HKXPack/HKXAnim - Animations in FO4

[Guest]

 

I was thinking more about the company setting it up this way themselves. Make each new engine update backward compatible (or make a means to transition old assets into the new engine) so that sequels just keep making a bigger, better game rather than turning the lights off on the old game completely.

 

 

Yes and no.

 

Also the game Engines have versions, and not everything that was in a previous version can be ported to a new version.

In some cases the logic of the objects changes completely.

 

So, small "enhancements" (call them DLCs, serious DLCs) are already doing it. But from a game to a game, also if the engines look very similar one to the other, may do not have ability to convert the data.

The idea is wonderful from a gamer point of view, but not from a developer point of view.

[pipdude]

 

 

I was thinking more about the company setting it up this way themselves. Make each new engine update backward compatible (or make a means to transition old assets into the new engine) so that sequels just keep making a bigger, better game rather than turning the lights off on the old game completely.

 

 

Yes and no.

 

Also the game Engines have versions, and not everything that was in a previous version can be ported to a new version.

In some cases the logic of the objects changes completely.

 

So, small "enhancements" (call them DLCs, serious DLCs) are already doing it. But from a game to a game, also if the engines look very similar one to the other, may do not have ability to convert the data.

The idea is wonderful from a gamer point of view, but not from a developer point of view.

 

 

As a developer, I understand that this would introduce work. But, I think it would actually encourage best practices that lend to a moddable game anyway. Because you would have to give more thought to the long-term implications of all structures and processes implemented in the game. Looking at the new CK, I think they are already putting an increasing amount of attention on that.

 

In the cases where logic, etc. changes completely, a process can be developed to upgrade the old content. That is a pretty age-old, common problem that developers make solutions for. The gap just isn't that big between sequels.

[crusher]

 Another reason why, going forward Bethesda should just switch engines. Gamebyro? pfft. They do have an Enterprise Subscription to CryEngineV.. and yes, almost all assets, even from earliest versions of CryEngine, are backwards/forwards compatible. Even CryEditor (Sandbox Editor) upgrades, from various development teams, are upstream/downstream compatible within the editor, regardless of how heavily modified. I'm looking forward to the 64bit precision map size -- millions of km across, never see another loading screen, or fly your dragon to either of the two moons. Probably just as easy to port Skyrim into CryEngine. 

 

edit: multiplayer is built-in, at the foundation CryEngine.

[volfin]

very grey area -- so much stuff from Witcher 3 was ported into Skyrim at Nexus. Again, the Invisible Hand of profitability -- always wins.  Easy to change legal mumbo-jumbo, sometimes even, beneficial. 

Yes but that is Nexus. Now that Bethesda is running their own competing site, I'm sure they would never allow that kind of content to appear in their mod store.

[Guest]

Guys.

 

Please stay on focus.

 

This thread is for the animation framework for Fallout 4.

Please use a different thread if you want to discuss all things related of the convenience of doing the game in a way, or similar things.

Starting from now, all further posts that are not related to animations or HKX will be moved to a another thread without any notice.

 

[Mr_G]

Happy to see the progress here, I truly hope you mad scientists can figure out how the workflow/programming to import custom animations from 3DS or Maya into FO4. 

 

Question for those in the know: is it already possible to export the player skeleton into 3DSMAX? If this is possible us animators could get started creating a multi-purpose RIG and start creating custom animations before the voodoo-experts figure out how to finally get them into the game.

 

 

[pipdude]

Happy to see the progress here, I truly hope you mad scientists can figure out how the workflow/programming to import custom animations from 3DS or Maya into FO4. 

 

Question for those in the know: is it already possible to export the player skeleton into 3DSMAX? If this is possible us animators could get started creating a multi-purpose RIG and start creating custom animations before the voodoo-experts figure out how to finally get them into the game.

 

There's a nif importer that comes with the CK. I could be mistaken. But, I would think that could bring skeletons in. Will try to check tomorrow.

 

Rigs would be amazing. Great to know there are people standing by ready to work on those.

[DexesTTP]

Hmm... I'm considering renaming this thread into just "HKXPack/HKXAnim" since there's not really an AF4 anymore.

 

Just a quick reminder, there isn't a need for an AF4/FNIS equivalent (you can ADD animations via the CK directly).

 

However, there aren't yet tools to CREATE or EDIT animations/skeletons. The closest we have is a data extractor (that takes the skeleton/animation raw data and dump it). I'm still in the process of doing that.

 

By the way, I could use some help / advice :

 - If anyone has any experience with storing NURBS as raw data, I'd be interested. This is for animations.

 - Even better, if someone know an animation file format that stores NURBS instead of raw frames, I'd be interested (less maths for me )

[volfin]

Guys.

 

Please stay on focus.

 

This thread is for the animation framework for Fallout 4.

Please use a different thread if you want to discuss all things related of the convenience of doing the game in a way, or similar things.

Starting from now, all further posts that are not related to animations or HKX will be moved to a another thread without any notice.

You realize the irony of you saying this when you spent a page talking about Commodore 64 here.

[ousnius]

 

Happy to see the progress here, I truly hope you mad scientists can figure out how the workflow/programming to import custom animations from 3DS or Maya into FO4.

 

Question for those in the know: is it already possible to export the player skeleton into 3DSMAX? If this is possible us animators could get started creating a multi-purpose RIG and start creating custom animations before the voodoo-experts figure out how to finally get them into the game.

There's a nif importer that comes with the CK. I could be mistaken. But, I would think that could bring skeletons in. Will try to check tomorrow.

 

Rigs would be amazing. Great to know there are people standing by ready to work on those.

The official plugin only consists of an exporter.

[pipdude]

Hmm... I'm considering renaming this thread into just "HKXPack/HKXAnim" since there's not really an AF4 anymore.

 

Makes sense to me. Thank you for working on the conversion tools. Would help if I could. But, I have zero experience in that area.

 

 

The official plugin only consists of an exporter.

 

 

Well. They got us half way there and improved tools in CK. So, I still can't complain.

[Teddar]

 

Guys.

 

Please stay on focus.

 

This thread is for the animation framework for Fallout 4.

Please use a different thread if you want to discuss all things related of the convenience of doing the game in a way, or similar things.

Starting from now, all further posts that are not related to animations or HKX will be moved to a another thread without any notice.

You realize the irony of you saying this when you spent a page talking about Commodore 64 here.

 

 touché 

[DexesTTP]

 

 

Guys.

 

Please stay on focus.

 

This thread is for the animation framework for Fallout 4.

Please use a different thread if you want to discuss all things related of the convenience of doing the game in a way, or similar things.

Starting from now, all further posts that are not related to animations or HKX will be moved to a another thread without any notice.

You realize the irony of you saying this when you spent a page talking about Commodore 64 here.

 

touché 

 

Well, actually it's my thread. So if I decide that the focus here is on NodeJS documentation generator, it shall be

 

I'm actually OK with most small discussions that goes away from the topic, as long as it's not the endless debate over what Beth/ZMax allows or does that is good/bad. There's plenty of other threads about that already

 

(By the way, Docco is shit. JSDoc is where it's at, especially with es6.)

[Mr_G]

 

Happy to see the progress here, I truly hope you mad scientists can figure out how the workflow/programming to import custom animations from 3DS or Maya into FO4. 

 

Question for those in the know: is it already possible to export the player skeleton into 3DSMAX? If this is possible us animators could get started creating a multi-purpose RIG and start creating custom animations before the voodoo-experts figure out how to finally get them into the game.

 

There's a nif importer that comes with the CK. I could be mistaken. But, I would think that could bring skeletons in. Will try to check tomorrow.

 

Rigs would be amazing. Great to know there are people standing by ready to work on those.

 

 

As soon as there's a file with the skeleton in 3DS or Maya, I would be happy to create the rig and make it available for everyone.

[BringtheNoise]

 

 

 

Happy to see the progress here, I truly hope you mad scientists can figure out how the workflow/programming to import custom animations from 3DS or Maya into FO4. 

 

Question for those in the know: is it already possible to export the player skeleton into 3DSMAX? If this is possible us animators could get started creating a multi-purpose RIG and start creating custom animations before the voodoo-experts figure out how to finally get them into the game.

 

There's a nif importer that comes with the CK. I could be mistaken. But, I would think that could bring skeletons in. Will try to check tomorrow.

 

Rigs would be amazing. Great to know there are people standing by ready to work on those.

 

 

 

As soon as there's a file with the skeleton in 3DS or Maya, I would be happy to create the rig and make it available for everyone.

 

 

There is already a Nif update for Max 2016 ( extract the skeleton from the ba2 and load it into max 2016 then save as a max file for your base ).

 

Worst case once you have it loaded in Max you can output it as an FBX format them import it into Maya ( I don't think maya's nif plug-in has been updated for the FO4 skeleton, mesh format yet... if it has I need to go download it).

 

Hmmm looks like the skyrim maya nif plugin was updated on 4/7/2016 so I need to install that and see if it will import FO4 nifs (said on main page of download that FO was not completely supported... meh).

 

I'm hoping with the CK out that the Nifskope and plugin's will get updated (along with the third party bodies like JB and CBBE... would really love to see dismemberment working on the high poly models).

 

I wonder has anyone tried to make an animation in max, export it as a KF (since KF is supported in the nif plug-in) then try to import the KF as an animation in the CK and see if it will generate an HKX file... They might support there old file type and have a conversion set in the app (who knows). I guess I need to go and download that as well...

 

[lordescobar666]

As soon as there's a file with the skeleton in 3DS or Maya, I would be happy to create the rig and make it available for everyone.

I exported the skeleton with noesis, imported it into Blender, rigged it to the CBBE Body and exported it as .fbx (see attached file). It loads in max, but things may have gone missing during the whole process. At least I can create a working nif out of it with the official exporter (and I'm using max 2014, so the official exporter is not restricted to 2013). And I was able to create a hkx animation with it, which I could successfully call in the game. It did not what I indented, the scale was off and the camera pointed somewhere, but it was at least something.

FO4-CBBE.7z

[DexesTTP]

I exported the skeleton with noesis, imported it into Blender, rigged it to the CBBE Body and exported it as .fbx (see attached file). It loads in max, but things may have gone missing during the whole process. At least I can create a working nif out of it with the official exporter (and I'm using max 2014, so the official exporter is not restricted to 2013). And I was able to create a hkx animation with it, which I could successfully call in the game. It did not what I indented, the scale was off and the camera pointed somewhere, but it was at least something.

Really nice.

 

How did you go from 3DsMax to a HKX animation, though ? If this process is reliable, then I guess there's all that is needed for animations.

[ousnius]

 

As soon as there's a file with the skeleton in 3DS or Maya, I would be happy to create the rig and make it available for everyone.

I exported the skeleton with noesis, imported it into Blender, rigged it to the CBBE Body and exported it as .fbx (see attached file). It loads in max, but things may have gone missing during the whole process. At least I can create a working nif out of it with the official exporter (and I'm using max 2014, so the official exporter is not restricted to 2013). And I was able to create a hkx animation with it, which I could successfully call in the game. It did not what I indented, the scale was off and the camera pointed somewhere, but it was at least something.

 

 

So you can you export a NIF file with skinning and bones from 3ds max using the official exporter?

I don't use or plan to use 3ds max myself, but someone else had issues getting it to work before due to the lack of a proper rig.

[lordescobar666]

Really nice.

 

How did you go from 3DsMax to a HKX animation, though ? If this process is reliable, then I guess there's all that is needed for animations.

With the official nif exporter and the Havok Content Tools which someone posted on this thread.

 

The official nif exporter adds "Havok Content Tools" to the main menu, and there you select "Export". In the filter manager load the Animation -> exportCompressed.hko preset, add the "Write to Platform" filter (select Packfile and "AMD64" there) and press "Run Configuration". This creates a hkx file, which you can add as an idle. There are a lot of options and filters to play, maybe some can produce the indented results.

So you can you export a NIF file with skinning and bones from 3ds max using the official exporter?

I don't use or plan to use 3ds max myself, but someone else had issues getting it to work before due to the lack of a proper rig.

Yeah, I got a nif file that looked correct. I basically imported the cbbe body (the file I posted), and re-exported it. I didn't actually test it in the game, but it looked at it with nifskope and compared it with the original file, and it had all the nodes where they were supposed to be and they all had the correct type.

[pipdude]

[ousnius]

So you can you export a NIF file with skinning and bones from 3ds max using the official exporter?

I don't use or plan to use 3ds max myself, but someone else had issues getting it to work before due to the lack of a proper rig.

Yeah, I got a nif file that looked correct. I basically imported the cbbe body (the file I posted), and re-exported it. I didn't actually test it in the game, but it looked at it with nifskope and compared it with the original file, and it had all the nodes where they were supposed to be and they all had the correct type.

 

Do you think you can try adding a dismemberment/segment modifier to it and assigning triangles to the fixed numbers for left arm, left leg, right arm, right leg and torso? Without having to edit the CBBE body in some way so that vertex count, order and topology stays the same?

[lordescobar666]

Do you think you can try adding a dismemberment/segment modifier to it and assigning triangles to the fixed numbers for left arm, left leg, right arm, right leg and torso? Without having to edit the CBBE body in some way so that vertex count, order and topology stays the same?

I have no clue how to do this. I am a Blender user, in Max I know only how to import stuff, add a material and export it again.

[ousnius]

 

Do you think you can try adding a dismemberment/segment modifier to it and assigning triangles to the fixed numbers for left arm, left leg, right arm, right leg and torso? Without having to edit the CBBE body in some way so that vertex count, order and topology stays the same?

I have no clue how to do this. I am a Blender user, in Max I know only how to import stuff, add a material and export it again.

 

Fair enough.

[pipdude]

Thread title may need to change again.

 

"Config for Exporting Animations from Max"?

[Guest]

Thread title may need to change again.

 

"Config for Exporting Animations from Max"?

 

Only Dex can decide the title name. It is his thread.

 

And actually all the last posts were spot on.

How do you think animations are done? By creating them in a 3D tool. And right now 3D Studio seems to be the only one valid to do import/export (this may change in the future, but right now it is what it is.)

 

Cheers!