7 replies to this topic

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Hello! I have a model I made in Milkshape for FP years ago that I never used. It imports nicely into VP and the texture mapping works and everything. But here's my question. It used to animate, and the frames were built into the model from Milkshape. I could trigger this animation easily in FP with a quick script (although I don't remember the syntax now, I'd have to check). 

 

I THINK I read that this is NOT possible in VP and that you have to have a new primitive for each frame. But I don't remember where I read that. Is this true? If the model already has an animation stored somewhere inside it, can I not trigger that animation in VP? If not, that's fine. I can just let it sit there and look pretty. I just wanted to ask.

 

 

[watacaractr]

Hello. You would have to write the animation in to the script for your prim in VPX. There are alot of animation scripts out there in different tables. Take a look and see what might work best for yours. Hope this helps.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

Hello. You would have to write the animation in to the script for your prim in VPX. There are alot of animation scripts out there in different tables. Take a look and see what might work best for yours. Hope this helps. 

 

Oh okay. I can look around. All the tables I've downloaded so far with fancy models just rotate them and nothing else. Have any tables off the top of your head that have primitives that internally animate themselves? I wonder if the FP script would work... worth a shot I guess. 

[watacaractr]

I believe nothing can be internally animated through VPX. It has to be scripted. Only rotating is one thing but you can also add different movements as well within the same script.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

I believe nothing can be internally animated through VPX. It has to be scripted. Only rotating is one thing but you can also add different movements as well within the same script.

 

Right I guess that's what I meant. Sorry I didn't know how to describe it. The model I have is like a little machine, and when you trigger the animation, it lifts a hatch in front, spins a wheel on top, and lifts a hatch in back. Originally it looked like it let a ball in, turned a wheel inside, then let the ball out the back. And all I had to do in FP was import it then script something like MachineModel.PlayFrame 1, 4 or something like that and it scrolled through 4 frames and reset itself. Idk if it's that easy in VP or even possible. By internally, I meant the model comes INTO the pinball program with an animation locked and loaded.

[watacaractr]

Right. Any animation has to be scripted from scratch in VPX. As far as what you're describing with your little machine, it can be done with the correct scripting. As far as help with the actual script for your prim, there are a lot of awesome authors that have a ton of animation scripting knowledge that would be most likely willing to help you right here on this site or other sites.

[TerryRed]

 

I believe nothing can be internally animated through VPX. It has to be scripted. Only rotating is one thing but you can also add different movements as well within the same script.

 

Right I guess that's what I meant. Sorry I didn't know how to describe it. The model I have is like a little machine, and when you trigger the animation, it lifts a hatch in front, spins a wheel on top, and lifts a hatch in back. Originally it looked like it let a ball in, turned a wheel inside, then let the ball out the back. And all I had to do in FP was import it then script something like MachineModel.PlayFrame 1, 4 or something like that and it scrolled through 4 frames and reset itself. Idk if it's that easy in VP or even possible. By internally, I meant the model comes INTO the pinball program with an animation locked and loaded.

 

 

 

The answer is, no

 

Milkshape models did have limited animation features that could be used in FP... but only with some FP models like drop targets, maybe toys.

 

With BAM and Future Pinball however, you can use a modern FBX rigged model (one single model) that has full animation support (and more). A good video that shows a lot of this is from my Star Wars DSA GE release:

 

https://youtu.be/Lbt...4i-xjJs7gRnb8T_

 

 

For VPX, you can't use either of these types of animated models. You can only do one of two things:

 

- use separate static models together, and rotate the different models to mimic movement

 

or

 

- convert an animated FBX model to a sequence of posed OBJ models, import them all into VPX, then have VP "animate" by toggling through each different posed model (or interpolate from one model to another). This works... but... you may need 100's of model to mimic animation (instead of just one model), so that can use up a lot of ram and make the table very large if you want a lot of animation.

Edited by TerryRed, 06 December 2023 - 05:06 PM.

[CrimsonTurtle8]

This is kinda what I thought. Thanks! It's fine because, as I described, the original animation was designed to let the ball in, wait a second, and spit the ball out the back. It was a whole sequence I'd originally timed out with multiple kickers (and it didn't even work reliably). I do NOT have room for that nonsense on this table so the animation would have looked kind of silly just opening hatches by itself for no reason.