FSX Gmax animation

[AeroFiles]

I made an animated rotating door for my airport terminal in Gmax.
When I export the model and click the export animations as well, it does not animate.

Is there something I need to do in Gmax to make it work?

 

[Larry S]

I'll throw out a thought, if memory serves.

I think you need to name the animated parts tick18_ , like tick18_door1 and tick18_door2 etc?

Been a while, so I may be totally off base. If so, sorry.

 

[AeroFiles]

The animated part is a part of a larger scene, so I gave the animated part in the scene the name as you said, but it did not change anything

but thanks anyways.

 

[jdhaenens]

For FSX, things are a bit different. In the SDK, go to the new aircraft procedures and then to "Animation System" That will give you a quick overview of how the system works.

In it's simplest terms, you need to "Tag" the animated object with a bit of info telling the sim how many frames the animation will run before it repeats and place a label on it so the exporter picks up on what the animation is supposed to do (enabled by the "Export Animation" checkbox).

The normal tag for something non-aircraft is "Ambient". You can get as complex as you want and assign new animation tags and guid's by adding to the modeldef.xml file, but generally, just tagging it with ambient will suffice.

Jim

 

[Larry S]

Been too long. I'm getting back into scenery after about a year - amazing how much stuff you forget.

Seems like in FSX there was also a setting in the animation tool, but rather than make your problem worse trying to remember, I'll just shut up and let someone get you the right answers.

 

[Larry S]

Since I kind of gave you partial info, and wanted to see what I was missing myself , I made a simple rotating box so I could see what needed to be done.

It does need the tick18_ name so call it tick18_door or something like that.

With the animated part selected go to fstools and open the animation manager. In the upper right corner you should the name of your part.

Under “groups” you should be on “all” – under “animation list” select Ambient. On the right you see “object anims”, below that is a start and end box. Click create. In “start” put in where your animation starts (usually 0 ) and where it ends . If your animation goes to 100, put in 100 for end. Now click “update sel” at the top.

You should be ready to export, make sure you click “export animations”

 

[AeroFiles]

Will give this a try and get back to you

 

[live2fly]

Helicopter Animation

Hi, I have a question. I am working on my own UH-1D for fsx using gmax. I have animated the main rotor and rotor shaft. I already know I need to assign animations so that when I start the heli in fsx the blades spin. How do I do this. Next I need to animate the tail rotor too. But I will worry bout that later.

Thanks for you time.


-Live2fly P.S. I have attached a pic of the project if anyone wants to see it.

 

[toprob]

Since I kind of gave you partial info, and wanted to see what I was missing myself , I made a simple rotating box so I could see what needed to be done.

It does need the tick18_ name so call it tick18_door or something like that.

With the animated part selected go to fstools and open the animation manager. In the upper right corner you should the name of your part.

Under “groups” you should be on “all” – under “animation list” select Ambient. On the right you see “object anims”, below that is a start and end box. Click create. In “start” put in where your animation starts (usually 0 ) and where it ends . If your animation goes to 100, put in 100 for end. Now click “update sel” at the top.

You should be ready to export, make sure you click “export animations”

That's almost it. The SDK manual says "For a basic animation set Start and End frames, a unique name, and select Create."

Which means set the start and end frames first, assign a name (Ambient in this case) and click Create. All done.

Clicking on 'update sel' will update the Anim Manager window with the currently selected object. So you can assign a number of animations in one session, just by selecting each animated part and pressing 'update sel' then creating the animation. I think if you set the start and end frames after Create it doesn't work.

Tick18_ is no longer used, you are meant to be able to convert a Tick18 animation for FSX, but this doesn't work for me.

 

[jtanabodee]

Please take a look at this thread http://fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20241&highlight=animation
I did a mini tutorial there.

 

[live2fly]

Thanks Much. This is great. Ill check back if I get it to work.

 

[live2fly]

Ok....so the animation exported....but the rotor just twitches back and fourth.......is this just because gmax animations suck??? Odd thing is I was messing around with a black hawk heli in gmax and exported the animations (rotor) and they worked fine. However I had the animation slow tho, Meaning the rotors turned slowly. But when I export the uh-1 I have them set to turn fast. Is this why. And how do I fine tune the speed at which they turn?

Thanks.

 

[jtanabodee]

It depends on keyframe and time that you set up.
Try to make the whole time less and make keyframe closed together.
By the way, I still don't know about this project.
Are you making scenery or making an AI airplane? It is different story.

 

[live2fly]

Ok, I will try that. I am making a flyable aircraft. My own personal use, I will not be uploading it anywhere. Just a project for myself.

 

[jtanabodee]

As far as I know, the rotor will use texture to simulate fast spinning. But I don't do airplane. Let's someone know better answer this question.