Problem: Fallout critter movement animations

[mvBarracuda]

The FIFE team currently tries to integrate proper movement of Fallout critters into the engine. However we did run into some problems :-/

Is there any formula that Fallout uses to find out how many frames of a critter animation to display while walking from one hex field to another one next to it? Not all walk animations got the same frame count so I guess the FRM files contain some information similar to the action frame that animations like the shooting or opening doors animations use. But walking and running animations use 00 00 (hex values) for the action frame offset.

Maybe some TeamX member got a Russian doc lying around how the movement system works for running and walking but it's not translated to English yet. Please help us if you know how the system works.

 

[Wild_qwerty]

ahhg, I'll have to crack open my brain and try to remeber how this works, its been a while.

As far as I am aware or can remeber FO does not use any action frames for the walking animations. You can check this by opening up some of the existing walking FRMs with frame Animator and checking to see if the action frame has a value other than 0 set.

From what I can remeber FO2 just keeps cycling through the frames until it reaches the correct hex and then stops the animation and swapes the FRM back to the 'AA' Suffix master FRM.

The running FRMs are the only FRMs that have a higher FPS (frame per second) rate set from memory.

The whole method of how FO2 handles the walking running animations is just awefull.

As you all probably know the FO engine doesnt actually move the critter accross the screen but rather the FRM has an offset that shifts the frame one step forward across the screen at a time. Once the sprite hits another hex the engine keeps running the animation based from there or some such weirdness.
Over all this makes it a whole lot harder to make sprites for the game.

I better way of doing it (and my personal recomendation) would have been for the sprite to be running/walking animation on the spot and let the engine move the sprite across the screen. I think this is how most other games handle walking. The downside is that if the engine moves it at the wrong speed/distance then the sprite will appear to be moon wlaking across the screen.

Anyway, I'd recomend that you find out how much each movement animation adjusts the frame offsett and then remove the offset so you can convert the FRMs back into a running on the spot critter. From there you could allow the engine to move the sprite instead of the frame offset.

Of course that would mean manully going through the walking and running animations of the critter and finding out exactly how much they move each time along the x and y axis. With some luck you may find that most of the critters move the same ammount (well I would think most humans would move the same distance).

worse case senario every critter moves completely differently, but I'd doubt that.

 

[Wild_qwerty]

Hi Barracuda,

I've got an idea on how to test this out. As you may have noticed Sirren67 has made a new critter for Fallout, and his new critter moves in the normal way a critter in FO2 does, by adjusting the Frame Offset.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33452

Anywa, since Sirren67 made the critter himself he also has the walking animation of the critter with out before the offsets were loaded.

If you made FIFE support this method of movement as well, it would make the creation of new critters a lot easier.

Traditonal FO Movement


Suggest FO Movement (let the engine move the critter)


I'll email you a file that contains both the standard FO2 movement animation and one that doesnt shift forward. I still think it would be a lot easier for modelers to make the critters move this way and would surely be easier for your FIFE coders to add this sort of support.