Graviteam

Hi chaps,

Hope everyone is well. Does anyone know where I might find the animation files such as the shell loading animation for the pzIV-F2?.

Thanks and best regards

Aces

The animation file for everyone is 'anims.go'
Hidden away in the 'gos.datapack'.

Thanks you kindly mate,  got them.

Cheers

Aces

  Uh Kyth what does the shell animation feature do exactly? ???Or rather what purpose does it serve?

It's the visual eye-candy to animate the man loading the gun. :)
Not sure how it's linked to the human 3-D models, which are separate .go files.  ???

  OK! This brings the question what would Aces want to do with the shell animation?

Jeez Kyth how comze you know so much about thids game? It's eerie like you were one of the game's developers or creators? I know you are curiosu and inquisitive and probably are in most areas of knowledge I suspect but your knowledge of this game is astounding ???

 ;D

I assure you, all this information came from monkeying around with the editors, the datapack files and reading the forums.
This latest stuff can be found with some digging, at the Avia forum,

 ;D

Hi chaps,

I want to see if I can get the PZIV-F2 shell loading animation working properly on the F1. At present the loader goes through the motions of loading a shell without the shell itself. AFAIK it was  broken in the SP mods. I know the short barrelled ammo was smaller but any ammo would be better than none IMHO.

Best

Aces

Yeah it´s the same with the Paks too, the loader just goes through the motion of loading a fictitious shell.It looks like one of those shortcuts the developers took in order perhaps to finish the game faster...

I can't see why the F2 animation can't work with the F1 if I can find where and how it is called in the F1. Maybe the F1 needs to use the F2 animation.

Best

Aces

I have some vague idea that it's controlled in the 'common_res.engcfg' file, in the 'add-ons' section.
If I recall correctly, it mentions some items like helmets, bottles, small-arms and the standard shells for the Matilda, T-34 and Pz-IV.

 ???

Edit:

Okay, did some more digging: in the 'shells()' section, the last 2 things appear significant: the ones with non-generic names, e.g. 'SHELL_PZGR39, SHELL_C_PZ4F2' seem to have 3D models associated with them.
These are shown again in the 'addins()' section.

  If somebody could find the file where I could rease the damaged gun once and for all, I'd eternally grateful and would seek a papal bulle to forgive all their sins for the next 20 years.  ::)

Hello,

I've done even more digging;  ;D

Looks like there are a couple of things affecting the appearance of the shell in the loading animation, for the Panzer IV F1:

- Shell type is tied in with a 3-D shell model in the common_res.engcfg file (in the shells() and addins() sections)
- There's a shell-path defined in the Panzer IV .go file (the tank .go, not the cockpit .go) and this is linked with the 'shpaths_pz4.engcfg' file.

Here's the main problem: the "s_path" fragments are linked to the PanzerIVF2 gun object, which does not appear in the Panzer IVF1 (which otherwise shares the same .go file)

The relevant files to change are:
common_res.engcfg
pz4.go
pz4.engcfg

and create a new file, for example:
shpaths_pz4f1.engcfg

I'm a little confused about this...

Are you trying to get to raw 3D geometry files that you can "re-animate," say, within Blender or 3DMax?

Or are you trying to reconfigure a text file to incorporate various types of shells (3D objects) into an animation (which means you're not editing any animation sequences)?

Just so I can follow this... thanks for any clarification....

If the former... this brings up the idea of creating stock animation sequences for crew members for any tank, and hence the strategy would seem to be getting access to animation-rigged crew members within the game file structure, and creating new sequences for loading, driving, rotating turrets, operating radios, etc., etc.

It's more of a re-configuration:

• Trying to get the shell to appear during loading.
• Trying to get the shell-casing to appear after firing and ejection.

OK, then I'm "assuming"....

1) the 3D mesh for the shell and the shell casing both exist in the system

and

2) they don't appear properly as it is now. So, you're attempting to "call" the correct objects by entering them in a .txt file.


OR

A) You want a variety of shells and casings that can be set to appear depending on tank type

and

b) You need to be able to call these different objects (and possibly create new objects for tanks that don't even have proper animation sequences)

Yes, sir, you are correct.  :)

I hope everything's okay with the shell animation?

 ???