• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

FS2004 Hint needed to animate a float system

antaris

antaris

Messages
1,451
Country
mexico
Good day lads!

I have a "working" animation (well... kind of) for a float system. It already have the necessary code to control visibility tags; however, just popping the "bananas" out of their bags, it doesn't look very nice and much less real. As a side note, they are already exported to the simulator and they look exactly the same than in Gmax. I made sure that the 1 mm threshold was respected in each single part of the entire model.

In the first test (shown below), the 2D gauges were working in tandem with the corresponding 3D switches in the VC. So far so good, no issues in the interaction between gauges and 3d parts. Visibility tags, are working as they are meant to be.

There you go, our "victims":
407_float_circuit_04.jpg


407_Float_test_01.jpg


407_Float_test_02.jpg


I am comfortable using rotations and translations, so I imagine this would be something similar. I've seen a sequence done before; but I am not sure if makemdl.exe will weld vertices used within the animation. Because my plan is to sequence the float scaling using 100 frames:

1.- I will start the animations scaling the floats from 100% to a suitable scale to fit inside the fabric casings (all percentages will be written, in case memory fails!).
I am not sure if I need to begin in frame 0 or frame 1.
2.- I will "pop out" one float at different key frames; from the reduced scale to 100%. This will be done between keys 0 and 50.
3.- To finish the animation, I will rescale from 100% to the written values originally stated in step 1 (keys: 50 to 100).

So, my question is: In FS9 is allowed to animate the floats using a combination of scale keys?

In advance, thank you for any new ideas or hints in this regard.
All the best,
Sergio.
 
Hi,

No, AFAIK scale animations are not supported, only translation and rotation.
 
Hi Tom

Oh... that's a shame. So I think I will leave the animation in its current state :oops:

EDIT 1:
I am thinking in another way to tackle this: Using different "versions" of the floats and make them to appear in sequence. What I mean by different "versions", actually are 3 different sizes: 100%, 50% and the approximate scale from which each part can fit into their own fabric containers. I guess that the potential welding issue wouldn't be noticeable; because the sequence should be fast enough to fool the eye of the beholder! Let's see if this works...

EDIT 2:
Now, I can foresee another potential issue... how to synchronize visibility tags in "seconds" with "keyframes". S:censored:t happens... I really don't like the idea to use
timers in this animation; this is far away from my current skills. Nevertheless, I will give it a try. Bjoern taught me a nice little trick when he came to help me with the Davtron 803 :stirthepo

Thank you.
Sergio
 
Last edited:
tgibson said:
Hi,

No, AFAIK scale animations are not supported, only translation and rotation.
Click to expand...

Tom, you're absolutely right. FS9 doesn't allow this kind of animation. I made a simple test and the compiler just ignored it.
 
so, its possible if you rotate and translate every polygon, maybe if you tweak some group of faces you can make looks like the object are inflating and you can use a custom visibility with the inflating object and one for the inflated object
 
MarcosSilva88 said:
so, its possible if you rotate and translate every polygon, maybe if you tweak some group of faces you can make looks like the object are inflating and you can use a custom visibility with the inflating object and one for the inflated object
Click to expand...
Hi Marcos
That's another idea! While I consider the possibilities, I am finishing to code and animate the remaining VC's buttons.

Thank you for the input.
Sergio.
:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top