Scania Interior Animation troubles

SCS Software ATS and ETS2 editing using ZModeler3 filter. Models, Materials, Animation.

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Eugene
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Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

I think there is something wrong with how Zmodeler deals with animations.

In my case, i'm making a Scania mod, It has a new interior, it's variants are same as on default, but instead of R and S, it's P and G.
Same goes for animation, i import default anim.pmd, change variant names, and export. This process breaks fuel gauge, it stays always on full.
Note, when i import the anim.pmd, checkmark on "merge model" wasn't pressed.

So i went ahead, and tried to import-export default scania anim.pmd without any changes at all.
Results - fuel gauge broken. If "merge models" is pressed, fuel gauge kinda works, but low fuel warning always works.
If 'merge models' is not pressed, gauge always shows full.
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Oleg
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

ZModeler can change hierarchy settings on a model, while your animation .pma file might refer to original hierarchy setup. In general, you should use "Merge models" on an animated model import to retain hierarchy, but this does not guarantee to retain hierarchy. Other than that, import .pma files, assign hierarchy onto each and every pma file and export pma files. they will get correct setup for the scene you have in ZModeler and will match in game once you export your scene too.
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

So, basically, if i do something with .pmd, i have to make all new .pma ?
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

it was not a must earlier, but some recent game models appear to have hierarchy that could not be recreated identically. So, yes, this might be a preferred choice.
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

Hi once again Oleg.
Could you please take a look at SCS Scania 2016 animations? Fuel gauge to be specific, on exclusive variants.

Here's what concerns me
fuel_anim.pma has 2 tracks, 36 and 38, which control respective IDs, named "G_fuel_1" (36) and "G_fuel_0" (38)
"G_fuel_0" (38) is a piece of geomtery (the fuel-bar itself) and when playing animation it doesn't move. Intuition suggest that it should move
"G_fuel_1" (36) - is a dummy node, and when played it goes from 0 to 1.

Is it intended behaviour, or they are actually flipped and geometry should be moving when playing animation? I get this idea because Scania 2016 has another simillar gauge - water_temp_anim.pma and it controls G_difftmp_0 (14) which is an actual piece of geometry.

As a side note, a friend of mine imported my exported .pmd in blender with SCS tools and said: "I have noticed that you have put in "g_fuel_0" instead of "g_fuel_1" for the vertex group for the fuel gauge"

Added:
Also, am i doing something wrong, but when importing anim.pmd with merge models option, no animations can be diplayed in Zmodeler. What could be the reason?
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Oleg
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

I guess you should import this model with "merge models", so it is not sliced to fragments and dummies - you should see a skeleton and a single geometry. Thus, a single quad (4 vertices) can have a pair of vertices affected by one bone and another pair of vertices to be affected by another bone. An animation of one bone moving (and another staying in place), will give the quad stretching from, say, square, to a long rectangle. If you load this model split to parts, an animation will give wrong result (exactly what you've specified above).
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

When i import anim.pmd with "merge models" option, skeleton bodes don't have IDs, and when i load PMAs to Zmod, try to assign by IDs, then hit "play", nothing happens
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

it has an ID on bone ID values. You can see them with right-click, "Bones->Set ID...".

You need to right-click on __root__ and toggle off "Skeleton->Setup Mode". When this mode is off, you can play an animation on skeleton. toggling this option ON again will revert skeleton and all bones into their setup/rest position.
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

Got it now. Thank you very much!
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

Well, it doesn't just stop there.
Now, for some reason, fuel bar and water temp bar are moved closer to camera.
This is how it looks in zmod:
Image
And this is ingame:
Image

And how it supposed to look like
Image


Any ideas?
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Oleg
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

i see there is a difference on original and exported fuel bars (dashes) but I can't clearly identify the cause of this problem.

also, mind there might be some scaling on nodes of hierarchy that is not well supported by ZModeler import/export. For example, scaling on some bone(s) might have been used for some tweaks after an animation was recorded to adjust position of animated elements without re-doing animation itself. you should import an original model and inspect "Scale" in properties of problematic bones and their parent bones up in hierarchy. pay attention to anything that is not 1/1/1 on scale.

in general, redoing and reexporting animation for problematic object could be the fix.
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

This is what it looks like in SCS blender tools
https://i.imgur.com/8tUNSiw.jpg
The highlighted parts are mine (after export) and the stock is the other.

You're probably right about scaling. There is generic.pma animation in which scania logo appeas on dashboard and being scaled up. Several nodes have scale 0.999992. Is that enough to be a problem?

But it's still extremely strange, bacause all i did is changed 2 animations that are not related to fuel bars whatsoever, and that somehow breaks all icons/indicators
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

0.999992 is Ok, is it a computation inaccuracy that is invisible in game, it will not cause problems.

Also, if you re-import your exported model into ZModeler and load animations, is there any similar problem in ZModeler, or it appears in game only?
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

It's in-game only

I tried to do whole process again from start, and now fuel bar and water temp are hidden behind dashboard.
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

what are animation options? it should have "world tracks" option only (if i'm not mistaken). all other options should be off.
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

Once I import default fuel_anim.pma, there is "keep handedness" enabled. All others are disabled, including "world tracks".

Animation that i'm trying to edit has the same options
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

is "__root__" node located at point 0,0,0?
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

Yes, it is
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

running out of ideas. :( may be record an animation of moved (toward driver) bars so they appear at proper position in game and leave it that way?
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

Oleg, hello again
I'm asking you to check this issue again.

Here i have uploaded base files from game version 1.41 (which i used for import), and my project (z3d file and a ready mod). I only imported the anim models and exported it straight away.

Could you please take a look what messes up the animations?
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

hi.
i don't have the game on my laptop, I can check in ZModeler only.
I've loaded your .z3d file and original fuel animation, assigned it and played it in ZModeler. the bar stretches properly.

From this point you
1. export your .pmd file and put in game?
2. export fuel .pma file and put it into a mod?

does your mod contains a modification for static interior model.pmd file too?
does any combination works fine in game: original anim.pmd and modified .pma file, or modified .pmd and original .pma file?
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

I've renamed objects/animations and exported pmd and pma into new files. then loaded model and animation into the same scene. Objects are matching perfectly: including animated bar - it matches original perfectly. (in ZModeler scene).
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

In this experiment mod i did not change anything in .pma files. Simple import and export.

Originally, in 2020, I modified anim.pmd to exclude some variant from it and change windows animations. No matter what i tried, fuel bar animation looks ok in zmod, and breaks in game, as images above show. It was only possible to fix this with official blender SCS tools.

My bet there is something wrong in export filter, making anims move a bit.


Could you share your import/export results so i could check them out in game?
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Oleg »

sure, these are exported files.
Attachments
interior_anim.zip
(265.11 KiB) Downloaded 153 times
Eugene
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Re: Scania Interior Animation troubles

Post by Eugene »

Well, your export also does not work in game:
Image

I want to check one more thing then i'll come back at you.
Edit: nope, still doesn't work
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