Hello guys,
i dont know if you are still active in this forum, but i have a question about animation in ja. I downloaded keshires animation file pack, opened his skeleton in 3ds max and changed his Dual_baster.bip, by saving only from frame0 to frame10 (so that I only have a dual-blaster-draw-animation now).Than I exported this new animation as xsi file. Now I dont know, how to compile the animation with carcass the right way. Can someone please explain step by step what I have to do with the assimilate/carcass program ? Do I have to open or add my new animation.xsi in assimilate? Whitch parameters do I have to change where ?Do I get a gla file by using carcass ? how and where fits the humanoid.car file in the process? Do I need to extract the _humanoid.gla file as been discribed in the moddeling tutorials here as well? Please explain as if I was 4 years old(or as if I was a girl). I only found tutorials explaining carcass use for custom models. Sorry for my bad english (Im from germany and try my best) and thank you for your time.

I have created a base folder on C: with carcass.exe and /models/player/test/test.xsi ravensoft.car _humanoid (test.xsi is the Dual_Blaster_Draw file)

carcass says that forward_dive.xsi is missing in keshires humanoid.car

Could you post the content of your .car file?, ive created a few anims but it was a long time ago and my memory is really bad, so hmm i might not be able to help, but i'll try ;).

My first guess is that you have a bunch of anims listed in the .car file and carcass is looking for those .XSI files.

Hey,
first of all THANK YOU for replying.
About my.car file: I took the JKA_BIP_Skeleton.max from keshires jka_anim_file_set and opened it in studio max 7. Than I animated it with the Dual_baster.bip, that keshire included,beside other bips, in his jka_anim_file_set. I saved the Dual_blaster.bip using only the frames 0 to 10 as Dual_balster_draw.bip (because keshire animated a whole pistol fire sequence in his Dual_blaster.bip and I need only the part of drawing the blasters). Than (still 3ds max) I went to FILE rolled it out and klicked on EXPORT and got a new Dual_blaster.xsi. At that point I was wondering, how carcass could work. I tryed to follow Aks`Tutorial about animation, but in it Aks wrote:

"Make your new animations, and export this file as XSI" At that point I think I got it all. Next he wrote:"Use the .car file in the Modelling SDK released by Ravensoft awhile ago
Run carcass.exe with the following command-line parameters:

-flatten path:\to\ravensofts.car "

At this point I`m absolutely lost. I took the humanoid.car which was also included in Keshires jka_anim_file_set, because there is no .car file from ravensoft in the Modelling SDK I found on jk3files.com (I downloaded the official sdk, because there is another unofficial Modelling SDK as well). What followed was an endless trying, to somehow get to the next step in AKS Tutorial, were he wrote:

"Get the glaMerge program, written by yours truly from

GlaMerge

Put these files in the same directory as the exe:

_humanoid.gla
your.gla

Run the program using

glamerge _humanoid.gla your.gla"

AT this point I had to give up after some poor tries. I`m absolutely sure , that the tutorial is written perfectly and that everyone, who is already experienced a bit in modding, understands it easily, but I dont understand how to use carcass (that means:where to put and how to use my.car/xsi and the _humanoid.car from Keshire(is it the same as the ravensoft.car, that AKS mentioned in his tutorial?)?) What will I get after compiling with carcass (a Dual_blaster_draw.gla ? Is it the "your.gla" that AKS is talking about in tutorial?)? which file do I have to open in assimilate programm or must I add a file instead of opening it? What do I have to write in the window that opens when I go to EDIT, roll it out and click PREFERENCES? Do I have to click BUILD MODEL when rolling out EDIT in assimilate programm , though there is no model file (.gla) included in the process (or should there be a humanoid.gla file included somehow?)?
I have a base folder on C:/ and in the base is carcass.exe, beside the folder /models/player/dual_blaster-draw/dual_blaster_draw.car(created by saving the Dual_blaster_draw.xsi in assimilate programm as .car file) and the humanoid.car (from Keshire/Ravensoft ???). I hope I could point out my situation/problem in a way that you can follow and that you dont regret replying my threat/privat message now :)
No matter if you can help or not, I`m verry greatful, that u spend a part of your time trying to help me.
thank you very much and my best wishes to you.

SORRY! I ment ASK not AKS :O

First, create a working directory on your hard drive:
c:\base\models\players\_humanoid

In this directory, put the _humanoid.gla and _humanoid.cfg file from the game.

Put Keshire's .car file and your anim file in:
c:\base\models\players\_humanoid

Open the .car file with notepad:

There's 2 lines that you need to understand in the .car file...

1.$aseanimgrab models/players/_humanoid/forward_dive.xsi -loop -1 -qdskipstart -framespeed 1 -qdskipstop

and

2.$aseanimconvertmdx_noask models/players/_humanoid/xsi/boneswsaber -makeskel models/players/_humanoid/fdive -origin 0 0 24

Line 1 represents your new animation source file "forward_dive.xsi" rename this to fit your custom anim file.

Line 2 represents a source file for the skeleton structure (someone correct me if my wrong).

Create a sub-folder like so:
models/players/_humanoid/xsi/

place "boneswsaber.xsi" in that directory.

Once everything is in place, you will have to launch the DOS prompt and run the compiler to create your brand new .gla sequence, but im sure a few problems will happen along the way so it'll be all for now ;).

Hello Psykosith,
thank you for this perfect explaination. This is exactly they way, I can understand what to do, but as you have forseen already, I got stuck again :) .I did as you have advised me, but when I run carcass with DOS prompt like this:

cd..
cd base
dir
carcass -flatten /models/players/_humanoid/humanoid.car

(I have put carcass.exe in the base folder), than carcass says:

Carcass <GLA/GLM compiler> v2.1. <c> Raven Software 1998-2003.
Written by Gil Gribb, Ste Cork, James Monroe, Mike Crowns

< hierarchy-flatten mode >

-------- C:\base\\models\players\_humanoid\humanoid.car --------
< Build trigger: "c:\base\\models\players\_humanoid\humanoid.glm" missing >
entering c:\base\\models\players\_humanoidbase\humanoid.car
<90 degree skewing OFF>
Scaling: 0.640000
< Keeping "motion" bone >
Referencing GLA "models/players/humanoid/_humanoid.gla"...scale: 0.640000
Loading XSI models/players/humanoid/Dual_blaster_draw.xsi @ 0,27 frames
.. <adding new bone - index 236 = spine eff
File: "c/base/models/players/_humanoid/Dual_blaster_draw.xsi"...
...is missing the root bone < "model_root" >, this is amazingly bad!!!!

< Press any Key ... >

About:
"In this directory, put the _humanoid.gla and _humanoid.cfg file from the game."
I extracted the humanoid.gla from:
/Jedi Academy/gamedata/base/assets1.pk3/models/players/_humanoid/ .
There is no .cgf file in this _humanoid folder named "humanoid.cfg", so I guess you ment the animation.cfg and the animevnets.cfg, which I found in this folder, and extracted them to my new created _humanoid folder.
About: _humanoid.glm
What is the _humanoid.glm ? Do I need it in the process? If so, is it in the assets.pk3 of the game, or do I have to download it somewhere (I once downloaded a filepack from sk3files.com called "ModelsAndAnimation". Beside "Jedi Knight II Skinning Tutorial" and ModView programm there is "/models/players/_humanoid/_humanoid.assimilate Document _humanoid.bonecap _humanoid_info root.xsi" inside. Is the _humanoid.Assimilate Document maybe the humanoid.glm and if so, do I need it ?)
About:.cgf
How did you know what to do with the .cgf ? Is it something, thats clear for a modder or is there a tutorial about that theme, that I haven`t found ?
About:you
THANK YOU !!!!!!! I cannot say, how greatful I am, that you help me. From what I,ve learned though 100 of websides and stuff, there is noone more skilled in jka modding than yourself, Keshire, Corto and Aks (If there are more in our league, that I didnt mentioned, please forgive me, I dont know better). I downloaded tons of files from you and the other guys and enjoyed them so much.
You are a real artist and I feel previleged to be guided by you.
Thanks for your patience and for your kindness, to explain things far under your level of abstaction.

ment jk3files.com, not sk3files.com :)

can I somehow open the game`s .gla or .glm file somehow to manipulate the original animations of the game ?

forget about the last question please, I found the raven animations and sorry for the mistakes (ASK not AKS, somehow...)

Wow, i dont think i deserve all this praise lol, much props to Keshire, Corto, Ask, Wudan and Spacemonkey (and others i forget)

Sorry about the cfg file name...wasnt a big deal anyway.

Think of the cfg file as an index to point where each animation starts and how many frames it has in length/speed, this is useful when you preview animations in modview, you can simply click and loop desired anims.

How the ghoul system works

The file "_humanoid.GLM" referred to in the DOS prompt is not a file you need:
It's an internal process that usually creates the playable character, but since your .car file is not meant to build a player model, the process is reported as false or skipped.

GLM = Playable character model with bone structure info (or game object).
GLA = Animation file

The jedi academy .GLA file was created from roughly a thousand separate anims and merged into one big file:

As far as i know, there is no way to edit the .gla file in real-time, you can merge animations together tho.

Wudan created an animation tool (similar to modview but with animation support), but im not sure it can edit the _humanoid.gla. Ive never used it to create animations so i have no experience on what it can do. Maybe you should have a look:

http://forums.mt-wudan.com/viewtopic.php?t=608&sid=175b751237a6c5c4bed619fa5af9c0ef)

As far as compiling goes, i did a quick test and carcass worked fine with the "JKA_Bip_Skeleton" setup.

-Make sure your exported animation file has the default root pose @ frame 0 and its also keyframed @ frame 0.

I'll be offline for 2 days so it might take a while before i answer other questions.

:) To me your guys work is very inspiring and I feel lucky to get respond from someone who is skilled.
Sry that I reply a little late, but I actually trying to download the files from the "Open Jedi Project"....hehe I`m nearly as successful with TortoiseCVS, as with carcass, but I think I`ll figure that out somehow :) .
Thank you for your reply, your Informations helped me a lot to get some steps further. All informations you are willing to provide are VERY welcome, as long as you dont get annoyed about my questioning.

by the way,..I guess the "cgame\animtable.h" and "game\anims.h", which ASK discribes in his tutorial, I can get from the jka sdk, can`t I ?
Mainly I tryed to get the OJP files because I whant to repeat the whole process using exactly the files that ASK has linked in his thread (but now I whant the other stuff too :) Is the OJP content a "custom single player source " ?).
Is is possible, that keshire`s skeleton.bip, which I used, isn`t supposed to be used the way ASK describes it (I dont mean that ASK is wrong, but that the keshire skeleton, maybe is MENT to be used a different way)?
Did I do wrong with 3ds max maybe ?:
"I took the JKA_BIP_Skeleton.max from keshires jka_anim_file_set and opened it in studio max 7. Than I opened the Dual_baster.bip, that keshire included in his jka_anim_file_set, in the "Motion capture field",. I saved the Dual_blaster.bip using only the frames 0 to 10 as Dual_balster_draw.bip (because keshire animated a whole pistol fire sequence in his Dual_blaster.bip and I need only the part of drawing the blasters). Than (still 3ds max) I went to FILE rolled it out and klicked on EXPORT and got a new Dual_blaster.xsi."
I`m trying to find informations about, how to compile the files to get em into the game finaly. Can you maybe give me an advise or do you know where I can find a good tutorial about that theme ?
Do you know if the guys from Dark Froces Mod Team will provide the source of the mod ?
Thank you !!!!!!!!

-I believe the JA SDK has the files you are asking for (.h).

-From what i've heard...and that's a while ago, the SDK does not have single player code, only multi player side.

-I think the way you export is fine, it could be a problem with the exporter itself...but its only speculation (carcass.exe is a bit picky for its XSI files).

-I've never merged actual animation files with the main .GLA, i only made custom anims (they really sucked) for animal vehicle. So i'm not sure how to add player model anims to the current GLA.

-I have no clue if DF mod will provide source code.

Hello Psykosith,
I actually try to get the files from ojp and have huge problems to get connected to freepositoryґs server.
Also I try to make my animations with wudan`s dragon, as Keshire advised me to.
I just whanted to give you this short info and thank you very, very much for being the only one (beside Keshire) willing to help out a beginner. It really means a lot to me and I will never forget that. If I will get my mod done some day, you will be on first place of my credits (,but mayb we are all old or dead already than :) )
Can I contact you by private message, if I will have a question in future (think it will not be to soon)?
THANK YOU for all and all my best wishes to you

Sure, if im still alive i'll most likely reply back ;), happy modding!.