How do I export an animated nif from 3d studio max?

[trepleen]

There are meshes in game that have animations, like bear trap or a door for example.

 

Here is what I've tried.

 

1. make a sphere in 3d studio max

2. make a bone with all it's transforms at 0,0,0

3. skin the sphere to the bone

4. keyframe animate the SPHERE moving around, not the bone. I repeat I keyframe animated the actual sphere itself and not the bone.

5. export selected sphere using niftools (i've tried many variations of export settings) 

 

The problem is when I try to open the nif with nifskope I get the following error:

 

When I click play the sphere does not animate like it did in 3d studio max.