder if this applies: http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2133

When I originally read that a while back, I assumed that the point was that the default player model was not using Tribes 2 animations, and so it was addressing people who did want to get the animations from T2. However now that I look at the T2 .dsq files, it looks like the default player model animations are exactly the same as the ones for the light human model in T2. So, I'm getting worried that we actually don't have the default player model animations available in any format except .dsq.

If so (crap!), do you suppose there's some legal reason why GG can give licensees the .dsq exported animations but not the .max originals?

#27 No idea why the MAX files with the animations are not available to the public. They are not included in the Player MAX file.

I can' think of a way to get the results you want without re-exporting new animations.

#28 Well, I decided to take a few hours and see if I could crack the relevant code enough to make the change programmatically.

Short answer: nope.

Long answer: When TGE reads in the .dts file, in chunks it into some memory buffers. Later it reads out of those memory buffers into various vectors that describe the file. I thought I would be clever and modify that part of the code to subtract 1.719 (pivot point adjustment) from the z component of each element of defaultTranslations, nodeTranslations, and groundTranslations. Also when importing the .dsq info I made it subtract 1.719 from any nodeTranslations or groundTranslations contained in those.

Man oh man; not even close. When I tried it out, it looked like an explosion on the field; player model pieces everywhere. Bleh. Maybe modifying the node translations isn't enough, and I also need to adjust the submesh info or something.

I guess I should try to ping the appropriate GG guy (whoever that might be?) about the availability of the .max animations. Eventually we're going to be making our own models and animations, of course, but that's a ways down the road.