General Blender Help Thread | Blender Megathread

[Gen. Hothauser]

You need to go to the IPO Curve editor and change the curve interpolation to linear. For cyclic mechanical animations like this it's essentially a requirement.

I tried that.  It didn't work.  Should it have any visual effect on the animation playback in Blender?  And should I see any IPO curves on the graph when I switch to IPO Curve Editor?

I'm dumb.  That worked.

I still can't get the second propeller to work.  And now it's flipped - the left propeller works, and the right doesn't (which is actually how it should be).  Is there any scripting involved with animations?

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[Demian]

I still can't get the second propeller to work.  And now it's flipped - the left propeller works, and the right doesn't (which is actually how it should be).  Is there any scripting involved with animations?

Not in the Blockland sense of scripting. It's all about parenting. Triple check your vertex groups and which animations are assigned to which bones.

[Gen. Hothauser]

Not in the Blockland sense of scripting. It's all about parenting. Triple check your vertex groups and which animations are assigned to which bones.

When I set everything up to animate correctly, I can get both propellers to animate correctly in Blender.  When I export it and load the plane in Blockland, one propeller has an odd animation scheme (almost like the animations set up for both propellers are combined into one propeller), and the other doesn't move.  If the propellers animate correctly in Blender, but not in Blockland, does that disprove incorrectly set-up vertex groups and assigned bones?

[Demian]

When I set everything up to animate correctly, I can get both propellers to animate correctly in Blender.  When I export it and load the plane in Blockland, one propeller has an odd animation scheme (almost like the animations set up for both propellers are combined into one propeller), and the other doesn't move.  If the propellers animate correctly in Blender, but not in Blockland, does that disprove incorrectly set-up vertex groups and assigned bones?

Send me the file and I'll take a look. http://www.pasteall.org/blend/

[Gen. Hothauser]

Send me the file and I'll take a look. http://www.pasteall.org/blend/

-nope-

Thanks in advance.

[Demian]

-nope-

Thanks in advance.

Your animation is ok in Blender so it's a problem with exporting. I haven't done vehicle animations before but my guess is that you need to adjust the start and end frame for your animations in the Sequences > Actions tab + enable cyclic. At the moment the Prop1Rot consists of frames 1 to 1 and since frame 1 is at the default/rest position nothing happens when you play that animation.

[Gen. Hothauser]

Your animation is ok in Blender so it's a problem with exporting. I haven't done vehicle animations before but my guess is that you need to adjust the start and end frame for your animations in the Sequences > Actions tab + enable cyclic. At the moment the Prop1Rot consists of frames 1 to 1 and since frame 1 is at the default/rest position nothing happens when you play that animation.

I can't seem to find what you are talking about.  To help you help me a bit more: I did manage to get the port-side propeller to animate correct in Blockland (perfectly cyclical animation) by only animating that propeller in Blender.  When I add the second animation for the other propeller, then in Blockland the starboard-side propeller gets wonky, and the port-side propeller doesn't move.

[Demian]

I can't seem to find what you are talking about.  To help you help me a bit more: I did manage to get the port-side propeller to animate correct in Blockland (perfectly cyclical animation) by only animating that propeller in Blender.  When I add the second animation for the other propeller, then in Blockland the starboard-side propeller gets wonky, and the port-side propeller doesn't move.

You're probably using the old exporter then. That shouldn't matter the tab is called Seq Properties there.

Your left propeller animation in is frames 1-41. The right one is in frames 61-101.
File > Export > DTS
Sequences > Seq properties
Enable (dark) export and cyclic on both prop anims.

By the way your animations are twice as long as they need to be. Only 180 degree rotation is necessary since the propellers have 180 degree rotational symmetry.

If it still doesn't work delete both animations and add them manually with the "Add new..." button to make sure they have the correct frames assigned. You also need an animation called "root" that consists of frames 1 to 1. If you ever want to stop the propellers that is.

[Gen. Hothauser]

You're probably using the old exporter then. That shouldn't matter the tab is called Seq Properties there.

-snip-

That's what I have been doing.  I've tried both methods.  And whenever I export two animations, this is the result.

Also, for ground and flying vehicles, where do you suggest the center of mass be placed?

[Demian]

That's what I have been doing.  I've tried both methods.  And whenever I export two animations, this is the result.

Also, for ground and flying vehicles, where do you suggest the center of mass be placed?

Huh. That's weird. Try applying rotation on the propeller with ctrl+a. No idea about the CoM.

[Gen. Hothauser]

Huh. That's weird. Try applying rotation on the propeller with ctrl+a. No idea about the CoM.

ctrl+a sets the "current pose to RestPose" for me, I don't get how that lets me apply rotation.  Should be using a different setup than Blender 2.69 to model and Blender 2.49 to export?

[Demian]

ctrl+a sets the "current pose to RestPose" for me, I don't get how that lets me apply rotation.  Should be using a different setup than Blender 2.69 to model and Blender 2.49 to export?

Ctrl+a in object mode, not pose mode. That setup is fine.

[Gen. Hothauser]

Ctrl+a in object mode, not pose mode. That setup is fine.

Ok, I think I did it right.  I selected the armature associated with the sternside propeller, pressed ctrl+a, selected "Rotation to Obdata", and the entire propeller rig rotated to face downward.  After readjusting the propeller to face the correct direction, I reapplied rotation and the propeller did not rotate like it did last time.  I did the same for the other propeller, so I exported it and went through all the usual stuff.  In game, the propellers were still messed up the same way as they had been previously.

[[insert name here]]

can you also export yoyr vehicle model as .obj and work?

[[insert name here]]

also i clicked the download link for blender 2.49b with preinstalled dts exporter 32 bit and the download/web site wont load so i think the link is broken