Working with pickActionAnimation()

The current method of choosing your main action animation bases it's decision on the animations speed and the players velocity. While it works, and is possibly the more efficient method (I'm not a pro, I don't know), it's also extremely confusing to follow. And, personally, I've never managed to get my animation speeds nor ground transform changes to match the ingame velocity properly, which is how you would switch from a walk to a run.

Here's the current method:

for (i = 1; i < PlayerData::NumMoveActionAnims; i++) {
			      PlayerData::ActionAnimation &anim = mDataBlock->actionList[ i ];
			      if (anim.sequence != -1 && anim.speed) {
			         F32 d = mDot(vel, anim.dir);
			         if (d > curMax) {
			            curMax = d;
			            action = i;
			            forward = true;
			         } else {
			            // Special case, re-use slide left animation to slide right
			            if (i == PlayerData::SideLeftAnim && -d > curMax) {
			               curMax = -d;
			               action = i;
			               forward = false;
			            }
			         }
			      }
			   }

And here's my version: Like I said, it may not be quite as efficient, but its a whole lot more readable, and thus allows me to insert and check for any conditions I wish.

bool sprinting = vel.y > mDataBlock->maxForwardSpeed; // optional

			if (!vel.len() || vel.len() < .01) {  // anti twitch. If on a slope, they want to move 
				action = PlayerData::RootAnim;    // just a little bit. Slope code here?
				forward = false;
			} else if (abs(vel.y) > abs(vel.x)) { // forward/back
				if (sprinting && vel.y) {
					action = PlayerData::RunForwardAnim;
					forward = true;
					//Con::errorf("SPRINT %f %f", vel.x, vel.y);
				} else if (vel.y > 0.0) {
					action = PlayerData::WalkForwardAnim;
					forward = true;
					//Con::errorf("WALK %f %f", vel.x, vel.y);
				} else if (vel.y < 0.0) {
					action = PlayerData::BackBackwardAnim;
					forward = false;
					//Con::errorf("BACK %f %f", vel.x, vel.y);
				}
			} else if (vel.x < 0.0) {
				action = PlayerData::SideLeftAnim;
				forward = false;
				//Con::errorf("LEFT %f %f", vel.x, vel.y);
			} else if (vel.x > 0.0) {
				action = PlayerData::SideRightAnim;
				forward = false;
				//Con::errorf("RIGHT %f %f", vel.x, vel.y);
			}
		}
	}

A note about the anti twitch thingy; I noticed during testing that on a level ground, velocity was always 0. On even the slightest slope, there was always some velocity. Although the player never moved (small value negated by another force later on?), they would 'twitch' a bit. So for the moment, I just ignore small values. But, this has given me the idea of a better 'conform to terrain' method of standing. if val.x is the largest of the small values, they are on a left downward slope (or vv), and thus their idle animation should be one with the left foot lower than the right. If the opposite is true, we would lower the right foot instead, etc.....

And one more note; the sprinting bool is non-stock, and is just an extension of any of the multitude of player set agility, speed, etc. resources. In our case, the datablock maxspeed is set to a normal walk speed. Various factors will cause your player to exceed this, such as going downhill, or adding any form of speed multiplier. Even stock Torque will exceed your DB value in some cases.